QUOTE(polisperic)
I want to keep my level low, so I play on low difficulties with smaller XP bonuses.
Like, can mage clear each round in 1 second instead of 4 seconds for 1H heavy?
1H heavy might have been overrated over the years, but it's still one of the fastest melee styles for offensive clear speed, and probably the style with the strongest defense by a great margin (I might be wrong on this, as there are some unusual builds out there using Fusrodah and stuff).
I'm not sure about mage but I think yes, they tend to range from 2x to 3x as fast as melee styles. (Can they get up to 4x?) But starting mage tends to require a slightly higher level, like 310 at earliest and probably higher could be the optimal time.
There are many benefits to keeping your level low, but usually the one thing you
shouldn't do is lower difficulty. You will sacrifice too much in terms of drops and credits if you do this.
Every other method of lowering XP is generally a great idea, if you want to lower your XP gain (there are pros and cons to doing so).
Don't do XP trainings, don't get XP perks, and drain your stamina below 60 before doing anything.Middle tier methods are skipping dawns (which I do currently) and doing lower round arenas (with less XP bonus). You sacrifice some things for this, but the possibly desirable loss in XP could be said to be worth it.
Lowering difficulty is the final resort if you absolutely insist on reducing XP gain as much as possible. Another final resort is to never speak on the forums (not speaking for a long time works) to drop that XP bonus.
In my opinion, the two scenarios in which it makes sense to go to the
final resorts is if you are extremely "poor" or extremely "rich." Wealth is roughly defined by whether or not you can somehow obtain credits without playing the game.
If you can't then you are "poor." But even if you are poor, most people would not go all the way to the final resorts to stop leveling up. The rationale for the final resort is that you are so poor that credits are all that matters to you, and you feel the right way to measure your credits is relative to your level (not everyone agrees). In this case it does make sense to go all the way to the final resort.
If you are ultra "rich" then you have infinite credits for no reason. There are actually a lot of ultra "rich" people. In this case there may be two paths to ultimate power. Stay ridiculously low level forever, and have peerless everything. Be a level 200 melee player forever, yeah! The other path is to quickly become a level 500 peerless mage. Best of both worlds, level 310 peerless holy mage might have the fastest clear times possible, but may not be considered survivable enough.
(My thoughts are welcome to debate and discussion. I don't think these are commonly discussed things).