How long does it take to Level 1-95?

With vitality and a xp pot you can get 92-95 in a few hours in either Skyshrine or Kael. You need to group, but it's very very quick. Depending on your class, you can be carried for the most part because the rest of the group will kill everything quick. Only tank and healer needs the appropriate gear for the zone, and even if they don't, if the rest of the group does good dps it's not a problem.

Solo questing is very slow 90-95. If you must solo, then chrono to 80 and rip through Kunark dungeons like Sebilis, that's far quicker even with the chrono xp penalties.

I would Recommend the following path:

Get power-leveled to level 80, then solo/group. You will have a large amount of abilities to choose from, prices for gear isn't that outrageous and you will have access to most of your abilities.
Solo Quest or Group (take suggestions from previous posters for places to go) as most people leveling up will slow down a lot at 80. There isn't that many people playing in the 80-90 level bracket, but I'm pretty sure (pure opinion) that it is more than there are of any of the other lower tiers.

Learn your toon's basic abilities.

Reach 90, use your CoE expansion AA 280 reward thingee. Ask around about who's a good player of your class, people are full of suggestions. They know who are good on their server. Look up that player on eq2u.com use their AA spec.

Read what the AA's do. Practice a little, see what works. Look up on EQ2Flames under the class tutorials for "basic" a casting order that they recommend, change it to suit your playstyle later. I advise not posting there as there are lots of hungry trolls to gobble a new person there.

Set your XP slider to full AA's get in a Skyshrine group until you get 320. Then move onto full adventure XP.
Tell the group you are new and still learning your class. Learn how to use your abilities in a group.

Do your Epic Weapon Timeline.

Once you get up to 95, get in some groups and increase your knowledge of groups. Make sure you tell them that you are new to the class and still learning how to use it in group. They will help you (hopefully) and give you tips that you will no doubt hear over and over, but you should get the hang of it and enjoy your time in EQ2.

I made an alt just cause I was bored and to see how accurate I was in my settings. no PL, no outside help, just me running around soloing/doing quests. level 47 with 6 hours and 30 min on /played at the moment 95 with ER done is about 2 days

No matter how fast you level, you need some quests to do along, or at least after reaching 95 ^^
epic - > morphquest (epic buff)
There plenty more, which can be helpffull later on.
My oldest char did made all quests, pretty around 90-98%, but thats cause he is there since the first sun rise of norrath ^^

One note: Although mercs may make it easier to not die, they do take a cut of the xp you get, so you might level faster if you only use the mercs in areas where you wouldn't otherwise survive. It is up to you, though. Additionally, I remember reading somewhere that they were talking about making it where there was no xp penalty for grouping (with a player), but I can't find the post.

I found this out the hard way leveling a Ranger. From level 1 - 80? 2 days. Then I find out for the epic that Rangers have to have..like... 5 Maxed Factions and do a TON of running/sneaking around. I compare that with my Fury Epic "Hi, I'm a Fury, can I please have a Mythical?" NPC: Go get me some flowers. Fury: Here they are! NPC: Awesome. Here's your Mythical".

That said, I'm having a lot of fun actually playing the class Leveling up to 80, though..PL'd all the way.

P.S. It took me 8? Years to level to 95 because level caps and expansions slowed me down

my sk alt is currently level 70 with a little over 12 hours played on him took a break since I ran out of vitality around level 58 and it was just going slow

Actually, if you are all in, you can make 1-2 maxed toons on one double-xp weekend.... not that i have done like that (just one ^^), but it is possible (leveling way to fast, faster then the knowledge of the class ^^).
That in mind, i would recomend, AoD (mercs) and take a slow trip from 1 - 95 for the first time.

if OP is new to this game and he/she created the first toon ever I suggest not to power level it.
Enjoy questing. Explore different zones. With merc nowdays you can gain levels fast enough. Why to rush?
I am leveling one toon right now by questing and enjoying every second of it.
Learn languages along that in the future will be required to complete epic weapon quest.

Plus doing quests you can unlock lots of achivements that you wouldn't otherwise if powerleveled.

My first toon, started shortly before the cap was raised to 95 (not quite a year ago) and with 0 powerleveling took a couple of months to hit max, but I took my time and had fun exploring as much as I could and quested most of the way in addition to leveling my tradeskill. I duoed (another player, not a merc) most levels and leveling was not a priority, having fun was.

That's just crazy talk.

Really Snowhaze what is this "fun" you speak of? I thought the point of an MMO was "Bigur Noomburz!"

although I would agree "fun" is more important, considering the state of the game, unless you like doing zones alone than leveling is required for "fun". cause you should count yourself lucky if you find 1 other person in the same low level zone as you, let alone enough to make a group

Personally i like the golden path and i take my time i would say to OP to take it easy and learn ur classes unless u have been playing for years and u have seen the same zone tons of time. Its lovely that eq2 got so many zones and so much lore, why passing that and rush to max level.

Well they did and they didn't for hte group xp penalty waht happens is my support toons need to make one aoe hit on the group of mobs to get teh bonuses that come from the mobs. due to needing ot be on the hate list of the mobs in question.

The 'group penalty' doesn't apply if you get on the hate list with other players. You do, however, always split xp with mercs, no matter what you do.

If he wants to join a raiding guild, true. However, they don't say anything about that.

OP it will probably take you a couple of weeks, if you play a good 4 hours or so a day. If you're a F2P subscriber you're really limited on gear/bags and all that good stuff so a few things here and there will challenge you. Enjoy the game, and have fun along the way!

Yes, but mercs allow you kill a heck of a lot faster so it's a give and take situation. You probably level faster with a merc because you tear through content at a very fast pace.

Really depends on the player, the content, and the level. The higher you go the dps from a Merc is more and more insignificant.

That's when Stamper becomes more useful if you don't have self heals. Although he can tend to get a bit carried away swinging his little hammer and forget to heal/cure if you don't put him on full passive and follow only