AA'sFollow

Iirc how it was figured before, was that whatever it took for you to go from 50 to 51 is what aa xp was. As for how it's figured now there is a discussion about it here on the SOE forums.

O'RLY? Neato...

Guess maybe my wiz wont wait so long to start on AAs then. ;)

You sure about that? I've admittedly been away from the game for a long time, but unless they radically changed the way exp is calculated, this doesn't make much sense.

My understanding is that any given mob grants a specific amount of experience (an actual numeric value). That number is then adjusted based on the relative level of the PC(s), and split up based on the number and relative levels within a party of PCs. Each PC gets his split of experience from that. Period.

Additionally, based on a number of factors (race, class, level) any given PC requires a set numerical amount of experience in order to gain the next level. This is how it has been since day one, with some changes made along the way to fix some problems (like the hybrid penalties for example).

As you gained levels, the amount of experience needed to gain the next increased. It isn't that they calculate a "percent of level" based on relative mob level. Each mob at any given level gives X experience which is applied to the current level you're working on. With AAs, the amount needed to gain an AA was fixed to be equal to the amount of experience needed to advance from level 50 to level 51. This meant that as you gained levels past that point, the amount of experience given for any given mob would be higher, but the amount needed to gain an AA would stay the same. The result was that the higher the level you were, the more percentage points of AA a single mob of the same relative level you'd get.


Unless I've completely missed something, all they really did with this change was make it so that the amount of AA experience needed to gain an AA scales over time in relation to the amount needed to gain whatever level you're currently working on. So for characters at say level 51, instead of it taking pretty much a whole level's worth of experience (whatever that happens to be) to gain an AA, it'll be 20% of a level (or whatever the number is). Presumably, they normalized the relative value at some point.


Um. The result of this is that the group makeup shouldn't affect this any more then it did before. You get the same relative split of experience from any given mob. The difference is that AAs cost less experience per point at lower levels then they did before. I just don't see how the party split is involved at all...

Unless I'm missing something, but I just don't see why they'd need to make the kinds of changes to the experience system required just so they could break group experience in this case. Certainly, when I was whacking mobs last weekend with a couple people in the party that were a good 8 levels higher then I was, my AA experience was still flying by quite nicely. If your theory was correct, it should have crawled instead.

Ok. But where you getting any regular exp either? Obviously, if there's an extreme difference in level range in your group, the lower level folks wont be getting any exp (actually it's if the mob level is too far off from either end IIRC).


All I know is that I was in a WoS group a fairly recently in which there were a couple level 75 people (I'm level 66). I got something like 6 AAs over the course of our camp there (and this was a fast pulling SWall group, so the mobs were definately low to the 75s in the group). Clearly, the statement that only the highest level person gets any AA exp and everyone else gets nothing (or close to nothing) is demonstrably false.

In fact, IMO the AA exp rate was very similar in that group to what it was a few days later with another group in which the highest level was 68th (only two levels higher then I was). Admittedly, we pulled and killed a bit slower, but if the AA exp was so horribly reduced by having higher level folks in the group, I should have been seeing a much much higher AA exp gain rate when in a group (at the same exact camp mind you) more my own level.

There is a variation, but at least from what I've seen in the last several weeks since I returned to EQ, that variation is about what I would expect to normally see based on level variation in a group. I certainly have seen nothing to make me think that AA exp is going to be that sucked away by having a higher level toon in the group. Certainly, if there's a *huge* range (like 15-20 levels), you'll see a noticable drop. But then you'll see that same drop for normal experience as well.

AA XP has been changed for over a year The AA XP you get is based on the con of the mob relative to the highest level person in the group, and the highest level person gets the biggest portion of that XP. AA grinding with someone higher level than you isn't a complete waste of time, but it's not as productive as being the same level. This change just made the race to make max level that much worse.
Edit: I just linked the same thread grovers did, it's still true and still settles this discussion. and if following the link isn't your style
--snip--
The new AA system uses the maximum level in the group to determine how much XP to give out. The NPCs are probably just out of the dark blue range for the highest level in the group so you're getting the blue experience instead.


The change we're going to make to add more granularity is also going to change that calculation, though. Essentially, we're going to give out AA xp based on what split of the NPCs normal experience you got rather than a set amount based on con difference. This will cause the AA XP to mimic normal experience scaling in a group to a much higher degree but will keep the relative amounts in place that are the core reason for the change.


I apologize that this wasn't changed previously. These problems didn't come up in beta, but after looking at the examples given here, the problems are obvious and we'll get them fixed as quickly as possible.


Rashere


Edited, Jul 7th 2007 6:51pm by Srakeats

There are enough people in the hotzones to make groups that it is very important to get the minumum aa's you need to do your job when you are 75. Just group in the hotzones for aa's. If you don't have the necessary aa's by the time you're 75, it will be noticed and no one will group with you because you are ******** them over by slacking in the group. Big power difference between a character with 10 aa's and level 75 and one who has 1100 aa's and level 75. At 75 the mobs are soooo much tougher than in the 50's and 60's, and the game is being balanced around characters with a high number of aa's, at higher levels.

All the mobs in AC will be gray to a level 75 character and that's why no one will get any aaxp if grouped with them, because the level 75 will not get any aaxp. It still works fine for regular exp tho. I grouped with a level 75 rogue in AC who was assasinating all the mobs. Regular exp was best I've ever seen it. Was pretty damn awesome.

Here is my recent experience. At 65 (on my alt Wizard) grouping in WoS with level 75's in the group I got almost zero AA experience. Then when I hit 66 I earned AA experience at a very nice rate with the same group in WoS. So from my experience, being within 10 levels of the highest toon in the group made a huge difference for me.

Reho