- XP payout has changed at least a couple of times since then. Some of those changes removed XP throttles, but some also removed XP bonuses.

Ah, yes. I had that thought in the back of my mind when I started typing, and then lost it. I haven't paid enough attention to know whether it would be an overall increase or reduction, but there definitely have been changes.

To me its less about how far behind in XP / Level I was, and more about how the story even can grind to a halt in its final act.

Fair point.

Yeah, it could be any one of several things:

- For most, this level 15 cliff was something they overcame half a year ago. In the grand scheme of things it is easily forgotten.

- For some, if not many of us, we weren't doing nearly so direct a play through as I was. Sure, I did the adventures, but back in September, we were all probably playing together, helping each other in the Crucible or in Strikes, and just wandering around the new worlds, completing challenges and public events. Just an hour or two of that would be enough to suppress or eliminate the cliff.

- XP payout has changed at least a couple of times since then. Some of those changes removed XP throttles, but some also removed XP bonuses.

Overall, I did feel as if I was further behind than I had been before, but I don't have any real data to back that up. To me its less about how far behind in XP / Level I was, and more about how the story even can grind to a halt in its final act.

Yeah the level gating through the campaign can be a bit odd and uneven at times. I didn’t run into it much during my first playthrough because I was doing every adventure and sidequest available to me before moving on to the next mission. But I was acutely aware of it during my 2nd and 3rd playthroughs. I didn’t do those playthroughs out of any desire to see the campaign again; I was merely trying to get new characters up and running for end-game activities, so I raced through the campaign as fast as possible both times. As a result, I ran into several level-gates, which was rather annoying at the time.

When I did my 4th playthrough on Xbox, I ended up spending a couple hours in the Crucible with Claude and Speedracer one night (which was hilarious, because I had only just barely unlocked the crucible, I had almost no weapons, and barely any of my skill tree unlocked). To my surprise, that 1 night of crucible have me enough of an XP bump that I didn’t hit a single roadblock through the rest of the campaign.

I think what they were aiming for with that level 15 gap was to recreate the end-game of TTK, but earlier (possibly so that more players would experience it?). BecUse that’s about the point where strikes and patrols open up, if I remember correctly. Ultimately, I don’t think it worked as well. In TTK, there was this great, focused, linear campaign that you drove straight through, and then after completing the main story, the game spider-webs outwards in all directions with all these side quests and patrols and exploration and strikes, all culminating with the raid. But in D2 you get to this point where you’re all pumped up and ready to drive into the final act, but you’re kinda forced to just grind out activities that feel strangely out of place given the story at that moment. Strikes are cool, but I felt sidetracked playing them at that point in the campaign. And the adventures all felt like going backwards, if I hadn’t already completed them. I kinda think it might have worked better if they’d just held that branching point back and opened that stuff up after beating the campaign.