Now, I understand that HUNT is, as of now, the optimal way of training scouting.
However, the question has come up SEVERAL times on the boards recently, about long trails, short trails, and what's in between.
So, I'm doing a little test.
I will be running the trail outside the NE gate of crossings, the one that runs to the ferry to haven. After allowing that experience to pulse down, I will be running back to crossings. Again, letting the experience pulse down, I will run from crossings to kaerna.
Each run along the trail will be timed with a stopwatch (down to the tenth of a second.) Each run will be performed under the exact same conditions (i.e. burden, wounds, [no] buffs, etc.)
To begin this experiment, I post my starting scouting experience.
Scouting: 158 99.08% clear (0/34)
Upon hitting 'go trailmarker', the time until reaching 'As the journey ends, yadayadayada' was 50.1 seconds, and total experience gain at trail's-end is
Scouting: 158 99.39% dabbling (1/34).
After pulsing, experience was
Scouting: 159 01.40% clear (0/34).
The crossing to Ferry trail is what I would consider a 'long' trail.
Arriving in crossing (having walked back.) my total scouting experience remains
Scouting: 159 01.40% clear (0/34)
Departing Crossings and arriving at Kaerna took 10.6 seconds. Arrival experience was
Scouting: 159 02.92% dabbling (1/34)
After pulsing my experience looked like this:
Scouting: 159 04.46% clear (0/34)
So, in 50.1 seconds of trail running (after pulsing) I gained just over 2% of a rank of scouting.
In 10.6 seconds of trail running (after pulsing) I gained just UNDER 2% of a total rank of scouting.
The disparity in time allows for FIVE trails to be run along the crossing/kaerna trail in the time it takes to run the trail to haven once...If the numbers remain the same, overall gain from the crossing/kaerna trail (in the same time period) would be just under 8% of a total rank of scouting.
Taken as a 'what single trail teaches the most experience' question, the LONGER trails will teach more. Taken as a 'whats the quickest way to learn scouting via trails' question, the shorter trails will teach more in the same allotted time.
Just my two cents. Remember, your results may differ from mine, based on your mental stats and current ranks in scouting. But I think it's a good baseline for someone with significantly more scouting than me to run THEIR numbers, and see if their results concur with my own.
No Ranger Stands Alone.
MM2/SS, USN
