Potential New Player here - I have a few questions

[PaleHorseman]

Hello everyone, I played this game many years ago on live and I'm so happy to see this server is stable and thriving. I've been really missing having a game like this so I've decided I'd like to look into giving it a whirl, but I have some questions. (Sorry for they seem silly or weird)

1- Does this game have any sort of armor glamour or xmog system for gear? (I seem to remember this existing on live but I'm not sure)

2- Are all color variations of mounts available for the different races? (Specifically the grey high elf stallion) When researching through the forums I saw posts claiming they got removed on this server at some point, but those posts were very old and I couldn't confirm their truthfulness. If they are available, are they still restricted to guild ranks, and if so how realistic is it to obtain one of these for a newer player. (I don't remember how difficult they were to get on live, either)

3- How are White Lions right now? After quite a bit of reading through the class part of this forum I gather that originally the WL pet was very buggy, and the class itself seemed to suffer from a lot of quirkiness in general. Also, it appears that the pet was incredibly weak in their original incarnation on this server - some things I read seem to suggest this could have been changed or fixed at some point but nothing really confirms it. I also noticed a number of posters mentioning their WL doing very underwhelming damage in general, but some seemed to think this was caused by their build choice. I also gathered from watching youtube videos of a WL player on this server they got a damage reduction nerf to one of their primary skills a few months ago, but couldn't find anything from this person or elsewhere how much it ultimately damaged their usefulness. I believe they were quite strong on live later on (I forget what patch) so hopefully they're something similar to that now, and their pet is an actual threat and relevant because I remember on launch live it really wasn't which was a giant turn off for me.

4- Realistically speaking how difficult / long would it be to become competitive and fight with other players on even ground in terms of gear and itemization. I've seen some private servers for other games where the upper tiers of content are heavily gated by cliques of veteran players to the point it really isn't realistic for new people to ever truly become their equal. Is this the case here or are circumstances different?

5- Does this server require being in a guild? I know this was a group based pvp game, but typically I like to play these type of games with friends I make, on my own or with pickup groups. I dislike being forced to ingratiate myself to a guild or a group of people to accomplish anything, and prefer my interactions with people to be had organically.

6- Do I need to play any one specific part of the game to get the "best" gear at some point? Or are multiple, equal options available from different parts of the game?

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, any help would be immensely appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[runeslark]

1 - Yes, on your character menu you can hit apperance and equip any armor/weapon as apperance.
2 - As far as i know there are 3 color variations for all mounts, but I haven't checked high elf mounts recenty.
3 - Extremely good at solo and small scale, not so much at large scale.
4 - If you play alot can take 3-4 months or so to get best in slot items for your class.
5 - You don't have to be in a guild, you can join open warbands or use LFG channel when you need a group for spesific thing.

[PaleHorseman]

I've updated my initial post with one extra question

1 - Yes, on your character menu you can hit apperance and equip any armor/weapon as apperance.
2 - As far as i know there are 3 color variations for all mounts, but I haven't checked high elf mounts recenty.
3 - Extremely good at solo and small scale, not so much at large scale.
4 - If you play alot can take 3-4 months or so to get best in slot items for your class.
5 - You don't have to be in a guild, you can join open warbands or use LFG channel when you need a group for spesific thing.

Thanks!