Before I start, you need to realize this is not a 1-70 leveling guide, it's just a short guide that will help you have
a quick understanding of how to level up a mage or a warrior in the
lower levels, if you need a complete leveling guide, the best ones are:
Joana's 1-70 Horde
leveling Guide for horde, and
Brian's 1-70 Alliance leveling guide for alliance.
For a Mage
I would say to "grind" is a bad idea, I was grinding (unrested) from
17-18. Even though I was taking on creatures of my level and higher
it still took me 1.5 hours. Now that compared to 18-18 3/4 in about
45 min doing 3 quests (1 quests I had to get 60 tusks though). So I
would say go questing for a mage, or do some instances, that is
until u get improved arc explosion then u can get lots off people at
the same time.
For a warrior I would encourage grinding as a warrior is one of the
easiest classes to grind with. They can be a high damage (2h) high
armor class. So go grinding until u can get to WC (run it for
Wingblade) then go grind until u get a good 2h. Once u get to be
able to do SM u should have your Whirlwind weapon so use that for
taking on mobs of 1 to 2 people then def stance+ 1h shield for mobs
with more than 2 people. After that I go to Arathi and Alterac
Mount. In Alterac go straight up north and grind there, I got
32.5-33 in 30min and 33-34 bout 1hr, also the mobs have some good
loot. In Arathi go to the circles of binding when u get to lvl 35
and use your WW weapon. For both Arathi and Alterac it helps to have
heavy silk bandages and Mageweave, but food works too. Also when u
get to 225 first aid u can do the quest in Arathi for up to 300
skill (takes some luck and repetition, took me 5 times to finally
pass :)
And lastly I know that this is a n00b guide but I will up date as I
go, as right now I am farming honor at level (wow you can get a lot
of honor for killing people 8 levels ahead of you :P)