Starting Over!

[Cruger]

Howdy guys!

I played here some years ago, got to the 50's and quit (like a lot of people do I hear!) but now I'm back! I have no details to my previous account and don't really have any desire to play on my old toon anyway. I just came from Ragefire on Live, it's an absolute mess, I was able to level 4 characters to 50 in under 3 weeks with a full time job as well as gearing them in full planar a week and a half later... Bottom line is, it's full of boxers which I hate, it's super easy, which I hate and there's a lot of drama, which I hate.

So since I've got the EQ bug again I'm coming back! Hopefully get to that infamous 60 this time and do some raiding (hello european guilds??). I do have a couple of questions to ask which could alter my choices starting up though:

1) My knowledge of damage tables has been skewed by the horrendous balance of progression servers, how does Ranger dps fair in comparison to Monk and Rogue?

2) Velious is coming in less than a month, are the XP penalties for hybrids being removed right away or later down the line?

3) The new spell lines and discs for hybrids are super sexy, are they available upon Velious release also?

4) I see Gnoll Fang quest has been nerfed... that shit was OP back in the day. Has any other xp quests or zones rose to the surface after the nerf I should consider for newbie zones?

5) I detest intelligence casters but am willing to play most others, is there a lack of any class in particular? (I'm leaning toward playing a Paladin/Ranger which you probably figured out with my previous questions).

6) Any other updated patches/information I should know about or could be handy?

Appreciate anyone willing to spend 5 minutes to answer some of these questions!