1. Sometimes there are no brackets.
2. sit to regen mana, you also need food/drink to regen health/mana
3. Most newbie zones, zones connected to a city have maps. Simply hit m. Note the cursor on the map shows as a dot at first, a you work sense heading up, it becomes an arrow so you can see which direction you are facing. Your compass is also tied to sense heading so work it up.
4. It can, usually I would wait and loot armor and stuff off mobs. As druid you won't need armor as much, you rely on your spells mostly. Save the money for spells.
5. You will need to spend some training points. Put 1 into sense heading so you can start skilling it up. Take note of what level each new skill opens, some may require spending a point to unlock them. Mend for monks was one I had to spend a point on before it would skill up, sense heading it seems for all.
Look here
http://moestaverne.com/p1999wiki/index.php/Druid
I may spend 1 point in meditate at lvl 8, one in dodge at lvl 12, one in forage at 15, and one in tracking at 20. Other then that maybe save the points. Perhaps skill up in a language, or a few. Or for tailoring, or some tradeskill.
And yes, killing rats is a huge part of eq. Try killing mobs you need first. Maybe bats if you need bat wings for levitate spell. If you are going to bake, maybe snakes for snake eggs, or animals for meat. Maybe animals that have hides/skins for tailoring. Use your coin to buy a few backpacks, for your bank slots, and your own inventory.
Do NOT use the shared bank slots. Do NOT hand coin to a banker, right click on him to open him up, THEN place your coin.