Welcome to the server!
As others have said, you should play the class that you will actually play. If you don't want to play the optimal starting class, don't! (Plus, even if you were going for the optimal class, I'd still recommend a Druid over a Mage.)
But beyond that the main things you should consider are solo-ability, gear requirements, and movement enhancement. Gear is relevant because it's much harder to get gear for your first character than it is for all of your other characters, and solo-ability matters because you may not always be able to find a group, and if you only have one character who can't solo that would mean you couldn't play. Movement enhancement isn't necessary, but you're going to be running (not porting) a lot on your first character, so it's nice.
Bards can solo, and they're not too gear dependent, so that might be the best of the three you picked (plus they get built-in movement enhancement starting at level 5). Rangers need about as much gears as bards (I think), but they can't really solo without twink gear (and they don't get their movement enhancement until level 30). Paladins ... I'm not sure how good Paladins are at soloing, but I'm pretty sure the answer is "not very". Also (as tanks) Paladins probably require the most gear of the three, and they never get movement enhancement.
Hope that helped and good luck picking your class.
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