InsertName wrote:
some ppl say they can get over 1k sp in 1 hour and i cant even get half of that in 3 hours!?!?
it takes 2 shots to kill bandit archers or 1 with critical and i pick up the loot,
after an hour i die cause im out of pots and my bow is damaged alot also it would save me the trouble of travling back to town and delvl after lvl16
overall i only get 300sp everytime i do that cycle
any advice?

I ran into same prob...here's nice alternative for staying in stronghold... I call it the power hour.
I can't find a nice sos bow either, but you can get sos sword for 1.5-3 million depending on your server...I have a normal +6 sharp sword, crit 7 w/ 20ish% magic and magic reinforce & I grind on the bandits at the eastern corners of the stronghold with s/s. I have a L10 shield but has br of 17...can tank 4 normal bandits with no problem. Most folks are working on the archers, so there's plenty of bandits to go around. They spawn fast enough so that you always have at least two or three of them mobbing you, so you'll always have a close target. I'm full int, lvl 7 masteries and and kill them with imbue +2 normal strikes & either sword move 1 (strike & smash lvl2)or 2 (illusion chain lvl1) to finish him off. It takes about 4 secs to kill a bandit, 1 or 2 seconds to retarget next one. Your imbue wears off just after you land the last hit to kill one.
Math: At L16 (9 gap on masteries) in 4 person xp distrib party you get 225 sxp per bandit kill...takes average of 9 secs total to kill 2 of em, 10 at most if miss an imbue or something...in 1 min you can kill 10-12 bandits.
Giants/champs (factor in zerk you build every 4-5 mins you're grinding...if you get zerk, use it right away, giant or not) - you can lure them over to the middle to let the sos bows help you take them if no zerk.
So 60 mins = 600-720 bandits.
sxp (assuming 4 person xp distrib party so each bandit = 225sxp)
in one hr... 135k - 162k sxp gained =
338 to 405 sp/hr. That's without gt, 1 hr hardcore grind.. x3 will get you 1k-1.2k sp.
Have a squirrel if want gold/itempickup...Don't pick up anything but sos if no squirrel or
unless it's blue and something you're looking for...after I get done with the grind session i will stop and pick up equips to fill inventory before heading back to jangan.
You get less sp once you lvl...if you stay out for a 2nd hr you'll be pretty close to 17 (assuming you got to the stronghold w/ < 3% into L16), which will decrease your sxp for the 2nd hr; it's still pretty decent amount but i can't remember the exact sxp the bandits give you at 17...will check it this evening.
EDIT *** in 4 person party you still get 206 sxp from bandit @ L17.
so 123600-148320 sxp/hr = 309- 370 SP for 2nd hr.
So in 2 hrs you could get 645- 775 sp.
That 3rd hr is for finishing the grind to L18, then delvling.
Ack, hate that part, especially if you have no one to help you.
***
Happy grinding!