Not So Newb Guide

So this will be for people who understand the basic game, the areas, some common eq, etc, and generally how to do stuff. Not going to take time to explain things here, I'm presuming you get the game sufficiently at this point.

Leveling

You're going to need every class, so one aspect is simply grinding chars. However to do so, you want to set up support chars to fetch gear, store gear, and buff yourself.

Self Sufficiency

Paladin: Good Gear Gatherer for 'hardish' things or stuff you're not confident about

Ranger(s): For storage holding of gear. Nicer than warriors cuz they get identify. Set their base int/wis to max to level them as fast as possible. Gear them with generic +STR stuff just so they can carry 1000lbs. Don't bother gearing them more, they should never leave DH really.

Mage+Cleric for spells. Again I wouldn't bother dressing them especially well, just throw on as much +mana gear as possible, and figure out some sort of spell casting triggers so you can become self sufficient with your own buff bots instead of relying on those people leave in DH.

Gear Gathering

After you have an AV and some sort of storage char, it'll behoove you to go spend a bit of time gathering leveling gear onto your storage for future usage.

You should try to be efficient, don't store unnecessary stuff if you have a better piece. Don't store gear for every 2 levels you get. Get some good 'starting' gear that you can swap on around level 20, then get some upgrades around level 35, and that should be enough. You shouldn't change your boots every 3 levels.

Some of this can be fast/easy gear, but a lot of 'good' leveling gear requires a small bit of effort and is really quite fun to spend time getting. So, you can break up the monotony of grinding out chars by switching over to exploring for a nice piece of leveling gear from time to time.

Easy Gear

You can pull some things from my Lowbie EQ page, look them up on rodpedia for more info. Off the top of my head good stuff to keep on hand is:

Sentinel gear, Dragon gloves/helm, lion-crested bracers, ocean keep area pops (red satin sash, suit for diving, thick leather jerkin), quilted leather sleeves, iron nasal helm, eltor hide leggings, Ocean Keep stuff (ring of kings navy, sailor's earring, sharktooth necklace)

Involved Gear

This should also just be considered "Lowbie Stuff to Do" which is fun and rewarding and will help you learn the game!

You'll have to look up more info on these on rodpedia or go into the areas and actually play the game to figure out how to get them.

1. Blorin in DH Town Hall gives a quest every 10 levels for ok gear that is player-tagged. Decent stuff and easy.
2. Bands of power
3. a squirrel fur cloak / a bear fur cloak / a minotaur fur cloak
4. a tiny, darkly stained, crystal disk (can be a handy item for lowbie detect_hidden)
5. a gryphon etched ear cuff (and a rampaging gryphon)
6. a bronze shield / a golden braid (https://rodpedia.realmsofdespair.info/wiki/SMR_Items)
7. a black lacquered ring
8. the ring of the dragons
9. the embrace of the fallen goddess
10. a pair of diamond earrings

There's a bunch more, those are just off the top of my head. Ask around.

Fast Grind

The fast grind way to level is quite easy, and quite boring. You really do not need to go anywhere but here to AV:

Level 2-6:   Shattered Refuge: assistance scientists & scientists
Level 6-15:  Coral Depths: crab guards, young merman
Level 15-20: Welmer's feet/hands. Love in DAG Spectrum painting
Level 20-30: Spectrum
Level 30-50: DAG (Spectrum, Phunbaba, Grotok, Aram Dol, Enormous Elephant), Temple of the Moon
Level 40-50: Mahn-tor Catacobs*

For Catacombs you'll need to know a bit how to get in there, it requires killing Mahn-tor with your AV then planting a mage inside so you can summon your lowbie in.

There's of course lots of other places to level, but you can also just turn your brain off and go to those places and you'll be fine.