Eden-DAoC

So I played the original release for about 12 years. Have dabbled in shards off and on.

I am mainly wondering what differs here that the original vanilla experience? Is leveling and gearing different?
Are crafters important?
Is small man pvp possible?

I am really intrigued by the idea, but do not want to spend weeks/months grinding levels and gear to be stuck, useless, at endgame.

Thanks for any reply.

This is a custom server based on vanilla, meaning they add a few of their own ideas as well as certain things from the first 2 expansions.

Levelling is quick here. I did 1-50 in 2 days on my Minstrel, but I also got good groups in the BG's. Regardless, it is still fast to lvl, and easy to temp your character if you don't mind running some raids which depending on the realm you pick may or may not happen often.

You can do all crafting on 1 toon and it is easy to lvl crafting here. Depending on your guild, you may or may not spend a few days looking for an SC'er or other crafter.

Small man is rough just because people roam all areas in zergs or even just 8mans. Eden has a few special events that encourages people to go out into the frontiers, but it encourages people so there tends to be full groups that feast on small mans/solo's.