Zone Experience Modifiers. some data.

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Xondor, May 17, 2021.

  1. Xondor Lorekeeper

    After reading through one of the threads yesterday where people were arguing about ZEMs I decided to just go do some simple tests tonight across multiple zones. It's not scientific data by any stretch, but it is a little actual EQ world data instead of just baseless forum arguments. I killed anywhere from 1-10 mobs in each zone (in most zones I was able to find a normal level 47 mob to make things easily comparable), recorded the amount of AA exp I got at level 60 to the hundredth of a percent according to my ui, and recorded the level of the mob. Killing multiple mobs in the same zone with the same level only fluctuated by 0.01%, so it should be somewhat accurate. I normalized it all to 100 to make it easily comparable.

    Lowest was all of the normal outdoor kunark zones (1.1% aa from lvl 47 mob). Highest was a tie between kedge and velks (2.59% aa from lvl 47 mob).

    So, here it is, feel free to argue about it and go test for yourself :)

    If someone wants to format this into a table that'd be cool. It's 3am and I'm too tired to figure it out right now.




    Akheva Ruins 148
    Burning Woods 131
    Chardok 192
    City of Mist 100
    Dawnshroud Peaks 170
    Deep 175
    Dreadlands 131
    Emerald Jungle 100
    Great Divide 131
    Griegs End 202
    Kael 148
    Karnors 165
    Kedge 235
    LGuk 184
    Maidens Eye 171
    Old Sebilis 175
    Sanctus Seru 187
    Solusek B 201
    Ssra 209
    The Grey 153
    Trakanons Teeth 100
    Umbral Plains 158
    Velketor's Labyrinth 235
    TheInquisitor, andross77 and Ions like this.
  2. Corydon Augur

    238 Velketor's Labyrinth
    235 Kedge
    209 Ssra
    202 Griegs End
    201 Solusek B
    192 Chardok
    187 Sanctus Seru
    184 LGuk
    175 Deep
    175 Old Sebilis
    171 Maidens Eye
    170 Dawnshroud Peaks
    165 Karnors
    158 Umbral Plains
    153 The Grey
    148 Akheva Ruins
    148 Kael
    131 Burning Woods
    131 Dreadlands
    131 Great Divide
    100 City of Mist
    100 Emerald Jungle
    100 Trakanons Teeth
  3. Corydon Augur

    I hope you a) stayed the same level and b) had the same amount of spent AA while doing your research, because both of that will alter the XP income.

    b) might be a myth -- I heard people talk about that but never could verify on my own (didn't bother).

    a) I am 100% sure about. You get less AA XP from the same mob at level X than you get at level X+1.


    Nice work -- thank you!

    You need to add Veksar though ;-)
  4. Zinth Augur

    read his post? he is lvl 60... killing lvl 47 mobs... and doing AA exp to compare with...
  5. Wyre Wintermute I'm just a butterly dreaming I'm a man

    B is true. It isn't on the scale of 1-10 AA,, or even 100 AA. It's somewhere like 0-999 AA = some %, then 1000-1999 AA, etc. I'm not claiming those as factual points of the XP change, but that's more akin to how it impacts AA XP gain. If you want to verify that it even exists, check something around 2000-2500 AA vs 4500-5000 AA and you'll see a notable difference.

    I don't know for sure about all the different ZEM's, but I'm fairly positive that I remember dreadlands having a negative ZEM.

    I'm also not 100% sure about it, but I recall there being a difference in XP, not solely based on NPC level, but also NPC type (race, class, etc.). Meaning, a spider wouldn't necessarily have the same XP value as a Froglok or a giant. This may have been altered years back when they tried to "normalize" the mob difficulty system something like 20 years ago.
  6. Corydon Augur

    nothing to see here. bad editing on my end.
  7. Corydon Augur

    I did. Did you use your brain?
    Was just fishing for confirmation he stayed at 60 and on 47 mobs during all testing. It's easy to gain an AA or two when visiting 23 zones and kill 1-10 mobs in each.
  8. Corydon Augur

    Ah, cool. Thanks for the input. I seem to not be impacted then since I only play on Agnarr where you cap AA below 1000.
  9. TheTone Elder


    This is solid info - I was in the process of doing something similar but was starting with lower-level zones.

    The numbers seem to make sense and reflect what I remember Aradune to be like...although City of Mist seemed like I got no exp whatsoever.
  10. Wyre Wintermute I'm just a butterly dreaming I'm a man

    Blearg. They readjusted all ZEM's in 2018, so NM me here. It was 0 and has been changed.
  11. Wyre Wintermute I'm just a butterly dreaming I'm a man

    Yup. CoM used to have a nice ZEM and got hammered. per OP's finding, CoM basically has 0 modifier anymore. (100 being the base XP gain)
  12. Corydon Augur

    Yeah I recall CoM being a magnet for many players. Mob yielded big XP and they had like half the HP of other mobs of similar levels. Then it was all nerfed into the ground. Mobs still have low HP but XP is really bad now.
  13. Numiko Augur

    People always seem to leave out respawn rate in this, yes you can have a great ZEM but if you are waiting 20-25 minutes for a respawn exp can still suck not matter how much you get from each kill.

    You can often get better exp per hour killing in a lower Zem zone where mobs respawn quicker.
    Raptorjesus5 and Skuz like this.
  14. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    This is a great point that often gets forgotten about.

    Mob volume, density, respawn rate, TTK (time to kill) the distance between camps as well as XP per mob & ZEM all play a role in whether a zone is going to be a great spot to grind in or not. It's not as straightforward as ZEM alone unless all you do is solo kill.

    When you take all that into account it is easy to see why GE & Velks are favoured hunting spots for groups.
    andross77 likes this.
  15. jiri_ Augur

    Risk, too, though this is pretty well figured out at this stage in EQ's life. Getting splatted on a bad pull can sometimes make a great camp a little worse than a good camp that's safer.
    Skuz likes this.
  16. Kardinal Lorekeeper

    ZEM is one thing.
    Respawn time is another.
    A third, and quite important factor is the time it takes to kill the mobs. later expansion mobs tend to have way more HP/AC and thus die slower.
  17. Doranur_Aleguzzler Filthy Casualâ„¢

    That's a shame about the CoM ZEM. I loved going there, yellow boxws on my xp bar filled fast.
    andross77 likes this.
  18. RainbowTest Augur

    On the non classic tlp's an important thing to note about these zems is that when these zones are the weekly hotzone target for Franklin Teek the maximum limit for exp gain per red con killed is doubled. I refuse to believe that griegs end and the grey have any significant exp modifiers. I have leveled many a toon from 1-58 on my server and those zones are total . Its PC to 15, Tofs to 35, Velks to 58 if you are being PL'ed by a shaman or a DS class, add 5 levels if not being PL'ed. If you get velks as a hotzone the week you are leveling from 35 to 58, expect to do this in about one day. The exp and exp cap is just so damned amazing in this zone.

    Shaman is the best PL class in the game when Dragon's of Norrath releases. You can setup a macro with puma to join their party and buff a 1+ minute puma buff on their melee merc and themselves and they just obliterate reds in seconds. So run out on shaman gather up a train, then buff them and have them slowly widdle down every single mob and the shaman pet can just assist damage cause there is no DS so all the damage done is applied to the PL'ed character no fear of stealing the exp with helper damage.
  19. Tweakfour17 Augur

    Mercs don't come out until SoD so you can't really buff them during DoN.
    Skuz likes this.
  20. Xondor Lorekeeper

    If I'm not too lazy before Mischief launches I want to test a lot more in a few of the 50+ zones because one thing I noticed is that claiming it as a flat % zem may be right, but there are (obviously) other things going on in the exp calculation. The higher level the mob the more exp you get, but it actually scaled upwards exponentially instead of linearly, and the exponential gain per level was faster in "high zem" zones. I'd like to compare exp per mob level curves in multiple zones.

    If you look at the list I posted it would imply that exp in ssra is 41.2% higher than akheva. In practice though if you kill a level 50 mob in each zone the difference is only 40.8% but the difference in a level 52 mob is about 41.5%. This means that in both zones you are getting more exp for the higher level mob, but the exp is scaling up per level faster in ssra.

    I believe that this may be one of the main factors in why everyone says that grouping is so much better than soloing. While soloing, on average, people are most likely killing lower level mobs than they would be if they were in a group. The group exp bonus is awesome in its own right, but even better is that it is compounding on the exponential exp you get from higher level mobs.

    edit- btw this was all on my lvl 60 monk, gained a few aa on him doing this but was somewhere around 120 the whole time. shaman buffs but no exp buffs or anything like that.