Having so much fun that I halted gearing my monk. Got him to 50 with AR. Found out I needed to buy a crafted weapon for relic. Started crafting and determining what I really wanted to do in the game so I've decided to change my DoW/M main completely.

So crafting for now. Then when I'm ready my main will shoot to 50 in twinked crafted/melded gear and will let the end game raiding, pvp, high level crafting, and housing begin.

With proper uses of Leves and gathering xp books(from the GC's) you can fly on leveling.

Gatherers are definitely the hardest to level up imo. With the fate system and bonus XP to all DoW/M under your highest level DoW/M receiving 50% bonus xp there's no reason not to just use up all of those quests the first time through the game IMO. Using the Books on the Gatherers was still tough and in the 40s+ it takes I think over 10 leves to get a level which is a lot compared to the crafters who get the triple AND HQ hand ins.