I've no lifed this game this phase a lot. If there is one key thing I can tell you to make your life easier - if you're just trying to get exp and level (not really camp anything)... Camp Orcs. If you find an Orc camp with some drops you like, great. Whether its orcs in BTB, in EW, in KB, in SS, etc. They are BY FAR the most forgiving/rewarding mobs in the game in terms of loot/coin/exp/moderate health/moderate damage. Anything 3+ levels higher than you, of course be cautious. But every single camp Ive had with Orcs has went incredibly well compared to undead, ashira, goblins, etc. Camp whatever you like, sure. But in hindsight, my static agrees that we should have focused Orcs.
I think the medallions arent all that bad.. In a group of friends / static. I loot everything and split it evenly among us. They DID nerf coin with that change, though. Having medallions and shit like that shrouds the fact that they nerfed coin drops across the board. Its a lot harder for people to tell that theyre getting less money now - unless theyre attentive to whats happening. A PUG doesnt have that option and .. thats why its a poorly designed system right now. If we had some kind of Loot system that would roll it off to a random person. Or if loot rights alternated between group members - then it would be fine. But until they put something like that in, the coin loot is going to be a problem.
On that note - Since my static was with me for hours and hours all this time.. we've been comparing coin after the end of each session. The coin "Split" is not even remotely fucking even. No matter what kind of fancy system they "SAY" they have - its anything but. If I had to guess, its completely random. Its just SO obvious when you're boxing characters that people are getting the shaft on coin split.
I would follow Pasteton's lead on this. Even if you were intentionally abusing a fucking herb, not saying you are, but if you were - its a fucking herb. It was respawning, and to be honest with you - if I was doing alchemy, I probably would have taken advantage of it to. Completely oblivious to the fact that it would be considered cheating because... As you've said
@Grabbit Allworth... for as long as I can remember, the system has been in place (even though they say they changed it) that when one node goes down, another pops up. With three boxes, I can lock down entire areas of nodes (and guess what?) they still pop up when another is looted. It may have a "cool down" but there is ALWAYS a node spawning when one goes down.