Almost no one like 10% XP loss - here is an alternative

Losing 10% XP isn't liked or a good mechanic
If any punishment/ slow down of progression have to exists (I don't think it does) then it shouldn't be just loss of XP that can stop completetly or discourage from playing at all. You can make many systems that make progress slower while not just losing it.

1. Proposition and example
In this example let's imagine you will die many times in one level. You have 37,5% of the XP to the next level, before first death.

Then you die.
10% of your XP bar (two sections) after the point of death, becomes green and you need 125% of that sections XP to fill it.


Then you progress but you die multiple times and the whole bar fill green, but you die one more time. The 10% of your XP bar (that was now green) turns purple and you need 150% of that sections XP to fill it.


This process continues. You progress slower but you progress and die some more. The purple have filled all remaining section of the XP bar and you die again. The 10% of the XP bar change color one last time. It's red and this part of the progress will require 175% base xp for those sections.


2. Some math
Summary
So you can't be stuck in place forever.
You never need to earn +200-300% XP.
Of course this can be made more punishing/ strict with higher "% value" for each color (i.e. only two colors +75% +150%) but it still won't make you stuck and won't make you earn +300% XP or more (even in the most strict option if you would die 30 times without gaining any XP, then your whole level would require +150% XP). But I started with less strict version so we can meet in the middle at the more strict one ;)

Thank you for proposing middle ground ideas.
They aren't necessarily bad.

For me I don't see how XP penalties on death serves any purpose at all.
Getting to lvl 100 is brutally punishingly long winded for all players that can't put 10+ hours a day into the game.

It's currently the only way to progress character power to overcome hard content.
I see absolutely no reason to penalize XP in normal game modes at all.
Future ruthless/hard mode? Go ahead.

Right now all it does is pigeonhole builds to deal with dying rather then promote diversity.
That is bad, especially in an EA title that profit from most amount of people doing most amount of content.

Thank you for proposing middle ground ideas.
They aren't necessarily bad.

For me I don't see how XP penalties on death serves any purpose at all.
Getting to lvl 100 is brutally punishingly long winded for all players that can't put 10+ hours a day into the game.

It's currently the only way to progress character power to overcome hard content.
I see absolutely no reason to penalize XP in normal game modes at all.
Future ruthless/hard mode? Go ahead.

Right now all it does is pigeonhole builds to deal with dying rather then promote diversity.
That is bad, especially in an EA title that profit from most amount of people doing most amount of content.

Other possible mechanics

1. XP debt protection
- After death you have a debt of 10% of xp toward next level (visually shown on the XP bar)
- Until you pay off that debt (by earning XP) you can't lose XP upon death.
This makes it that you less often will lose xp, and can't just zero the progress.

2. XP loss cap until lvl 95
- Each level you can lose only 200% of progression toward next level.
- After losing 200% you don't lose XP upon death.
- For last 5 levels there is no cap.
This makes it so that at worst you will play three times longer toward next level. But for those that do the most end of the endgame and want those last levels, at this point they know everything about the game, the gear etc. and should be able to do it without XP protection.