As the next step to massive PvE changes, we've made the following three (summarized) modifications. Details will follow:

1. Gold drops from sentients have essentially been doubled.

2. A throttle now exists for gold drops. It is set to a value we consider very generous, and far in excess of what a profitable trip should be.

3. Our exp formulas have been altered to give out experience based on difficulty, not just arbitrary mob level.

Please keep in mind that all three of these things involve a few numbers that we will tweak as we continue with this rebalance.

EXPLANATIONS THAT MIGHT GET WORDY:

1. We have literally just removed a "gold/2" from the formula. Because the initial gold is determined by experience given by the mobile dropping the gold, however, and via point #3 we did just change the experience formula... who knows! I expect you will find that some areas will drop the same, while others vastly more. Nothing appears to initial math as a reduction.

2. The throttle is based on a running average over four hour periods, not a cap. This means that gold drops will be viewed over a four hour period, and if they exceed a certain gold/hr value they will be proportionally reduced. For example: if you manage to double what the throttle considers average gold/hr, your drops would be halved until the next time the formula assesses your average. The assessment of your average is in 15 minute steps, and the 'average' is chosen by me based on our data gathering.

The goal here is to not instate a gold cap, but to keep drops from being unreasonable while we tweak what the new formula does. After the testing period, the throttle will likely remain to prevent absurd gains and rampant inflation.

I should add that the throttle is currently so high that I am not positive it can be hit. Please do take that as a challenge, it would be fun to see.

3. Exp formula did not scale well to difficulty before. We used to have just tack on a flat-exp modifier to an area in order to make the mobs actually worth their difficulty (e.g. Xaanhal mobs give +45k xp). Unfortunately this was a bit arbitrary and did not really reflect the mob's difficulty. This led to some areas being vastly superior to other areas for bashing. We've gone ahead and removed this flat-exp modifier, and MASSIVELY adjusted the formula used to determine a mob's experience to make up for it.

This does mean some areas would've taken a hit in average overall experience. Tiyen Esityi in particular took the biggest hit here. However, this does mean areas you might've ignored before will also give out better experience.

Without getting too much into specifics on how the formula works (it's a complex metric involving mob level, attack speed, and attack possibilities), mobs will also now grant additional bonus experience based on the following:
- if they're aggro
- if they will track you down
- if they break shields
- if they're critical immune
- if they're non-sentient (non-sentients get a bonus because they don't drop gold)
- if they will loot your corpse if you die
- if they will defend other mobs in the room
- if they haven't died recently, every Howling, mobs will give +5% bonus experience if they didn't die that day. This stacks up to a maximum of +50% (10 days without dying). Reset whenever someone kills that mob. So don't ignore areas!

-T

PS
Let me emphasize that all of this is part of the larger picture of balance. Nothing is perfect, and we're happy to discuss this on the forum link that will follow this. There are a lot of tweaks that will happen over the process, some involving full changelogs, some we might just sneak in because you couldn't see it anyway.

Penned by my hand on Closday, the 23rd of Arios, in the year 473 MA.
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