Once you have a character that is maxed out (or sometimes even before), you might want to level up some alts to play. This gives more variety in play-style from day to day, but the time commitment to leveling up multiple characters, especially with the same quests and progression paths, can be daunting. Luckily, there are some tips and tricks that can be used to help reduce not only the repetition a bit, but also speed up the process significantly. Let’s take a look at gearing first, and then the actual leveling process.
Gearing Up
It is understandable that better gear enhances survivability, but it also speeds up kills. The higher your stats are, the better you are going to be on the field overall. This ends up translating directly into faster progression (and therefore less repetition), easing the grind to level 60 considerably. When dealing with this, there are two things to look at: obtaining gear and enchanting.
Obtaining gear. While the gear you get while just out and about questing will hold you over, if you really want to boost your effectiveness it is important to either pre-farm or at least get good gear as soon as you are able to. Both of these are really done using the same method: have a high-level character run dungeons for you. If you have a friend that can assist, this is much more effective, as you can obtain a lot of bound items. If not, you can run the dungeons on your main and just trade over the non-bound items. High-level characters in lower-level dungeons do not kill the drop rates, so there is nothing to worry about in regards to not getting drops.
Enchanting. Boosting up your gear’s enchantments can be expensive (depending on the tier), but if your main is already able to earn a lot of money there isn’t a big issue. Farming for even an hour at maximum level will allow you to enchant multiple tiers of lower-level gear. When you do this, you will need to decide how far to do the enchantments. Really anything will help, but it is not worth going above +9 unless dealing with end-game gear.
Leveling
The fastest way to level, by far, is to get a higher level player to help out. While you will not get experience off individual mob kills, you will get credit for quests you are on. You can do a lot of the leveling off the quests alone, so this match works out well. With that said, there are some important things to note.
Don’t always get power-leveled. If you do, you are going to run into problems here and there due to running out of quests that can be handled. A good rule of thumb is to quit being power-leveled when the quests you have available are around 2 levels ahead of you, and then go work on things on your own. Once you are caught up again, get power-leveled back to the same point. This ensures that you are minimizing the time between “walls,” which greatly speeds up the process. Along with this, it gives your friend a break!
Save XP increase consumables for when you are with others similar to your level. When you have a higher level with you, you are negating the effect of the XP boost. On the other hand, when you are solo your kill rate is somewhat slow (at least compared to being grouped). The best time to use these items is when in dungeons, as there are many kills done over a period of time, and because it involves grouping. This maximizes the efficiency of the boost, ensuring that you are getting the best possible benefit out of it. If you don’t like to run dungeons or deal with other players, you can use these when you are solo as well, but be sure that it is while you are in an area with a high population of mobs, and try to balance the quests you are doing with kills. After the buff is gone you can always make up any quests you skipped over!
Rolling solo. While we’ve been covering what to do in a group setting (regardless of if it is a duo or multiple players working together), you can also solo your way to the top. Once you have all the gear you need and have enchanted it, it is time to head out. The big things you want to consider here are to always keep consumables on you, and practice playing your class a little so you know what you can take on. For example, if you can AoE 3 mobs or 7 mobs with ease, you will want to go with 7 when you are out questing, as you want to earn the experience off them. On the same token, you want to be sure not to pull too many, or too difficult of mobs. Each death ends up taking out a considerable amount of time, and with enough of them you can really slow down the leveling process. it is best to just try and avoid that problem altogether.
