A Few Newbie Questions? Re: Class, lvling, & items.

[mefdinkins]

Hello Everyone,

I am glad to be part of the project1999 community and excited to play EQ again. I played EQ back in the day for a few years on and off since its launch and retired permanently during the Velious expansion.

I had a 57 druid with manastone, guise of the deciever, and I fondly remember how excited I was when I got my golden efreeti boots, fungi tunic and some other random items (I loved those arm bands that casted the auto-dot). I also had a 40 something monk, who I created very late in the game and twinked pretty hard (used my fungi tunic, some haste gear and nice weapons I can't exactly recall). I also had a low level bard and wizard I enjoyed playing but never got around to leveling.
TLDR: Played Druid to 57, enjoyed Monk/Bard/Wizard.

That is my history... so here are my questions:

Question 1: What class should I play?
Notes: I loved my druid, but wouldn't mind giving bard a try? Is the server over populated with any class, do guilds/raids/groups need druids, etc? I usually solo'ed - so can Wiz/Druid/Bard solo to 50 or 60? I don't necessarily want to switch to a new class but I'm balancing that with not necessarily wanting to replay 57 levels of druid.

Question 2: What kind of time commitment is it to get to lvl 50 or 60?
Notes: Any estimate on time /played to level 50/60? This is related to the class question, do different classes take different amounts of time to level?

Question 3: Are the items guise of deceiver, manastone in game? From what I remember guise you could no longer get and manastone was taken out / rendered useless by expansions.

These are just some random questions, I have encountered after being a day old. Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Mefdinkins