I think Starkrun covers a lot of important points I'd agree with. I played EQ and raided in top guilds for 8 years. I had one hell of a great time in its heyday but it is hard to recommend to a newcomer now much as I wish I could. Although it does depend a lot on what sort of gameplay experience you are looking for. You cannot quickly level up and raid in this game if that is a goal and EQ is more than anything, a raiding game and an excellent one at that. The large scale of EQ raiding is like nothing else along with the coordination of so many classes, all useful to the raid, to conquer various events and tough boss mobs.
The reason I am being a little negative about a game I dearly love but no longer play is just that I am trying to be real and honest with you. I could not imagine trying to start from scratch today and level to cap, probably trying to solo a lot of the early going in a game that is not especially solo friendly and then needing to grind out at least 750 if not 1000 AA to be minimally raid ready. That is a serious investment in time and effort and in such a top heavy game (all the vets are at cap mostly raiding) it could be a lonely journey fraught with difficulty. And you will never get there without spending money. You can depend on that. SOE will get you for the cash sooner or later by gating your ability to advance and enjoy the game, what classes you are allowed to play, how much bag space you can have, etc.
Just the same, checking out the low level game could be good fun and give you a taste of what EQ is like and looks like. Nowadays unless you start on a progression (classic) server which would start you in the original zones, you will begin in a place called Crescent Reach where everything you could need (bank, merchants, etc.) and quests. It is much newer than the old EQ zones and it looks appreciably better as do the series of connected zones you can quest and level in. This was deliberately created to replace the old starting experiences in EQ with a more user friendly one and nicer graphics and was a major part of an expansion some years ago, I forget which one it was now.
The plus to playing on a progression server is you may find other lowbies running around in the old zones and you get to see in most cases, EQ as it was back in the day. As far as I know, places like Greater Faydark (home of the High Elves and Wood Elves) remain unchanged to this day. Some other zones have been upgraded. All the newer stuff looks good actually, not cutting edge but certainly good.
The plus to playing on a regular server, Maelin/Drinal would probably be a good choice as well as Stromm for populations, is that you could start in the much nicer Crescent Reach area and adjacent zones. I would recommend this actually but also encourage you to make a toon in the old world too, just to see the difference and for the fun of it.
You really do not need to worry about gear much in the early going. EQ isn't like newer games where everyone is gear dependent to varying degrees pretty early in the game. In the old days upgrades were few and far between. I remember playing weeks without an upgrade in the early going being common and it was no big deal. You stat increases with leveling make much more difference in the early going and you get those for free just by playing. Of course, it is fun once you level a main and have the resources to twink alts to do so, but really they are quite OP. It is not needed, it's just fun for high level players starting new toons.
Of course, if you want to treat yourself to some gear, I am sure the SOE Store will be happy to sell it to you. If anything, if you are playing a melee toon buying a decent weapon would probably be worth it. You get the most bang for your buck there being able to kill faster.
So by all means do check out EverQuest and see the classic for yourself and how you like it. You might have a great time or you might find it is just too old school. Only you can make that call of course. If you want something more akin to the other games you mentioned, EverQuest 2 would be a good choice. It is far more modern, has nicer visuals, is far more solo friendly, is entirely quest driven for leveling unlike original EQ which is all about grinding mobs for XP and it too is now f2p. A word of caution though, SOE restricts enough stuff that to really enjoy either game you can expect to shell out some cash beyond just the earliest levels. Without spending any money at all what you are really getting is a great demo but not a complete game.
The only other thing that comes to mind is that in both EQ and in EQ2 you can hire mercenary (mercs) NPCs (just one of a class that compliments yours well) to help you. This is huge in EQ particularly. Let's say you want to level a warrior. You NEED a healer to go solo much really. Merc solves the problem. You can hire a cleric to tag along. A Cleric could hire a Warrior or SK or whatnot. So that is a really big help that was introduced to help with the problem of new people trying to level without groups being easy to find. Of course, now that EQ just went f2p, there may be a newbies running about to group with which would be awesome. Grouping to level in EQ is the best and most fun way to go. It always was meant to be played that way.
I would suspect that SOE gets real money out of you for a merc somehow too but I could be wrong. Now that it is f2p I am planning to install it and revisit my old toons for a bit of fun perhaps - assuming I can access their banks and bags to get at their stuff that is.
I hope you have fun checking it out. The world of Norrath is a magical place I will always have very fond memories of.
Oh, and I would second the suggestion to try out a Beastlord if you think you'd enjoy playing a pet class. They really are fun and are a very well rounded character to go solo with. You don't need a merc with one of these guys. The Beastlord is a combination of Shaman and melee dps and the pet augments your dps. They are not intended to tank for you but rather fight along side you boosting your dps. Being part shaman you get some very important and useful benefits - namely, you can slow mobs and you can heal yourself a little. You also get a lot of very nice buffs that make you welcome in a group. Your ability to slow would also make you very welcome in a group. Being able to slow mobs dps is a big deal in EverQuest. It makes a lot of difference and in some cases makes the impossible possible at a given level. So I would encourage you to consider this fun class if you like melee. You could manage well on your own if you pick your spots carefully.
Lastly, visit
http://everquest.allakhazam.com which is THE online resource for all things EQ. In particular note the Database menu at the top of the page which is loaded with good info that will help you all about the very many zones in the game, info about quests you encounter, info about items you might find and more.
Damn. I feel like playing EverQuest now. lol
