XP gains scale by level. In this post I will use approximate vet level xp, which applies to any level 50 regardless of champion points.

The xp changed with One Tamriel (the update that allows you to go anywhere, and scales everything as c160). Before, zones were leveled. As such, xp earned in Reapers March was more than xp earned in Auridon. I think this applied to everything - mob kills, quests, explore xp. A level 20 character could go to Reapers March and earn more than they’d earn in Auridon...but the mobs were way harder. So you might team up with a buddy. If we ran the Auridon public dungeon together, an enemy kill would be worth 700 xp. If we moved to the Reapers public dungeon the xp was 1000 per kill. You could level faster by moving to higher zones.

Now xp is determined entirely by character level, and you’d earn the same between either dungeon. The same applies to quests and exploration (I think...I don’t quite remember all the values from the old system, lol). But you can no longer go to a higher zone and level faster.

Quest xp has kinda changed too. The xp used to get higher and higher as you went to higher level zones, so a Reaper’s quest might be worth 2x that of an Auridon quest, with some caps and mechanics we can ignore. Now quest xp rewards have all been flattened...a quest in Auridon is the same as a similar one in Reapers for a character of equal level.

Quests pay xp in a couple of ways now. First you get a reward based on quest difficulty. This is an internal marker, and there’s no longer a way to tell in game how a quest is designated...you just kinda have to learn them. Things like delve quests (I found a flute!) pay like 750 xp. Daily craft writs are 1600, standard difficulty dailies are 8k, world boss dailies are 17k, etc.

You also get a large lump of xp if it’s an “area clear,” which is any event that turns a map marker from black to white. An area clear is worth ~8k xp. So the first time you complete a delve or close a specific dolmen, you get 8k on top of the standard xp for those events. If a quest clears the area, that 8k is added in at turn in.

This is one reason guides suggested you do the major story quests. They tend to be harder quests, therefore worth more, and they often clear an area, thereby awarding a second huge lump of xp.

The One Tam changes were 95% awesome and 5% annoying. The annoying is how you can’t go earn higher xp on level 3-49 toons...argh. If you’re trying to level one of these, focus on area clears and major quests. If you have Champion Points and are leveling a low level toon, consider training armor, which helps. If you’re a vet toon, it’s really whatever is fun and fastest for you to work through, but still area clears and big quests are most effective.