The merc-as groupmate change is solid. Probably enough to get me in. One of the things I could never get past with solo-ranking is that you're combining slower kills with less exp per kill and higher risk of dying. I don't enjoy the mob-death exp penalty, it's just not the kind of punishment that adds fun for me. I would invariably get too bored of solo ranking, stop paying attention or start taking risks and end up mob-dying, wasting all that time. I never minded PK while ranking. It adds a fun type of risk.

What classes have had interesting changes (in the past 7 years)?

Saagkri: 40 hours is a reassuring number. I generally aimed for 50.

Thaeden: I never did skill spam. Pretty much all soloing that wasn't exploring felt like a chore to me. I tend towards mages, which in my experience are really painful to solo, but I'm not an exclusive mage player and like every class. Part of it though is I like support classes, which tend not to work well solo.

Quixotic:
"We now have group bonuses for mob exp" What does that mean? There was always a bonus for 2 and 3 players, do you just mean that or is it something else?