Title, why is the grind still so huge, especially so late in the game's life ? The average grinder makes a little more than 1M per day, it'd take almost 6 months of 2 or 3 hours a day to earn that much XP to get a level 34 character, let alone anything beyond that. The maximum I think you can reach without losing your sanity, in a timely manner, is level 33, at 60M, if you play very, very well and keep that multi, plus play strat on top.
When you have new players who ask you how much time they have to invest to reach level 35, it's quite unpleasant to tell them the truth.