First Time EQer
 

Just made a Dark Elf SK yesterday called Nzaru. Never played EQ in my life but got into MMOs through vanilla WoW and tried a lot of them after that. Been chased around the zone, lost my corpse and restarted, got completely lost in Neriak, and generally felt lost in a strange new world.. it's great to have that feeling back.

Cheers to the project and cheers to YOU for 5 points of bludgeoning damage!

Welcome, if you haven't already check out the P99 newbie guide: https://wiki.project1999.com/Newbie_Guide

As you've found out, if you're going to die it pays to stay still rather than running around and dying somewhere you can't find again. I make a social button on all my characters for when I'm in trouble:

/yell (just in case a friendly high level is passing by)
/loc (gives me the location co-ordinates so at least I have something to find my corpse again).

This is solid advice.

Thanks, that helped a lot. I sharpened up a few rusty weapons, found some quests in Neriak, started filling my bank with bone chips/silk... I'll head to Freeport soon (currently lv.5) after I'm finished getting sweet revenge on the wolves and bears here.

The only remaining question I have is about level-up training points. I assumed focussing a single weapon skill would be best for DPS? I read it was mandatory to put 1 into spell schools to get started, but with other skills on the horizon I'm not sure if they're more worthy.

You'll have far more skill points than you'll ever need, don't sweat this. The wiki explains the exceptions to this nicely.

Weapon skills go up automatically as you use a weapon in combat. You don't have to spend skill points on them. I would save them for learning languages or something.

I would not necessary just focus on one weapon skill. I would get multiple weapons of differing types and level them all up. That way you'll have more options available to you.

I can't add much that the newbie guide doesn't go over already. Levelling and experience gain is going to slow down immensely right away, but that just means it's a great time to start grouping in the Commonlands.

Crafting some tattered/patchwork gear will help until you can purchase a set of banded mail from a smith in EC tunnel (about 100p for a set).

Bone chips/high quality pelts/silks do sell, but sometimes it can take a while for buyers to come around.

Since you're in Neriak area, try the moss snakes quest. It will help get you over some slow points in levelling. https://wiki.project1999.com/Moss_Snakes

Hint:

Classic EQ is hardcore.