Welcome to the server! A couple tips I have for people who are new to the server and have access to no gear/money:
1. Don't worry about bots. I see a lot of new players asking about how to get bots working, but they really aren't needed on this server. You level up pretty quickly and bots become obsolete at higher levels.
2. Spell dmg modifiers are on many items. Because of that, casting spells at low levels can take out enemies quickly. I think starting with a character that can cast spells can help a lot. That doesn't mean you need to pick a pure caster. For example, Shadowknights get life tap at level 8. Once you get that you'll be nuking things like crazy (with spell dmg gear).
3. When you can afford it, buy some Misty Thicket Picnics (~1g each) on Merchant Drake in the Guild Lobby (#zone guildlobby -74 423 1). Destroy the breadcakes you start the game with so you are using the picnics. They add 90 spell damage. Make sure you keep enough on you so you don't run out. 5 should be enough in the beginning.
4. When you get around 50pp buy a staff of second chances from Merchant Drake. This is usable by any class and adds 388 spell damage. You aren't using it for the melee damage, but instead for the power upgrades it will give your spells. With that staff and the picnics, I was able to take out red mobs in mistmoore around level 10, which gave great xp and dropped a good amount of money
5. Go to the Annoying Veteran in guild lobby (#zone guildlobby 187 661 1) and say "gifts" to receive a random artifact. Sometimes you'll get something you can't use, but usually it will be an upgrade over something you have at early levels. You can ask for gifts once a day.
6. Check out Total Recall in guild lobby (#zone guildlobby 60 494 1) for daily quests that reward you with money. The first daily is for lower guk and gives you 2800pp. Once you can start taking on mobs in lower guk you'll want to pick that up. As you level up other dailies will be doable.
7. A
treasure goblin has a chance to spawn when you kill a monster that is your level or higher. If it spawns focus on it and kill it within 30 seconds or it will de-spawn. They drop bags that are worth 6000pp. Early on they will be hard to kill but keep trying.
8. Artifacts have a chance to drop on any mob. These are great gear upgrades while you are leveling.
9. As you start getting money you can buy Bag of the Tinkerers from Merchant Drake for 100pp each. These have 10 slots, hold giant items, and have 100% weight reduction. Holding more items means
10. Check out the bazaar (#zone bazaar) and see what the player traders have for sale. Sometimes you can find good cheap gear.
11. You can check out the
leveling guide on the wiki for some tips on places to hunt. It might be a little bit outdated but is a decent guide.
12. Once you hit 55 you can buy Infused gear from players. This is a huge bump in power.
13. Some leveling zones that people recently posted on discord if you're looking for some ideas:
mistmoore -> Karnors -> Old Seb -> tower of sol ro -> tower of high sorcery
Crescent -> Guktop -> Gukbottom -> kaesora -> sebilis -> chardokb/hateplaneb -> vexthal -> pofire -> qvic
Kurn's Tower -> Mistmoore -> City of Mist -> Sebilis -> Crypt of Decay -> Bastion of Thunder -> PoFire -> Qvic
I personally like doing: field of bone -> kurns tower -> mistmoore -> karnors -> old seb to get into the 50s
14. When you can start doing the
Tower of High Sorcery (probably around level 50) you can start making a lot of money and getting good exp. Monsters drop Imperium's Intesification Items which sell to players for 1k each.
15. After you have collected 50 Bronze Tower coins in the Tower of High Sorcery, buy the Channelers Robe from the Bronze Tower Merchant. It's a clickable item that does 692 spell damage (and much more with the spell damage modifiers). This item can be passed around to your alts to power level them up quickly (if you want to go that route), but is also a great item for your main character.
16. Lastly, have fun and take it easy. The low levels are a lot of fun to explore different zones and have that excitement that any drop can be an upgrade.
Sorry about the huge dump of info, but these are some things I would have liked to know when I started playing. Have fun!