From Project 1999 Wiki

** NOTE: This guide is now outdated following a nerf to the XP given in the gnoll fang quest - it is still a useful place to level and the XP is still worthwhile into the early teens if you're there anyway



Leveling can be torturous in Classic EQ. Especially if you come into this server not knowing anyone or being able to afford a power level. The low levels can be a boring repetitive snorefest and even though some people have the nostalgia of leveling in Oasis of Marr and dying over and over to A Sand Giant trains, I do not.

This guide is designed to get you from level 4 to level 19-21, depending on your xp penalty [1], as quickly as possible without relying on others. As a bard, I got to level 19 and some change. I've seen others get to level 21 without a penalty.

It is reliant on you farming inside Blackburrow, a zone adjacent to Qeynos Hills from 4-11 meanwhile collecting Gnoll Fangs. Once you have 300 Gnoll Fangs, you utilize the first half of the Moonstones quest. This will level you from 11-19/21.

Level 4-7

I ran around the outside of Blackburrow in Qeynos Hills picking up the Gnolls on the outside spawn. It was much easier/safer than running around inside getting (possibly) trained or stymied by a red con mob during my search or stopped by a room I couldn't pull b/c too many spawned. Once I had the camp broken... it didn't matter if people ran up trying to catch spawns outside. I got them almost always. If you are an evil race, be cognizant of the patrolling Qeynos guard. Being a race that wasn't evil, this was the easiest part.

Level 7-10

Inside top floor and parts of the lower level. Brewers, and guardsmen still posed a problem. Had to deal with the occasional train. XP definitely dropped off, but was still pretty easy if you get the timing of the spawns down.

Level 10-11

It gets much easier. You don't have to contend with others as much because you should be able to break rooms of 3-4 gnolls and come out alive. So a lot of the time I had entire sections to myself because no one else could deal with guardsmen and big room spawns. I still had to avoid gnoll elites, and had to be careful about some guardsmen who still conned white/yellow (these had to be solo'd or I would die). I was actually worried I would hit 11 before I got the 300 fangs, and that did happen. I eventually got to 300 about 2 yellows into 11.

Level 11-20ish (The turn-in)

Resist the urge to do periodic turn-ins. This is about getting you to around 20 as fast as possible. If you break down and want to turn in 60 fangs early, you will certainly get your lower levels faster, but you will stop getting experience while collecting fangs to do the final turn-in; which ruins the effectiveness of the leveling strategy.

It took me awhile to find the quest turn-in, Captain Tillin. He's on the 2nd level of the Warrior arena area in South Qeynos. After I found him, I arranged my windows around the destroy button (the moonstones don't give much xp or gold, I just destroyed them). It took about a minute per level, holding ctrl+clicking stacks to get 1 gnoll fang at a time. Took longer obviously when I got closer to 19. Be prepared to do about a thousand clicks.

Conclusion

Congratulations! This is an amazing way to skip a lot of low levels of grinding. Just be prepared to practice your skills afterward, because skipping 8-10 levels will leave you wanting.

Overall, the leveling took me about 3-4 days as a casual player.

Also as a perk, you gain Qeynos factions when you kill Gnolls and when you do the turn-in. As a half-elf bard worshiping Bristlebane, I was able to max out my faction with Guards of Qeynos and, IIRC, Merchants of Qeynos. This will obviously vary depending on how hated you are to begin with.

Postscript:

Crkhobbit writes: "note that you will likely be max KOS to Corrupt Qeynos Guards and Circle of Unseen Hands, which I think is the rogue guilds."

Also, special thanks to ArcanePretext, for being the impetus behind this guide.