ELI5: Do exp penalty’s get transferred to the group?
 

If I’m a Troll SK, does my horrific exp penalty get transferred over to my group? I’ve seen some conflicting posts about this, and wanted to put this baby to bed once and for all. Am I badly screwing over my group by playing as a hybrid? Or is the penalty only assessed against me personally?

Transferred? Kind of.

When a group kills a mob for exp, the exp is split up between group members based on their proportions of total exp earned so far. So if everyone in a group is the same level, the troll SK is going to have a higher amount of exp earned in order to get to that point than the halfling rogue, and therefore will receive a much larger portion of the exp from that one kill.

https://wiki.project1999.com/Game_Me...perience_Works

I don't know the exact formula, but yes–you will eat up a larger percent of the group exp than a class without an exp penalty of the same level–higher level players also eat up a larger percent of the exp.

It's still the correct trade if you're a good tank, imho. So I wouldn't say you are screwing your group over.

However, if you are a bad tank or just DPSing and not providing some other other utility (e.g. pulling, snaring, fearing, etc.), it's generally not a good deal for the group.

Yes, your exp is shared with the group; but it's not as though the whole group has a 68% exp penalty. The penalty is shared or divided among the group. You should read this brief wiki snippet because it will truly answer all questions:

http://wiki.project1999.com/Experien...perience_Works

Always make sure to check the wiki and forums for information. Hopefully no one on the forums is going around saying exp penalties are not shared, because that's wrong.

Class exp penalties are removed during Velious, which Blue is already in; so perhaps someone said there aren't class exp penalties because they were referring to Blue. Racial exp penalties remain.

If I had to guess, I'd guess that people saying stuff like this is probably what confused the OP in the first place. This sentence suggests the penalty is actually a penalty, that you earn less exp per kill as a troll SK and that when you join a group everyone earns somewhat less exp per kill. Only someone who already knows how exp in groups works will correctly understand what you mean when you say this.

As Videri said, in essence it's kind of like the EXP penalty gets apportioned out among each member of the group, which is why some groups don't want hybrids (but ironically don't seem to care about having multiple Monks, which would be the equivalent of having 1 Pally/Bard/Ranger, or 2 non-SK Ogres/Trolls).

Good point. Perhaps it could be called an exp appetite? Or some other word.

Though actually everyone does earn slightly less exp per kill, since the character with more total exp eats more exp. Right?

Another thing the wiki says: "In your teens, a player 6 levels higher than you has 300 to 400% of your xp total... obviously much worse than the 140-168% of your total that a equal level hybrid has." So, if anyone is picking a level 20 warrior over a level 16 SK, they might not be making the right choice.

On a slightly related note, it'd be fun to see how an exp bonus group and an exp penalty group actually fared over time. People like to say that "well the hybrid penalty isn't bad at all since a SK/pal is a better tank than a warrior so the group is more efficient" or "well a bard brings so much to the table that the 40% penalty is ok" or whatever.

But would a cleric+pal/sk+monk+magi+bard group actually level as fast or faster than a cleric+war+rogue+magi+sham group? Might not be a fair comparison since a sham or chanter is probably a stronger class than a bard even if the bard didn't have an exp penalty.

That's a good point.

Maybe we shouldn't really call them EXP penalties at all, since it's not that 68% of the EXP for a mob an Ogre SK kills just disappears and doesn't go to the Ogre, it's that the total amount of EXP required for an Ogre SK to ding is that much higher per level than someone without that. Seems like somewhat of a misnomer to call it a penalty and maybe confuses people in the group situations.