How many monsters did you kill? o_o
Unless you just need a single main quest to finish.

I don't know how many are left, I'm back in Skellige however, have to find a stone and a witch.
I've killed lots of monsters, especially with contracts, but I've also won all the fistfights and done a lot of sidequests.
Plus, I've cleared a good number of abandoned sites while looking for dimeritium and destroyed a lot of monster nests...

I've done all side quest that popped up, all contracts, all points of interests (yes, ALL of them), all treasure hunts, all DLC. Anything.
I finished 200 xp from lvl 35 and got to 35 killing sirens from the last few smuggler caches I had left in Skellige.

I don't know... I just kept getting XP, I haven't grinded at all...

I guess a huge factor is how early in the game someone gets Witcher gear and uses it exclusively, because both the silver and steel swords give a massive XP boost.

I exclusively use Witcher gear, even if underleveled.
Crafted the viper school swords at level 2 and never used a normal sword ever again.

Well then I guess my next play through I'll have to stick with the witcher gear strictly and see how that there works out.

Ok but you had to do every little thing for which there is to do in the game which meant majory grinding just to get hight enough to use the master crafted, By then there was nothinbg left to do really.

To be honest, I reached the right level to use the mastered witcher gear quite easily, and now I've even passed it (just reached level 36 during the latest main quests).

I'm level 26 right now. I've done all the sidequests save for two witcher contracts and I'm on the isle of mists quest.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I'm expected to level up anymore since nothing really gives you XP. I miss my feline gear.

I finished the main line of quest at lvl 34, which still few nice contratcs and secondary quests yet to complete. That said, I agree with that point: there is no point in lvl 35-36 crafted gear if you have to do a "special" effort to get that lvl. Something closer to level 28-31 would be great, so you could approach your new crafter gear for the last quests.

I agree with you in regards to the witcher gear. I just made a posting in the Cdproject red site about this I think that master should be 28th superior 21st Enhanced 14 and reg around 7 or righ in there. Also the quest for which you get to obtain passage to Skillage needs to be changed as well as level 22 is way to high. When you get there at that level allot of the main quest line with yennifer your way to high for and you get nothing for xp for them. And it's not your fault as it's the level for which the developers set up the game.