Is it just me or is the path to empowered Monos too long? I guess if you went into each one and literally just run to the objective.
I feel like there is something missing to help give us something to work towards as we’re grinding them.
I’d be curious to see what rough draft ideas they have to further extend out the end game systems.
This. 
Yeah same opinion here, the boss rushing in empowered takes way too long :
Is that the kind of gameplay they really want to be promoting? That you don’t even clear the map. You just load in and RUSH to the objective.
Isn’t that kind of like what is the point? If that is what is expected why even make it take so long? Just eliminate the grind.
That only applies when you are farming Blessings or Unique boss drops. If you’re farming Dungeon Keys, you want to clear all rares off the map. Same for “random” drops (non-boss-specific Uniques).
A lot of the new Mono maps have a lot of tight corridors and empty rooms, so rushing to the objective is much worse than more open-ended maps.
I 100% agree that having to beat 3 Level 90 monoliths to open up Empowered Monos is much of a slog when I level up characters. It would be nice if you had to fight one of the 3 to unlock Empowered, and then use Arena / another dungeon-like system to level up so that you feel comfortable fighting Empowered Monos.
Regular Monos are too easy to determine whether a new build will be able to handle Empowered Monos. Exceptions of course being having to fight 3 Diamond Matrons + Ruby Captain (or Spine Alpha or the Slithbane Bodyguard that hits you for a ton of damage) in a very tight corridor. Thankfully, those moments are rare.
I agree, after leveling a few alta it does get kinda old.
It would be nice if curription and xp drops were at least a drop, even if they had reduced effects if used outside the native zone/char
I’m getting bored at the level 90s. Where the drop rates aren’t that great and my items are pretty set.
It needs something else.
Just rushing through a monolith to get it done isn’t that bad on top of it you have to do it once. I don’t see any problem here.
You’re not really making real progress or hoping for anything , it just feels like a chore.
Remember how we feel about content is important , the crafting change was heavily inspired by how we feel even if the system is fine.
That’s why I think they should at least let us collect XP books, so we’ll unlocking empowered we’re also making progress on leveling a new alt which can save us 8 hours
Nope, not just you. Good to know it’s not just me.
There is a lack of end chase items. Yet the real question is: What IS the END? Without that being defined and with 90-95% of the goals for the build completed before 85 monoliths then it becomes worse than a grind. It shortens the life span of a viable build.
That’s not the issue for me, actually.
I feel the same like OP. It’s ok for the first character. But leveling an alt, especially when you already have some twink gear, can really get exhausting.
I have so many toons where I still haven’t unlocked empowered, because I do t want to grind all the normal timelines when my character already is relatively strong so I want to go into empowered.
For me it’s always been kind of a competition trying to get into higher difficulty as early as possible.
In LE I’m always almost at the same level when I enter empowered.
I’d defenitely favour some mechanics that let us increase difficulty at will and not only by unlocking everything in stutter steps. Because this goes on after unlocking empowered timelines. Farming corruption takes time. That new catchup mechanic for single characters is nice. I’d wish to have it not only per character, but for all characters in the same game mode.
There will be something more to come, for sure.
Monoliths were the endgame for a short time.
Now Empowered Monolith and the first dungeon are basically the endgame.
→ Hopefully there will be something more to come. 
I don’t think Monoliths themselves and the special item hunt within them are the problem, rather the problem is the current inescapability of having to play the same thing with new characters/alts.
→ Hopefully there will be something more to come.
Maybe they should introduce something like the general difficulty levels of one of the Diablo games, so my Torment 14 alts would not have to constantly run through the difficulty Torment 2.
→ Hopefully there will be something more to come.
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More end game content makes the point even more valid. Because you can level up doing arena, dungeons or the upcoming end game content. Before you know you are strong enough to do empowered, granted, also because you have gear lying around from your alts, but first need to go through a tedious chore of monoliths.
Don’t get me wrong, monoliths are fine, when you can choose yourself how you play them, at what difficulty and which one. But playing through them to get to that point feels like work.
Feeling the same here as OP. For more casual players its really boring and annoying to have even a slight chance to farm something special.
The most obvious solution that comes to my mind is that once a character unlocks a timeline or something endgame special just unlock it for all characters. This is done in PoE for example with the atlas system. Easy Solution.
I have very few chars that have reached empowered. Before it was due to the quality of my builds, now it’s mainly due to me being bored of the grind.
Yes, I feel the path to empowered is long, far too long. Even if I like the alternate stories that are presented, all the echoes seem to be endless.
I already proposed something.
The first character has no shortcut, the game stays as is.
For all other characters, there is a trial echo for each timeline. If the char can win the trial echo, it is allowed to do the whole timeline. If he won all trial echoes (or at least the three 90), it unlocks empowered timelines.
This way, a char has a very fast path to empowered, but still has to prove worthy.
this is the biggest thing that is keeping me from sticking with LE as a game.
i tried getting into the game like 3 times now on different patches. gearing and leveling the first character feels really good, but every time i try to start a second char i just want to quit the game.
doing the campaign (only 1-4, temporal sanctum then last act since 8.4) and then the whole monolith grind again is just soooo tedious. especially on a character that already has gear from your main.
waypoints and monolith unlocks need to be account-wide.
Yes, one time is more than enough for me, especially on something like a Sorcerer who specializes in one element. The thought of changing specs/element is a massive bummer, let alone lvl up a new alt and do the grind to empowered again.
I hope if and when we get some kind of seasons, or in general, that our alts get some kind of bonus echo completion or something along those lines.
Sometimes i think if you could get more instability if you kill more mobs or do some extra quest. Either you can go fast but you get that flat instability. If you do ”extra” you get bit more instability.