I have a tendacy to read the first page of a thread and jump to the back and put in my 2 cents so if this has been said already then my bad. In 11 you could get to 50 in about 2 weeks without pl especially if its not your first job. Right now a new player could get to 50 in about the same time.
Its not much different other than the battles are faster and the xp seems to come in large bundles. Its 200k from 48 to 50 and in 11 it was a lot less. Needless to say people seem to be flipping out because they see as 50 being the end cap. Im sure 50-75 or beyond that will be much more of a grind that you may have bargained for. I can see 1M + tnl type stuff.
Anyways so yeah...