NEW EXP TABLE

Oh I'm not saying nothing should be at stake. Obviously there should be penalties for death... but when the exp lost becomes as extreme as it will at those levels... that's just a bit much in my eyes.
I'm not sure what it could be effectively changed to though.

Death is already annoying enough that people avoid it. The lost time for the journey back is already usually punishment enough. If it takes me 5 minutes to get back to where I was that's 5 minutes of training lost. I'm already going to avoid death.

This is a lot like the concept of lives in platformers. It's generally a bad mechanic that only still exists because it's been grandfathered in by old franchises like Mario. I'm already being punished for dying by going back to the beginning of the level, why do I need to worry about how many times I've done it as well? I already don't want to die, I don't need something else to further discourage and potentially frustrate me. Too much of a punishment for death can create a sense of paranoia which can make the gameplay unfun. I'm not going to have fun playing a game if the entire time I'm just terrified of failure. There's always room for games that try to make you feel a sense of loathing because of the penalties for death (ZombiU does it well with its permadeath) but I don't know if those mechanics belong in a cartoon MMO.