Quote Originally Posted by strangebloke View Post
If t3 was so great people would start in late T2 to get to the "good stuff" as quickly as possible, but universally this is not how things are done. Games start in early T2 at the latest and sometimes get through t3, with t4 being almost entirely the domain of one shots.
Point in favor of this interpretation--T3 levels were intentionally shortened (XP-wise) to make them below-trend and faster. The word of devs intent is that T1 goes by quite fast, T2 lingers, T3 is again fast, then T4 is the big hurrah (if you get there). Effectively, you have two segments:

* The "main game" : 1-10.
* The "secondary game" : 11-20

And 1-4 and 11-16 have the same feel--introducing you to the style there but not being the meat.