Exp progress has been as brutal as I remember in 1999, EXCEPT the death penalty is different. I distinctly remember there not being a death penalty until lvl 7 when I rolled my first Barb back in the day. These days I have donged and lost levels several times sub lvl 5.

Need evidence for this, because I will assert that "no, you haven't".

I thought I remembered XP loss at 6 on live (corroborated here: https://almarsguides.com/eq/general/death.cfm) where it's allegedly 5 here according to /ooc replies which are of dubious value, but I dinged 4 the other day on my chanter, got 1 more kill, banked all my stuff in Kaladim and bonked the banker to die/port back to GFay so unbank my stuff, and turn in bone chips in Felwithe. No xp loss at a level 4 + 1 kill.

I make no claim as to what is classic or not, but I dropped from level 5 back to 4 when I died just after dinging on my enchanter the other day. I got the level back very quickly, but the de-level happened.

That goes with what others are saying in game. But not losing XP *at* "sub level 5".

Yes, you are right and I tested it last night. My dongs were from 5 to 4.
Perhaps I am just remembering my 1st de-level being from 7 to 6. It wouldn't matter so much if I didn't both suck and choose to roll a Troll SK.

LOL this made me laugh I will admit. I've seen it happen to newbie magicians. They curse the day they don't have a pet.

Jokes aside if a person is really enjoying their Magician they should stick with it. It's a fun class and does get better as you improve with pets. Sure they don't have the same bag of tricks as Necro but they do have great nukes. They also have some pretty powerful pets compared to necro.

I've always been torn between the Magician and Necromancer. So I just play both LOL. They are both fun in their own way. But I wouldn't give Magician a pass... it's a great class.

This can't be stressed enough -- you absolutely need to kill "HIGH LEVEL BLUE CONS" or even White cons as long as you possibly can. Think about this. A level 1 mob gives 75 XP without any ZEM Bonus. Level 1 takes 1000 XP to complete. that is 10 mobs. If you kill the same level 1 mobs when you are level 2 (7000 XP to complete) it's gonna take you 93 kills. Where as Killing level 2 whites will take you 23 mobs. It's all numbers.

Bottom line -- kill high level blues. That means mobs that are white cons to you when they are too hard at like level 4, make sure you target these mobs at level 5, high blues will be substantially better than even a mob that is 1 level lower. If you're a caster class, sometimes you can even get away with white/yellow cons depending on class and pets and stuff.