Have not played p99 in ages, but check up from time to time to read patch notes etc. I totally understand why the AE groups are a problem, as they can totally disrupt an entire zone. I played a wizard from 99 to 2003 and ran many AE groups. Back then we were nice about it and would only AE group late nights in empty dungeons. I see today people are not being so honorable. Our best pull ever was 120 mobs in Seb at disco right on the stage. Our average was 30 to 60 mobs per pull and we could normally maintain that. I did not have a great connection, I did not have a great computer. Turning particles all the way down and looking at the floor while mobs were up is all you needed. Same method used in any situation back in the day, raids with 100+ players did the same, people still did that.
However, AE groups were not without risk. Full group wipes happened often the puller was a death sentence, even with runes they would die every few pulls. I think this is where the problem is with P99 AE groups. They are way safer and produce gobs of XP and loot. Instead of nerfing AE's and killing a totally legit method of play why not fix the problem by reducing XP for those types of groups.
As a guild we would AE fear yard trash to clear the zone for CT, this was not mass amounts at a time but was constant and we would rotate wizards and enchanters for medding while they chewed rods and were twiched.
btw if you want a real AE group challenge, Charsis.
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Even still have a screenshot of 30+ in the same location described above. attached
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