The Kunark Express
This one is purely for nostalgia; the Kunark Express was a popular route to level when Kunark was new, but there are better ways. It was based around the all new zones released in Kunark, and would take you from 1 to 60 (yes, the level cap at the time). This guide may also be useful for people levelling on Progression servers.
The start was based around the Iksar newbie zones: Lake of Ill Omen (the most popular), Field of Bone, Swamp of No Hope, and Warsliks Woods. The most popular were the Field of Bone and LOIO - or Lake of Ill Omen. For non-iksar, you were best advised to follow your normal levelling path in your home city to the teens, then switch to LOIO, although the more adventurous could, and did, make their way to Cabilis or Firiona Vie (a good city in its day) through high level zones and then on to Field of Bone.
I cover some side-paths, but the main express route was:
Field of Bone -> Kurn’s Tower -> LOIO -> Frontier Mountains/the Overthere -> Dreadlands -> Karnor’s Castle -> Sebilis.
Some of the zone that aren’t on the express route have become popular since for levelling, and had a degree of success in their day: Chardok, Nurga, Droga, Howling Stones and City of Mist. Skyfire Mountains and Burning Woods were both popular for levelling for outdoor zones, for instance.
My notes here are entirely from memory, from following this progression in the early days of Luclin. I’ll revise some after actually following this with some new character(s).
Field of Bone
For starter levels, the most popular zone was Field of Bone. Much harder to get to for non-iksar than LOIO. It also had the most starter quests for iksars (although all of the starter zones had some quests to work on, and the iksar weapon quests would take you through all of the starter zones).
The area close to Cabilis is good for 1 to 5, and any character can bind in the buildings there. Non-iksar had to watch out for the troopers, who had fixed patrol paths through the buildings, but could easily be dragged to the safe bind points (not so safe, after all).
The pit was the initial target for most people as they levelled past the first mobs by Cabilis, although the area to the east of the pit and Kurn’s Tower towards the Swamp of No Hope zone line could be just as productive. The west side of the pit has some spider caves on the path towards Warsliks Woods (for around level 4-6).
The north side of the zone featured much higher level mobs, and is best avoided for levelling.
Kurns Tower
Kurns had/has an amazing experience bonus, and remained one of the best fast levelling zones until TSS introduced Blightfire Moors, being better even than the famed Paludal Caverns.
Above ground, all the mobs (almost all) are skeletons. Enter at 8 or 9 and kill the two skeletons in the lobby, with a safe zone line just behind you if things got too tough. On the entry level at the back was a secret wall entrance into a safe room (until you were trained).
Higher floors were only a little harder, with a couple of tougher quest mobs on the top floor. You will easily get to 18 or 19 on the undead.
The harder mobs for grounds were in the basement, with a mix of burynai and skeletons, and some much sought after rare drops to camp.
Lake of Ill Omen
As with Field of Bone, it offers bind points close to the city and good hunting for 1 to 10, with the same risks, although never quite as popular for those levels.
As you increased in level, going further away Cabilis towards the lake gave higher level mobs, until in mid-teens you could make your way to the windmill. The Sarnaks, iksar and sabertooths and skeletons in that area would take you to low 20s.
Not far from the windmill is the Sarnak fort, and east from there are the goblin tunnels. A group in that area would take you to the 30s.
Not many people took advantage of them, but the lake held a few aqua goblins around the entrance to what is now Veksar; good for around level 40, but the usual caveat about few mobs and slow spawns for modern game play also applies.
Warsliks Woods
This was a less popular zone for low levels than LOIO, but good for iksar with little competition from non-iksar: thanks to unfriendly terrain, iksar bandit camps and troopers.
The most popular camp site was the giant fort, around the low 20s; and the tunnels leading to Dalnir were viable in the high 20s, although the mob density and respawn rate is far too low for modern gear and changes in game play.
Frontier Mountains
Another zone with a giant fort (many of the in Kunark) is Frontier Mountains; the main attraction being the Forest Loop, both a good stat item (for Kunark), and would sell for 200pp to vendors.
Frontier Mountains also holds the entrances to Nurga and Droga. It was a little awkward to reach, as you had to get a port to Dreadlands or a boat to the Overthere.
The Overthere
The west side of the Overthere had a good low level spot around the mud pit, although few people seemed to know of it. Good characters had to take the boat from Oasis (?) and jump off and swim to short before it docked in the Overthere outpost. There was a spot just outside the outpost walls where you could bind.
But the reason the Overthere is in the Kunark Express path is because of the “ledge”; the spot in the north eastern corner close to the Skyfire entrance were a group of 30-35 characters could sit and pull mobs. Solo characters could continue on to 40 if they were careful with pulls of rhinos, sabertooths and sarnaks.
Dreadlands
The prime spot in the Dreadlands was the ledge around Karnor’s Castle. Several groups could sit there and pull from the open area. This was best for 35-45.
There were a couple of solo spots in the mountains that separate the hidden valley from the Karnor’s area - some tunnels with brutes.
Karnor’s Castle
The downside of Karnor’s (and this goes for Howling Stones as well) is that virtually every kill here hurts your faction for the Overthere outpost; this can be a big deal for evil races.
This wasn’t a zone that I used much, so apart from the obvious two camps - left courtyard and right courtyard, I don’t know much.
Sebilis
Sebilis was one of the glories of Kunark - the other being Howling Stones. Multiple options for dungeon crawls, some interesting lore, and lots of great drops - not forgetting the famous froglok flip animation for casting. Perfect for levelling from 50 to 60.
This was one of the keyed zones (the others being Howling Stones and Veeshan’s Peak); the key was made by getting drops from the Froglok Hunter and Froglok Forager in Trakanon’s Teeth on the way to Sebilis, and handing them in to an iksar ghost in that zone. Once you pass the gates under the viaduct, follow the raised ridge of the edge of the city to your right, until a fallen pillar crosses that edge (or just use a map). Turn in to the buildings there and follow the passage down to the globe, and touch it to enter Old Sebilis.
You can fight your way past the first mobs going down; turning left and left again will put you into the exit passage with a load of (slightly higher level) golems. The first camp was to cross the middle bridge (of three), towards the crypt. There were some scarab beetles and golems to pull before the (locked) crypt, and you could pull from the bridges area if that wasn’t enough.
From that central point the left hand bridge took you to the disco area, and several camps were possible there. The right hand bridge was another section with several camps; all three areas were roughly the same level.
For higher level mobs, jump into the water and follow the underwater tunnels into the jail. The jail itself is a notch higher level than the entry areas, but through the jail you enter the myconid area, with lots of twisty passages. What makes the myconids tough is the number of healers (using Complete Heal) that would make some kills extremely long.
Past the myconids you’ll find the juggs (sebilite juggernaut) - big golems, and lots of them. This is the last camp before the Trakanon room, which has lots more juggs and a few other mobs. Watch out that a runner from the juggs doesn’t head this way, as an accidental pull of Trakanon would be possible (if he wasn’t camped to instant oblivion, that is).