So one of my favorite memories of EQ is seeing necros and druids killing the Dwarf fishermen in Butcherblock. As a low level player I was in awe of their power and shiny gear, watching them slaughter my people and giving away tons of bronze weapons and armor. As I got higher and was able to kill these Citizens myself and I too passed out free gear and answered newbie questions while getting decent exp. Fast forward to today, when my brother and I hit 30 and happily head to Butcherblock to recreate this experience. Now imagine our sadness when on the first kill we notice the exp from our dwarf is ZERO. BUT WHY we ask. I understand Guards, and Mobs associated with quests giving zero exp, and i think that's all well and good. But fishermen? They have no quests, no social interactions of any kind other then to look pretty at the docks. Named sisters in OOT still give exp....why not these? Is this some sort of oversight from a change to live ages ago, and if so is it still valid? Could these, and possibly other, non quest npc characters somehow be restored to their former exp glory? I miss killing them, and this would also open up more areas for players who want to solo in the open world to gain decent exp and coin.
I remember when Watchman Halv in Steamfont was prime picking for druids. Lotta people weren't looked on too friendly in Ak'Anon lol.
It just kind of feels arbitrary - if a monster is level 35 and hits as hard as a level 35 monster should, why doesn't it give EXP? I too spent a few hours running around last night trying to find a good spot to root/rot and found that all the spots I used to know and was looking forward to using again were no longer good choices because either the mobs were buffed or no longer give EXP. One of the things that has kept me coming back to EQ over the years is that it has always felt more like a world than a game, and this change makes no sense to me from either a world building or game play experience. If you don't want random NPC fisherman to be slaughtered by evil trolls and dark elves for EXP, why not just make them level 1 instead of adding a weird edge case rule?
