Newbie needs help choosing a class

If you want to solo named mobs, you pretty much need to be able to slow. If you happen to be fighting a named mob that doesn't summon, you can kite or whatever, but since a lot of them do, you need to slow. At this point, unless you burn discs as a melee, there's really no class that has the mitigation and dps to stand toe-to-toe and fight solo with a lot of effectiveness. SK or Monk might have the best shot, but they won't hold a candle to what a shaman would be able to do with their combination of slow + dps + heals.

EDIT: The only real trouble you run into with a shaman is their inability to single pull...but with slows and roots, you can probably handle 2-3 mobs relatively easily.

Sorry, but I can't agree with this. Clerics heal. That's what they do. They do it exceptionally well, and are highly desired as a result. But they have the least versatility of the three priest classes by far, and less versatility than most other classes.

Yes, they have HP and AC buffs which help them do heal even better.

They can also root, but so can almost every other caster and hybrid.

They can stun, which is useful at times.

They can nuke, badly, except for undead, where it's ok.

Clerics are a great class, in demand, but they are a pretty one dimensional class. No ports, no utility buffs, no run speed, lev, normal invis, haste, damage shield, etc.

I've only watched solo well way back when Velious was current content. A raiding cleric from a guild on Povar, was doing pretty ok, I remember it because it made an impression on me. Ha ha. It wasn't something you say everyday. But she held her own quite well. Since it was a top tier guild, I suspect raid gear helped a lot with that, especially since since ToV gear has quite a high amount of AC on it.

But soloing was very different than it is now. Light blues were questionable targets. Depending on the class you played you either stuck to green cons or LB (con system was different back then). Unlike today where you can basically walk in and truck red and or yellows.

I would definitely say its not efficient but if it was in a pinch you could do okay as a cleric, soloing but its very, very target specific. Undead.

If I was to break down classes for solo/group. With least amount of tools (gear check) I think it would probably look something like this. No particular order either.

-Mage
-Necro
-Enchanter
-Druid
-Shaman

You'll be able to still group very well with all these classes. But if you had to solo, you can certainly do it just as well. It's what I like to do when I don't have a lot of play time or in between groups.

I guess I will probably give a Shadowknight a try, if every second char is a shaman or an ench this might help with some diversion, hehe

1. Which of the two deities Innoruuk or Cazic-Thule should be choosen for SK items or cultural armor or some other benefit unknown for a noobie.
2. Is the troll race an ok pick?
3. After the updated player models in a later expansion, is it possible to deactivate them? These upcomming long legged chars look really horrible in my eyes :-/

There are far more SKs than Shamans. If you want to play a Knight, play a Pally.

Ogre Rallos or CT and Iksar are the only 2 good options.
For Ogre pick CT if you want to do Greenmist. Rallos if you don't care. 20 in int or 20 in agi. Ogres make the best tanks for SKs. If you go Ogre i recommend caring shrink potions on you at all times.
For Iksar 20 in Int or 20 in sta. Iksar make the best SKs for soloing and newbies making their first toon.

Troll gets slam, regen, and good stats, so decent min-max choice. Personally I can't stand being stunned repeatedly when tanking each and every mob class that gets bash, so I always pick ogre. Ogre also gets slam and the best stats. The min-max details don't matter remotely as much as gear for a tank anyway.

As for player models, if you are referring to Luclin models they are already an option. You can always turn them on or off in your options at the launcher.

Ogre for stun immune and rallos for kael non kos ;p
Troll for Slam and Regen and Innoruuk for hatred
Iksar for AC and Regen and Cazic because you have no other option

I personally like Iksar, but i think the above 3 boil down to a personal preference choice and all come out to being the best.

How important is this Slam ability of the large races?
What is this hatred of trollsyou spoke about, is this any helpful?

Which is why I always played human SKs, just easier to gear plus you are not left with the down sides of large races long after level and gear have evened out the playing field.
Not the cool choice but it works in the long run and they don't get stuck in doorways very often or have to duck to get around in dungeons. One trip into velks makes one appreciate nimbleness on ice.
The stunning is not that much of an issue, debatable even then though the difference exists, unless you are raid tanking and that's not usually a consideration for SKs.