Most people are pretty nice up until the top of the raid scene. Even then a lot of them are still polite, they just aren't going to let you kill any mobs they can kill instead.
Character progress on this server is really for everyone all the way up until: Gods, Trak, VS, and VP. Obviously this content will probably open up for people once Velious is released, but it may take a long time before the less hardcore player population will be able to tackle top Velious targets (years and years).
As the server stands right now, you could get a full planar geared monk with an epic. A pretty formidable character. Once you're done with that you can make various alts with similar gear attainment. Some classes however, are particularly hard to get epics on for the non hardcore player base. Examples include: bards, warriors, rangers and druids.
If you have a good amount of free-time. You could always join the top guild and experience all the content; assuming you put in the time and aren't completely horrible person to interact with.
That being said. I warn you that Monks are extremely overplayed. A distant second would be shaman. Monks also can have issues carrying vendor loot for sale early on; and Iksar are hated by all the cities around a lot of the hotzones pre-50. Also worth noting is Iksar have a 20% exp penalty and monks have an additional 20% exp penalty.
If you really want to play a monk go for it. Just thought I'd warn you.
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