[DrKvothe]

I've personally found leveling in the nektulos/freeport area to be unrewarding and boring, but YMMV. I'd find a friendly druid in EC to port you to SRo, run you to grobb, and bind there. Trolls have the best noobie hunting grounds in the game, imo. Mobs there are rich in the froglok equivalent to cloth armor. Alligator skins are more plentiful than HQ bear skins and should sell for a tidy profit in EC. You can graduate into UGuk groups for fantastic exp and still good loot.