Well technically leveling itself is pointless since you can level normally using 1000 needles and 1 shot things 5+ levels above you legit, so in effect leveling doesn't even matter IMO.

I'd care more if leveling wasn't reduced to just mashing an op skill with a long cast time.

Yeah you can sit there and spam your other spells and not use it but... I don't know I just can't seem to care when you can just 1000 needles 1-2 shot everything. /shrug