As it happens so often...I got stuck reading this post, and it was very hard to stop. Unfortunately, I must leave for work soon, but wanted to contribute some thoughts. Since I haven't read all the posts, I sincerely apologize if I step on anyone's toes & duplicate suggestions. I surely don't mean to <steal> anyone's <thunder>!
That being said, here are a few of my thoughts on the MPK subject.
I think that the link/aggro situation is a difficult one. I think everyone has dealt with this issue, some more than other (/blush). But I believe that links & aggros are part of what makes the game challenging. When you are out in a somewhat dangerous area killing mobs solo or in a party, I think part of the challenge is being smart & CAREFUL when going about killing mobs. I have a habit of being too impatient & too risky & having to deal with links/aggros, etc. often times resulting in my own demise. I agree with one previous poster (or more, not sure) that some ideas may turn into more problems. If links/aggros were minimized, altered, or eliminated completely, this would drastically change the way players act & interact in any outlands area.
The one issue/suggestion that I do agree with is the bind/sleep issue when applied to a mob near another player who may/may not be afk. I'm sure it is similar to other servers, but I know on my server (especially before the patch that changed NM drops into rare/ex) that MPKing was one option of players dealing with the growing concern of botters & gilsellers, and the affect on competing for NMs and other mobs, as well as the economy in the game. But this can be a pretty dangerous situation. Anyone familiar with SMN's bloodpact abilities knows that Titan has an ability that inflicts bind on it's target mob ("Rock Throw"). Not only could this be used on ONE mob near another player, but let's say you are in Maze of Shakrami (Leech King, Argus). You could easily round up some gobs (ha, brings us to the "link" issue). Once you bind that mob near another player, and it starts attacking that person, voila, all other mobs will link & start attacking him too.
The difference here, is if you personally gather the gobs up & cast bind on only one, you will still gain the hate from those mobs once they are unbound. If you are a SMN & use an avatar (Titan) to gather up the link, bind, then dismiss your avatar, then only the initial one bound will come after you. At least, this is how it has been explained to me. I have not tested this out that much myself.
IMO, and I'm sure I'll get some heat from this, BSTs seem to have too much power & control. I'm sorry, but it just seems inappropriate to have a job in the game that can pretty much level at a decent rate without the help of others. Seems anti-social doesn't it?! And maybe some people would say that's the beauty and specialty of playing BST. I wouldn't know, I don't know too much about BSTs, other than that I've dealt with a few mean & manipulative ones on my server. I definitely agree with the suggestion that BST's pets can't aggro once released, but I'm not sure the "answer" is to not aggro once they return to their original spot. I'm sure there's a middle ground to that somewhere. I also wish that players were held more accountable for their actions & that the botters & gilsellers who are ruining many aspects of the game (ahem, server problems, cough cough) were eliminated by some brilliant update like they eliminated the fishing botters. Unfortunately, my husband reported a mining botter to a GM, and was sadly blown off. He actually responded that they couldn't understand the complaint. Not sure what is hard to understand about "There's a mining botter in Gusgen Mines"...but whatever.
I know it's not a perfect system, but I think we should still focus on the goal of making it a more perfect system.
