Hey Gearbox. Gotta say, loving the game so far! I think the world and characters you’ve built here are all really interesting, and the various progression systems keep me entertained throughout matches. The only problem I’ve really noticed so far is that some characters level up at different rates, which kind of dissuades me from playing characters that level up slower. Specifically, the high-damage characters seem to level up much faster than, say, Support characters. For instance, I can start a match as Rath and go around mopping the floor with any enemies I come across, and that’ll net me enough xp to get to level 10 by the half-way mark in the match. However, if I’m playing as Reyna or Miko I’m usually lucky if I can get to level 5 by the end of the match. Since these characters are built for support, most of their xp seems to come from assists and minion kills, which don’t net nearly as much as killing players and entire waves of minions like I can as Rath. What is really upsetting about this is that Reyna is my favorite character to play as, but I feel like I’m being punished whenever I use her since I can’t get to level 10. I would suggest either increasing the amount of xp given by assists, widening the definition for things that can be considered assists, or, if there are other ways to get xp, maybe have a guide somewhere in the game telling players how they can earn xp as different characters. Also, side note: Ambra is overpowered. I have a gear build that increases the healing she recieves which seems to also count towards the healing she does to herself which is just unfair since that kind of turns her into an un-killable tank who can also heal her allies, and she can also be made into a damage-dealer while both of those things are happenning. I honestly don’t see how you can balance that out without just scrapping the character. You guys have created a monster
Agreed. I freaking love how, say, ISIC can just desecrate anything with his turrets. But, at the same time, I love supporting allies with Reyna. Sadly, Reyna seems punished simply because she requires you to use more defensive abilities. All I want is some balancing. Otherwise, holy crap the game is fun.
You know you get XP for building structures, right?
I love Reyna as well but don’t have a problem with getting to lvl 8 or higher in a match. What I do is stay close to your team so you can buff them with over shield and keep your debuff on whoever your team is attacking. This will help with getting kill assists which you get xp for. Also buy buildables as much as possible! Good xp. I usually get the second highest in kills on my team as Reyna. She is a beast! I’ve also won every match I played as Reyna.
Woooo! Find your “Return” key and make some paragraphs! 
Great feedback, though.
We’ll certainly evaluate this a bit more, but here’s something to try in the meantime:
Assist Experience is almost as high as kill experience. You get assist experience if you contributed in ANY way to the fight. Healing an attacking character (or having a buff on them) counts for this.
Some specific things to try:
- As Miko, hit minion waves with your Spore Bomb. It won’t kill them at low levels, but you’ll put damage on all of them, right before Rath plows through them.
- As Miko, heal beam Rath as he plows through kills, even if he doesn’t need it.
- As Reyna, Overshield Rath before he plows through minions.
- Also - as noted above - collect shards, built lots of things, destroy enemy structures.
I think you’ll find that support characters can mostly keep up with damage characters, but you do need to understand a few more technical details about how you’re awarded experience.
Cool. Did not know some of those specifics about assist XP. As someone that likes support characters, will definitely file that away.
We still may have valid issues here. But I think that list is a good start.
I love support characters too and have no problem reaching level 10 with Miko. Just keep your healing beam on attacking characters and you’ll get your assists. I wish Reynas over shield was also a primary without cd but that would probably make her OP 
Thanks for all the replies from everyone. I was unaware that buildables get you xp, and the bit about how assists work is definitely helpful too.
I think the biggest problem I’ve come across considering this is when you have a team that has either abandoned you or is just not very good, it makes getting kills or assists very difficult. This makes the only other valid way to get xp hiding on the backside of the field and collecting crystals to build defenses.
Then you just get an even more split-up and disjointed team that’s even less likely to get kills.
It might be somewhat impractical, but boosted xp gains based on level differences and the number of allies that have DCed could help provide some sort of incentive for staying in the game.
(Note: this problem is probably most noticeable kn meltdown mode, not so much on incursion.)