So I have 3 of them to 99, the medium mage guy at mid 80s, the healer/emote girl at 40, and the aggro grandpa at 1.

 

I'm currently grind my way through to 99 for all of them, but after that I intend on still trekking for:

 

1. Full lumberjack if by the time I get to 99 with all of them I don't have it yet (only boots so far)

2. Talon beast charms

3. Vyre corpses

4. Good xp rewards, since I value pretty much all of them quite highly except for FM and maybe WC.

 

Leveling the mage dude should be straightforward from where I am now. I've read that for the two hard NPCs, I should just rush easy/mediums since they do like no damage. Is this optimal?

 

As for actually getting XP rewards, who would be the best to bring along? I feel it's either one of the easy NPCs or the ranger from Burgh. I would assume that I just go for hard paths every time.

I personally found Aggro gramps to be easier than the girl, as he let you see what to expect on future paths at level 20. Handy for avoiding certain events that you don't want to do.

 

I don't think it's been conclusively proven that Pazuzu/Dean is better than the other. Though if you're interested in maxing out rewards, one easy follower + one hard path + one combat event will bring you pretty close to 100 trek rating, since a hard combat event gives anywhere from 25 to 50 points. I think you can pull similar rates with medium paths, since there's always going to be 1-5 events, and you get to see which events you want to progress through.

I personally found Aggro gramps to be easier than the girl, as he let you see what to expect on future paths at level 20. Handy for avoiding certain events that you don't want to do.

Yeah, it makes him a lot easier to work with.