I just got back to playing RO too. Started about a month ago so I'm still a noob.
I know there are better ways to level out there but this worked for me so far.
Here's my own leveling guide I used for my chars:
1-XX Criatura until job lvl 10 then change to first job
XX-14 Spores/Wormtail - pay_fild08 for spores but there's always too many people there so I prefer wormtail at pay_fild06. If you want to make money though just stick with spores for strawberries
14-34 Bigfoot at pay_fild07 - make sure to collect all bear's footskin and animal footskin for later. Also get the bounty board quests for bigfoot starting at lvl 20. You can also go to anthell but good luck getting a kill from AFKemists.
34-41 Elder Willow at pay_fild09 - do bounty board for this too. DB's for money at the same time.
41-61 Remember the bear's footskin and animal skin that you collected? Now is the time to use that, do item collecting eden board quest over and over again until you use up all your loots. Once you run out of footskins/skins, do the bounty board for greatest generals at pay_fild10. Only loot you can make money with here would be the authoritative badges when sold to players.
61-71 You can stay at greatest general or go to yuno_fild08 and hunt grand pecos. Also hunt goats starting at lvl 65. Loots are decent when OCed with a merch.
71-85 You can now take yuno bounty board quests AND eden hunting quest which have you hunting for the same monsters so double the payoff. Yuno bounty boards have you hunting grand pecos, harpy, sleeper, goat for 150 each while eden quest would be for the same monsters for 20 each. So a good way to go about this would be to get both quests, hunt the monsters, once you get 20 each collect reward for eden then repeat the eden quest. So you would be doing about 6-8 eden quests before you can complete a bounty board quest. You can do the eden quest until 85 and the bounty board until 100 but there would be better places to get exp after 85. yuno_fild08 for grand pecos, yuno_fild07 for goats, yuno_fild03 for harpies, yuno_fild02 for sleepers.
85-92 I go to turtle dungeon here since less aggro than other maps of same level range. Loots are decent with OC. Another option would be siromas at ice_dun01, beware of gazetis. remember to pick up corresponding eden quests.
92-95 Desert wolves at ra_fild01. You can easily get mobbed here though since so few players go here. ra_fild08 would be a less aggro alternative for anacondaqs, some hillwinds and roweens. there's a couple eden quests here too.
95-99 Magmarings at ve_fild03. Non-aggro and biggest exp for this level range afaik.
rebirth then repeat all over again. lol
that's my guide for pre-3rd job lvling. I still dont have one for 3rd job lvling cause I dont have a third job yet.
I dont feel like grinding for exp so I make a different char when I get bored
I managed to make a lvl 97 LK, 96 Stalker, 93 Sniper, 93 HP, and 89 MS all by following this.
Also, to the experienced/veteran players out there, I'd like to know what you think about this. Any better alternatives? What things to change?