Help with starting a bard

[necrosaurio]

Hi everybody. After seeing all the posts about AE kiting, I've decided to make myself a bard and would like some advice.

I've played Live EQ for a year, since 2010, so Project 1999 is a completely new game for me.

Having played a vah-shir bard (Gatobardo) in on Live, I decided to start a half-elf bard. In my infinite lack of classic knowledge. I have quite a few question:

-What's the best starting city?
-Does deity matter?

I am completely un-twinked (my "main" at the moment is a level 3 iksar necro), so,
- what's the best way to equip myself for kiting?
- and for grouping?
- Where can you get instruments? I know that in Live you go to Freeport to buy some basic ones but how does it work here? Any recommendations?

How does bard pulling work in classic EQ? Is it "just" lull pulling or are there other tricks to it?

I've read this forum and it looks like str/sta are the stats to improve. Anything else?

Thanks a lot!