It is very difficult to give an exact breakdown of the levels of Erudites, or indeed of any race or class. The obvious way is the /who all erudite command over a long period of time. Unfortunately, this tends to over-represent high-level characters. The trend is ever upwards of course, but that�s not the problem. It takes a long time to get to high-level. Almost by definition, high-level characters are owned by the most experienced and devoted EQ players. Quite simply they are just on-line more, biasing the results of any survey.
The other problem with the /who all erudite command is that it will not pick up characters who have gone anonymous, for whatever reason. This is not going to be a problem if the same people are anonymous for the same reasons and at any time of their EQ lives. Unfortunately, this may very well not be the case. One of the main reasons to be Anonymous is to avoid being pestered by someone, and the longer you play EQ, the more chance there is that such a situation will arise. In other words, the odds are that the higher the level, the more likely a character is going to be Anonymous.
Bearing these points in mind when examining the survey results, interesting facts still emerge. The count was done at different times of the day over a period of a month, and for simplicity divided into six level bands. As results came in a special total of level 60 characters was also started. The results for each range band were added up and expressed as a percentage of the total.
Level 1-10: 229 or 12% of the total. On only two occasions were there no Erudite characters of 1�10 detected. This suggests that there is a constant stream of new Erudites coming into the game, either as newbies or as alts of experienced players looking to �try something different�. Not surprisingly, very few are members of guilds and only about half are on the Odus continent.
Level 11-20: 255 or 13% of the total. Again this encouragingly suggests that the majority of people are persevering with their Erudite characters into the �now we lose experience� levels. From this point onwards the overwhelming majority are found in guilds. It is quite rare to find unguilded Erudite characters from level 11 onwards.
Level 21-30: 144 or 7% of the total. This represents a statistically significant dip in numbers. This may mean a lot of people are giving up on their Erudites at this level.
Level 31-40: 175 or 9% of the total. Beginning to pick up again. Presumably those who get past level 30 are now prepared to stick with characters they have invested a lot of time with.
Level 41-50: 196 or 10% of the total. The upward curve continues! This may reflect a past surge in popularity of Erudites, or it may simply be a reflection of the increasing difficulty in levelling at this stage of a character�s life.
Level 51-60: 922 or 49% of the total. Bristlebane is an old server and therefore there are a lot of senior characters. Over 300 of the observed number were level 60. Few ever visit Odus.