Advice for a new EQ player.

[Koinah]

I've never played EQ before, not even EQ2, so everything is new to me. I have a couple questions on how I should be starting out. I've decided to make a shadowknight seeing that I want to have a melee but also want to make use of a mana bar. I have also heard they can solo decently at lower levels. I have narrowed the race to either iskar or dark elf but I am open to other suggestions. So I guess my question would be which race would be better for a new player and how I should start out leveling, questing and getting gear.

Thanks in advance!