Fastest way to level a ranger ?

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the concept of 'leeching' exp from people who are actually trying to get further in the game is just so ***king horrible to me ....

it is like being a parasite

Maybe you haven't seen it done. I've seen it done with lowbies spamming quick silver flasks to speed run through the prison to Brutus and pop a portal to pull everyone through for rapid exp/loot runs. I did say "You attack and support the group but if the shyt hits the fan run!" If the lowbies bring zombies, fire traps, ground slam, heavy strike, bear traps, poison arrow, ice shot, and glacial hammer, Brutus becomes much easier to zerg farm. Yes they are effectively leeching exp, but the utility and support is great. If you die in hard core at level 3-10 that death is negligible unless you are in a race. I think its pretty creative and fun to see good use of game mechanics to level quickly.

I hope you don't think one must be level 10 to do Brutus, and level 16 to Merv. I hope you don't think its "cowardly" to pop 2-3 poison arrows and a fire trap on a boss, and hide behind a pillar while the poison/fire eats the bosses life bar.

The guy selling zero quality LMP for 3x GCP is free to do it. I think he will have a tough time selling the gem. I'll zerg my way to a basically free gem and make some friends along the way. Hell I'll zerg 2 chars, get 2 basically free gems, keep 1 gem, and sell the other by under cutting him in asking price.

speed run and put a portal is useful, but it's no exactly what the OP is asking, he is asking the fastest way to get xp, and rushing bosses is not.
farming exp is killing a lot of mobs, and for that, alone or in group, melee 1h spec is far from being the most efficient, that is all.

Ogc I don't think it's cowardly to use fire trap and poison arrow the way it is intended, I do the same ( but with viper strike ) in solo.

And of course 3 gcp for LMP is impossible to sell, I was just taking your example.

Hmm, honestly, what is your melee spec you are planning.

You will have a rough time converting later on if you aren't playing and adapting and changing your build to make it work along the way.

I know whenever there is a passive reset I ruin my character.

I would just level how you want to play later, but focus on hp nodes first.

If you don't want to enjoy playing your spec, then I will second poison arrow with silverbranch, you don't need to cast it often, and only fight large groups of enemies so the mana on kill is enough to keep you going. I've level characters extremely fast with poison arrow, even used a silverbranch to lvl 70 before.