when is it ok to kill a camped mob

Technically first to engage is the official policy, as it should be. The unwritten rules of the community differ. The best policy is always to respect others, and that goes both ways.

If you want to engage something that is camped try to get a dialogue going with the person claiming it. If they are unresponsive, their right to a camp may be fleeting. I tend to use the zones repop time as my determination as the acceptable time frame if it is just a normal spawn on that timer. If it is a long respawn, I may give a little more time if it isn't a quest mob. If it is one of the long quest mob spawns I will probably just leave someone that is /afk to their business (This is for stuff like epic 1.0 quest mobs that are 3-7 days).

If someone is there, at the "camp", I will ask them what they are after. Honestly, whether or not I choose to engage, wait, or leave will depend on the response I get. Polite, semi friendly response and I will leave, wait, or even help if they need. Rude, ugly response and I will kill what I want. No response at all, will wait a few minutes, 15 at the most, and then engage.

This is my take as well.

Remember, in the end its just a bunch of pixels and code you are contesting, while the other player is a living being. There have been many times while roaming through zones that I offer to help with tough mobs, if nothing more than for conversation with a new person. This is an MMO after all, not some FPS. I think some people forget that.

If a player is AFK for a period of time and unresponsive/inactive, out of courtesy I'd give a few minutes before attempting the mob. If the player is actively killing stuff, I don't give it a second thought - move on. If it's a named I need, I ask to join for it! What's the harm, eh?

But in some of my cases, it takes me up to 20 minutes to clear a room or way to a named before even engaging it. I'm not a DPS class, nor am I an efficient puller. What can I do if a mage runs in, sees named, and expects me to engage it soon when it takes me much longer than them to kill it? That's BS. If he had decided to just run in and destroy it, I would've been left there disgruntled and speechless at this game. The rules allow him to do just that, but if roles were reversed, I couldn't do what he can. (luckily the mage in this case was very kind and we grouped together to take the named)

So if you see a named and someone's gunning or preparing for it, ask to help or group. That's what EQ should be about.

Lee, I find your post very ironic. =P

If it's up and someone is FD'd obviously AFK, then they're not waiting for it.

Respecting camps is a touchy subject. There's really two ways of looking at this. From the scenario of the OP - the mob is up and they want to kill it, but suspect someone is camping it. 15mins after no response to tells is more than reasonable in any situation.

The other perspective is that of the camper. Camping a mob is a responsibility. Anyone camping a mob should be doing so with the mindset that someone else is going to steal it, and they should be camping it in such a way that it's difficult/impossible for you to steal.

In either case, training/sneaking past a group that is obviously clearing towards it would be frowned upon.

3 situations-

Something like Tormax, that's a much shorter window than most mobs. These are contested long-spawn mobs and you should sit on the spawn point if you are camping it. Pop a merc and set your audio trigger if you are going to afk.

If it's a triggered mob like AoW, Vulak, Cursed cycle etc, it's not yours if you didn't spawn it. Say you spawned it and someone else pulled it, this is one of the few situations where I'd consider killing a mob someone else agro'd first is legit.

Regular group named... can be a little less obvious. Mostly I'd say it depends on whether the adds are up. Full spawn, no corpses = camp was abandoned, go for it. People who try to claim mobs from halfway across the zone are not paying proper attention to their own camps, whether they have a tracker or not.

If it's clear, ( i.e they are in the vicinity of Tormax) that they are camping that named, then I'll leave them to it and try again another day.

I remember having to get a melee type to come kill Ventril Sathir for my wizard 1.0.