To me leveling ends at level 75, which is the level to able to equip endgame legendary sets. The last 10 levels are pretty much pointless and only serve to give some extra stats and skill points which hardly matter in the end.
And my goal in ARPGs is never to reach max level. I only aim to get the best gear possible and kill the strongest enemies in the game (in GD case though, i’m never fighting Avatar of Mogdrogen, at least on Ultimate).
I think that’s a good thing that 75-85 is just a sweet little bonus, not a necessity. I’m just thinking it’s too easy to achieve. We can probably agree that there’s hardly any difference except 2 measly skill points distinguishing a level 84 and level 85 character, hardly enough to make all but a trivial difference, and that to me is great… A game shouldn’t require devoting your entire life to it to be extremely powerful.
But a level 84 character farming might arguably have a bit more fun farming than a level 85 character, since he still has one more goal than collecting loot to work towards ever-so-slowly as he is doing the 1000th BoC run. He still has the joy of seeing his experience bar move a little bit, however small, even if the run yielded no valuable treasure.
My only complaint is that making level 85 so easy to get towards takes away that additional incentive too fast. I got to 85 before I even encountered one Nemesis.
Best thing about level 85 is that on softcore you no longer have to care about EXP loss when you die, making your game much more relaxed when approaching nemesis bosses or Avatar of Mogdrogen or when you’re farming Sentinel for his blueprints.
And if you want to compare different builds, only level 85 makes sense. 20 skill points and 10 attribute points (= +80 Physique/Spirit) are things I wouldn’t want to miss …
What’d you think if there was a level 86 that only gave one skill point and one stat point, but required 100 times more experience than level 85 to get?
It’s a really funny and goofy example but I kinda like it. 
It’s like just something for those who are doing their 5000th run while endgame farming to appreciate as an achievement. It’s not even going to make all but the most trivial difference (1 stat/skill point), but it’s like – “Wow! That 5706th BoC run gave me only legendaries I already have (blargh, total junk), but I got to level 86! I finally reached the cap!”
I’m just kinda disappointed that I got to level 85 (level cap) in less than a week. I’m not even a very good player and still learning its mechanics (I’ve only been playing for 8 weeks). Short of my muled gear collection, and especially since I only play self-found, there’s nothing to distinguish my character’s progress from someone who has been playing for a year. Short of gear, a character I played for just a week (and my very first through ultimate) is as experienced as they come. He doesn’t get any more experienced than that. I just don’t feel like I really earned reaching the level cap, it was way too quick and easy.
I’ve quickly adjusted my sights to 150 waves of gladiator solo as my next goal to at least have something else to work for besides loot for which I feel I have to find a way to get as close to OP as the game feasibly allows, but I miss getting experience from killing stuff, however small.
Hardly matter?
I think the last 10 skills points matter a lot. On a spellbreaker, I spent them on Circle of Slaughter and this changed everything. Basically it divides by 2 the melee damage received. I never finished a character being like “where do I put my points now?”, there is always a use.
With your pet build you should be able to carry a fair few +%experience items without feeling too much negative effect on your build. It’s easy enough to get ~40% bonus exp and leech a bit in multiplayer games. You can still contribute with your pets as well!
Try trading any surplus items online for a couple of Generals rings, or keep an eye out for them dropping, they give you 5% bonus exp each. Generals belt will give another 5%.
Keep an eye out/try to trade for a Wretched Necessity amulet which will give you 8% experience gain.
A 1h officers weapon will add 5% while a 2h will give you 8% bonus and drop fairly commonly.
Medals which can be worn at low levels can be found at with up to +8% bonus exp, at higher levels you can find up to 11% bonus experience. Remember to check the vendors medals each time to look for high experience gain medals.
Joining a group on multiplayer will also help with clearing speed.
Farming SoT and Arkovian Undercity which have high mob density will help you level faster and are the best place imo to do runs for you until you can manage BoC
All of my builds ended up like this. Around level 75 i didn’t know what to do with the skill points from that level to 85 because i had already my skills at their desired levels.
Take my last character, a DW Blademaster. I ended up putting points in Anatomy of Murder because i didn’t knew what to do with the last skill points. And i still have one skill point from the Hidden Path quest.
I actually kind of hate farming and still knowing i’m not max level. It means i’m not fighting the enemies at their full strength. Take Nemesis for example. They are always 5 levels above you. But to me, killing Valdaran level 83 is not the same as killing Valdaran level 90 (which is their max level in the current level cap), it doesn’t feel as rewarding.
If you want to level fast don’t kill any more monsters than those that are in your way. When I go through elite I just power through all the quests and largely ignore monsters that aren’t heroes/bosses, they are a giant waste of time. By far the most efficient way to level
“209% dmg bonus for pets so far”
@ level 52
hmm that sounds really low, I took a conjurer to level 85(my first char), a few weeks back, I think I had 400% pet damage at that level
10 levels are 20 skill points & 90(10*9) attribute points and whoever said that 10 levels are not important , he/she can his spare his “so called” extra points to me and can get the faulty logic prize for his/her sayings.
Why grind for hundreds of hours when you can just use a tool and be max level in 1 minute?
Why farm for items hundreds of hours when you can just use a tool and get them all in 1 minute?
For the two questions above to have any reason at all, online secure hackfree server side saves are needed. In a offline game where you can just hack save files, grinding for hours on end is meaningless.
Yeah I know, dead horse, but I like kicking it…
why play the game when you can decide not to ?
For the two questions above to have any reason at all, online secure hackfree server side saves are needed. In a offline game where you can just hack save files, grinding for hours on end is meaningless.
actually no, the answer to the above two questions is simple, because you enjoy playing the game, creating a char with nothing left to do ruins that.
Being able to create a char and items is a plus in my book, saves me from the boring grind (‘endgame’) that you apparently consider the essence of a game and allows me to radically change a char if I wanted to in order to experiment with builds (or simply switch a few stat points around).
If there were closed servers, I would not use them. They offer nothing that I want and take away things I find useful.
And every time we have discussed this, I have stated they can just keep the game as it is today, BUT ADD a secure server online option. Wolcen seem to be making it this way, you can chose online or offline. Best of both worlds, chose whatever you want.
I can almost guarantee that the game would become more popular, and get more streamers, which again get the game more players. Do not underestimate how important the ‘competitive’ factor is for games these days. I do not expect any type of single player non-competitive game be in the top 10 games on Twitch, outside of a few new games that can get there the first days its streamed.
Could even add some kind of ladder, as extra frosting on the cake…
of course it would gain players, adding optional servers cannot possibly reduce the number of players 
The real question however is whether it adds enough players to be worth the effort. Given that the cost is about as much as what developing the game itself cost (rough Crate estimate) it would need to double the player base - and I very much doubt it would do that
Add to that that the effort spent on servers is effort not spent on expansions or a new game and it makes even less sense.
If they had been there from the beginning that would have been one thing (and even then I doubt it would double the player base), by now it is way too late to add servers.
After playing 9 characters, the last 10 levels barely matter in any of them. It made next to no difference in my DPS or survivability, i felt just as strong in level 75 and in level 85.
So there’s no “faulty logic” or other bullshit.
Having reached level 85 a while ago i feel in fact my issue was more the “up and down” feeling i had while levelling, meaning that at soome point si ha dthe feeling to level up very very quickly, and then, it was going very slow., then going at an average pace.
I wasnt aware of the existence of some areas, for example i completely missed the pne barrels optionnal areaand only discovered it in the next run