A Complete Guide to Experience Mechanics - Page 1

Written by and adapted with permission of Shannong (US Forums)

Conflicting theories or statements have been made on the official LOTRO forums and other fansite forums about how group exp and "assist" exp work. Nobody has yet made a definitive guide to how exp formulas work in LOTRO and the two main fansite wikis are silent on the issue.



So I grabbed some guildmates (thanks kittyketh and ravyyn!) and a couple random strangers here and there, and we did some testing with a bunch of different alts. The mechanics of group exp are very clear with just a little testing. So here ya go: all the details on how exp works in LOTRO.





The Mechanic of "Rested" Experience



Most people figure this out eventually, but I'll spell it out just in case.

• When you are in a "rested" state (a blue portion of your exp bar is showing), you get exactly double the normal exp for every kill. This does not affect quest rewards; only exp from killing mobs.
• You can spend Destiny Points to purchase additional "rest time".

The Basic Patterns of Group Experience



I could probably boil the group exp mechanics down to single formula but I'm lazy and it would make it harder to explain what's going on. So I'll present it as a three-part process because that's easiest to grasp:

• border="1" align="right"
  style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 29px; height: 75px;">
  
  href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Guide-Screenshots&id=Kill_that_boar&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Guide-Screenshots/Kill_that_boar.thumb.jpg" border="0">
  align="center">Killing monsters while grouped adds an experience modifier.

  Start with the group exp bonus, which is a fixed percentage value. Every member added to a fellowship increases the group exp bonus by 1.20 in a multiplicative manner. For example, a mob normally worth 100 exp for a solo kill is worth 144 exp if a 3-person fellowship kills it. Specifically:
  

  • 2 people = 20% group exp bonus (1 * 1.2 = 1.20)
    
  • 3 people = 44% group exp bonus (1.2 * 1.2 = 1.44)
    
  • 4 people = 73% group exp bonus (1.44 * 1.2 = 1.73)
    
  • 5 people = 107% group exp bonus (1.73 * 1.2 = 2.07)
    
  • 6 people = 149% group exp bonus (2.07 * 1.2 = 2.49)
    
• Next, apply the group exp bonus to each person's baseline solo exp to derive each person's baseline group exp, which is completely independent of anyone else in the group. The group exp bonus percentage is applied individually to EACH person's normal baseline solo exp for the mob. For example, assume a level 11 player would normally get 100 exp for solo-killing mob X, and a level 16 player would normally get 40 exp for solo-killing that same mob X. If those two players are in a fellowship together and kill that same mob X, the baseline group exp for the level 11 player is 120 exp (100 * 1.2), and the baseline group exp for the level 16 player is 48 exp (40 * 1.2).
  
• Finally, divide each player's baseline group exp by the total number of players to derive the adjusted exp that each player receives. Again, the important point is that the baseline group exp is *different* for each player in the group as described in the preceding bullet. So to continue our 2-player example, the level 11 player would get 60 adjusted exp for the kill (120 / 2) and the level 16 player would get 24 adjusted exp for the kill (48 / 2).
  
• There is one penalty that affects the basic mechanics outlined in the preceding three bullets. If any one player in the group is so high that the mobs being killed yeild 0 baseline solo exp for that player, then this does adversely affect the rest of the group to a degree that I have not tested thoroughly enough to state the formulas. At a rough guess based on limited testing, I'm theorizing that the penalty to every other player in the group is that they get only 66% of their adjusted exp instead of the full 100% of their adjusted exp. For example, when I paired a level 11 player with a level 36 player in the same fellowship and they killed a level 12 boar together, the level 36 of course got nothing at all, and the level 11 player got exactly 66% of what they would get in a 2-person fellowship with someone who was "in the color range" (at least green) for the boar. This is an obvious anti-exploit penalty to prevent using high-level players to power-level lower-level players. In a similar fashion, if you are below the color range (mob is purple to you), you get reduced or no exp, but I think the other players in range of the mob are not adversely penalized for that (I have not be able to fully test this for myself). This subject bears further testing, and if anyone has already done so please post your observations.

That's the group exp mechanics in a nutshell. If you think about it a little bit, you'll see that unlike practically any other MMO, the group exp mechanics in LOTRO are extremely forgiving and guild-friendly. Here are the ramifications spelled out:

• There is no penalty whatsoever to any player in a fellowship based on the "level spread" of the fellowship, as long as the highest player in the group is "within the color range" of the mob. Your adjusted exp is not dependent on anyone else's level!!! Higher-level players in the fellowship do NOT somehow "steal" exp from the lower-level players in the fellowship!!! Drive those points home and spread it around because it's the Number One misconception that most players have at the moment, and it's preventing PUGs and even many kinships from grouping together more often. Yes, there is a penalty if the higher players in the group are outside the "color range" of the mob, but even then the penalty is a very slight reduction of only -33% of the adjusted exp for the players who are in the "color range".
  
• The only "penalty" that exists is based on how many players are in your group, and even that is a somewhat false penalty. In fact, the more players in your group the more raw exp you are all bringing in over time. This is because of the multiplicative nature of the group exp bonus. For example, assume that your baseline solo exp is 100 exp for a mob that you can kill in 30 seconds. If adding a second player to your group enables you to kill two of those mobs in 30 seconds, your exp flow over those 30 seconds is 20% better (60 * 2 = 120 adjusted exp). If adding a third player to your group enables you to kill three of those mobs in 30 seconds, your exp flow is now 44% better (48 *3 = 144 adjusted exp). And so on.
  
• Of course, there is a practical point of diminishing returns for how much faster a larger group can kill things. In reality, 6 people are not going to kill mobs at 6x the normal solo rate, but even if an entire group of 6 can kill mobs only 3x as fast as you can solo those same mobs, then you're still WAY ahead in terms of exp flow. For example, 6 of you kill a mob that normally yields 100 baseline solo exp. Your adjusted exp for the kill is 41 points ((100 * 2.49) / 6), so killing 3 of those mobs yields 123 adjusted exp for you. That's 23% better exp flow than you could do by yourself.

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