What is the "value" of the XP Death Penalty post 90

Don't take this as a complaint. If I want to grind to 100 I know how to do it and it's easy (just BORING).

So I sat here and asked why does the massive XP penalty exist post 90 (I use that level because it takes ~3-6 T16 maps to recover from a death each map depending on mods etc.).

So what is the value to the steepness of the penalty? If I want to I can grind white T16 maps and never die and get to 100 no problem. Boring.

So talked to another player and they explained this is just a remnant of when the end game was a level 100 grind and that was the point. Now not so much but it's still there.

Does anyone know? Again this isn't bitchfest as I know how to modify my play stile to get to 100 relatively easy. I'm just curious what the point is?

I'd assume the point is "the developer didn't think it through very carefully". Much like a lot of content, especially in the end game, there's often all sorts of details that could be tweaked to be better designed, but the developers simply choose not to spend much time doing that. The devs probably simply don't care, and don't think it affects their revenues much.

Part of the point is that it's a simple straightforward system; and a lot of stuff is copied off the baseline of how d2 was, even if that's outdated now. The devs want to have some sort of death penalty; and as long as you're having a death penalty this is a very simple implementation which is unlikely to cause coding problems in the future.

time = hardcore. more time = MOAR HARDCORE.

Argument could be made it forces you to take your toon out of easy mode and actually create a build with layered defense/POE-focused DPS so you can progress in "unboring" juiced content without just zerging it.

Having played for a few years now I can honestly say it just makes me quit leagues sooner. I'm not a power player, I do OK. Occasionally I find a build that takes me past 92, which is unusual. My toon list is public you can see for yourself. Lots of bait-builds on these forums. When I start dying in T16s and delve 200+ I'm out. Maybe I fiddle a little bit, but losing 10%XP after hours of play to get there feels like shit. Thens it's Bloons6 time.

Weirdly this league I have played the most ever and I despise the Sanctum mechanic. Just got lucky with a few build guides and can cruise the content I want without 1-shots every 5th map.

It's to make you care about dying, or rather, not dying. Both in your character building and gameplay choices.

The "Value" is that you need to care about defenses.

As glass canon you can easily complete 3-5-10 maps in a row without dying. If xp penalty wasn't a thing, most likely we wouldn't care that much about life/resists either, we'd go all speed&damage and reach lvl 100 in record time.

Level 100 isn't guaranteed, and it is not necessary. The game provides resistance in a lot of ways including progress to 100. Getting to 100 is a test of patience and delayed gratification, particularly when you hit the later 90s.

Also, death should carry some sort of a punishment in a genre like this. Losing a portal isn't really much of a punishment. If not the XP penalty, then what?

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ebondark wrote:

So talked to another player and they explained this is just a remnant of when the end game was a level 100 grind and that was the point. Now not so much but it's still there.

i mean sounds like you got the answer pretty fast

this game was pretty empty for the first couple years. lv100 was the hardest thing to do back in the day. and then it got harder because ggg decided to tweak the exp for racers. and then they forgot about all of this once other difficult things were added in to which no one payed any heed to lv100 anymore.

Why is death even a thing, if it doesn't have some sort of consequences? And no, losing a portal isn't really a consequence. Death isn't supposed to be a minor inconvenience, it's supposed to be something you'd want to avoid - something you should actively build your character to avoid. It's more or less impossible to get a sense of accomplishment without the possibility of failure (or setbacks) - and what the hell is an ARPG that fails to give you a sense of accomplishment?

The value is to teach you you're doing something wrong. Even more so nowadays, there's plenty of builds that are sufficient to get to 100 unharmed reasonably fast and cheap. Copy some hardcore streamers, once you learn the basics of defense, the games becomes trivial. So much so you can then ignore it altogether and get 100 with a pure damage build, but it takes just as much knowledge.

Or just pay for 5way rotations.

GGG: To slow progression.