Totally agree. Had the same experience and same issues.
But just to clarify - since people use phrases like ‘‘i feel builds are complete in 50s’’.
By default all your skills will reach maximum lvl 20 at character level 67. This is assuming that you did not swap them out during leveling.
Majority of item bases i believe unlock around lvl 72 - give or take.
Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that around lvl 75 most of your gear will be completed (which itself is another issue imo).
So there is a clear progression that makes sense up until that point.
Real problem starts after this.
My first thought was also to spread out power of the skills over more levels. In PoE which people refer too - organically your skills will reach maximum level at lvl 90 (give or take). Now most builds are planned for 90 and not 100 in PoE. I feel like this works great.
Technically and also a common practice - you can just buy lvl 21 gem at character level of 72. But obviously there are bilion of things to do in PoE , living economy , currency to grind and items to chase/craft.
Normally you would be encouraged to continue leveling and increase your character power - that is how entire genre works. It works in PoE, it works in Diablo 3, it works in Grim Dawn and so on and so on.
But why is that? You also can cap out your skills much faster in those games - yet many many levels still remain. Just like in LE. So what is different?
Which is what brings me to the bigger issue that LE has currently.
Game is just too easy.
Now what do i mean exactly and how it directly correlates with not feeling the urge to level further?
Game just does not punish you at all.
Do i want a situation like in PoE in which you will pretty much get outright slaughtered in end game without capped resistances? No.
But there should be some difficulties and penatlies for doing so. Mobs should hit considerably harder. And no - i do not mean you should be one shotted by a fart from a lone skeleton.
But definitely your health bar should be chunked by a good amount forcing you to use potions and play more carefuly - and you know MAYBE make you think that Story/Campaign time is over and the real game begins. Perhaps it is time to start working on your resistances. Probably a good idea and will make your life easier.
Currently the game just does not do it.
I am sure more experienced player know by now that you can take literally almost any build at lvl 40 and start running Monolith lvl 55. With 0 resists if you want - and you will be fine.
Hell - you can even have resistances into negative values. Which i recommend trying out - unique amulet that gives you -20 something resists while transformed. And run around with 280 hp on top of that. Yet you will not die anyway if you play decently.
Any build can put all passives into damage and do this.
Why? Because mobs tickle in end game currently.
Just test for yourself - stand in packs of mobs or versus lone mobs of certain types. The damage from single hit they do is laughable - and that is with uncapped resistances. 0 if you want. You can stand in big telegraphed AoE attacks that will come from mobs with +dmg modifiers etc - you will be hit for maybe 80-100 in lvl 90 Monolith. Also thats low armor character so probably even less with better gear. Yet your hp will be at least 800 (thats full glass canon).
With how the Leech works in LE - just make sure you do not get 1 shotted and you will leech full hp bar with one hit. This is the biggest culprit of why the game feels so easy. At the same time it makes other sources of recovery/defenses - completely redundant. You will not care about stuff like health regen, healing skills, heal on block, plenty of defensive passives or cool utility/survival specializations within skills. Hell - even fundamental game mechanic like potions - not even needed, unbind if you want. Just hit for 40k+ damage (which majority builds can do with gear after playing for 2-3 days) and almost all your hp will be healed up within 1-2 seconds.
As longtime aRPG player - such state of dmg taken vs hp pool / defenses is unacceptable.
Because the game is not challenging enough by default - it makes you - a player - not really care about gear. Ofc some players will min max just for the sake of it.
But general playerbase will ask themselves a question - ‘‘ok so this is kinda easy - why do i need better gear exactly?’’.
So you end up with a big problem where as we established before - just having passives points all the way to 100 is not incentive enough (at least with current content and end game iteration which so far is only based on one system - Monoliths).
But now because game does not really challenge you as a player to improve your gear - you also do not have incentive in form of chasing gear/better mods etc.
So you do not develop your skills beyond lvl 70 - yet getting better gear is not required either due to game being not challenging enough.
Which is NOT the issue you want to have in this genre.
Disclaimer : all of the above and my experiences apply to strictly Monolith content.
I have no interest in Arena currently as it’s too barebones compared to how the same format of gameplay could be done (for example Crucible in Grim Dawn). Starting every time from level 1 is just a big no for me. Biggest challenge in Arena currently is to not fall asleep on your way to wave 100. But i do realize this is where builds will be more tanky and having capped resists will by vital.
However this should not be limited to just one small part of the game. Same thing about Masochism mode. Since it’s the nr 1 thing people bring up when somebody mentiones that the game is on the easy side currently.
Optional mode that majority of the playerbase will NEVER activate is not the solution. The fact that you need some artificial modifiers on base game that only change percentage of damage dealt and received - to at least make you use potions and maybe put some passives into hp/defenses - is a clear sign that the game is not even remotely challenging to begin with.
And just to completely dispel your delusions about Masochims mode - all my builds and all my examples - still would happen there. The only difference is i would just use a shield on every build. Kite Shield with rolled block chance so close to 40% of all hits would be cut almost in half (lvl 90 Mono scaling example). That is all. Leech would still work the same and you will just hit for less - but 2% leeched from 25 k hit instead of 50 k hit - thats still enough to fully heal up. Also i am ignoring for the sake of discussion the fact you can actually…ye just take more Leech. Each class has access to it in some shape or form. Also plenty of items with Leech. Uniques or normal mods. But ye - Block i do not wish to discuss since it’s pretty much agreed upon within the community that it is way too strong atm.
There seem to be A LOT of people coming from PoE in general and Heist recently (myself included). I am sure veteran poe players or those with enough knowledge about mechanics - we all remember how the game was with pre nerf Vaal Pact leech. And also why it finally had to be changed and made the game better. So all of you guys probably already see all the issues from current version of leech in LE and where this is going.
D3 players surely remember leech issues as well - back when the game still had hell/inferno. And why Blizzard ultimately just removed leech completely.
Anyway my hopes for the future in LE - put a cap on every single leech instance equal to maximum hp (for example 20%) each second. Would still be way stronger than other sustain/recovery mechanics but it is the only solution i am aware that somehow works without completely removing the stat from the game (based on PoE leech formulas - ofc there is more to it but thats the general gist).
At the same time make the game a bit harder - not asking here to murder players behind every corner - but just make resistances matter a bit more (maybe currently something is just bugged idk).
Feels very weird - doing Monoliths 10-15 above your level and some resitances can be 0.
That’s like the equivalent of Story mode in other games - should not be a thing in aRPG imo.
Hopefuly with all of this and after adding more end game modes besides Monoliths (and fleshing out Arena) - i believe that things will fix themselves and game will feel as it should.
But as it is - ye around level 80 - personally i have 0 motivation to keep going. It’s way more appealing to just roll a different build.
Unless the last Monolith is so hard that it actually requires for you to be lvl 95+ or something like that. I havent got there yet but tbh - if you have to wait THAT long to finally be challenged - then ye i stand by everything i said before.