No matter what I read or try, I cannot wrap my head around EXP sharing

So I play two toons. They are totally capped: max level, 99.99%, and max AA, with 230 AA banked. I have turned their sharing on. Invited my brother's toon into the fellowship. Turned EXP sharing on all three to help him level up faster. While he's online, he never gains vitality. While he's offline, it very quickly says "CAPPED" next to his EXP Sharing status in the fellowship window. In fact, it also says "CAPPED" on one of my two dudes as well.

But there is never, ever any vitality given to his ranger, and I simply don't understand it. I've read every resource I can, I've asked people in game, and I feel like I am doing everything that I am supposed to be doing, but I simply cannot wrap my head around this and I have no clue why he is not receiving any vitality.

Can anyone please help?

The simple way to think of it is all toons that share will get part of the XP. from a kill. they will also give up part of their XP when they kill to the others.

The tool is to help toons that are off line stay caught up with those on line. When you bring a toon online you need to turn sharing off. That way they are not giving away part of their XP. Then turn it back on when you go to log off.

I guess my confusion comes in from this: what exactly am I draining if the online toons (my two) are fully capped? Like.. I mean at least to me, it seems like that should be 100% going into whatever pool the offline members draw from?

*My understanding* If all 3 toons have xp sharing on - If he is online and in your group, he will not receive vitality. If he is online and not in your group he will receive vitality. If he is offline he will receive vitality. If he is online and in a different group xping, he will receive vitality, but be sharing his XP he is gaining also. When he goes to XP with that vitality, he needs to make sure to turn off xp sharing, or he is just sharing his xp. There is no "pool" aside from his personal vitality. Once he is capped, and the other two are maxed, that's it, any sharing goes to the wind.

Good lord what a convoluted concept. It just can't be easy with EQ can it, haha

It's been reported that when you are at exp cap (AA cap doesn't matter) that vitality is not passed. If the brother's toon doesn't show a green bar inside the exp bar on inventory then this could be happening.

His ranger is not XP capped. Just the two toons who I thought were feeding XP are capped (specifically, my two dudes at 115, his is 110.. we were trying to hasten the path to 115)

I don't get it either, but here's what I've been doing/working:

I have 6 characters with max AA and max XP in 115 and a lvl 109 enchanter. For the 115's I have two options, "Capped" or "Not Sharing". When I want to XP the chanter:

1. Leave XP Sharing on for the max characters and turn it on for the alt
2. Log off that alt and forget about it. Or at least don't invite it to the main group while they XP. It takes like a week of relatively constant XPing to fill an offline character's Vitality bar.
3. When you want to level the alt, log it on, turn its Sharing off and kill things.
4. Rinse and repeat when the Vitality is spent

Bottom line is that it's really only useful for powerleveling alts or your friends that literally never play. If you box only the same characters there's no point turning it on. It's basically worth about 5 levels of XP.

I always figured that CAPPED meant that toon did not receive vitality when sharing was turned on, but that they were able to contribute.

Like others said, keep toon you want to help out of group with FS sharing on. Let vitality accumulate on lower lvl toon while you kill with your higher lvl toons. Then turn vitality off of lower level toon (so he does not share) and grind him a while to see a nice boost to his xp rate.

Fellowship XP sharing is done via a Pool.
Characters that want to contribute to the Pool should turn XP sharing on while killing stuff, and turn it off when idled or logged out.
Characters that want to soak up the Pool should turn XP sharing on while idled or logged out, and turn it off when killing stuff.
When a character in the fellowship has the Capped status, it means they cannot receive anymore XP from the pool.
I think the kind of XP earned while contributing matters. That is to say, how the contributing characters have their Regular versus AA XP proportioned affects what kind of XP goes to the Pool. If contributing characters have 0% going towards their own AAs while sharing is turned on, then 0% of XP earned goes towards the AA Pool.

It also only counts kill xp from what I've seen. Maxed? Working on your earring? Share away.
Doing missions only the kill xp gets added. The reward xp does not.

If fellowship experience sharing had a Facebook page, it's relationship status would be "It's complicated"

It's been my experience that characters whom are capped, can no longer contribute exp to the pool, or at least that what it seemed to me. So, I will take them and get them killed until they are back to about 70% regular experience.

The type of exp being earned does seem to matter like someone else said, but once the vitality is filled on either aa or regular exp, for the character you are trying to build vitality on, it will fill the other.

it is also my experience that capped toons do not seem to contribute to the pool (ie when you see capped in the FS window). I have also let them die and not rezz (just once or twice - or a normal night's raiding...) so enable them to contribute
Others, however, report that their toons definitely *have* been able to contribute when marked capped.

There are 2 ways the 'capped' comment arises - on donators - when both exp and AA are maxed and on recipients - when the vitality bar is full

I've been doing this also for alts lately and a returning player who is changing their main, my main always has sharing on.
If off line the alt has sharing on, when online and exping I turn it off.
Without vitality on she gains roughtly 1 AA per kill, with vitality off its around 3 - 4 AAs a kill.
It is a big boost but it could use a revamp to allow those who just want to share vitality and not take it and those who just want to take and not share. Having to turn it on and off is a bit of a pain and I don't always remember.

I've found vitality to be worthless during bonus exp, as either with or without it I was gaining 5AA, which is the cap per kill for AA.

Geez just pl the guy already

This is the logical conclusion. I think I have more questions now than I did before posting. Such a mess, this system.

Thank you everyone!

My experience has been the same as others above. I would really like to get a DEV response to clarify the fellowship logic. I wonder if anyone left at DBG/DPG even knows anymore?

I mean I'd still like to know why my both my SK and my shaman have max exp, max AA, with EXP bars that cannot go up anymore, but the SK says "Sharing" and the Shaman says "Capped"

I just.. dont get it lol. I think im gonna stop trying

Fellowship vitality is added to the recipient on a "experience award event" if the following conditions are met:

1. XP Sharing is turned on for both the sharer(s) and recipient(s).
2. The Sharer's XP sharing method is not 'at cap' (ie max level, max banked AA).
3. The Recipient's Fellowship XP Vitality for the experience method shared by #2 is not 'at cap'.
4. The recipient and sharer are not grouped (can be offline or online, just cannot be grouped).

It's also worth noting that if the AA/XP slider is used to move the sharing method, make sure it is at 100% or 0%. 50% cuts the amount of XP shared via fellowship by half.

It's really not that complicated.

Think of it like sharing water as it's dripped into cups. As the sharer gains water in their cup from adventuring, a portion of it is dropped into the recipient's cup. When the sharer's cup is full no more water can be added, therefore no water is sent to the sharer's cup. Since no water is sent, no water is shared.

Would be better if the sharers' cup just overfllowed the excess down into the other cups
¯\_(ツ)_/¯