Power leveling and sharing the zone

[captainocd]

My buddy and I are new the server and couldn't be having a better time. I'm in a full suit of banded that I forged all on my own and he managed to scrape together the platinum for a Charred Guardian Shield. Life is good and we're having a blast reliving what was literally our childhood. Some of the best times we ever had was in a little zone called Unrest. Incredible experience, excellent layout, cool monsters... just the perfect dungeon. I remember as soon as our characters were created, our first and ultimate goal was to tackle the estate.

Level 10 could not have arrived sooner. We marched (and sailed) our way to Dagnor's Cauldron to begin the hunt. It was as wonderful as we'd remembered. Experience flowed like water. We had our share or problems, sure; the occasional train, a bad pull, a fizzled spell... but none of that mattered. The setbacks were overshadowed by the achievement.

Unfortunately, we had to leave tonight. There was nothing to kill. A Druid and his guildmate were pulling the entire yard leaving us with next to nothing to grind on. At first, we tried to work around the problem. Rather than camp a spot, we'd wander the zone for mobs and try to claim something as soon as it spawned. This proved less fruitful as mana bars don't appreciate being moved around. They like it when their caster is meditating, preferably behind a hedge maze. It was also dangerous. We may get lucky and land a spell on a death beetle, only to have a torrent of respawns drop on top of us in our new vulnerable, open position.

Our experience faltered and our options wore thin. I eventually turned to look at the druid and his friend fighting yet another army of yard trash with thorns. He'd just returned from another legion pull and some of the mobs were still fresh. I hesitated for a moment and then half-reluctantly pressed my Disease Cloud hotkey targeting a Jack O' Lantern. The silly little scarecrow thing happily bound it's way to our position and promptly began to be murdered.

Almost immediately I received a tell, "Did you really just peel a mob off of him?"

"Yes," I replied.

"If you keep that up, you'll receive a suspension"

"Is it against the rules?" I asked genuinely. You see, while I understand that EQ has an unwritten etiquette that really forms the basis for it's wonderful community, I wasn't aware it was literally against the rules to snipe a trash mob off someone. Maybe bad mannered, sure, but not a punishable offense.

"Yes. The GMs will enforce it. Not after one mob, obviously, but if they see a pattern it becomes a problem."

I leaned back in my chair and tapped a finger on the desk, watching the text cursor blink in my chat window. I respected his position. He had every right to be in this zone, just as I did, just as my friend did, and just as the people camping the basement did. Hell, that might just be my friend and I a couple months from now.

Clearing my chat bar, I leaned forward again and panned my view around the yard. A death beetle! I began to cast disease cloud but quickly interrupted it as a wolf peeled around the corner of the house to enlist another member into his death parade.

This felt wrong too.

"It won't happen again." I said as we moved toward the zone entrance to call it a night.

What's your opinion on situations like this? I wasn't about to be a stubborn prick and continue to steal from his pulls. A ban threatens the continued enjoyment of my after-work leisure time more than anything else, even wife aggro. I wasn't about to risk it all over a few zombies. Still, I felt like our position had some validity to it. Thoughts?