Nah, it’s a good a guess there but i’ve double and triple checked. Every time, the xp is noticably half of what it was before. All time intervals that used to give set amounts of xp, (30 minutes for 170 xp, 10 minutes for 63 xp, etc), are all noticably half of what they were before, being 170 → 85 exp for 30 minutes vs before. As well as 63 → 31.5 xp for 10 minutes vs before
Several other players have all checked it as well, and i’ve stopwatched it as well.
At first we thought it was just us, but measuring the past 340 xp a hr rate [About 5.6 xp a minute] to the current 170 xp a rate. [About 2.8 xp a minute],
This is with the 10-20% adjusted. Even with the pass, exp is lower than before [170 xp for 30 min prenerf, no pass], vs 85 + 8 = 93 xp, postnerf, post patch.
I thought it was funky, but it wasn’t until i noticed 20 other people mentioning it on reddit that i thought to take a more serious look at it.
I was kinda lax inbetween studies so i was trying to make sure i hadn’t just lost track of time, but sure enough, every time i stopwatch it, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes.
I’ll be honest, it’s actually kinda sneaky they did a nerf they hoped people wouldn’t notice right on launch.
I myself spent like 5 hrs afking mercs before i noticed i was only getting half as much xp as before and only got like 2.5 hrs worth of exp while i was doing my studies. I bought the pass since i figured i could get a lot out of afking mercs, but it kinda feels a bit of a burn sham spending 20$ for 20% xp to only see 50% taken away right as a pass launched so one wouldn’t make immediate progression.
I found something else to farm, but i can’t help but feel like it’s a bit of a bait and switch since i wasted so much time and i thought sharing the idea of afking it early would help others find a merit to the mode, a few weeks before zeddy even publicized it a few weeks after. ( My post on how to afk it, and the xp for wins/hrs and losses on october 19th, Mercs good afk (320-340 xp/hr pve = 10 g/hr) Preceded Zeddy’s video posted Nov 14 by almost a entire month. Though… his video was only about 3 weeks away from it getting nerfed… Even though all the modes reward xp…
(Zeddy’s Nov 14 How to afk mercs video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30KswXxuzVY
)
Maybe i guess blizzard didn’t mind people doing it until it was publicized by Zeddy and then quickly nerfed a few weeks later, it was afk friendly for homework and finals, but i don’t see how that was a bad thing or harmful to anyone and it hurts active players and all the gains of anyone playing mercs. Anyone who spends time on mercs will be unable to progress a meaningful amount of quests, while also having a very expensive mode that only gives them half the rewards for playing it.