question for old/casual EQ player and soloing

[JurisDictum]

Bards:

Bard's, if you learn how to swarm kite, are the fastest solo levelers that you listed. But you need to have a decent enough comp and connection to pull it off -- and I heard it is hard to get a-hang of and can be very frustrating.

Bards will also be the most in demand for raids out of the classes you listed. But probably tied with shamans for groups (Both are very sought after).

Bards aren't really an endgame soloer for high end cash camps.

Druids

Druids are a lot easier to solo level with. Quad kitting is easy and better exp than most groups. They can also port for plat and convenience.

They can group -- but they pretty much suck at healing and dps late game. They aren't desired in groups for the most part, but people do will invite them anyway. There ok in Raids, but nothing special or in high demand (you can get into raid guilds regardless of class)

Druids don't really solo farm cash camps endgame particularly well either. You best bet would be to duo with a necro or enc and try that.

Shamans

Shamans are not good solo levelers. They can root rot mobs...that's not exactly good exp. Especially early on. It is something to do while you try to get a good group together imo.

Shamans are liked in groups and various duo/trio combos. They are also welcomed in raids -- but you only need a few is the truth.

Shamans are very expensive to gear out. Their best heal goes for like 100k at least. That's just one good thing they need. It is a blessing for those that like to max out a character slowly. But you have to have money to afford the stuff you will need to solo the better cash camps out there. But if you want to be able to solo stuff no one else can, this may be your class.

Popularity

This is how I would rank their popularity, from least to most popular:

Bard
Druid (end game)
Shaman
Druid (early/mid game)

Note on Necromancers

You didn't mention necro btw -- which many people consider to be overall the best solo class. Especially since they can solo level and solo farm pretty well -- where other classes tend to be better at one or the other. Necro's are also actually quite good in raids. They are probably about as popular as druids endgame.