EQ New Player Questions

[Dezik]

Hi all,

First, let me apologize, I am sure these questions get asked a ton on these boards.

I briefly played on this server about a year ago and had a blast. Unfortunately I didn't stay long due to real life issues. I am now returning and just had a few questions for all you guys who have been here a while.

1. How is the populations? Will I be able to find friends and enough people to group with here? I am not interested in power leveling to max level as fast as possible, just in it for the journey but would hate to come back to a ghost town!

2. I am thinking of rolling as a DE SK. Is this a horrible decision based on the fact that I would be a melee (not very solo friendly) and have a rough exp penalty? As I said, I don't need to level the fastest, but is the penalty so bad that people don't want to group with you and/or it is horribly slow leveling? Are tanks needed on this server? Are SK's viable end game?

3. Any friendly guilds out there that would be willing to take on a new player? My number one goal here is to make friends and have fun!

Thanks guys! Very excited to be coming back to ORIGINAL EQ =)