Attack

Your Attack level does not raise your damage. The power level of the weapon in your hand does, so if an area or a boss is killing you, the answer is better iron, steel or mithril, not more levels. Levels buy the perks: Parry at 5, special actions at 8, Tempest Shield at 11 and the rest, which is why you train it at all. Two habits make every method below faster: stop sprinting a few seconds before a fight so your stamina is full when it starts, and step out of range when an enemy charges a power attack rather than finishing your combo, since very few melee weapons stagger them out of it.

The XP boosts stack in one specific way. A food perk and a potion perk run together, but a second food replaces the first and a second potion replaces the first. So it's one of Wild Pie, Forager's Sandwich or Sweet Veg Ball for Knowledgable Nourishment (+10% XP in every skill) plus a Focused Attack potion (+15%, or +30% from the Focused Attack and Super Focused Attack tiers), with a Ferocious Infusion to cut attack stamina by a third. On your neck, the Inspiring Amulet of Attack is +5% XP; the Amulet of Strength (+12.5% melee), Unholy Symbol (+15%, minus 15 health) and Amulet of Glory (+25% crit) kill faster instead, and the Salve Amulet beats all of them on undead.

In Brynmoor, get a Bone Dagger before anything else: four small animal fangs from the windmill rats and four animal bones from the cows, plus flax for a spinning wheel. Its speed interrupts enemies mid-swing. Then run the loop: windmill, up to the Runecrafting Guild, east along the ridge to the Keep of Blue Flames, south-east to the Adventurer's Guild and back to the village, with food and clean water for the trip. In Ghornfell craft bronze and then iron first, kill a wandering Abyssal Demon for the Abyssal Remains that make the Abyssal Whip, and once you have power level 4 gear farm Wild Lapulis Vines along the river in the Stormtouched Highlands, which are weak to melee. Skip garou hunters and druids, who resist it.

The late methods are both in the Umbral Sands. The Fight Cave after Icthlarin's Little Helper pays roughly 80,000 XP for the first 28 to 30 waves unbuffed and over 100,000 with everything on, in 40 to 60 minutes; wear one piece of magic armour (the hat) for the -50% stamina regeneration delay, bring 40 Stuffed Catfish and Glazed Pumpkin Sandwiches, use a two-hander on the crowd waves and stop before Fuzan, whose long phases aren't worth the time. Faster still is bouncing between two Tok-Xil spawns by lodestone, nearly killing each and teleporting to reset the other: about 2,400 XP every 35 to 40 seconds, up to 230,000 an hour with the whetstone, water enchant, potion and food running. The two by the pyramids spawn reliably; the one in the ruined town needs you some distance away first.