In all honesty 100+ is respected, and I'm purestealth currently a 85 full lux rogue ... Took me 6 hours for 63-80 with 11 lixs and 1-85 3 days it just takes commitment it's not hard i have 3 character over 100
Actually, what you are describing here is having a lot of platinum to be able to buy full luxury items and elixers. Real commitment is people who don't have plat, which means no luxury items and no lixes. While it does take a lot of commitment to get to the higher levels even with plat, it takes a crap ton more commitment to get there without it. Just think, it took you 6 hours to get to level 63-80. I know you only used 11 elixers, but let's pretend you used elixers the entire time. Without elixers, it would have taken you 24. Without luxury items, it would probably take you an estimated of 36-48 hours because of lack of regens and less damage. This is why the game is hopeless if you can't buy plat. I currently have a level 65 druid, a level 40 mage, and a level 45 rogue. While they are all low levels, I'm proud that I've gotten them so high because I havent used plat or lux, and I've spent days getting them to where they are. Last year, I used to spend about 2-3 hours a day online, about half of that levelling. But without all the regens, extra damage, and extra exp, each level takes 30 minutes to an hour, which is insane for how low my level is. I recently had surgery on my ankle, so I have had to stay off it for a few days. I decided that I should get back to levelling, so I hobbled over to my couch and started on my level 35 rogue and levelled for over 2 hours straight. In those two plus hours, I gained about 7 levels. Two plus hours for 7 levels at level 35-42 is ridiculous.
Now some of you may be thinking, "Dang, this guy sucks. He just can't level because he has a bad build." But I know I have good builds because I have spent hours researching on these forums the best builds for low levels, where to farm, what to buy, etc. Then I see full lux people race through the levels and call me a noob, even though I've been playing since the Samhain event of 2011. Without plat, getting to the high levels is practically impossible. Plat and the nescessity for lux items is the reason why this game is hopeless, not our lack of commitment. That's just crap. No matter how hard we try to succeed without plat, we are almost destined to fail. The only thing left for us to do is to do our best to get past the low levels, and to play the game vicariously through the current high level players. I realize that I will never be able to kill the bosses such as Aggy, Snorri, Hrungnir, and eventually Mordris, so I find fun in the game by looking at the high level players who can kill them, and I am happy for them everytime they complete a new achievement like killing Hrungnir or getting a full dragonlord player. So in all, I do agree with to OP. This game does seem hopeless to lower level people like me who can't afford lux, which in the end, drives a lot of players away from the game.