I just dinged 18. Solo' level 16 at dunes hill lizard camp for normal level 10 parties. It was fantastic and highly recommended. Very few people party there on this server, so the lizards are all yours. At 16 they're pretty much always even match. At 17 the xp was still good but they mostly became DC. Don't be afraid to kill the occasional goblin, but stand way back and don't join your pet. Usually took 1-2 posts before they killed themselves with a bomb toss.
Did the second half of 17 at Carpenters Landing since a party showed up at lizards. It was pretty solid to. Good mix of dc-em bees and beetles with em-t funguars and orcs. Just stayed on the first landing after zoning in from sandy. Bad part is everything aggroes, but there was enough space that it was -usually- an issue. Watch out for elementals though with whether effect. Bat's spawn at night, but they're also good pet choices.

Edit: note that i used meat jerky and the level 10 legionnaires axe and most times the pets kept aggro quite well as long as i let them get 1-2 hits in first (on non-beastmen mobs), so near zero downtime.