XP points are meaningless

[Belanos]

I'm killing so many Orcs and freeing so many slaves, that gaining XP is becoming pointless. When I unlocked my second tier of perks, I already had enough Ability points to pick up the entire tier at once, except for those unlocked by the missions. I'm now working towards my third tier, and yet again, I'll be able to get them all by the time I get enough Power points. And I still have a ways to go. I can see that if I keep going, I'll end with way more Ability points than I'll actually need. Unless XP/Ability points do something I'm not aware of at this moment, they may as well have done away them and just given the player all the perks in a tier as soon as they gained the Power points. It would have been a lot better if each tier cost more Ability points for a perk. Say one point for first tier, two for second etc.

[Ralf]

Depends on your playstyle. I fast travelled a lot near the end of the campaign, and tend to just run past slaves unless there's a captain near them, and I had to grind a few levels to finish the skill trees. I'm assuming they based the XP requirement off of an average player, who would kill some, not all. Had they gone with your suggestion, I would have had to grind for a few more hours past the end of the campaign and all side missions and collectibles, moreso than it already took for me to finish the outcast rescue missions. I wouldn't approve of that.

Don't kill that many orcs. Slaves are just AI coded to have pathing activated once a nearby enemy AI is killed, and will respawn in captivity once you leave the area. You don't need to feel so sorry for them that you'd go free every single one at any given time. Orcs are jerks, sure, but I find it much more satisfying to kill 6 captains and a warchief with the press of a button, which doesn't take much effort past the main campaign or the achievements tied to it.

[Belanos]

But even with ignoring the slaves, you still need to kill a ton of Orcs to gather all the Artifacts and Runes. Since I usually use a stealth kill rather than an outright brawl, I end up with all kinds of XP by the time I've gathered those items. Not to mention gathering all the Intel I need. Sometimes I'll need to kill several Orcs in order to get the information I want, which again is done with stealth. Maybe the problem is just that you get too many extra points for a stealth kill. It's quite a bit higher than even a bow kill. +40 points as opposed to +5 for bow, IIRC.

[Ralf]

Originally posted by Belanos:

you still need to kill a ton of Orcs to gather all the Artifacts and Runes.

I don't think I've found a single artifact on the map that required killing orcs. I usually just run past them, grab the artifact, and if I'm not detected, I can just fast travel away.

Originally posted by Belanos:

Not to mention gathering all the Intel I need. Sometimes I'll need to kill several Orcs in order to get the information I want, which again is done with stealth. Maybe the problem is just that you get too many extra points for a stealth kill. It's quite a bit higher than even a bow kill. +40 points as opposed to +5 for bow, IIRC.

Now that is probably true. If I'm detected and don't want to start a fight, I tend to just shoot stuff until it goes quiet again, which doesn't seem to net that much XP. Still, you're given the tools to pretty much have infinite slow-motion sharpshooting with the runes you get. Heck, there's a rune with a 30% chance of getting an elf-shot back when firing a bow. I suppose we simply have different playstyles and therefore got to a different conclusion, and I think the game probably does actually strike a fair balance between all of those, even if stealth kills yield a little too much.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by Hrulfyr:

If I'm detected and don't want to start a fight, I tend to just shoot stuff until it goes quiet again, which doesn't seem to net that much XP.

Yes, the base XP for a kill is not that much really, something like 10 points for an Uruk Warrior, and 20 for an Archer. But if you tack on an extra 40 points just because of a stealth kill, which is mainly what I do, it really adds up after awhile. Based on the +5 for a bow kill, the XP bonus for stealth should probably be no more than +10.