I agree with Heavy. In fact I will go further, there is sufficient build depth in this game that even two characters of the same mastery can feel totally different. Example: I currently have 2 high level VKs. One is a classic spellcaster Autobomber and the other is a melee-based Apathy’s Maw wielder. They only have 2 skills in common (Volatile Reversal and Anomaly) and their playstyle, gear and blessings are completely different.
I can. I have played 3500 hours of this game. I currently have 20 Alts all pushing endgame. Lowest level among them is around 80 and many of them are elvel 100. I have also deleted a half dozen level 80+ other Alts as I needed the room. I felt all those characters were completely different. Different enough that I needed to keep them as separate chars! So it adds plenty to the game. Had I only had one char and refitted him whenever I wanted to try another build, I would not have played 3500 hours.
Some stats: of my 20 Alts I have…
4 Beastmasters:
Earthquake / Aftershock melee
Bleed Squirrels
Classic Zoo
Lightning Wolves
3 Runemasters
Frostbite Claw
Ignite Dominion Claw
Hydra
2 Paladins
Smite Hammerdin (caster)
2h Rive crit (melee)
1 Forge Guard
Sword + Manifest Minions
2 Void Knights
Autobomber caster
2h melee Cleave
1 Lich
Poison DoT
1 Shaman
Spriggan Totems
1 Sorcerer
Lightning Meteor
2 Druids
Cold DoT Werebear
Lightning Bug
3 Necros
Single Minion Archmage
Flame Wraiths
Aaron’s melee Golems
Since I have been through the story 20+ times, yes I agree it is a slog. However you do not need to do all of it. I stop as soon as I have all side quest rewards, which is just at the Tundra area. Takes about 8 hours total. [The real slog is the standard Monos between campaign and empowered Monos, and the devs plan to address that I believe.]
But it isn’t. You are only saying that because you haven’t tried other ideas. If I had that mentality, the only build I’d have is Flame Wraiths as it is absolute top tier. No need for any other build. But think of the all the fun I’d have missed out on playing all those other builds.
Footnote: I have 40 high level chars in Grim Dawn ![:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:](https://forum.lastepoch.com/images/emoji/apple/stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye.png?v=12)
In summary: if the thought of levelling a ton of Alts (for whatever reason) turns you off, then this is likely the wrong game. This game HEAVILY promotes tons of Alts, and the build depth is sufficient that even Alts of the same mastery feel like completely different chars with completely different gearing and playstyle.