I don't know when you all started playing EQ but the game was not easy in the beginning. No one had any kind of decent gear, warriors were scared shitless to travel more than 1 zone without a sow. I remember doing the Qeynos - Freeport travel for the first time around level 14, small group with druid for sow and invis. That run took 45 mins.
Remember orc hill in Gfay? You couldnt just walk over there without being jumped, especially at night. Once arrived, you needed a group to survive. And this is starting at level 3 and 4.
I played a vanilla ranger (omg) and I could start affording banded armor in my early teens, used to save up for combine longsword in order to hit those jackolanterns in west karana. Bandit camps over there were tough with only 3 people, especially with adds; not to forget Froon and Choon punting people all over the place. That zone seemed endless the first times you crossed it.
My guild used Castle Mistmoore as their main leveling grounds. With the proper knowledge, that zone was amazing. Without, you would be doing corpse runs non stop.
I remember venturing to lguk and being the only group down there discovering the zone, not much was known on the drops there and getting anywhere with a 35ish group with vanilla gear was tough.
People say that Plane of Fear was a joke, but when it was released and we found the entrance, getting the "raid" started was quite the battle, if not nearly impossible. Only by reading strategy from other guilds you could get some insight in how things happened in there and then figuring out your own strategy to get started.
The "new and unknown" EQ was definitely not easy. You'd get your ass handed to you on any possible occasion. I remember a level 49 druid in my group in Lguk who had a whopping 1200 hp, when he got aggro for a guk ghoul wizard in the lord room, that ICe Comet took him from full health to 200, getting aggro from everything else in the room and going splat instantly. Sure, when gear was becoming more common, you could 'twink' your character more, but when you were left with whatever you could find, shit was tough.