The issue is not ZEM-related alone, however. For example, I believe on p99 the "bonus" applied to Befallen is the highest in game. However, it's still less frequented than CB because of the whole "orc belts / pads" quest line. The amount of experience given from those turn-ins (and the bone chip quest) cause many to skip the "killing" aspect of leveling for a majority of the 1-20 experience. This is repeated across many other "turn ins" around Norrath.
Additionally, using Guk from your example - I frequently see groups in upper, but it's rare to see someone in the 30-50 range (successfully) LFG in lower - because any camp that has the potential to drop something is perma-camped. Even if the camp is one of the less-desired ones (ass/sup) it's still almost always cleared because it's so easy to get to, and the 28m respawns enable 1 person (of the appropriate class) to clear multiple areas.
In classic I believe the ZEMs on some of the newb zones were inflated to make up for the fact that repeated deaths were a given, and spending a night playing only to end up prior to where you had started (xp wise) was (for some) a major turn off. With the economy of P99 there just aren't enough untwinked players around, so it skews the overall result and appears to just be an xp farm.
Thank god there's no Paludal Caverns... That place just existed to remove the newb experience altogether.
I'm not saying anything needs to be changed or fixed - just providing some of (what I believe) to be the reason behind your experience with the aforementioned zones.
-Mcoy
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03-29-2017, 04:42 PM
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