The following section will be incorporated into the next version of
this guide, if and when I ever find time to revise it. (I will probably be wikifying and moving it to ParagonWiki while I'm at it.)
Since Ouroboros is in and there is no longer as much reason to be concerned about bypassing content, I have come up with the following "leveling path" for heroes.
The purpose of this path is to show that you do not need to shell out big bucks to some "powerleveling service" to get your fifties fast. Following the advice in this path should get you from level 1 to level 50 within just 3 or 4 weekends of dedicated all-day play (or less if one of the weekends is a Double XP one).
As with all my guides, there is no one "right" way to play the game; if you find some alternate method that works better for you, by all means use it (and feel free to share it, too!). This path is provided as an example.
I may eventually do one for villains, too, though that one will not be as easy given that there are fewer Strike Forces there.
LEVELING PATH FOR HEROES
1-10:
Create your character. Go through the tutorial, or just skip it. With Ouroboros allowing you to go back and get the "Isolator" badge, there's really no reason to bother with it unless you want the two big Inspirations. You'll hit level 2 in about two or three enemy defeats once you hit the pavement, anyway.
Once you hit Atlas or Galaxy, join or form a team with as many people on it as you can get (preferably 8). Do missions until you hit level 5 or so, then (optionally) go to King's Row to do Police Scanner missions and a Safeguard to get your jet pack. After that, enter the sewers. It should only take an hour or so in there to reach Level 10.
Slot your attacks for Accuracy. Because of Beginner's Luck, you can up the difficulty and still be assured of hitting things, but I would go no higher than Rugged at this point.
10-15:
Optionally, do more radio missions and a Safeguard to get your jump pack. Then join or form a Positron Task Force. In accordance with my Task Force advice earlier in this Guide, sidekick as low as you can (or, if you are a back-ranks support type like a Defender or Controller, you may not even need to sidekick at all) for as short a time as you can, and not die very much, and you will be at or near level 16 by the time the Task Force is over.
Yes, nobody likes Positron, but it's necessary for Task Force Commander and you might as well do it now when you get XP out of it rather than having to exemplar back in later.
15-20:
Join a Synapse Task Force, as above. It should get you to level 20 or level 21. Note that this will skip you right over the Faultline content, so if you want to play through it, do that first.
20-25:
Join a Sister Psyche Task Force, as above. It should get you just about to level 25. Note that the first Striga Island arc, with the 2-hour-duration Wedding Ring reward, can only be accessed below level 25. (The version you get through Ouroboros does not have that two-hour duration.) You may want to do that before you do the Psyche.
At level 24, you may also want to run a Respec Trial or two.
25-30:
Your choices for Task Force here are several, including Citadel, Moonfire, or Hess (depending on your level range). One TF alone will not get you all the way to 30 from 25, so you may choose to form an 8-man mission team for the rest of it. (Doing the last two Striga arcs to unlock Hess or the first two Croatoa arcs are good choices.)
Note that the first two Croatoa arcs, with the Divining Rod and Rune of Warding temp powers, can only be accessed below level 30 (unless you want to get them through Ouroboros later).
30-35:
Doing the last two Croatoa arcs will get a couple of useful temp powers, and unlock the Katie Hannon Task Force which is easily good for a level or two per 45-minute run. You will also want to do the Manticore TF as above to get a couple of levels out of that.
At level 34 you may also want to run a Respec trial or two. The Freakshow respec is a decent XP earner, and much less boring than the Sky Raider trial.
35-40:
Unless it's a double XP weekend, the current TF (Numina) will be good for only 1-2 levels at most, even if you enter it on the low end of the scale and do not sidekick. Fortunately, this is also where the two newest endgame TFs kick in: Imperious (Cimerora) and Lady Grey (Rikti War Zone). Once you hit L39 you will also want to do the Eden Trial.
Apart from these, forming an 8-person team and doing newspaper or arc missions on Invincible is a decent way to earn XP to fill in the gaps.
40-50:
At this point, you can keep on grinding out the Imperious and Lady Grey Task Forces and the Respec trials (Freakshow up to 43, Rikti at 44 and up) to level. Remember to sidekick as low as you can effectively fight to gain XP faster.
Alternately, you might find it worthwhile to nip over to the Shadow Shard, open all the contacts, and run the four Task Forces there. Quaterfield is a bit long and boring, but it's decent XP (and once the Merits system goes in, it will probably be one of the best bets for earning a good chunk of them at once). The other three are shorter, but at least offer a decent amount of variety and a good amount of XP.
There are a number of decent, repeatable missions in the Shard. The Kora Fruit missions, though no longer farmable to powerlevel, are still a good way to fill up (and to fill your supergroup's storage up, if you have one) with mid-size Inspirations (which can be converted three-for-one to Bounce Backs).
If you cant fly or teleport, NCSoft's store now offers a $5 30-day jetpack that will help you get around in the Shard for a while. If you are going to run a month of Shadow Shard missions, it might just be a good investment.
The following section will be incorporated into the next version of
this guide, if and when I ever find time to revise it. (I will probably be wikifying and moving it to ParagonWiki while I'm at it.)
Since Ouroboros is in and there is no longer as much reason to be concerned about bypassing content, I have come up with the following "leveling path" for heroes.
The purpose of this path is to show that you do not need to shell out big bucks to some "powerleveling service" to get your fifties fast. Following the advice in this path should get you from level 1 to level 50 within just 3 or 4 weekends of dedicated all-day play (or less if one of the weekends is a Double XP one).
As with all my guides, there is no one "right" way to play the game; if you find some alternate method that works better for you, by all means use it (and feel free to share it, too!). This path is provided as an example.
I may eventually do one for villains, too, though that one will not be as easy given that there are fewer Strike Forces there.
LEVELING PATH FOR HEROES
1-10:
Create your character. Go through the tutorial, or just skip it. With Ouroboros allowing you to go back and get the "Isolator" badge, there's really no reason to bother with it unless you want the two big Inspirations. You'll hit level 2 in about two or three enemy defeats once you hit the pavement, anyway.
Once you hit Atlas or Galaxy, join or form a team with as many people on it as you can get (preferably 8). Do missions until you hit level 5 or so, then (optionally) go to King's Row to do Police Scanner missions and a Safeguard to get your jet pack. After that, enter the sewers. It should only take an hour or so in there to reach Level 10.
Slot your attacks for Accuracy. Because of Beginner's Luck, you can up the difficulty and still be assured of hitting things, but I would go no higher than Rugged at this point.
10-15:
Optionally, do more radio missions and a Safeguard to get your jump pack. Then join or form a Positron Task Force. In accordance with my Task Force advice earlier in this Guide, sidekick as low as you can (or, if you are a back-ranks support type like a Defender or Controller, you may not even need to sidekick at all) for as short a time as you can, and not die very much, and you will be at or near level 16 by the time the Task Force is over.
Yes, nobody likes Positron, but it's necessary for Task Force Commander and you might as well do it now when you get XP out of it rather than having to exemplar back in later.
15-20:
Join a Synapse Task Force, as above. It should get you to level 20 or level 21. Note that this will skip you right over the Faultline content, so if you want to play through it, do that first.
20-25:
Join a Sister Psyche Task Force, as above. It should get you just about to level 25. Note that the first Striga Island arc, with the 2-hour-duration Wedding Ring reward, can only be accessed below level 25. (The version you get through Ouroboros does not have that two-hour duration.) You may want to do that before you do the Psyche.
At level 24, you may also want to run a Respec Trial or two.
25-30:
Your choices for Task Force here are several, including Citadel, Moonfire, or Hess (depending on your level range). One TF alone will not get you all the way to 30 from 25, so you may choose to form an 8-man mission team for the rest of it. (Doing the last two Striga arcs to unlock Hess or the first two Croatoa arcs are good choices.)
Note that the first two Croatoa arcs, with the Divining Rod and Rune of Warding temp powers, can only be accessed below level 30 (unless you want to get them through Ouroboros later).
30-35:
Doing the last two Croatoa arcs will get a couple of useful temp powers, and unlock the Katie Hannon Task Force which is easily good for a level or two per 45-minute run. You will also want to do the Manticore TF as above to get a couple of levels out of that.
At level 34 you may also want to run a Respec trial or two. The Freakshow respec is a decent XP earner, and much less boring than the Sky Raider trial.
35-40:
Unless it's a double XP weekend, the current TF (Numina) will be good for only 1-2 levels at most, even if you enter it on the low end of the scale and do not sidekick. Fortunately, this is also where the two newest endgame TFs kick in: Imperious (Cimerora) and Lady Grey (Rikti War Zone). Once you hit L39 you will also want to do the Eden Trial.
Apart from these, forming an 8-person team and doing newspaper or arc missions on Invincible is a decent way to earn XP to fill in the gaps.
40-50:
At this point, you can keep on grinding out the Imperious and Lady Grey Task Forces and the Respec trials (Freakshow up to 43, Rikti at 44 and up) to level. Remember to sidekick as low as you can effectively fight to gain XP faster.
Alternately, you might find it worthwhile to nip over to the Shadow Shard, open all the contacts, and run the four Task Forces there. Quaterfield is a bit long and boring, but it's decent XP (and once the Merits system goes in, it will probably be one of the best bets for earning a good chunk of them at once). The other three are shorter, but at least offer a decent amount of variety and a good amount of XP.
There are a number of decent, repeatable missions in the Shard. The Kora Fruit missions, though no longer farmable to powerlevel, are still a good way to fill up (and to fill your supergroup's storage up, if you have one) with mid-size Inspirations (which can be converted three-for-one to Bounce Backs).
If you cant fly or teleport, NCSoft's store now offers a $5 30-day jetpack that will help you get around in the Shard for a while. If you are going to run a month of Shadow Shard missions, it might just be a good investment.