Best XP Quests for Leveling: A Reference Guide

[Zenako]

Another aspect that could use some serious looking at is the optional experience opportunities in many quests. In days of old, most of those were a pittance and it was a no brainer to ignore them. However Turbine has done a decent job of reviewing those optionals and beefing up the EXP awards from them in many (not all) cases.

That affects the rate of experience potential, especially if you are comparing a group run to a solo run. In almost all cases it is inefficient if solo to chase the optionals, but in a good group, you can split up and nab the bonuses pretty easily without spending much if any more time.

[Aikou]

Looking at the list, there's a bunch of items that I'd personally include and use when leveling toons. Granted, most of them when determining how fast the XP is filtering in is determined by having a good group, based on your inclusion of quests such as Enter the Kobold (high level split, group split-up) being included, I'll assume that's a premise you're using in the list.

That said, just off hand quests that I would consider.

Dirk's got a Secret: Did this just yesterday actually, invis clickies, need at least two people each runs to one of the brothers, kills their chieftan. 0 Minute completion, devious bonus for only 2 kills. Each side also has a location where you can jump up and finish out without having to kill anything you dragged along behind you. Hard to describe so I'll leave that up to personal experience.

Stealthy Repossession: Great quest for XP and due to the massive amount of lvl 2 quests which have a pretty decent yield at that level, this one's great as you can easily farm it on higher difficulties with the same amount of effort. Same thing as Dirk's, only you need more invis clickies or someone who can cast it via blue bar. Insidious Cunning bonus coupled in helps add to it as well. Easily this quest yields in the 1k/min area.

The Big Top: This comes with a caveat. It assumes that you have farmed out Tangleroot with a good group, staggered your quest progression in order to farm tangleroot and then repeat certain quests for favor. House P favor's required for the jump. To properly farm this quest you need the jump 30 buff, a few ranks in jump or an item (Need 38 jump I believe it is), an invis clickie and an opener alternate toon. Obviously if you have to run all the flagging quests it should be factored into the XP/min, thus you'll need another toon to window farm it. Same concept that many use with Shadow Crypt. The survivability on this diminishes fairly quickly as the XP is entirely based on the quest completion w/no optionals included. This quest meets the 1k XP/min mark for about five runs I believe.

Repossession: This quest is a little more suspect. The XP/min on the preceeding quest is negligible, however many people have a tendency to still do the quests leading up to it for the low level coin lord favor and get their inventory slots early on. IF it's the case that that is indeed what a person is doing, a toon with a decent reflex save can handle all the items to be reclaimed. Each person runs in grabs a room, the rune wheels are static, can rush through this quest in about a minute and a half with the appropriate group. Very quick quest where the optionals provide a LOT of XP.

There's quite a few others, none of which are coming to mind at the moment. These were just the quests we covered yesterday and are coming to mind. Parts of Threnal come to mind, I noticed not all of the GH walk-ups were listed. All of those can be done, typically shy away from Maze of Madness however. I'll post periodically when more quests come to mind if this is received well.

[Reversion]

I put Inferno at 2 stars since it's much harder to get a group for. Not many people want to run it at-level.

Quests such as New Invasion, and Inferno I tried to take into account that most people don't know how to speed run them... thus lessening their score.

I was basing it off my experience. My most recent TR, I pugged 4 spots and we were 5-manning it at those times. Just needed 4 competent players that followed directions.

I would also rate Monastery as a 5-star quest. It it the highest xp/min quest that Mr. Cow has for divine and melee and 4th for arcane (where Shadow Crypt is #1). I just did these last night, 2 or 3-man groups, and averaged 6 minute runs over 12 runs.

[Aaxeyu]

Here's my opinion on some of your rating choices.

Harbor - (1 - 5) {F2P}

• Kobold's Ringleader *****
• Info Is Key ****
• Haverdasher ***
• Water Works ***

Info Is Key is not that good tbh.
Stealthy repossesion however is a 5 star quest that you should add.

House Deneith (6-9) {Sorrowdusk Isle}

• The Temple Outpost: The Libram of the Six ****
• The Fane of the Six: Cleansing the Temple ***
• The Sanctum: Quench the Flames **
• The Sanctum: Church of the Fury ***
• Sorrowdusk Rares ***

Not fair to give quenching the flames only 2 stars. I would personally give every quest here atleast 4 stars, you can get sooo much exp here.

House Kundarak (8-12) {The Vault of Night}

• The Jungle of Khyber (VoN 3) ****
• Haywire Foundry (VoN 4) ***
• Vault of Night (VoN 5) ****

Come one, VoN3 is easily a 5 star!

Gianthold (11-14) {The Ruins of Gianthold}

• Cry for Help **
• Trial by Fire ****
• The Crucible *****
• Prison of the Planes ****
• Madstone ***

Crucible isn't that goood anymore. 4 stars would be generous. Trial should get 5 stars and PoP 3.


I miss eastern excavations from the list.

[melkor1702]

2 stars for VON3? A decent goup of level 7-10s can do the whole quest in 15 minutes and get almost 30k exp on normal. A GOOD group can do it in 10, and still hit all the optionals.

Come one, VoN3 is easily a 5 star!

Problem with VON3 is that it doesn't take much for it to go pearshaped, and when it does a good group can pull it back together and complete a decent or average group will struggle a to do it. Then you've potentially wasted a lot of time and/or resources. It all depends on the group your in, whilst I agree guild and channel groups it's no problem. If your puging it, well the risks increase massively.

[sirgog]

Problem with VON3 is that it doesn't take much for it to go pearshaped, and when it does a good group can pull it back together and complete a decent or average group will struggle a to do it. Then you've potentially wasted a lot of time and/or resources. It all depends on the group your in, whilst I agree guild and channel groups it's no problem. If your puging it, well the risks increase massively.

One half-decent arcane can carry a group through VON3 nowadays, and fast.

Upgrade to five stars.

Some other suggested changes:

Litany of the Dead: Drop to four stars, due to the ambush wasting time. Running with the Devils is better xp/minute.

Shadow Crypt: Upgrade to six stars, it's as much as 2700xp/min in a group that splits up and uses optimal paths through it (and close to 1500 in a group that just fumbles through with the 'backup' method)

Crucible, Prison of the Planes: Drop to 2 or 3 stars each, these were hit hard enough with the XP nerf bat a while back that really they aren't even worth doing except for the three first time bonuses

VON5 - Consider dropping this. The actual quest itself is worth four stars if done *very* efficiently. However, at-level VON5 groups can take an hour to fill, and seldom stay together for multiple runs. If you do include it, the Titan preraid is similar but better.


Hound of Xoriat - Consider adding this. The raid itself is 5 minutes for 12-15k XP. The run in is 10-12 minutes and usually nets 5k XP the first few times from rares, slayers and explorers. VoD is not worth adding as few groups are capable of zerging the raid.

[tihocan]

Litany of the Dead: Drop to four stars, due to the ambush wasting time. Running with the Devils is better xp/minute.

In my experience, Litany is significantly better XP/min than RwtD, at least solo.

[Goldeneye]

good suggestions! I'll update the ratings when I'm not in class

[yfront]

Nice guide. Worth bookmarking for anyone in doubt.
+1 rep

[augie]

A solid list and I agree with the vast majority of it. It's not easy to put a single grade on a quest as there are many variables involved (class, gear, knowledge, etc...) but kudos on the effort.

My only concern in displaying such information is that it paints a giant target on each of the high-rated quests for which Turbine will violently smack around with the proverbial "XP Nerf Bat." (Madstone Crater anyone?)

Nevertheless, +1 for the easy-to-understand, no-nonsense list!

[Ridcully1984]

In Korthos you're definitly missing on Collaborators.
With the Optional at the end, it's 1200-1500XP in 2-3mins and nearly every class can solo it.

Ghost of a Chance is only good if you know the puzzle.

In House Deneith, some of the Depths, wich are possible to do in under 3mins (the first one even faster), giving again above 1000XP. Only the one with the Earth elementals is dangerous.

In the Sands Gnoll Slaying isn't too bad. Might be 2 Stars, since there is a lot of them tight together and near the entrance.

[Goldeneye]

Thanks everyone! I updated some ratings.
For clarification, I added a "how-I-rated-quests".

III: Rating System:

Here is the rating system I'm using. NOTE: 1 or 2 stars isn't a bad rating.

1. *: Not bad XP. Run once or twice.
2. **: Decent XP. Deserves a spot on the list.
3. ***: Pretty good XP. Worth farming.
4. ****: Great XP. Run until your fingers hurt.
5. *****: OMG XP. DO NOT FORGET TO RUN THIS

[Ridcully1984]

It's Durk not Dirk who has a Secret. :P

[Goldeneye]

oops. thanks!

[sirgog]

In my experience, Litany is significantly better XP/min than RwtD, at least solo.

My sorc had RWtD down to an average of 10.5 min per solo run last life, including the ~3000XP optional. Hard is soloable at level with a couple of mana potions, elite isn't really soloable.

[ekniff]

threnal east part 2 will take about 7 minutes in a party that splits up, for about 9k (with easy breakables, traps and secret doors).

[Otherworld]

Best XP Quests for Leveling: A Reference Guide
by Krythan

House Phiarlan (5-8) {F2P?}

Most house p quests are f2p (including the 2 you listed) so the ? can go.
EDIT: same for house d. (Only quests I can think of wich belong to an adventure pack are the pirate ones.)

[Goldeneye]

1.) Are there any other quests I'm missing?

2.) Should I come up w/ a way to comment of quests. For example, have a notation that indicated the majority of xp comes from optionals, or that a rogue is required? Would that be helpful or would it just make the post more complicated?

[Ridcully1984]

1.) Are there any other quests I'm missing?

2.) Should I come up w/ a way to comment of quests. For example, have a notation that indicated the majority of xp comes from optionals, or that a rogue is required? Would that be helpful or would it just make the post more complicated?

I think some explanation would be nice. Especially stuff like solver for Ghost of a chance quest. An explanation for chamber of Rayum ways, Attribute-Requirements for Tear on various difficulties and such stuff.

I think it's nice to have such things collected in the one thread. You might add those in your second post, only placing a hint in the first post, taht there is further information available.

[Adalita]

1.) Are there any other quests I'm missing?

2.) Should I come up w/ a way to comment of quests. For example, have a notation that indicated the majority of xp comes from optionals, or that a rogue is required? Would that be helpful or would it just make the post more complicated?

My suggestion would be keep it simple and biased towards newer players. While there is a lot of info for more experienced players looking to find the absolute optimal XP per min runs (e.g. MrCow's outstanding work) this list caters well for newer players. For example Stealthy Repossession can garner good XP per min if you use the appropriate tactics (e.g. invisibility clickies), however for a new player (i.e. lvl 2-3,) it can be a nightmare. And if you do know the correct tactics then you don't need this list in the first place.