This is mainly taken from an Alliance perspective but still works for Horde characters. Past level 40, both factions share pretty much the same quests. I’ll say from the start that questing is going to be most of your experience gain from 1-30. I’d say 75% of every quest you get will be soloable and the other 25% requiring a full group to complete. I am not against quests per-se, simply that a rogue that is grinding is more effective from 35-50 without quests due to the amount of running involed. At 50, there are some good options until 55ish. Once you can access the Outlands (58+), quests are a great way to supplement experience gain.
The main targets you’re looking for are low hit point and low armor humanoids. These are generally casters. Goblins, trolls, undead are good targets. Ogres, naga and such large variety are not as good since they tend to hit harder even if they do have low hit points and armor. If they take too long to die, change targets. If you have to heal after every fight, change targets. If they don’t drop money and you can’t skin them, change targets.
A final note on this, the Pick Pocket skill. Humanoids in levels 42-52 have a chance of having a Sturdy Junkbox and levels 52+ have Heavy Junkboxes. You need these to increase your Lock picking skill, so remember to use Pick Pocket as much as possible. Not only can you get some good cash from it, the skill gain is near essential as the only other way to increase Lock picking is expensive and very long to do. There is really no need to Pick Pockets before creatures level 42+ though, as the cash gained really isn’t a whole lot. It’s really only from the Alterac Ogres that you really notice any real money coming from Pick Pocket.
As for experience rate per level, it can vary greatly. What I’ve personally experienced however is the following:
20-30: ~18K/hour
30-40: ~25K/hour
40-50: ~30K/hour
50-60: ~40K/hour
60-70: ~100k/hour
Obviously, this can vary depending on your playstyle and the amount of rested experience you use. Personally, I did 1-60 in under 7 days /played and 60-70 in just over 2 days /played.

Levels 1-20
Levels 1 through 10, stay in your home zone. There are tons of quests to do and you are close to town when you die. Don’t leave until you’re level 10 as there’s simply an abundance of things to kill up to that point and grinding is great. At level 10, go to the main city and the rogue trainer. They will give you a quest to get the Blade of Cunning. Do this quest now, as the dagger is quite effective. You can also start using different weapons at this point by training in certain cities. If you have mining or skinning, start it now. You will see your first gold by level 8 if you do either profession by selling on the auction house in Ironforge/Ogrimmar. You can get to level 10 inside 1 day.
From 11-20, it’s pretty much the same thing. Horde are in the Barrens and Silverpine Forest, doing quests while the Alliance is in Loch Modan and Westfall. Again, the professions can make a good buck here, so keep at it. Near the end of the 20s you will be able to do your first instance. I suggest you do it simply for the chance to get better gear. There’s always a chance some stuff will drop by doing the instance but odds are the reward for killing the end boss is what you really want. Getting to 20 can take a few days if you quest a lot. If you simply grind, you can finish all of this in 2 days.
You can get to level 20 in a weekend if you don’t mess around.
Levels 20-30
Get your Poison quest done now. Alliance, it’s easy to solo. Horde, get some friends. Make Instant Poison and see the difference in your damage output.
Alliance, you will be hunting in Redridge Mountains and Duskwood. The undead in Raven Cemetary are quite good to kill as they are humanoid and easy prey. Can always move on to the Nightbanes (SE corner) in the later 20s. Finishing off the Ogres (West of the road to STV) is easy in the high 20s. All humanoid with a few casters thrown in. If you’re in Stormwind, do the Stockades a few times. There are a half dozen quests to kill all the named in there and the experience is really good from 25-29. The instance is so small it will take about 30 minutes per run.

Horde can do Stonetalon on the Goblins and Kobolds. Then move onto Thousand Needles and killing Centaurs. You can also head to Hillsbrad Hills (on a non-PvP server. PvP servers, this is a zone you will be killed in non-stop) and kill some Farmers and Gnolls.
Not much instance wise, nor gear wise. I suggest just grinding for 2 levels and going back to town only to train and dump your items on the Auction House. Also look for upgrades to your weapons. There’s a fair amount of leather gear available at these levels as well.
Levels 30-40
First, go to the Auction House and buy all the pages to the Green Hills of Stranglethorn quest. Once you have them all, head to STV and the Hunter’s Camp to turn it all in for some great experience (10K if memory serves) and a decent enough reward.
STV is really where it’s at for the 30s. There is just simply an abundance of quests here that all stack and give good rogue rewards. The animal mastery series is really good and you can knock off the first 2-3 quests in each series alone. The bosses at the end require a group but the rewards are well worth it. Head to Booty Bay and get some more quests there.
Grind-wise, there’s the NE Kurzen Compound that has relatively easy opponents from 30-33. After that, head to Venture Co. Basecamp and kill goblins. They are casters, so really easy kills if you can catch them before they start casting on you. They are good from 33-36. After that, head to the middle of the zone and the east side of the road. There are trolls here to kill that don’t have a damage shield. If you were hunting trolls in the low 30s, you would notice some are shamans and that damage shield would just destroy you. The higher level ones don’t use it for some reason. They can get you to level 40. They drop Flasks of Mojo that sell well in the Auction House.
In the late 30s, you can head to the Alterac Mountains and kill the Ogres. They have really low hit points and armor and therefore die with ease. There are a few quests you can knock off in Hillsbrad that bring you here as well. If you’re a skinner, the Yetis are great. They are humanoids that you can skin. Great!

To note, STV has a rogue trainer, so you don’t have to go back to the main town to train. You might want to leave STV at 35 and come back near 38. It will make things easier quest-wise.
Gnomeregan has a very beautiful pair of leather pants for killing Thermaplugg (Quest). You’ll be using them until you get an upgrade in Mauradon. Doing Scarlet Monastery(SM) and killing the bosses gives you either a good sword or dagger (Quest). Heck, just doing SM runs is a good way to get some new gear as the drops rates are quite high and the areas pretty small. The experience is decent enough but you’re here mainly for the gear.
Levels 40-50
If there was a “hell level” this entire block would be it. It just seems hard to find any good gear for this area and it hinders your experience gain. There are a lot of quests you can polish off here and some easy collection ones as well.
Badlands have a fair amount of collection quests to do and the Ogres in the SW corner offer good cash. Also the first Sturdy Junkboxes will drop here. You can do all of the quests solo except Tremors of Earth. Do this quest with at least 3 other people, it gives you the Blazewind Breastplate which will be your BP until the 50s. Just doing quests, you can shoot through to 42.
Head to Feralas and do a few quests there. There are some gnolls to kill in the south area as well as some ogres west of that. Get the simple quests done and then head to Tanaris, where the real gains are. Yetis are decent enough. I would not stay too long though, as mobs wander a lot here and you get adds frequently.
Kill the Wastewater Bandits. They have really low hit points for melee types and occasionally drop water satchels. There’s a quest in Gadgetzan (the main town in Tanaris) where 5 of these give ~300xp and the quest is repeatable. Kill these guys until you’re 45. They spawn all over the east side of the zone and have chests that pop with them. There are some “rogue” bandits that are in stealth but you should be ok if you pay attention to your combat indicator (where your level is indicated, it turns to a X of swords when in combat). Very easy to kill, have a chance to drop Scorpid patterns, mageweave out the wazoo (good for first aid, or sell a stack for 1g on the AH) and decent item drops.

Once you hit 45 or 46, head to Hinterlands. You probably have a fair chunk of quests for this zone anyways. Head to Aerie Peak and start the quests available. At 45 you should be able to complete every quest here. Make sure you start the Saving Sharpbeak quest line, as well as the Ancient Egg quest, both requiring groups to complete. The Saving Sharpbeak quest gives the Gryphon Rider’s Stormhammer; a great weapon to have.
Grinding though, there is no better place in all of the game. From 45 to 50 you head to the Altar of Zul and kill Soothsayers(10 of them). They are casters with really low hitpoints and long cast times. They occasionally drop Wildvine, which you should keep as it sells for nearly 1gp each. They usually drop Troll Necklaces which when turned in, in groups of 5, gives 390xp. With 4 empty 12 slot bags, I kept one solely for Troll Necklaces that stack up to 20. They have a good chance of dropping items as well, including the rare pop of a named troll. The biggest hurdles here are the 3 roaming wolves. When they attack you, just Vanish. It isn’t worth the time killing them until 49 as they spawn quickly. In an hour you’ll have memorized the wolves’ movement pattern and where the Soothsayers are. You will likely finish levels 45-50 faster than you did 43 and 44. I was getting near 40,000xp/h here once I understood the patterns.
Dunemaul Compound in Tanaris isn’t too bad either as the ogres have a better chance of having Junkboxes on them. They do hit hard however. I would only consider this if the trolls are camped.
Ghosts in Azshara are reportedly silver mines and there are a lot of casters. They tend to be camped by higher levels though.
Instance-wise, do Uldaman for the quests once you hit 43. There’s not much item-wise and the creatures spawn so close the experience isn’t too good. Do Zul’Farrak for some decent leather loots (Scorpashi items). There are about 9 quests that deal with this area, including the Ancient Egg and Saving Sharpbeak quests. Razorfen Downs are pretty good here too, with decent gear but it’s a low 40s zone. Mauradon should only be done near the end of the 40s as they bosses can be really hard and the “orange” side of the zone is deadly to anyone under 50. In fact, if you can, avoid the “orange” side of the zone completely. It causes a very large amount of lag, everything seems to poison you or have a damage shield.

Levels 50-60
Ah, you can feel the end! The 50s are really all about that last push so you can do Blackrock instance runs. You also get the final super powerful skills. Eviscerate now does at base damage what you were hitting for in criticals in the 40s.
At 50, head to Ungoro as it has a ton of collection quests available. It is entirely a beast zone however and there is no cash that drops but there is still a chance of items dropping. Doing all the quests from Marshall’s Refuge (that are non-elite) can get you 2 levels in a day. It really is ridiculous the amount of experience you can gain from this zone with no effort. Bring a Mithril Casing, you need it for a certain quest.
The Blasted Lands have 5 quests that stack for a temporary stat buff to each stat. Personally, the quests that need stuff from Basilisks and Vultures are not worth the effort as the drops are way too slow. They are also repeatable for the experience. The Ogres are also decent experience and start to drop the Heavy Junkboxes. Level 51-53 is a good spot on these. Again, they can hit hard compared to other humanoids.
Felwood has some good kills at Jaedenar, on the demons. At this point you should have your set weapons until you do high level instances, so put Demonslay on both. This gives a chance of stun and 100dmg hit on all demons, which Felwood is full of. With the enchantment, it’s incredible the amount of kills you can rack up. Decent for the lower 50s. Actually some people stay here longer with demonslay because the kills become almost trivial, killing non-stop without the need to heal. I highly suggest killing the furbolgs to get to unfriendly with the Timbermaw. It saves a big hassle getting to Winterspring.
Azshara is also a good area to run though at this point with dual Demonslay weapons. The west side of the zone has some satyrs to kill which are pretty easy to keep clear, though they tend to have imp minions. The northern part of the zone has more Satyrs near level 51 if you find the west camp slow.
The mid 50s allow you to move to Winterspring. In the SW corner, there’s a Dwarf lady who gives a decent cloak just for walking from one end of the zone to the other. The town also has a fair chunk of

quests to complete, which aren’t too bad. The really good spot though is Lake Kel’Therill. It has more ghosts which are easy kills until about level 58.
The Plaguelands are the final area to hunt in. The West from 52-55 and the East from 55 to 60. They are just full of undead to kill. Mainly though, you’re here for the Argent Dawn faction, which can only be gained when you’re under level 60. Might as well get it done before that final level up. If you’re looking for demons to kill, the East has a lot of hounds but that’s pretty much it.
The end of your travels will be in Blackrock Stronghold. Getting the basics of the spawn will kill you a few times but once you get the hang of it, the experience is golden. Half of it is casters, which are perfect for killing. You will more than likely hit 60 here.
Instances next. You want to finish off everything in Mauradon before 55. The Trash Blade (from killing the princess) is an excellent sword, only being beat by a rare world drop or killing Rend in Blackrock Spire. Finish up any quests left for the Sunken Temple as well, there are a few that give some decent rewards. There are quests for this instance all over the world, so don’t be surprised when you find a new one.
Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire are where you will spend your upper 50s. The drops here are ridiculously good and require you to have a skilled group. Mess up just a little bit and you wipe.
You will want to finish the 50s so bad that you’re more than likely to just plow through in a week.
Levels 60-70
Actually, you can start here at 58 and I suggest you do. The experience gain is abou 30% higher in the Outlands and there’s an abundance of quests. First thing I suggest you do is get the FP in your homebase in Hellfire, then ride to Shattrah in Terokkar Forest (SW from Hellfire). There are zero class trainers in Outland and Shattrah has a portal to all major cities making transport back to Azeroth a lot easier. Just make sure you bind in the Outlands.

From 60-62 you’ll be in the Hellire Peninsula. It’s an ok zone overall. You’ll want to avoid the boars though; they have a permanent damage shield. There are plenty of quests here that you should pick up in your home base. I suggest you pick them all up, even the group quests. There are always groups trying to knock something down and if you can join in, that’s usually 10,000xp per turn in, plus a few of them have some very nice rewards (Overlord and Drillmaster are good).
From 62-64 you’ll be in Zangarmarsh. I really like this zone for some reason, everything looks good. Again, a large amount of quests to complete here, very few of them are group necessary though.
64-66 is Terokkar Forest. Lots of humanoid quests here and the choice between Scryer and Aldor faction. From personal experience I have found it a lot easier to raise Aldor than scryer. As for rewards, neither have really good rogue items, minus their shoulder glyphs, which are similar. However, you might have a tradeskill you want to get a recipe for, so check out this link for the listing of rewards http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Aldor_and_Scryer_rewards. As for the zone, keep all the feathers you collect from the Arokkar you kill. Faction turn-in. There are also some truly cool group quests here for some nice weapons and amor (Bone Wyrm is one).
66-68 you’ll be in Nagrand. Even more quests and a lot of running around. Very similar to Stranglethorn Vale to be honest and probably where you’ll collect the largest amount of elemental motes. Make sure you do the Ring of Blood group quest. Some nice weapons come from that and there seems to always be a group running that quest.
68-69 is for Blade’s Edge Mountain. Can be diffcult to traverse and not as many quests as previous zones. However you get a nice Star Wars reference here. Lots of creatures to kill on the east side and ogres through the middle. Quests in the NW section can be painful if you die as the graveyard run is the longest I have ever seen. Only a very small amount of group quests here, all dealing with Ogres in the northern section.

68-70 is Netherstorm. I love this zone. Lots of humanoids to kill and a ridiculous amount of quests. Lots of group quests as well, which I would seriously avoid doing

until you’ve been 70 for a while. If you’ve been regularily doing quests, you will hit 70 here and still have a good 20-30 quests left over.
69-70 is Shadowmoon Valley. Even though Netherstorm and Shadowmoon are supposed to be the same level, Netherstorm is miles easier, hence Shadowmoon for last. A fair amount of quests, most against the legion. Killing the Blood Elves here is not worth the effort involved. Lots of deaths for no good reason.