Let's share our tips for making a progression (whether self imposed on a live server, or on a special ruleset server) fun. Here's a few from me:
1. Remember that you are playing progression. It's supposed to be slower and harder than the tutorial/TSS leveling path. Try different leveling paths, especially if you have an old routine you have always done. Enjoy the journey.
2. Be honest about your playtime. If you are going to login for 3 hours a week, you probably want an efficient solo class vs. trying to level a warrior. Set reasonable content goals and accept that some people are going to (probably) play a lot more than you and push the content. If you're on a server where others will dictate the pace, come to grip with that before you start. Remember that GoD was terrible at launch and extensively retuned... a lot of people love it in hindsight (though I shudder saying that). The point being, your memory of the content may not match the progression reality. I suggest have an open mind and try to enjoy it all.
3. Halflings get an XP bonus on levelling xp. When in doubt, (if you want to level faster) be a halfling. You can always racechange. Decide if you are willing to pay Daybreak $ to do so... starting an Sk in original and turning it into an Iksar makes more sense than starting over in Kunark (unless your enjoyment is going to be starting over in Kunark). At the same time, all races end up pretty equal and most progression situations are so short term that the early penalties in stats really won't matter that much (or at least long). Personally I tend to sink most of my starter points into stamina, then agility (especially if it is below 75). Know thyself.
4. Caster classes are the least gear dependent in Progression classic due to overpowered spells, focus effects from a later era (some on easily obtained gear) and the pet classes have super-strong pets. There's more than one reason mages rule all. Necromancers are the most popular "just soloing one account" class. If you are going to play a lot... it may even make sense to level a caster first to pay the way for your harder to level rogue or whatever (unless the slow painful way is your fun). Boxing (whether "true box" as per TLP 4.0 ruleset or something else) is an obvious powerup to the process. So is guilding up and making friends.
5. Don't sweat death when you aren't losing xp for dying. If a death saves you a couple of zonings to buy spells, die. It's a game, even if you are a warrior soloing and that death just cost you 40 minutes of XP... remember this is what you signed up for. It's not like you have to do corpse runs or lose all your stuff.
6. Loot everything that stacks, and be picky on the non-stackable stuff. For example most GFay loot sells for copper, whereas poison glands sell for gold. Cracked staffs are worth way more than most other weapons in newbie areas. Figure out what sells best in your hunting area and focus looting on that [this tactic pays off huge in TSS expac by the way].
7. Kill near a vendor if you are low level, poor and lack bag space. Kill the skellies... bone chips can sell or be saved for quests, and skellies drop a lot of armor. +1 AC actually does something if you get a full set under level 10. Home city vendor armor is kind of terrible, but at the same time sells back for close to the cost --might be worth it, and being dressed is nice.
8. Save the quest drops. Orc scalps drop like mad in Gfay and such which is half the world away from where you want to turn them in. Maybe worth your while to make the run, or just save them for an alt that is going to grow up closer to the quest turn in. You can kill it in Kunark saving the curscale armor quest drops for a level 1 alt to do for example, or crushbone belts and so on. Enjoy questing, remembering that they were sadistic in design for years and implemented with a huge population in the game....so it might take you a week of casual play to get that cubert to spawn enough times to actually get the decent earring from the quest. You can preloot some Epic 1.0 things before Kunark is live as well... but don't expect to do your epic in Kunark unless you are in a top progression guild.
9. Look up your home city, some places have a great series of quests to do as a newbie. For example a lot of the Rivervale stuff is active on progression servers at launch. At the same time, if your start is crummy (Erudites pre-warrens come to mind) then don't be afraid to move to the population, or at least a friendlier place. If you know you are going somewhere... make sure there isn't a delivery quest on the way there or back again... if there is you might want to do it.
10. Don't buy stuff you don't need. Casters don't need a fair number of their spells leveling up. If you are leveling fast there are spells you will never cast due to getting to an upgrade. At the same time, don't miss the powerful things. Enchanter pets at lower level were seriously improved from the past for example... you want shiny bob at current level for the first 10 levels at least. Be aware of your toolkit... necromancers have a silly amount of utility in the Pre-Luclin game (can mez non-undead short-duration for example). You may be able to do things in progression that aren't something your class has been known for PoP and later.
11. Doing stuff you are familiar with can be fun. Sometimes greater attachment comes from trying something new. Personal example is I have gone back to enchanter it looks like on Lockjaw TLP (my old main years ago that I haven't seriously played the class since OoW) and my #2 alt is probably going to be a paladin (a class I have never played).
12. Remember the features they have added to the game. Unless you are being super "pure" and refusing to use them, things like the origin AA and "return home" really are handy especially for non porters and non-gaters.
Alright, that's all I got right now. Got other ideas? Disagree (feel free)? Let's hear some insight... we have a very experienced player-base so let's share that knowledge!
Edited, Dec 5th 2015 9:38pm by snailish