I whizz-banged my way to 50 with my first character, at the expense of pretty much everything. I didn't know the importance of VD and DR, didn't know what anyone was talking about when they mentioned the wonderful land of 'Sakura', and more pertinently I was a doormat in PvP.
It's well worth taking the time to learn your chosen build, and integrate yourself with the environment (the constructs, specifically - Sakura has never been so fruitful) before reaching the zenith.
my 1st 50 was back during beta testing I did it in 2 weeks no sploiting whatso ever... I did 5hrs during the day and 3hrs at night everyday for 2 weeks.. this was my schedule lol went to work at 7am until 10am then went home jacked in at 10:30am played until 3pm went back to work until 5pm went home and jacked in at 5:30pm played until 10pm or some times til midnight..
My second lvl 50 took me 2mnths, my responsibilities at work changed drastically and so did my game play lol
Leeonidas did it in about a week. I think some others also share about the same time, it can be done, but you need alot of help from other 50s.TH
It was 4-5 days and took about 5-6 different 50's. Then go around and get banned again and expect everyone to do it again and when they don't want to leave game!!
LAWL
Good Game!!
Last 50 I deleted had a play time of about 6 days or so.
And screw missions. Especially regular ones.
It was a purely farming RSI it turned out. "Buckets" of construct items, hideout items, etc. I wasn't really trying to go super fast, but when I was on him.. I was doing nothing but killing things. Exp added up fast.
Now I'm doing it again. I need a life.
I levelled myself in about 4 months, that was with taking time in the constructs to get the items that I wanted (I didn't stay around to get buckets of items in them that some people do though, which is a mild regret because I didn't think about that during the time.
I don't think I'd do anything overly different though if I did it all again...
Oh and I'll edit this when I check my /play time later.