The server has a daily cycle that roughly follows US times, so as the US enters the evening, the population will spike, and then go down again as US folks head to bed. The server was at ~1000 during US evenings while much of the server leveled 50-60, now its down to ~500 during the same times.
The community is great if you exclude the end-game. There's always shenanigans around non-instanced content at the top, but otherwise the rest of the game has a great community.
Velious is in heavy development by Nilbog and crew. He posts occasional threads asking questions regarding Velious. As for a timeline, a lot of people are anticipating this fall for Velious beta, but this is speculation and there is no official word.
The leveling rate is classic, and class experience penalties will remain until Velious (yay paladins leveling 40% slower than warriors [/sarcasm off]).
There are enough players on this server that nothing is "needed", so play what you want. With that said, there is a tank shortage in the low-mid game (L10-50), and you can't have a dungeon crawl without a tank and healer (usually cleric). But honestly, leveling takes so long that you are better off playing what you enjoy than playing "whats needed".
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