Starting Red

[Wecoan]

Hey guys,

So after several characters on blue in and around the lvl 20 mark I've decided i want to give red a go for several reasons:

1) My favourite classes on Live were Paladin and Beastlord, BST doesn't exist and never will and paladins are generally slated on Blue, whereas they appear to be pretty good on Red.
2) Everyone is a twink on blue, I, in the past month or two is grouping on several characters have only grouped with what appears to be 3-4 actual new players who do not have high level mains or friends to twink them.
3) There is overcrowding in all the good xp zones, not to mention I hear the raid scene is pretty much non-existent if you do not belong to one of the top guilds.

The point of posting this thread is that I have questions about each of these points and the Red server.

1) The xp bonus on Red seems to cushion the blow of having a hybrid xp penalty which really makes me want to play that paladin, however, is grouping a real thing on red with the population being what it is (opposite extremes to blue), or is grouping only really a thing at the highest levels?

2) I'd imagine that Red has it's twinks just like blue but is it a 90% occurrence like it seems to be on Blue? I don't really fancy having to die here and there whilst (possibly solo'ing which would be worse) xp'ing without a fighting chance of actually killing someone or even damaging them (fungi T_T).

3) I'm assuming that a lot of gear camps will be open on Red where they are perma-camped on Blue, do players actively kill each other to 'steal' these camps even if you had been killing PH's for hours on end? (I get it, it's a pvp server, I just want a little clarity anyway) I like the idea of being able to kill the things I want in the zones I want but is there 0 protection? Is this the same for raid targets?

One last question, is there a leveling guild or starter guild on Red for people like myself who may need some weeks to adjust to the playstyle or who needs tips and hints on how to be effective at pvping with your chosen class? (I am new to EQ pvp, but not general pvp)

Any extra tips and advice would be welcome!