There are 3 easy ways in which the devs could reduce the number of players who stay at level 4.

Option 1.
The longer a player is spending at level 4 the less gold he's getting, basically the amount of gold from winning will be so low that there would be no point in staying at 4.

Option 2.
The other choice is to reduce the XP sliders so you ALWAYS get at least 5% of level XP required to level - meaning after 25 games, even if the player chooses to go "all gold" route, he will ding regardless.

Option 3.
Remove XP slider from level 4 and move it up to level 5. This way players will still have a choice but will be much less likely to stay at 5 due to being put in the next bracket.

Currently I dinged 5 after spending a good bit at 4 (it just became boring) and the queue time is unbelievable

We would also need a "deserter" debuff for player's who purposely stay level 4 with the best gear. They would just leave the match before the game end's so they don't risk leveling.

Aye plus one. I didn't take this into consideration. However, surely they would also miss out on money reward, thus maybe they wouldn't do it anyway?

Don't really need it when your intention is to twink. At level 4 everything that requires Gem's (the real money In-Game currency) is really cheap. I only know because I was tired of the queue and used about 100 of my gem's to purchase everything from level's to amulet's and made a really nasty Lv 4 Gunner. This stand's against everything I am for .. but I'd like to play the game and Lv 4 is where everyone is at right now.. including other seasoned player's twinks.

Good suggestion's. Let's get this progression problem under control.

FYI, on completion of a game, you actually do receive experience, even when you move the slider all the way to gold. I do not know the exact percentage, but I know it exists because that's how I leveled up to 5 one time. The deserter idea would be more important in this case as well.

IMHO: But honestly, I don't have much of a problem with people staying at level 4 right now though; I think people are blowing it out of proportion. If there is no slider at level 4, or to a lesser extent, I'll hit level 5 with probably 0 or maybe 1 piece of level 4 gear because you get so little gold at those levels in proportion to the gear costs (and that's assuming I don't buy ANYTHING ELSE). Just think: the difference between a new level 2 and geared level 4 versus a level 5 with at most 1 level 4 piece verses geared level 10's, the difference is quite significant in favor of the latter don't you think? Once people get their level 4 gear, a lot of them level because there is nothing left there for them. Sure, you could stay if you wanted, but only to troll some other lowbies; you're losing out on level experience and way more gold.

Plus, once the player pool gets larger, I think this problem becomes less and less significant; also I know for a fact that many are still at 4 and below because they are trying each class first before choosing a main. People are forgetting this game is just beginning for those of us in Europe, NA, and elsewhere; once we get more and more people, the global level stretch will grow and the median level will increase. And also because even if you have 7 level 30's, you can only buy so much gear for your level 4. In other words, you max out.

tl;dr Increase the automatic-experience a little bit and start a deserter tick, I think you'll have way less problems, though these problems are not too significant.

You get like 18xp if you max gold slider. 18xp not %... It would take hundreds of games to level

I'd hate this, because many people are experiencing random disconnections.

Yeah, that's why I said I wasn't too sure on that point. But, like I said (once the d/c problems have been fixed like Synsane said), add the deserter tick and increase the exp a bit and I think it won't be a problem, though I don't think it's a significant problem in the first place. More like growing pains.

Wont happen, get use to the game like it is, they will NOT fix what you want. Its been in russia like this and they profited off of it, this game will stay the same

That makes no sense, surely they would profit more by people buying upgrades for their items as they're levelling...