Just sort of curious as to when the skeletons in the crypts of Arkham managed to gain warrior skills and would like to get a better understanding as to why this change was made. Could someone please give me a bit of insight as to the thought process behind this?

IMHO, I thought that particular location really didn't need a power increase. Especially since it was dangerous to rank in already, I think the mobs got stronger as you did, ((though I might be wrong on that)) as well as this locations was very close to a city so people could be PKed all the time. Having to worry about bleeding and boneshattering and all of that seemes unnecessary especially if they are supposed to be mindless walking undead.

PS:Stabbing and twisting and warrior skeletons scare me.

Overall, the area previously was the best place to get XP for good/neutral characters for a sizeable level range by a wide margin.

So it becomes either:

1) Everything in the area is just worth half the normal XP or

2) Skeletons get to be worth more XP, but also are more dangerous.

Ok. Yeah I can totally see that. Thanks for the response and thanks to you for yours as well Isildur.

What's wrong with some places to rank being better than other places? It's one of the rewards for having good area knowledge. Sweet spots like the Crypts and the Mausoleum and Calandaryl are fun for everybody, and hurt nobody. They're even close to major areas so they're easy for PKers to get to, so it's fun for them, too. I almost hope you made some other area easier to compensate.

I guess it's not this particular change I'm protesting (what's done is done, and it might prove to be fun, still), so much as the underlying assumption it's based on; that ranking should be hard. Why make ranking (anywhere) suck more, when the vast majority of the playerbase thinks it sucks too much in general anyway?

My opinion:

There's nothing wrong with some areas often being better than others to rank in.

There is something wrong if one area is so much better than the other options that you would essentially have to be stupid not to use it, no matter what your group composition.

Generally, I think the game is more interesting if your best/fastest XP options are also the most dangerous. I like the idea that you've got choices between low risk / lower reward and higher risk / higher reward places. That can't happen when there are low risk / high reward places to go.

I also think the game is more interesting the more that there are some different 'best' places to level depending on group composition. If you've got multiple characters who are good at disarming, the skeletons in the crypts might even be a better place to go than a month or two ago -- you can take the specs out of the equation pretty fast, and you're getting more XP than before. If you're a group that can't, maybe now someplace else is better, and maybe now every character you play won't spend 10 levels in the same area and you'll get more variety, which hopefully is less boring too.

But when we're talking about risk/reward, I think we should look at the risk as that of potential PKs rather than mob deaths.

The great think about the Arkham crypts was that as a goodie, you had a good place to level up, and as an evil, you knew EXACTLY where that group would probably be at. Plus, it was in a well-travelled place so it's easy to check.

It's a rare thing for a group to spend any significant time there without having a PK show up.

So now, the best place is, what? Trolls in the past? That means to have an evil PK show up they have to walk ALL that way down there, stopping to rest at least once probably. Then cross your fingers and hope someone's there, before walking all the way back out.

Having a common ranking area right there, makes everyone happy.

PS. Skeletons are immune blind, which makes disarming them that much more annoying. At the very least, is there a chance you could make them like Calandaryl and not re-wield? Or even a chance that they don't? I haven't gone down there in a while, so if that's already the case, nevermind.

They should have a tougher time in the mid-ranks leveling. Yes, evils can rank everywhere, but goodies are able to power rank so obscenely.

Is it better to make it harder for goodies, or easier for evils?

As someone that doesn't particularly enjoy the tedium of ranking, I would say easier is better than harder.

You've said in the past that you enjoy the midranks better anyways, and you always get bored at hero. So I'm not sure why YOU are complaining.

Either way, it's not especially hard to hero right now anyways. It's just a whole lot easier for goodies in nearly every possible way. It seems like goodies have easy access to exploit vulns leveling from level 1-51 and they are oftentimes the alignment that might get outside help ranking as well.

It seems like every character incarnation I have, the midranks are stuffed with neutrals and evils because goodies fly right through them.

Evil ranking areas have been nerfed over the years many times, I don't see what the problem is. Emerald forest used to be the battlefields of evil ranking, and then there was Morton that was great for hero evil ranking.

I do enjoy the mid-ranks. But I don't enjoy them because I just LOVE ranking so much. I do because solo PKs are easier to come by, and you don't have the insane powerhouses that you can't do anything to.

I just think that, when I decide to rank up a little bit, it shouldn't be too much of a chore.

I don't think the Crypts should be nerfed, but I don't think any evil ranking areas should be either.

I'd like to see exp bonuses every weekend. I didn't particularly care for the 100% bonus that was the 1 day thing a few months ago.

I say make every weekend 25% bonus!

On a related note, do the shoppies in Mortorn still call guards when you try to kill them? I know it was ages ago, but how come that area was nerfed for ranking, and is there any reason to not re-allow it?

I have no idea why that popped in to my head when reading this thread, but, there you go.

Aarn

With the right class and/or weapons you could rank there crazily fast. Sure there was a PK risk, but honestly, at that level, every place you're going to rank is a PK risk.

Makes sense I suppose. Though is that really that bad of a thing? There should be at least a few places out there that should allow for quick ranking as long as there is a significant PK risk right?

Or is that the problem that there was to begin with? Like as you said, every place you are going to rank is a PK risk, so that risk didn't outweigh the fact that lvls could be fairly easily gained as long as you had the right combination of classes?

Basically. Go get your wrathing/healing questy weapon, or possibly your wrathing/silver questy hammer, or possibly silver/flaming flail from Ysigrath, and you're good to go as long as you have one person who can parry maces and one who can parry daggers. Using physical non-blunt weapons it was not a good place to rank. Using weapons that exploit two vulns...it was kinda cake.