@Sneaks I'll speedrun this.
- It's going to be impossible by normal grinding to make adena/gear unless super lucky. Either you donate a tiny bit at start (premium account/auction gear) or you make spoiler (Dwarf Scavenger) and spend a few days on it until you are financially comfortable. Focus on a good weapon whenever u hit a new mastery checkpoint (D-grade at lv.20 / C-grade at lv.40 / B-grade at lv.52 / A-grade at lv.61), armor can be less of an issue in most cases. General tip: try to farm mobs that you see white, as that means they are in your lvl range.
- Quick farming classes can pick up the pace from there (once u get weapon) and u can forget the spoil cancer after that. Atm those classes are Tyrants/Destroyers but I guess melee DDs get the job done as well. Tanks are viable for that too, but def. slower.
- Start from any clan with xp bonuses/skills if you can find one, there's plenty actually. The ones with war are only end-game anyway, you will meet them at 76+.
- There are no instances, just raid bosses and grinding mobs.
- Very few but good quests (25 lvl Moon Knight quest is a must almost) for decent armor set.
- Don't be too trusting of ppl you see around, classic has the mechanic that you can drop items if you die to mobs, and others might stun you or sabotage you in any way they can, so be alerted.
-It's not going to be very exciting until you are 60 or so because nowadays ppl grind pretty fast, so don't expect to find parties unless it's for Raid bosses. Even so you can always click Alt X -> Party to check if some party is to your tastes.
- Finally, my personal tip: if you have a friend or meet someone in game that can give you some basic info, this will ease things a lot. You don't wanna waste your youth trying to figure out how to do class quests as a newbie. Google l2wiki classic when its time for quests (you will get pop-ups at the bottom right of your screen when the time comes) if that friend never shows up and you will eventually get it done.
Cheers!