That whole "Nobody can level/hunt in groups unless they are the same level" thing, I don't blame the exploiters for that -- I blame poorly-designed anti-PL code.I for one felt insulted, I remember the Istarian days when hatchlings and bipeds alike were taken to the satyr island in a group of highlevel bipeds and dragons and got easy experience by sitting on the side lines… A huge stream of high level bipeds and dragons appeared all long dead and long gone who had multiple 100’s, but didn’t know how to play their character. This form of powerleveling is at least taken away from the game… at the cost of no high levelers being able to group with a low level player, but we all know the saying… The good suffer because of the bad.
They put in unnecessarily _large_ anti-PL measures when other, more subtler means would have sufficed, that wouldn't kill grouping.
Having mobs perma-aggro the lowest level member nearby was the worst way to combat this, ever. Now, I could understand it, if it was to extremes (say, 10+ level gap), but when -1 level- causes mobs to be glued to one person, then you have a problem.
I'll still remind the devs and fellow players of why my GF stopped playing the game. We greatly enjoyed playing together, and even leveling together, until we somehow got out-of-sync. I was 2 levels higher than she was, and it was nearly impossible for us to group together and kill stronger mobs, because everything was glued onto her, and no manner of Melee-build Gold Rages would keep crap off of her.
This was, of course, before Primal health and other dragon buffs, but still.. the game put a sour taste in her mouth, and she's not coming back anyday soon. I know I can't be the one and only who has ever had similar problems in the game world, and I have, from day one, always been vocal about making some kind of level gap forgiveness (10 levels works). If the gap is 9 levels or less, the mobs should act like everyone's the same level. If there's a 10 level or more gap, THEN have mobs discriminate against the low-level players.
Nobody PLs a player who's within 10 levels of themselves -- the XP gain just doesn't justify it. It would be easier for the PL'd player to fight things their level, themselves.