Diminishing Returns After 80

Level 80 takes around 25 hours?.. I'm not sure but I reached that in 5 days playing the one month league with selffound gear(6 hours daily or so).

80-85 is still pretty easy even with low maps. 85-90 requires actual competent mapping in 73-78 maps. 90+ It gets hard. 95+ it starts requiring 100+ 78s for a level.

In my opinion the leveling is the wrong approach and counterdicts the concept of the game.

You heard it here first: what if you can reach lv 100(max) easily in about 40-60 hours if you play well and if you have a lv 100 character you can RETIRE him.

Retiring characters should give "prestige boni" which improve following characters and encourage to create new builds.

This is the point I want to make: The current level system does not support the build diversity the game offers.

As a result I would indeed say that the current "diminishing returns" on the level system are garbage.

I guess GGG intended to make leveling a late game goal but actually creating as many characters as possible should be the lategame goal!

Nobody gets excited for having one character with lv 91 instead of lv 90.

Unfortunatly, if you make a new character in this game you are SEVERLY PUNISHED. You find less items and your skillgems are worthless 99% of the time (until you pass a very high threshhold).


What I suggest is this:

for every lv 100 Character you own, you get:

+3% more XP
+1% more damage
+1% increased Itemquantity


And if character space is a problem, there could be a "hall of fame" where you can PERMANENTLY retire a lv 100 char for double the bonus.

So if you have 2 Lv 100 Chars and 1 Lv 100 Char which is permanently retired you get:

+12% XP
+4% dam
+4% IIQ


Additional Idea:

Level 100 is NOT the max but this is the point where XP diminishing returns start to kick in.

So you can chose between: getting the retire Boni or making a Super Character who might get to lvl 120 after 200 more hours spent. (for those who really want to stick to 1 character)

So basically it could be like this: Getting a new character from 0->100 takes ~60 hours and is retireable and getting a character from 100->120 takes ~200-500 hours.

I dont think there is a need of a +%XP cap because it actually has diminishing returns. Yes, you will get new Characters faster and faster, but the bonus will get relativated. if you increase the bonus from +0% to +3% it has more impact than increasing the bonus from +100% to +103%.

As long as the prestige boni are additive, they balance themselves.

PS.: This is not my own Idea, but I adapted it from the Mount and Blade Mod "CRPG" and ... from "Cookie Clicker" :D

But this game isn't like that and a level 100 character is a trophy in itself - stripping that away from the people who spent thousands of hours mapping towards it would be a travesty.

If you don't enjoy the 80+ game, simply switch to playing HC. You'll die eventually and get to play the fun part of the game over again.