People killing guards at BB crossroads.
 

This is not just one person. Over the last 24 hours I have seen different people doing it. I can provide screenshots of the people doing it now, but it's not just them. Butcherblock Mountains is my favorite place to level an early character. Crossroads especially. Removing the guards there basically makes the area useless. Also, the guard at the house close to the GFay zone was gone as well. I think that was a different person killing that one. But this is ridiculous. I spent an hour and a half trying to get my halfling druid from level 6 to level 7 (that's WITH the double XP right now), and I still haven't made it. I'm having to be extremely careful and I'm basically screwed out of making any progress. I've nearly died several times. Luckily I'm very cautious and know when to run early. But this is really, really dumb. Yes, I can go somewhere else. But should I have to?

I just came back to the game yesterday at random. Maybe I came back at the worst time. I don't know.

Killing guards is a normal part of EQ PvE. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.

Guards are a great xp and money making method for mid level characters.

Wait, so, making one of the most-used newbie leveling areas useless, hindering other people's progress, is a thing here? Oh good.

Useless? Just run to some other guards, it's not like you need to run from ever other mob?

Useless?

Yes. You do. At level 6, there are dwarf skeletons and goblins that roam around. Once I'm high enough level to kill them, they won't be an issue.

I have no problem with people killing guards in cities, or, well, ANYWHERE that they aren't useful. But this is dumb.

Edit: And yes, Useless. To any character below level 8 or so. You cannot use the area, therefore it is useless.

This used to be quite common on live servers and now it is here as well. I know I was guilty of killing them back in the day. Great loot + exp while waiting for Kunark to come out.

Sometimes the players camping guards will offer buffs, and loot from the corpses to newbies hunting in the area. If you're lucky they might even kill whatever it is you are running from, but I wouldn't count on it.

Eventually they buffed up many guards on live servers to make them too risky to solo. Don't think we will ever get that far in the patch progression here.

It was common, yes, and also something that Guides would come in and put a stop to. I saw it on several occasions back in the day. In this case, I didn't petition, because it wasn't just one person. Getting one person in trouble wouldn't address the issue.

I never remember hunting guards being a controversial offense. It happened all the time.

Deal with it.