Rubies of Eventide - Experience Caps

There seems to be a lot of confusion and misinformation regarding the amount of experience you will get in a group and how a players level affects the experience. This note will explain how experience is awarded in Rubies of Eventide as explained to me by Abraxus and as verified by emperical measurements.

Each mob has a certain amount of experience it is worth to kill. This experience is based on the mob and nothing else. This is the base experience for the kill.

Each player has an "experience cap". This is the maximum experience they can earn for any single kill. This cap is computed by the simple equation cap = 100 + 100 * (level - 1) + 10 * level * level and is based entirely on each players level. The "group experience cap" is the "experience cap" for the lowest level player in the group. This is often referred to as "being capped" or "being low capped". A table for the first few levels is shown below. Higher levels can be computed by applying the formula. It can not be stressed enough that there is NO value in killing a mob significantly higher than your cap unless you want the loot they drop. They are often harder kills and give NO benefit. An example is .. there is no point in killing an irate bear when you are below level 5. They are worth more than your xp cap, but more importantly, a regular bear is worth more than your xp cap. You will get the same experience for killing an irate bear as you will get for killing a regular bear at level 5. From level 5 to level 8 you will be capped on irates but earning more xp from an irate than you will from a regular bear. Above level 8 you need to look for something harder.

Each group has an "effective group level" which is the level of the highest person in the group plus the number of people in the group / 2 - 1. A group with three people will have a group level one more than the level of the highest person in the group. There is a penalty for killing an opponent lower than you (or your group level) of 10% per level compounded each level. Hence you will only receive 81% of the mobs potential xp if you kill an opponent 2 levels below you (90% of 90% of the opponent's base xp).

There is no "hard" spread that will determine when and if you will be capped. You often hear "there can only be 3 levels difference or we will loose xp" or "there can only be 10 levels difference or we will loose xp". Both of these are wrong. You will get full experience for every kill when the opponent is higher in level than the effective group level and the lowest player's cap is above the base xp for the mob. This CAN create a spread as small as 3 levels at low levels and CAN create a spread as high as 10 levels at higher levels, but the spread is NOT the limit. The two caps, sometimes referred to "low cap" and "high cap" are what determine how much experience the group gets.

Sometimes an example helps explain the xp caps. A demon slime, found in kendal falls as well as the slime pits, is a level 30 mob worth 2538 base XP. A level 11's cap is 2310 xp. Hence any group with a level 11 in it will receive a maximum of 2310 base xp plus any risk bonus. A level 12's cap is 2640 which is above the mobs base xp. Hence a level 12 "uncaps" the slimes. A solo level 30 will get full XP if they kill a slime. A level 30 in a party of just themself and a level 12 (two people total) will get full xp if they kill a slime. A level 30 in a party with three players between level 12 and level 30 will receive 90% of a slimes worth. It does not matter if the other two members are level 30 or if they are level 12. The result is the same. So, in a group with only two people, a level 12 and a level 30, a spread of 18 levels, receive no cap killing demon slimes. Yet a group of three level 30's, a spread of 0, has a 10% xp cap caused by the number of people in the group. So, next time you hear someone say "the spread is only 8, we can let them in", you can smile knowingly. Don't try to argue with them as most just don't know. Feel free to point them to Lore of Eventide for their enlightenment.