Hey congrats man! I'm glad you finally got it, I know it was a crazy road for ya. To your point, there were safe spots in classic in Plate of Hate, all the way through the revamp. I didn't raid pre-Kunark, I started playing in Sept. of 99', and I finally got up to hate in late Kunark and all through Velious.

So pre-revamp the prevailing strategy on my server was to form up groups and port up, and then everyone would exit the port in room, run to the south wall and follow it to approximately where it says 'Pull spot' on the map, near the southwest corner. We would run to the very top of the wall and camp out there. Usually one of the clerics made it and would be able to log in and rez people. I'd like to also mention that there were mobs that saw through rogue hide/sneak, my buddy played a rogue and he was our star player because he was good at dodging the see invis patrollers and drag people to the safe spot for rezes.

Post-revamp we did the same strategy, although it was a lot easier since so many of us were higher level and wouldn't aggro as much on the run over, I remember surviving the run usually to camp out. I know memory can be flawed, and I know that we did it post revamp because I got my Indo BP off Grandmaster R'tal along with boots. The adrenaline rush from winning such an amazing item is something I'll never forget. Anyway, my point is that there were always safe spots in these zones, and while obviously the version that we play with isn't the same, it replicates the safe spots in different ways.

Fair enough; while not "classic evidence" in the strictest sense, I have no doubt you're telling the truth.

So it's not a bug fix ... but I still think the server would be far more classic without a Hate safe spot. People would do something so much closer to what you just described ... vs. "I bought by epic off the Enchanter who soloed it (and two-boxed a cleric to rez himself after he failed the first time)".

Also, this is a 20 year old emu, and we all know its ins and outs. P99 is (almost) as classic, mechanically, as it can be. Isn't it time to take a step back, look at the goal of this place, and think "major guilds (not one guild or farm crew) should raid Hate to get Mage epics ... like they did back in '01"? Isn't preserving the experience of the most challenging goal in the whole game (for most Mages at least) more important than whether or not an extra couple of ghouls spawn (that didn't back in '01)?

P.S. Thanks! :D

Pretty interesting allegation there Loramin. What evidence do you have to back that up?? Two boxing isn't allowed on this server and rezzing with a pocket cleric isn't either.

It happens, you know it happens, everyone knows it happens

That's enough evidence for this court

Personally I think the drop rate of the earth staff is the real issue, there's some compelling evidence that it was much more common off Innoruuk and Magi. No one ever mentions the earth staff as the bottleneck in the old listservs, it's usually Quillmane. From my memory that's what I recall as well. However I really can't say for certain, I didn't pay attention to mages at all in classic, I only cared about melee. I just remember the complaints about getting the Peggy cloak as the loudest part.

its the devs choice to make mages life hell, since plenty of non-classic changes were made in p99 for gameplay benefits, and this specific drop rate is entirely based on vibes

That is my recollection as well. I didnt need it but an IRL guildy friend did. He was in ELON on Prexus. I was lvl 20 then so i didnt partake in the hunts but kept up with his progress.

mages don't exactly need help from others to get quillmane, and it used to be farmed like 24/7 for years so everyone has one or their alts to do their guildie does and they just MQ

People didn't understand the spawn mechanic back then, Quill was a rare and mysterious mob. The benefits of 25 years of wikis, and of course the devs spilling the beans on how it worked sure help today.