If you're just starting off in an MMORPG, we highly recommend sticking with the main line of quests for as long as you can. Due to the nature of these games, players are bound to get hooked on other activities instead of the main story quests eventually and this is completely natural for an MMORPG. However, if you're a low level player, you should definitely avoid other things like PvP or Raiding and focus solely on completing the main quests because these are almost always very rewarding in terms of both items and experience.

Going off hunting alone is a surefire way to slow down your progress in the early levels. When players go out alone to kill monsters and gain experience, they usually have a really tough time and often and up dying which, in some game, causes them to actually lose experience that they've previously gained. Always try to become part of a party whenever embarking on a hunt because the overall experience gain is significantly higher and you'll almost always have someone watching your back for when things become difficult.

If you acquire points that you can use to level up your abilities, try to put those points into the abilities that have primarily designed for monster hunting. Almost every character class in MMORPGs has tons of different abilities and some of these are focused on PvP whereas some are focused solely on eliminating large groups of monsters in a row. During the early levels, always keep your monster hunting abilities at their highest levels possible because they'll allow you to hunt down waves upon waves of mobs really quickly thereby leading to an exponential increase in your experience game. Once you've gotten a fair bit of levels under your belt, most games will allow you to reset your character class and redistribute your abilities accordingly so you won't need to worry about being pigeonholed into one single play-style.

Don't get distracted by PvP, just don't. Player vs Player matches are super addictive and players who get hooked on them at an early level tend to forgo their leveling entirely and keep wandering around the game world in search of a fight. When you focus too much on PvP on an early level, you slow down your character's level progression by a tremendous amount so you should wait until your character's leveled up and equipped with top notch gear before you try your hand at player vs player.

Joining a clan is also a great way to speed-up your character's progression. You'll be able to ask your clanmates for advice regarding character builds and most players in your clan will even help you acquire weapons and equipment for your character. On top of all this, being in a clan is also a great way to find parties because there are always people online who are willing to go hunting.