I have to disagree with the OP. When I first started playing I was reckless and died alot. I mean a lot. I am on my 3rd start over and now I don't die as much and the few times I did I deserved it (so far). My skills are looking good and the penalty forced me to get better at the game. I prepare properly and learned how to fight and parry like a warrior should. I will agree that losing 2-5 skill levels does suck but if they got rid of it dying would not matter at all. Yes I know you still have to do a CR but seriously that is usually not a problem. I played Everquest for a long time and maybe this is why I like this game as both are very grindy with corpse runs and in EQ instead of skills you lost xp on death. Meanwhile I also played City of Heroes and death is a joke with a debt system that you could make up in a matter of minutes. YMMV.