Barbarian Leveling Guide

Every class has levels at which they are weak, and other levels during which they are strong. Some levels will go by quickly, and others will take some patience.

Rather than being vague - I'll give you, to the best of my memory, which sets of levels went by quickly/slowly for me, and where I spent my time gaining these levels.

1-29:

I zoomed through levels 1-29 the first day I played. There are quests which you can stack, and tons of them. I was level 19 when I left Tortage, and hit 20 shortly after entering Conall's Valley. I just quested in Conall's until I was 29, it was pretty easy and fast. I should mention that I did not play in closed beta. I did play in open beta, to level 24. So, these levels were mildly familiar. All of the levels after this were new to me.

29-39:

My second day playing, I was able to get through these 10 levels. 29 was when I entered my first rut, and I found that I couldn't solo mobs with little downtime anymore. It wasn't a huge deal, but just something I began to notice. I played a Druid in EQ, so I was weary of the fact that some classes in MMOs are solo machines, and some are not. I was apprehensive about the Barbarian being a solo class for the first 30 levels, and this was where I first noticed their inherent solo flaws.

Around 35, I went to Pyramid of the Ancients, which was great for leveling. 35-39 took about the same length as 29-35 for me.

39-50:

My third and fourth days playing were spent gaining these levels. At 39, I headed to Old Tarantia Noble District, and was quite pleased. I was able to solo two mobs at a time with relative ease, although three usually resulted in significant downtime. Thus was the second instance of my noticing that Barbarians are not the solo powerhouse that healer classes can be. I stayed at Noble District until 45 or so, long enough to get Vaedus - my first lifetapping weapon, and then went to Field of the Dead.

**As a side note, I also did arena during these levels. Arena is in the tavern in Old Tarantia Noble District, and there are solo/group quests you can do. There is a level requirement on all of these quests, and I think you can do the final group quest at level 57 or so. These are well-worth the exp/rewards.

I managed to quest all the way to 48.5 in Field of the Dead, then briefly went into Eiglophian Mountains with an HoX friend of mine. It was at this time I noticed how powerful a Herald of Xotli can be - we were destroying the zone en masse =)

We did the beginning quests and such, then decided to call it a night.

50-57:

Fifth day playing. 50 is where the game slows down with regard to leveling. It didn't slow way down, but it definitely slowed down quite a bit. I managed to quest in EM until 55 or so, then I had to grind to 56. It seems like some quests opened between 54-56, so I did those and got close to 57, then I had to grind some more until I was 57. It was at that time I got the typical quest to head to another area - Thunder River in this case.

57-58:

Not my entire sixth day =) This is the amount of time I spent at Thunder River. The mobs were entirely too difficult for me to solo at this level, shame on Funcom for sending me here. Luckily, I heard through some of my closed beta friends that Atzel's Approach would be much better for leveling.

58-63:

Atzel's Approach rocks! When I first arrived, the content was very difficult. Atzel Conscripts added on me like an abbacus, and I died frequently. Once I got past that part of the zone, though, my exp flew. I did all of the quests and ended up somewhere around level 63.

63-68:

Seventh Day etc. I left Atzel's Approach and headed for Thunder River. I was able to finish the quests here with more rapidity than before, so I stayed a while. It seems like there was some mild grinding involved as well. After finishing all of the quests that I could, I went back to Atzel's Approach. I finished up my remaining quests and stumbled upon Ivoryvale at 67. Ivoryvale is an icy canyon full of non-aggro mammoths, generally in pairs of two. This was perfect for me, and since I was out of quests I figured, what the hell, so I grinded these mammoths until 68.

68-72;

My eighth day was an off day for me; I went and saw my girlfriend and took a general break from the game. I started my playtime by grinding those mammoths until 70. 70 was a magical level for me, as I headed to Kheshatta. Kheshatta is a wonderful place, when you're the only one in the zone. I quickly filled up my quest journal and got two full levels from quests alone.

72-76:

Kheshatta Kheshatta Kheshatta was the theme of the ninth day. I had to grind a lot of level 72, some quests opened up at 73, so I banged those out really quickly. At this level, I kill mobs with wonderous rapidity. I am no longer worried about the viability of Barbarians and soloing. It was at this time I fully appreciated my choice to be a DW Barb as well. I grinded my way to 74 after finishing some quests, and then more opened up, but it seems like they were group quests or something. I ended up heading over the the Death Master Camps, never having been before. I duo'd that with my best friend in RL - he is a Guardian. Isn't that ironic? Anyway, I ended up hitting 76 that day.

76-80:

Death Master Camp AE group. Anyone who has been to Kheshatta knows about these. Basically, you pull the entire lower camp and level it. We had a tank, 2 healers, a necro, myself, and a demonologist. It was mayhem, some of the most fun I've had in game. During these levels I had my first real group mechanics experience with casters of the non-healer variety. I was rather impressed, makes me lol whenever I hear people complaining about demos/necros now. These levels would be pretty unbearable solo, I must say. You need something like 2.9 million exp to advance to level 80 from level 79.

It was actually kind of funny, because I was on a time limit. I hit 80 something like 2 hours before the server came down. I was #4 on my server, the first Barbarian.