Hi guys!
I remember TQIT masteries had a few skills that you would take just to progress faster like Call of the Wild (Nature) or Distoration Wave (Dream).
I am wondering if GD has this kind of skills from masteries or components that enable you to level faster even if you would respec out later on.
I am about to start a dual wielding nightblade to later grab soldier as well. Just want to power level until Homestead or the entire 1st difficulty if possible.
Well, from Soldier tree, the Forcewave skill (works with shield or 2h melee), or Blade Arc (melee) or both. They work fine, have nice AoE, and good DPS.
Take phantasmal blades on the nightblade side or blade arc on the soldier side. Early game leveling as a DW nightblade is one of the worst leveling experiences in the game, if not the worst 
I would go with pblades cause you get a bunch of free lifesteal and if you spec to blade arc is mildly delays the switch over to dual wield since you won’t get as deep in the NB tree as fast
It’s not one of the classes you picked, but Shaman is the king of early leveling. Devouring Swarm, the Briarthorn, and Primal Strike are all incredible for killing mobs fast in the early game.
There are always these as well. Just grab one with active skill that you have +% damage for (and check shops regularly for components to craft these faster):
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/Materia/
Greater Fireblast wrecked trash even in Elite for me on my first character.
Soldier wise, I second Forcewave or Blade Arc. Blitz is actually also very good AoE damage. Make sure you put a point in their synergies ASAP because it massively expands their aoe potential.
Soldier: Forcewave and Bladearc.
Demolitionist: Even been a little bit further down Cannister Bomb is a monster.
Occultist: Bloody Pox and Dreegs Evil Eye.
Nightblade: Never start as a Nightblade if you can avoid it.
In hundreds of hours I never played as a Arcanist so… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
What’s wrong with pblades leveling though 
Don’t hate on my phantasmal blades. Blade burst for a few levels into blades and you gucci
There is nothing wrong with it IMO but the skills from other classes, mainly demo and shaman, are way fast to level with.
could of routes with arcanist…max PRM and then distortion… Does leave you a little week vs bosses though…
Another one is max IEE for energy regen and use searing ember/switching to flint core bolts. Just keep stacking +% fire/casting speed gear. Get AAR after maxing IEE to use for bosses only. By lv 15 can max IEE and get 8 points in AAR and the warden is a joke… Then mix in OFF for the fire resist reduction and clear trash fast! Flint core bolts work better on demo (flame touched is a nice boost!) to go with canister bomb, but is still decent on arcanist.
Before I knew about these skills I tried to level a retaliation warder using retaliation damage… Don’t do that.
It’s often skill combinations that give you fast leveling.
OFF + a fire skill (greater fireblast) is the fastest one. Nothing else even seems close. Against bosses you drop devastation on their head, cast OFF, and spam your fire skill. Just freezing them for part of a second gives a noticeable damage boost.
What’s the best way to level a Demolitionist? Previously Canister Bomb was mentioned, but I put 12 points in it and I wasn’t too impressed. It takes a couple seconds for the bomb to go off and by that time the enemies may have moved. The cooldown is 8 seconds, so what do you do in the meantime?
Grenado is decent single target damage. But since it’s just one damage instance, if it misses due to low OA, it feels like a waste.
Pick Shaman, use Devouring Swarm, you win.
This thread is super helpful for a new/returning player 