So some advice
Re: PC
Anything with 8gb will run 6 toons, ideally you want 16gb.
For super cheap many people buy used small-form-factor corporate pc's on ebay/facebook.
My desktop is a used one from craigslist from 2011, a i7-2600 cpu. I upgraded the ram to 24gb, added an SSD and can run 18 toons comfortably even before
mq2eqwire
If you dont want to buy something used....
Black friday is coming up, I would buy whatever is cheap be it AMD or Intel desktop or laptop that I can add an SSD and increase the memory to 16gb
https://blackfriday.com/categories/desktops
Re: Playstyle
As others said plan on 6, life is great with 6. If you dont start with 6 you will want to get 6 later
You may be better off to start with 1 or 2 then go back and build your other toons so you have a chance to learn the classes
Depending on how you WANT to play will decide what subscriptions or expansions you need
To me EQ1 = entertainment and I can get YEARS of playtime worth of entertainment for next to no money, I know hardly anything about end-game content and mainly play eq1 as a single player RPG that has a chat room. Sometimes people help me sometimes I help them but most of the time I am playing a single player RPG and using the chat room.
It's is all about the playstyle you are interested in
Opt 1 - TLP
Requires subscription for every account
Only a few servers work for MQ2 usage (anything not true-box)
Some macros/plugins have caveats on TLP because TLP is not using the full feature set of live. Most macros/plugins focus on Live
TLP's are good IMO because it slowly allows you to get the new content before it is obsolete and there is a community around the game knowledge at that time period.
TLP's tend to have more players within your level range
TLP Nostalgia game
Gives you old school experience and is easier to re-learn the world
For nostalgia there are many servers in old expansions
TLP new game
Sadly Miragul is True-Box so we cant use MQ2 there, would have been great IMO but some of the TLP's are in newer expansions, however t
Opt 2 - Live
All live servers are very top-end heavy, not just max level but most are in farm mode high-level
However many play Live because there many years of actual playtime content, so you are not going to run out of stuff to do for basically free.
Subscriptions
When you subscribe you get 2 major things
1. Ability to gain AA via Auto-Grant (instant, the qty is dependent on level)
2. Ability to gain stats from prestige gear
3. Ability to sell in bazaar/barter stuff (you can still buy with f2p)
When your subscription ends you keep all the AA you gained but you dont gain stats from prestige gear
Most people have 1 subscription and a bunch of free-to-play accounts
Some people have 6 subscriptions
The common strategy is to level your toon past 60ish then subscribe for a while and max their AA then let the subscription end
The reason most have 1 subscription is because a tank gains OOODLES of power from wearing prestige gear
Server Choice - Live
FV has the fastest XP, it also allows trading the most items. It is marked as the RP server but today this just means you have to skillup your language skills.
Brekt also has ability to trade the most items and supposedly faster XP than normal servers
Zek has PvP
Others are all basically the same, some have historic communities
My recommendation for live is FV unless you have a personal reason for other servers.
Server Choice - Test Server
Test server gives you Gold subscription and I think faster EXP
A couple people play there full time and even raid. So it is a good option
Expansions
Some will have additional info or oppinion
Personally I dont bother with buying expansions until I catch up on all the old content.
