[Striiker]

The XP penalty is still in game. People who have these penalties get a larger share of the XP pie when it's calculated. Also, XP is handed out proportionally to your total amount of XP your character has (at least, this is how it was explained a few months back in a very well-written post). This way, higher level players get more of the XP allocation. Also, this is how the racial / class penalties grab up more XP.. They had to gain more XP to level i.e. a lvl 30 Troll SK has a lot more accumulated XP than a lvl 30 halfling rogue. So yes it true that in some cases, a higher level player takes less XP from the pool than a player who is same level as you but with huge racial / class penalties.