It only gets better. 120-ish hours is where I’d expect the game to start really opening up for you, assuming you’ve been making progress on the star chart and mastery ranks. 😄
As you can tell, there are many foot-guns and opportunity costs in this game. If you aren’t playing under someone else’s guidance, I recommend finding a mentor, else you risk making the same expensive mistakes that I (and many others) have made.
Pain. Although the Lich system is so convoluted that it’s hard to fault anyone for these kinds of mishaps.