What would YOU want from an XP Zone?

[Botef]

I'm curious what other people really want from XP zones...Lots of people seem to bitch and whine about DS and Pirate Ship, yet it seems to be one of the few places that actually see a regular influx of people...

If you could create an XP zone, what would it be like? Would it be mindless but consitent like DS and Pirate Ship, would it be somewhat dangerous like Randar's, would it be productive and reward little trinkets like Airship. What kind of mobs, what kind of format, what size group?
Should it be accepting of multiple groups xping in the zone at the same time or should it be first come first serve and/or a race to kill the most mobs before pop?

Toss some ideas out there, lets hear what you all really want, not what you dislike about what already exists...

[Thilindel]

I don't know if it'd have anything to do with zones, but I'd like to see rewards more along the lines of doing your job rather than only having kill xp and damage xp. A cleric, enchanter, etc have to race in and out of combat while the rogues, rangers, warriors get damage xp just doing their job. Chanters, clerics, etc have to leave and can't engage normally to gain the stone or heal xp. One could argue saying 'well sure you can' ..but you lose time in assisting.

One thing I'd LOVE to see is areas like the south wd zombies, etc in more parts of the mud. Gorm made an xp zone that I think three people have used, because its entrance teleports. It was a pretty cool area but hard to find in a zone that has mindgames (the CP desert).

If I KNEW how to make zones, I'd try to add subsections for those who are there to solo. So exit west is for priest only, east is for mage, etc. This would be further in a zone so not to exclude normal grouping, but that isn't always possible.

Given the current player base, the classes that anybody can do are easy to level (rogue, ranger, etc.) but the classes that are pivotal such as cleric, shaman, chanters are an uber pain for gains...AND they're double penalized for no damage xp and have to forfeit the xp for stone/heal from pray/mem'g out.

Quite the conundrum!

Two afterthoughts: First I'd make pop times faster. That's always everybody's complaint. Beating the pop should AUTOMATICALLY spawn mobs. Secondly, what would be interesting is to have random patrols, say warrior type mob that assist or rescue the xp mobs per pop. It'd sure add some chaos :P So even though it's in the middle of a pop timer, a warrior that's like lvl 30 could pop in a DS type zone (since mobs are Lvl's 42 or higher) and try to play hero.

[teflor the ranger]

Single mob rooms, automatic repop 20s after death!

One thing that might be neat would be an arena where you can pay to have animals thrown at you.

Won't really be useful for higher level xp, but newbies at least can have something to do for fun.

[Nebomosel]

I'd like to see a wider spread of mobs for XP. Say, a zone that's about 3x the size of DS with a very wide variety of mobs to not kill trophy so quickly. I know trophy doesn't kick in at higher lvls but under 40 trophy can rack up quickly and a lot of higher lvl groups have one or two members under 40 at least. Smoke would be a great zone but there are only about 7 or 8 types of mobs there. At least double that would be great.

Neb

[Sarell]

I'd like to do jot, except you get exp for it.

[Stamm]

I'd like to see the end of all stationary 'xp' mobs.

E.g. the zombies south of waterdeep.

I don't like xp zones, and especially not xp grids.

[Botef]

I'd like to see the end of all stationary 'xp' mobs.

E.g. the zombies south of waterdeep.

I don't like xp zones, and especially not xp grids.

Do you like wandering mobs better? Why? I don't see anything wrong with the concept of an XP zone, that is a zone that instead of having eq, rewards decent xp and is doable by a wide range of group types. I don't like the idea of making an xp area that requires a standard group (i.e. chanter/tank/healer/damage). With as many complaints about how hard it is to find a group, having this many requirments for things to work makes it tough.

I know a lot of you like the idea of doing a zone for XP...But in order for an XP zone to really be effective it needs to tailor to a wide variety of groups, which is why DS and Pirate ship are so popular...A group for these areas can be composed in so many ways which is why they work. A XP zone that is tailored to work only with a larger group will see less attention, because a smaller group can do something like Pirate Ship or DS instead, and earn considerably more XP. Usually when a larger group can be formed, they'd rather be zoning anyways.

Please elaborte on what you want Stamm, not just what you dislike about what already exists.

[Stamm]

DS isn't actually so bad. The mobs wander around, it's a bit different, some mobs assist etc.

What I specifically mean I dislike is where the zone is simply a mob in a stationary place, you kill them, and the move on to the next.

DS is a good zone, it's just we're all so sick of it, because it seems to give significantly more xp than the competition. It's also right next to WD.

The zombies s of waterdeep for example. The quest there is nice and fun. But the 8 stationary zombies.. well, they're just target practice dummies.

They don't track, they pop in the same spot, they're even different mobs to avoid trophy problems.

I like zones where there's the potential for something to go wrong. Airship for xp would be really nice, shame it's never done. The idea of some rewards now and then randomly popping is nice.

I like xp zones that aren't perfect xp zones. That aren't designed just to be xp zones.

[malakwee]

Stamm Wrote:

I like zones where there's the potential for something to go wrong. Airship for xp would be really nice, shame it's never done. The idea of some rewards now and then randomly popping is nice.

Exactly. Could never agree more. I do airship so much i got trophies on gretwehrr. And now that i play an enchanter, i spend even more time on airship simply because it give two 'random' rewards in addition to simply xp. Heck i completed 35 quests on airship so far haha

What I would like to see is more xp zones with good aligned mobs instead of just evil and neutral mobs in it.

And yeah more zones like airship to 'fill' in the time between zoning where a few level 40s would be able to take on it and complete the quests that are made available so that we could xp as well as gain something from it