Making a 90 to 100 progression route

I find most leagues due to highly juiced maps and rippy one-shot nature of the game it becomes near impossible to get characters much past the 90s. Playing since beta never got a single character to 100.

Suggestion - time gated mini-game for getting to 100.

Example:
- First week of new league - as per normal
- Start of second week , 90-93 every 25% experience (25, 50, 75) gets locked in and wont be removed by character death
- Start of third week , 93-95 every 25% experience gets locked
- etc.. to 100.

To me this doesn't impact racers and provides some tangible levelling goals for casual and less skilled players like myself.

I think it would also add shelf life of the league for many players who can at least progress their characters with tough fun and rippy content.

For those like myself that cant stomach a second campaign for another new character , at least hitting 100 would be a fun objective.

I've gotta say i don't think i've ever heard of a game with exp loss that "locked" in any way outside of reaching the next level you cant level-down though my first mmorpg had level downs, imagine poe like that.

Level 100 is idolized far too much and i might agree with making a more definitive or less stressful route to 100 but my reasoning may not be the same as a lot of people, I'm not concerned with reaching level 100 in any way really outside of the rare occasion it actually reaches a jewel socket or noteable.

What i do see coming as a positive sideaffect of an easier route to 100 is that people would end up making more characters(or at least i hope they would) because even if you do reach 100 then you have no more levels to worry about getting and for some people the journey would stop there.

For others the journey would continue with them not having to fear exp on death being level 100 they are allowed to play in a more reckless or carefree way and continue upgrading their equipment potentially for the rest of the league if that's what they wish.

I don't think your solution is the way we should go here, but im definitely all for making level 100 more achievable for a wider range of the playerbase.

actually any suggestion regarding xp increase or locks or death penalty will directly rob all the existing players achievement of reaching 100.

i get it, its frustrating, i even died 2 times last night, but leveling now is already much easier than before.

maps are more plentiful.

what i can say is, learn from your deaths. conquerors and sirus do not "randomly appear" in maps anymore. maven witnessing and eldricth influenced maps are optional. map drops are VERY lenient, even running maps blue (magic) can have maps returned.

heck, someone pointed out, its possible to guarantee a same tier map return via atlas passives, investing in "bosses drop a connected map".

you really have almost NO reason to run risky maps if your purpose is to level.

i have been stuck at 83-84 for very long. since 2013, i have never surpassed level 95.

back in scourge some juggernaught or marauder got to 100. he revealed he simply avoided risky content. he inspired me to simply play patient/safe.

since the start of archnemesis, i've been playing std, continuing a level 92 character instead of my highest level 95. now i m 97 with 50%+ xp on the way to 98.

i have learned to avoid certain map bosses, avoid certain league mechanics, and even waste maps that have porcupines.

it is slow but it is doable.

"

exsea wrote:

you really have almost NO reason to run risky maps if your purpose is to level.
[...]
back in scourge some juggernaught or marauder got to 100. he revealed he simply avoided risky content. he inspired me to simply play patient/safe.

I agree these points make it easy to level and is what I also started doing. The slight problem is in the other direction. If you wanna level you have a strong incentive to not try new/tough countent which means you will likely just grind boring/old content for the next few hours around the early 90s levels (no idea on timeframe later).

If you do have a long time stretch to do this on then it may be fine. But stretched out as 1-2 hour sessions over days it means you would have times where you spend days of doing nothing of interest.

With that said, whats the strong objective of going to 100? I did some kinda hard grindind by 89-93 and then let loose with the guardian/slayer maps gathered from the boring grind. Pushed 94 when I realized i had 30-40% xp so it wouldnt get lost. Same again when I went for 95 which is where I'm sitting now. Getting those extra 5 points would be nice but I really don't need them as i've done all fights (except feared)

I don't hold an issue with the XP penalty persay. My issues stem from the fact that those final levels are some really boring content. I honestly believe a lot in the idea of placing level 91-100 behind boss behinds, maybe even same ones that currently lock the favoured map slots. Maybe Boss challenges with alternatives depending on buildstyle to not lock out tanks and glasscannons alike? Defeat boss under X timer OR without losing X portals.

Having not thought this system out too much I agree it would cause some problems with alts but I believe this idea could be the start of a system that levels you throughout map progression and then gives all characters a reward for doing the tougher content. At least a lot better than "run [insert_map_of_choice_her] 80 times back to back while being careful of bad mods and ignore anything exciting"

Honest question, where would you find a similar situation in another game where you are gonna avoid danger for several hours just for a minor power point? Not even most JRPGs are that bad.

You'll find that as you get better at the game and at making builds in general (assuming you don't follow guides), you will be able to level further and further w/o doing boring content. Think of it as player progression. When I started, I had a hard time making it to 90. Now I can get to 95-96 without stopping to run less risky content. I'll die here and there but not nearly often enough to stop progression.

I don't think GGG wants everyone to hit 100, it's supposed to be something you have to intentionally work towards. Either by playing it safe, or investing in relatively safe high EXP/hour strategies like 5 way legion carries or chayula rotations.

Whether its objectively a good system or not, it gives players one more avenue to invest in a character. Working hard to make your character a tiny bit better is the whole point of the game. Making it a mindless thing everyone achieves eventually would be taking away that goal and sense of accomplishment from those who care. Time-gated catch up mechanics only serve to devalue the time and effort people put into the game.

I like that it helps me gauge the relative power of my builds, if a character is struggling with defenses it might really slow down at 90, but others breeze straight to 95/96. Depending on the relative difficulty of the content I'm running, it helps me know where to invest to get the best results.

By making it easier you may also create the sense that it's something that needs to be done to stay competitive, and then we end up with another maven passives 1.0 situation where the grind feels mandatory and awful.

The thing is you could totally hit 100 right now if you wanted to, maybe the reward for the effort required isn't there for you, and that's fine too. I feel like one of the games greatest strengths is the freedom you have to choose how you want to progress. You can finish all of the content in the game and have the best possible gear and never level past 90. It's an optional goal.

If you don't want to give up super juiced content, you have the option of rolling a second character to do it on. A second run through with leveling gear is pretty easy to do in a single day even for a relatively casual player. What's another day compared to all the time you're spending in the league already.

It will also open up a lot more options for builds if you aren't limited to things that are league start viable. I hate rolling alts too, most games I make one character and stick to it. But here I usually do 2 per league, 3 if its a really good league. Because some of the best builds I've played required having a bit of currency to start.

If you don't want to grind slower safer maps you could buy emblems and breachstones for rota groups and finish 90-100 over a weekend at a fairly casual pace, or a day if you go hard.

And on the other hand, you aren't missing out on anything important by not leveling to 100. It's just one more thing you can choose to go for if and when you are ready to.

How does this lesson achievement of current 100's when 100 is easily buyable?

Not everybody buys it and if its easily buyable why aren't people who really want it buying it? :p