New player - what level do I start at?

Didn’t buy anything yet but as new player on normal servers do I start at level 1?

Yes, you download the game, create a character and it knocks your character out and when you come back to life you are in the tutorial. Your only unconscious about 2 minutes. Go thru this tutorial. It will take you from level 1 to about 13 then you will get booted out cause your to high a level

All this can be done free.

When you get a chance then Download Goods maps and Brewells maps - also free. Google those

you can, or you can go into the tutorial, do 1 task, and start at level 2.. insta ding.
Brews maps - eqmaps.info

Can u buy a leveled char at all?

Yes you can buy a Heroic Character in the Marketplace. Will start at level 85 with House of Thule equivalent gear, a mount, 15k plat, some stat food, and a couple of bigger bags. First you create whatever character you are going to play, buy the item from the marketplace, then click on upgrade character from the character select screen, or in game from the inventory UI.

If you do not like the character you upgraded, you can delete the character and get your heroic upgrade back and use it on a different one. Only thing you don't get back doing that is the platinum, so keep that in mind.

You also don’t get the Bayle marks (which pay for 1 round of mercenary upkeep cost). So make sure you put your plat and bayle marks in the bank under the shared bank slots so you can get them back on the next character you make in this instanfe

I'm pretty sure that you can purchase a Heroic Character and claim it at the character creation screen and skip all the level one creation stuff. It'll pop you fully geared and ready to roll by the PoK book in Feerrott: The Dream with the level 5 Journeyman mercenary quest active

But you can only do the J5 if your all access. So it is in your quest window but if your F2P you can't do it.

So Heroics are like $35 and right now you can buy the Collectors edition for $67 ish and it included a Heroic character, a mounts and some other goodies. But dunno how much you want to spend

I got lazy, since any new character i make is only a mule, I skip the tutorial, start in Crescent reach run thru to the inn, second floor of the inn- middle room, pick up the book and head back to the research NPC hand it in to the guy at the counter, and get level 2 insta. Then off to pok to get a merc and good buffs, then back to CR to kill mobs, to level 20 or so- mobs in CR do not run and repop very quick. Also get a bind in Plane of Knowledge as it is muchly the centre of choice.