Excelsior

Where is the best place to level? I've heard that question a lot. Everyone has their favorite spots. I had mine but I questioned were they the best place? So, I tested every location with a large number of mobs outside of Trammel and places you can recall to. What I found surprised me and may surprise you.
Below I will list the Top 5 locations by total Experience Points expected, Top 5 locations by Experience Points per minute, and Top 5 locations for the less experienced. Before you run out and try these spots (if you haven't already) consider these factors: You abilities (str, hp, dex, healing, etc.) These spots will not do you any good if you can't handle the mobs there; Your weapon type (whirlwind versus non ww, ranged, etc) Believe it or not, some weapons score higher points then others and whirlwind can accumulate more points per attack than non; Reflect Physical Damage (RFD acts like a pet or another player and can 'share' the experience points.
To conduct these tests, I used a war hammer, primarily using whirlwind to achieve these results. You will not get close to the same using non whirlwind, especially in the experience points per minute list. To get my results, I recorded my total experience points before starting a location, worked my way from beginning to end, then stopped and recorded my new total and the time it took me in minutes. I found many places with a high return rate per kill, but they were not well populated. Others were well populated, but a lot of the mobs are not easy kills, thus they take longer.
What you will not see, are how well or poor these locations are for farming gold. If that is a high priority for you, then you will have to determine your own list or wait about a year for me to get to that. This list deals with only Weapon Experience Points. (WEP)
Note - All these locations are in Felucca.

TOP 5 locations by total WEP
1. Trinsic (44038)
2. Wind (38819
3. Shame (35042)
4. Delucia (31433)
5. Minoc (30483)

Top 5 locations by WEP/Minute
1. Delucia (1013.96) * - better have hit lightning
2. Moonglow (853.2)
3. Minoc (781.62)
4. Magincia (739.34)
5. Serpents Hold (733.88

TOP 5 for less experienced players * - no particular order
1. Moonglow
2. Deceit
3. Vesper
4. Covetous
5. Shame

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask here or by PM.
Enjoy

Interesting. I Also factor in mob density and 'ease of hunting' and 'ease of access' when leveling. Ease of hunting is how many times do I have to touch the mouse the get the exp and ease of access is how long does it take to run there. If u factor these into your values I think the locations would rank differently. Particularly how long it takes to run somewhere only to find it's been hit or only partially respawned. I use a couple of your locations listed but really, leveling is easiest in tram using recall to maintain efficiency and mob density. I Always hunt at... ..... ....there's no way I would tell anyone my spots lol. Everyone's already camping my spots, I don't need more competition.

I wanna thank Cygnus for showing me some of these locations. I’ve been on this shard for 4 plus years but have had major time off in that span and I’m just starting to think about relayers and end game type gear. This guide is so helpful. Thank you Cygnus

qbf wrote:Interesting. I Also factor in mob density and 'ease of hunting' and 'ease of access' when leveling. Ease of hunting is how many times do I have to touch the mouse the get the exp and ease of access is how long does it take to run there. If u factor these into your values I think the locations would rank differently.

I agree and seriously thought about that. As of now, I have yet to find a good way of accurately quantify distance. Delucia is a good case in point. If you are there, It is by far the best overall location in my opinion, but could I have gotten the same results by visiting Cove Cemetery, Vesper Cemetery and Minoc in the same amount of time and still have Vesper and Covetous to ride to within seconds?

I just want to add there will be a more detailed report coming later that not only ranks the locations but lists all the mobs in those locations and how easy they are to kill using a formula that includes their average hit points and their average resists plus a few other factors. It will address those issues that qbf raised about ease of kill and mouse clicks to gain the experience points. I just wanted to get this summary out now to point out possible locations you may not have thought about. I wish I could have had the full report out by now but real life and other projects keep pushing it back. I think many of you will find it fascinating. Others will probably think 'who cares.' But, when the whole test report comes out, I think everyone from novice to expert leveler who doesn't use a macro will find something in it to use and find just the right locations for their experience level. Well, at least I hope so because that is my goal for this report.
I am shooting for end of February to mid March to get it posted. No later than than end of March.

Good Luck. Happy Hunting!

Arawyyn wrote:I wanna thank Cygnus for showing me some of these locations. I’ve been on this shard for 4 plus years but have had major time off in that span and I’m just starting to think about relayers and end game type gear. This guide is so helpful. Thank you Cygnus

It is cool, what is even more useful is the monster compendium he produced years ago. Even though it's a little out of date, most of my recall leveling rune bags are based off the data in that compendium. It is very useful.