I find it odd it is taking you that long. I started playing from early access ( a few days prior to retail launch ) and quit playing about a month ago. In that time I leveled up 3 toons to 50 and 2 others to around 20 ish, and that was done spending 25% of the time on crafting jewelery and armour.

The problem with the game is lack of content, could have used about another 6-12 months in developement.