Playing with a different mindset.

Let me give you a bit of background about my playing style. I'm an incorrigible altaholic. I play various alts, usually fixating on one or two steadily for many ranks. Then I lose interest and retire them for weeks, sometimes months. The result of this of course, is that I'm an extremely slow leveler. Currently, I have yet to attain a single 40. Instead, I now have a 35 IB, a 20 Blackguard and Black Orc. I also leveled an Engineer to 19, a White Lion to 12, a Witch Hunter to 24 and a Marauder to 28. This does not include other sub rank-11 alts. So yeah, I have a bit of a problem. I don't want to aimlessly grind or quest, so I thought up a way to have a more goal-oriented play-style that was still efficient and had nice rewards.

And so, I had to come up with a way to structure my already limited playing time in order to get any leveling done. What I have done was to play in "shifts". Basically, I will play the character with the largest amount of rest xp to maximize the xp/hour. I try to get to the next rank, or pretty cIose, before I log the character and play the next one in line. This ensures I always have a decent amount of rest xp built up every time I play that character. Doing this also helps me with burnout, as I don't play the same character more than two or three sessions in a row. 

I usually do straight chapter questing, in my character's native pairing. I usually have the goal of making a level and-a-half to two levels for every two chapters. Although to do this, I try to grind out at least level 2 Influence on each chapter. This opens up the chapter's "transition" quest that takes you to the next chapter, and also provides me with an occasional gear upgrade. I will max out influence if the Elite reward is really good for my career or is a significant upgrade. I'll do kill collector mobs, but only if they happen to be in the way, or are directly part  of a quest. I like to save them in case I need some extra xp to get me to the next rank.

Now I occasionally still hit plateaus in my leveling curve, but I have found a few ways to make them tolerable. One of my tactics is to look up Influence rewards from different pairings and try to find items that I really want. I try to find chapters that are relatively close to my level, so I can use the items for a decent amount of time. I'll fly out there, hoof it to the chapter, check in with the Rally Masters and Kill Collectors and proceed to find a relatively close PQ. I grind out Stage One of the PQ, sometimes do a bit of Stage Two if I can hack it, then head back to town to sell off my junk. While I wait for Stage Two to reset, I'll either look for another PQ at Stage One, or look for Kill Collector mobs to grind on while waiting on the first PQ to  reset itself. Check the Kill Collector npc every time you head back to town. Repeat until the Elite reward is unlocked. This is usually extremely efficient in terms of xp per hour, especially if the PQ's are relatively close to each other and the  Kill Collector mobs aren't too far from the chapter hubs or PQs. And it nets me a shiny new upgrade item!

Doing this usually gets me a good chunk of xp, often enough to get me to the next chapter. However, this is not always the case. In this situation I will travel to other pairings and do the appropriate-level quests there. I don't really like to do this, as I prefer to save those quests for a character I'm leveling in that area. And I also make a habit to read quest text and all associated chapter lore. 

Now you may have noticed I haven't mentioned doing scenarios yet, and you may wonder if I do scenarios at all. In fact, I do play scenarios, but in moderated increments. I queue while questing, mostly. I try to get one scenario in for every quest that I complete. I don't hang out at the warcamp and only do the scenario quests. I'll grab the scenario quests at the warcamp, sure. But I'll be out in the world mostly killing and questing. Depending on your server and the time of day, you should be doing a scenario roughly every 5-10 minutes. If the scenario comes up while in the middle of a quest, I'll hit the "give me a minute" option, kill my mob and find a safe spot. Afterwards, I get back on my quest groove and continue with my day. 

However, I do NOT queue for scenarios while grinding out PQs or Kill Collector mobs, as I find it throws me off my groove. Now I drop off my scenario quests when I'm ready to log out for the day, before I get back to my capital city. Back in the capital, I check my auctions, maybe put some stuff up on the auction house, maybe do some crafting, and log out. I play anywhere between one to three hours in a given day, spread out over two or three playing sessions.

And that's how I work my "shifts". I find this to be an efficient gaming method, and it allows me to feel that I am making progress whilst avoiding burnout on any particular character. Also this goal-oriented method avoids excessive grinding and usually rewards you with items and experience for quest completion,  thus enabling a feeling of accomplishment. This isn't suggesting that THIS is how you MUST play your game. It's just my system, and I like it. If you feel like trying it and it help you out, cool! If it doesn't do anything for you, that's fine as well. I hope you glean something worthwhile from this, and safe travels to ya!

 G'nite, gents.