I'm Gen 2 (Yes, I'm a noob!) I also have ~240k gold... I've never been a big fan of heavy armor. My original build was xbow/shielder. I am now an archer/pole user.
As a precurser, I want to say, I like a lot of what this patch did. I feel that the slot system will add variety into what we see being fielded. Pretty uncaring about not being able to change gear in-game. It makes people really think about the importance of ladders and such. For the record, I plan to Heirloom my Warbow (1x) this time around. Warbow/1quiver/1hsword sounds fun. I wish a few arrows were added per stack (I think it was 20 originally before the 'hotfix'... That would be nice to see again, imho.) I would also like to take my character through multiple generations and trying various builds. I was originally drawn to doing this because in this mod, it seemed like you wouldn't -need- to make 'alts' to achieve this.
When I -finally- finished off Gen 1, I was excited to try out a new character build. I feel that the XP nerf really hampers what made cRPG shine for me at the beginning. I will say it's still much better than Native, as even miniscule RPG elements are enough to keep me entertained as opposed to an equal setting where there are zero RPG Elements. I really liked the idea of the 10% XP Bonus ... ... mostly because I hated the grind to level 31. I feel like we should see something else in line of the XP grindfest. I still adore the idea of being able to play as multiple roles using one character (via retirement and completely different builds) but with the nerfed XP, it's much less attractive. I also won't play any alts... I will, honestly, play cRPG less. I will still play, just not as often.
For ideas - 1) Reduce the XP needed to go from 30 - 31 SIGNIFICANTLY (like.. 1.5 - 2.5 million reduction or so)
2) 10% bonus per gen, but cap it (as stated above).
3) 5% Bonus per gen, cap or no cap, but still lower the XP from 30 - 31 a bit.
or 4) Raise base "tick" XP.
Options 1 and 4 would bridge the speed-leveling gap between new players and vets. Options 2 and 3 would still make mass retiring appealing (to me, at least).
tl;dr - Dislike the XP nerf. Would like to see either a revert or additional changes to be made.