Questing also nets you faction rep which is pretty important for some things. So don’t discount that either.
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AoE grinding is the fastest lvling possible. However you miss out on some fun quests and quest lines. You will have to go back to get items you might want… and you have crappy rep with all factions but your own.
I went from 38 - 44 grinding in Arathi Highlands. Was surprisingly fast.
Also if you skip quests while leveling you get more gold doing them after getting max level. Definitely recommend not doing the higher level zones until you’re max level because the quests will give you 4-6 gold and you get an item you can sell for almost the same.
From ST forward, you should be running instances for pre-raid BIS anyways.
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Generally you want to do a little of both. I usually try to do at least 2 or 3 quests at a time, hopefully more, but by that time my bags are full and I’m out of water so I’d have to go back to town anyways.
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I’d question it even for Mages.
I quested to 60 and got there with 2 zones leftover so I’d also question the inevitability of grinding. I quested entirely other than some SM Cath runs from 38-39.
I don’t really believe that straight aoe grinding of mobs is faster than mixing in quests… especially considering all the good spots are heavily camped by other mages and a great spot to get ganked if you’re on a pvp server. All that slows you down.
No problems at all aoe grinding quest mobs when the situation presents itself… but straight mob grinding? No way.
Go aoe grind the pirates in Tanaris with the other 4 mages that are there and I’ll grab all the quests and we’ll see who dings first.
I had enough quests.
My route from 1-60:
Elwynn
Loch Modan
Westfall
Redridge
Duskwood
Wetlands
Hillsbrad
Alterac
Arathi
Desolace
STV (southern STV Booty Bay quests)
Badlands
SoS
Feralas
Hinterlands
Tanaris
Searing Gorge
Azshara
Un’goro
Felwood
Burning Steppes
WPL
EPL
Notable zones I didn’t touch at all:
Darkshore
Ashenvale
1000 Needles
Northern STV (Nesingwary, etc)
Blasted Lands
Winterspring
Moonglade
Silithus
I quested the whole way other than some SM Cath spam from 38-39 and only did that long enough to get the drops I wanted. I’d still have had enough quests.
So yeah… I don’t buy the whole “there aren’t enough quests available to get 60.”
Yes there is. 
I did a mix. After level 25 or so, there were a number of occasions when I had a good camp of humanoids (for coin, and cloth) that I could sit and kill, so I’d quest for a chunk, then do the last 10-30% of a level just grinding, rather than going to the next quest hub.
In particular I killed a lot of Wastewanderers, and undead in Western Plaguelands by the time I hit 60.
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Key part in my statement is “solo”
I did my fair share of grind leveling with Hunter back in Vanilla, but the Hunter is built for quick/easy leveling in general even on quests that take other classes higher levels or small groups to accomplish, & they are super-easy to grind quickly for XP/Mats with no downtime really compared to most other classes. Grinding with most other classes can be rough/slow, though my Warrior was also pretty good at it in Vanilla once you got the rage bar going & charged from one opponent to the next with some rage intact.
Nowadays in Classic I generally only grind for cloth/leather/meat, using my current up-and-coming Hunter only, since my 36 Resto/Bal Druid is gimp/slow in comparison for solo grinding or questing in general vs the Hunter (but still fun to play).
… and I solo’ed the vaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttt majority of the quests in those zones I listed as well.
Let me think… how many were group quests?
A couple in Loch Modan, few in Redridge… a couple at Duskwood cemetary, a few Stromguard quests in Arathi… Ogres in Alterac which were 2 manned…
That’s all I can recall. I didn’t do many dungeons leveling up… Deadmines once… SM Lib/Armory once… and the Cath runs from 38-39. Didn’t run another till 54 when I ran ST once. The other dungeons prior to ST I skipped and past ST (including the BRD runs for Ony key) I did at 60.
So yeah, my statement still stands… there are enough quests if you don’t mind traveling… which as a mage isn’t all that difficult.
To each their own.
I was grinding crabs on my hunter for crab and clam meat for an alt cooking. i gained over a level while watching tv. Its pretty easy on a hunter to find a mob a couple levels below you and just kill while almost afk.
On my rogue or warrior however I wouldn’t dream of it. Way more thought
So you didn’t do all solo quests to 60 lol
What a stupid point to try to make… Who ever cares about solo or group questing? Most people just differentiate between leveling questing or grinding or dungeons.
You’re inserting some “solo” word to troll the person that actually made a valid point to the topic.
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If only to avoid dying of boredom, questing is better. Grinding a little bit while questing is fairly lucrative, though.
Not sure what your point is. You said “There aren’t enough solo quests in game to get 60 just off of them so grinding is necessary” and I pointed out all the zones I SOLO quested in and even mentioned the group quests I did… as well as THE ZONES I DIDN’T EVEN TOUCH AT ALL but you’re still telling me there aren’t enough solo quests?
LOL… read the last part of my post again.
Notable zones I didn’t touch at all:
Darkshore
Ashenvale
1000 Needles
Northern STV (Nesingwary, etc)
Blasted Lands
Winterspring
Moonglade
Silithus
Add up the solo quests in those zones and I’m pretty sure they will offset the handful of group quests I did.
So again, my statement still stands, there are plenty of quests available to get to 60. Solo quests at that.
Nothing else to debate here. I’m out.
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Thank you!
Peace out!