AN in a Meta where people purchase level 100.

i typically reach for 98, but there are some exceptions, like pushing my aegis aurora inquisitor to halfway to 100, but then ggg introduced those AN mods that remove your flasks and hero uses coruscating elixir, so his lvl100 is pretty much toasted unless i do some 5ways, but thats pretty hard in std.

this has to be the first league im using 5way xp service and i`ve done it on 5 out of my 7chars - first one was a failure(thanks to ggg) second one i just leveled in maps to 98 and farmed some nice amount of currency for the next ones. in general i would say i spend about 15-20 divines per char of which roughly 6 are strictly for leveling with 5way and some paradise. previously all my chars where leveled to 98 by mapping and i even did couple of chars with doryani reaching 98 considering ggg wont fix mana siphoner for like second league in a row.

in short, why am i doing the 5way xp farm? - 90% of the time im playing melee and ggg make sure to make melee life real hell. all the ground degens and exploding stuff really doesnt matter much if you`re ranged, but if you`re melee your life is constantly in danger... so are your nerves. i simply refuse to be on my toes doing 20 maps to get 10% xp just to die to some bulshit explode or degen while doing my stupid lake that most probably wont give my any rewards anyways...

i did push one char halfway through 99, however it really got on my nerves and simply did the last 50% doing 5ways and ive been doing it since on all my consecutive chars. its just not worth the effort. chris can have it his way... and if at some point i cant even pay my way to 98 because ggg nerf 5way, i will most probably just ditch the game altogether.

Personally I do not see the point in leveling past 90. Sure, the extra skill points help a bit, but you can do all content at 90 so anything beyond that is just "bragging points".

100 was always intended for the people that really invest their time into the game. But as always, everyone else really wants a piece of the pie so they come up with ways to get that piece.

I'm a SSF softcore player by nature, so as soon as I reach 90 I stop caring about leveling and go for the dangerous mods and just say "fuck it, let's have fun". I do go over 90 sometimes, I'm at 93 this league, but that is just coincidental; shit happens sometimes.

AN now iis just making the game stressfull to play when you try to level. Personnaly, i just think the monster mobs now are garbadge. Too many on death triggers on a screen already full on monsters and stuff, so its easy to miss a small thing and get one shot now and loose your xp

I use 95 as a cap. I have gotten to 97 but its just not fun for me playing the same character over and over. I wanted to experience different builds else I get bored.

Lv 100 would kill the game for me.

I really don't think AN has anything to do with purchasing 100, players purchase 100 because its far faster and safer than doing it independently.

For the players that can map quickly and efficiently and don't die its like 4x faster but they gain the least

For players that should be gated by their build/gear/skill via the xp penalty the gain is vast as its not even a possible achievement without it.

Sure AN probably nudged a few people into being stuck on XP rather than progressing but frankly any league difficulty spike causes this that doesn't have huge xp associated with it. I'm sure scourge had similar results for example, Sentinel would except it had a giga xp bonus.

For myself I can map efficiently and play HC so can't die by default, I still stop actually focusing on xp in any way at 93 and a good character usually ends up 95-96. I've only really gone above that once in Ritual where I had a character I particularly liked but usually 97-99 by itself is the same as making a couple of new 90's which is much more interesting.

tldr - most don't care about 100 because its extremely time intensive, anyone who wants it is heavily incentivised to buy it regardless of their playstyle/build.

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Draegnarrr wrote:

I really don't think AN has anything to do with purchasing 100, players purchase 100 because its far faster and safer than doing it independently.

Agreed, people have been paying to level up since I can remember.

I've never felt locked out of the higher levels. But since I did play D2, I learned a long time ago I didn't need to aspire to max level, particularly when the journey wasn't worth the reward.

In PoE, I feel that I just care about finishing the core of the build. Sure, the last few levels are nice, but I already have a hard time with the repetition as is. If I don't break the monotony with higher risk content then I lose interest anyway so pushing ends up being a moot point.

I'm almost 99 and never bought a rota, though I've never had a character above 98. Planning to do chayula rotas for 100 though, because it'll probably take too long if I do it myself and I really need the skill point. Just build a decent all rounder, don't spec wrath of the cosmos and you're fine.

These rotas are great for glass canon builds.

> Glass canon -> farm currency -> swap gear/skill points to defense -> join rotas -> level up -> back to step 1

For "Lone Messenger" builds (no auras) like the one I'm playing right now, defense options are quite limited. However, I'm clearing maps in 90 seconds, so as currency farmer I'm doing great.

Without rotas, probably I'd skip all altars, strongboxes & essences for a while and still make it to 100.

I level to level to 95 naturally, from 95 - 96 with kinda safe content no altars etc, and after that i just go ham and die as much i want because past 96 its just pain for me.