Play whatever class really is the most appealing to you. Some of those hybrid classes you were interested in (bard, sk) really don't require good gear as you can solo fear kite things on either class and Bard is very useful in groups even if youre just naked singing mana song. Bard is a really unique class here that I haven't come across in many other MMOs.

There is a pretty good guide from Loraen on choosing a class that is a good fit for you.

If you need some starting gear PM me on here.

One other consideration I'd throw in there is your expected length of play sessions and RL demands on your time and attention.

If you think you'll play in 30-90 minute chunks, a group-dependent class like Rogue or Warrior will become difficult to do anything that feels like progression, and you might consider a solo-able class like necro instead.

Iksar necros are frickin everywhere on the server for this reason.

Overall agreement with the other posters; any class/race/deity combo you enjoy "being" will eventually outweigh all the pros of "better" options. imo eq is story primarily, and min-maxing-dominate-the-system second. A choice you made because it's supposed to be good, that you don't want to invest imagination into, will feel dry and boring af

The server's not going anywhere, there's no race to anything. Try them all.

Solid advice.

I play for entertainment so I do things my own way sometimes. I played two necros up to 40 and started another one with the gear from the first two. I changed to Iksar because of the health regen. I can put the allure of death on myself and sit regening hp very slowly where the other races would eventually kill themselves from it.
Ikies are hated everywhere cept their home town so grind faction in The Warrens and have a nice close to the druid portal place to sell and bank at Paineel.

Yup, an Iksar necro is a good choice.

Wow. The notion you should max a character only to help your *real* character is pretty extreme. It’s a massive time investment to get one character to 60. Like playing 20 normal video games to the end. If you value your life don’t be thinking this way. Try a character you think you will like. If it doesn’t work out try another. All characters have trade offs and you need to find what suits your play style. One of the main considerations is solo vs group play and your tolerance for relying on a group.

Gnome necros > iksar

1st and 2ed place best of the best proves it.

Gnome hacks > regen

Quick breakdown to what people do on raids (remember that is a long ways away)

Warrior - Pretty obvious tank stuff
Monk - probably the most active on raids, you will be pulling, exploring the zone probably more than any other class, dpsing
Rogue - stab stuff, drag corpses
Bard - Mana song if your in cleric group, resist and attack buffs in melee dps group, occlusion of sound on the mob (Magic debuff)
Ranger - Getting passed around the melee groups for Call of the predator (attack buff)and doing dps
Shadowknight - Offtank non raid mobs
Paladin - Casting Divine strength (HP buff)on people and offtank on non raid mobs, lay of hands on MT
Cleric - CH Chain, buffing
Druid - porting people to the raids, Circles(resists spells) some debuffs on mobs, and POTG (Hp Buff with mana regen)
Shaman - Buffing, debuffing raid targets - patch healing
Enchanter - Tash and buffing , Mem blurring adds (makes mobs deagro on target, used during a dirty pull)
Necromancer - Twitching (give people mana) and pet attacking
Magician - Mod rods (item used to lose life but gain mana), Call of the hero (summon person to your spot) , pet dps
Wizard - Porting people to the raids, and blowing stuff up

Warrior - Tank and DPS
Monk - Pull / DPS
Rogue - DPS
Bard -MR PULL MANA
Ranger - Reroll real DPS
Shadowknight - Reroll War
Paladin - Reroll War
Cleric - CH chain
Druid - Reroll wiz
Shaman - 1 per raid only needed (sucka)
Enchanter - mez
Necromancer -Pull, Train , Twich
Magician - COH
Wizard - Nuke

LOL ... Why so many rerolls? No Ranger love even here in P99 haha.