For anyone who hasn't completed the game, there are slight spoilers. So, I've just completed my first runthru. I opted to do all the side quests, contracts etc as well as the main story, so it's taken me 222hrs! I've only reached Level 34 tho! There are weapons that require much higher levels still available to craft. Did I miss out on a large amount of XP? Did the devs put those weapons in as a tease? Given that the only significant XP has come from contracts & mostly main story quests, I'm guessing I don't stand much chance of gaining more than 1 more level now that all the contracts & story quests are finished. There's no 'New Game +' that I'm aware of but I've read that there's a level cap of 40. How could you even reach that? There is that section en route to Ciri, near the end, where there's a slew of various monsters. I just rode thru it all. Has anyone fought all those monsters? Did you earn a significant amount of XP for them? Otherwise, I can't figure how to even reach 40!?!

Most games have a little section for grinding,I don't know if this does or not.
If you really wish to achieve higher levels then there may be something here.
http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/searchresults/?src_cat=5

Besides killing higher level monsters:

You get the same experience for destroying monster nests and "liberating" abandoned towns at level 1 as you do at level 34. Therefore, unless quest related, it is better to defer those actions until you have completed all other quests.

Likewise, once a quest turns to "grey" you should not completed it until you have no longer have "green" quests to complete. An exception to this is if the quest will disappear if not completed before a certain stage in the game.

I don't know what to answer, I finished the main story with some sidequests at lvl 34, and still have plenty of ? marks to explore, not to mention sidequests and contracts.

I don't even care if there's lvl 40 equipment.
I have my mastercrafted wolf set and I can die happy.

Thanks all. Just to clarify, I'm not interested in levels per se &/or farming/grinding, just confused as to the design of the game. I know & appreciate that CDPR have one of the most refreshing approaches to games, but I didn't expect it to extend to the progression mechanics! I can't think of another game where there were still items of too high a level left unobtainable at the completion. As to the prospect of farming even Cyclopses at 50XP a time, when I'm thinking of level 35 to 46 weapons unavailable, at 2'000XP per level, just reaching 35 is gonna be a massive grind! I was more concerned that I had somehow missed out on XP in some fundamental way. I may have a go at those swarms of Monsters en route to Ciri & Avalach, just to see if 1; I could kill them all without dying & 2; just how much XP I could earn. :)

Not sure, but I don't think we're meant to kill every Wild Hunt monster at the end. They spawn so quickly and you can't stop the portals before you run out of bombs, adrenaline, etc., wear down your weapons and armor, even before you get to the bosses, which are more important, and to Ciri. So, no, I don't think you missed anything. I too finished at lvl 34 and I get the impression that's about right for most people. (I didn't do ALL the contracts - there was one with suggested level of 35 from Oxenfurt that I never got to, and ALL those ?s in the sea in Skellige which I gave up on after about 5 of them, lol.)

Thanks pocketnunu, so it seems i didn't miss out a whole bunch of XP then. That Oxenfurt Lvl 35 was a lot easier than I expected & easier than some lower Lvl quests. :) I did quite a few of the ?'s but gave up after a while as the sea one's are pretty repetitious & most of the land one's aren't worth the travel after a certain Lvl. :) Probably won't try that Monster fest then, tho I've got a save just before & it would be a hell of a challenge to see how many I could kill & interesting to see how much XP I could earn. :)

I finished at level 35 and I do not think that the game is really designed for you to get much higher.
The skill tree does not have any slots to open up after level 30. There is not big increase to your base vitality or sign intensity, you get 1 skill point.
Currently (though Geralt cannot legally find them in the game), the 4 witcher school sets of armor and weapons all have versions that require you be around levels 50 to use. To me this implies that they plan to release something that will allow Geralt to gain enough experience to use them. Maybe this is what the expansion packs will do. Or maybe there will be dlc which allows you to start over with your current level Geralt but it makes all monsters and thus quests 30 levels higher.

You're spot on. Max level is, in fact 70. I didn't grind it, nope, I cheated my ass off and consoled myself to lvl 69 just to mess around a bit. Insert obligatory joke here. Then I just wandered around and did stuff until Geralt hit 70. But, happy note, the xp does not cap out. If you really wanted to grind it, you could keep on keeping on and when you turn your xp bar over, you get another talent point to spend.

And random loot does level up to the low 60's. but it gets to be a pain because no one out there has enough money to buy all your shit, and it gets too expensive to break items down, because the cost is based on the items level, not it's type or materials.

But happily, there are articles about folk who have found evidence of a New Game + mode in the game files, so provided that wasn't just a cutting room floor leftover that didn't get cleaned out before they shipped it, we could have a new game + mode someday.

Don't hold your breath though, it just as well may never happen. Leftovers get stuck in game files with practically every game ever released, so, grain of salt until something official comes down the pipe.

Guess that higher levels come into play when the expansions are added?

Just an guess...