It strikes me that if you're new to EQ and are starting from Scratch then Selo's is a great place to go. To explain: If you went to live, you have fast xp, but would be pretty much levelling yourself for the first 100 levels or so. You won't see early raids, and gearing may become an issue. The Phinny TLP is quite far along, and XP is at live rates, but the pug game is dead and population top-heavy and raid focused. Coirnav/Agnarr/lockjaw/ragefire are pretty empty these days. Manglar has a decent population, but you're locked at the beginning and won't see much of the game unless you're around for years. I suspect that Mangler will go the same way as Phinny/coirnav anyway when a new TLP lands, but only time will tell. So Selos. If you forget raiding as you wouldn't be doing that while levelling on live anyway, and just focus on the group game, you've got fast xp, double nameds (for gear), and fast progression so expansions unlock as you level. The population is good so there are people to group with and there's minimal bot/box drama (unlike mangler). The selos ruleset is quite distinct and there's guilds in every timezone, so I think this server has legs. Just a suggestion.
