Some people might consider this cheating. I consider this "workign the system". It is perfectly legal, and still involves a bit of skill.
* you have been warned *
If you go to the Drake's Nests (west of Aridale, found by going n by nw out of aridale, then turning south west) you can get a lot of XP very early if you have any distance weapon.
There is a range where the drake's do not respond to you, even if they are being hit. ... it is fairly far away ... well out of the range of your distance weapon.
HOWEVER
You can still hit them! THe trick is to aim what (At least to me) seems somewhat lower than your intended target. I used throwing knives, and they seemed to float "up" somehwat after I threw them.
Anyway, it takes some practice, but eventually you can find the spot where you can throw or shoot at will and hit the Drake 75% of the time. After about 10 minutes of this, the Drake will kick the bucket.
With monster difficulty set to Hard, I yielded somewhere around 300K per kill!
If you use this strategy, I recommend investing everything into agility first at least one time. This will allow you to throw/shoot more rapidly, and thereby take down the drakes faster.
