Exp in L85 areas

[droid]

Exp in L85 areas

For zones like the Pits that are L85, do you get more experience from the monsters than you would if you killed them in the Black Marsh? Ie, is their base experience scaled up to L85, or do you just not suffer as much of an exp penalty against them?

And why is CS such a better exp run than other L85 areas like River of Flame? Monster density? Do the superuniques there give markedly better exp? How come people run Chaos so much but not other L85 zones?

 

[Orphan]

Re: Exp in L85 areas

For zones like the Pits that are L85, do you get more experience from the monsters than you would if you killed them in the Black Marsh? Ie, is their base experience scaled up to L85, or do you just not suffer as much of an exp penalty against them?

When determining the experience of a monster, the games does use a modifier which is dependent on the monsters mlvl. Basically it's (BaseExp * ExpMod) / 100.

For example, the experience modifier for lvl 83 monsters on hell (ladder) is 48477, while the experience modifier for lvl 85 monsters on hell (ladder) is 51195. A skeletons base experience on hell is 85, so a mlvl 83 skeleton would give 41205 experience ((85*48477)/100), while a mlvl 85 skeleton would give 43515 experience ((85*51195)/100).

So basically yes, monsters that have a higher mlvl give more experience, although the rule could only be said authoritatively if we're talking about the same base experience, which brings me to point 2:

And why is CS such a better exp run than other L85 areas like River of Flame? Monster density? Do the superuniques there give markedly better exp? How come people run Chaos so much but not other L85 zones?

Every monster has a different base experience, which is then amplified by the exp modifier based on the mlvl. For example, as mentioned above skeletons' have a base experience of 85, but balrogs (megademons) have a base experience of 130. The storm casters have a base experience of 135, and oblivion knights have a base exp of 210. Because the base experience is higher but the experience modifier stays the same for lvl 85 monsters, the overall experience will be higher.

Because of the differences in base experience, it's not 100% correct to always say that a higher mlvl monster will have more experience than a lower one. For example, a lvl 85 skeleton on hell ladder gives 43515 experience as pointed out above, but a lvl 83 balrog would give ((130*48477)/100) = 63020 experience, which is more despite it being a lower mlvl.

And finally, yes the clvl --> mlvl penalties would also play a factor.

 

[0blique]

Re: Exp in L85 areas

The other thing to keep note of is the exp you gain is modified based on your level and the monsters level. From lvl 1-25, you get full exp for any monsters whose levels are within 5 of your own. Beyond that, it scales down to about 5% or so (if I recall correctly) after an additional 5 levels outside your range. This is to prevent players from running low level areas too much, and also penalizes players for running very difficult areas with the help of high lvl characters. This is why leveling guides recommend trist->tombs->cow and not just cow all the way through. If you play the game normally, you won't really notice this as much since you will tend to follow the right progression as you advance through the game.

Once you pass lvl 25, the experience formula for monsters that are above your lvl changes, so you get full experience times your lvl/monster lvl. So if you're lvl 40 and you kill a lvl 80 monster, you get half of the experience. As far as I know, the formula for experience from monsters that are lower a lower lvl than you remains the same.

So when you're at high levels (beyond 85 and especially beyond 90) you have to start paying attention to the lvl of the monsters that your killing. At this point, only a few monsters in the game have similar or higher lvls than you, so the typical monster lvl is lvl 85 or below. For areas that have very low levels (most of the typical questing areas) you will find you get low exp because the level difference penalty. Lvl 85 areas are typically much higher levels than their surrounding areas, so there's a big difference in the experience you get. You'll notice this when you do pit runs- if you kill stuff in the tamoe highland, you'll find you get a few hundred or less exp from monsters, but you'll get significantly more inside the pit, even if you kill the same monsters. Champions, uniques, and superuniques get lvl boosts, so you'll get better experience from them if you're high enough in lvl.

Chaos and WSK runs are generally more popular because they have Diablo and Baal in them, which have really high lvls. Once you reach the 90s, only these bosses can give you significant amounts of exp, so you'll get more exp from those runs, even though there's only one monster that gets you exp.

 

[droid]

Re: Exp in L85 areas

Well if the info in the strat page is correct, the exp up to L91 would be 100% for the pits, so anyone below there should still be able to run L85 areas without penalty. And even then, champs are +1 levels (L87) and bosses +2 IIRC, so you could still run the pits for elite monsters till L93 without penalty. After that I guess you're stuck with UT or D/N/B 1-at-a-time?

I was wondering more if the base exp scaled with the higher mlvl for monsters in pits, WSK, etc. over the exp in their "native" zones, which Orphan answered And why more players didnt run L85 areas for exp besides CS. Apparently the main reason is because the ToD and the CS are bottable with Enigma hammerdins, mostly, and the WSK brings the monsters to you so you can just sit and leech....exp in the pits for my L89 sorc was actually faster, minute for minute, than baal, since there's less running and waiting involved. 12Mish per run in a one player game, I could clear it in about 2 minutes for an average map, much faster than it takes to run baal. Almost a shame, almost, you cant bot it since it'd be great to have more players doing pit runs...good exp, safer than WSK, more drops, etc. if you can keep up with the pace.

Once you get in the mid-90s, though, I realize that CS gives you the most bang for the buck with its guaranteed 3 superuniques and Diablo.