I think you look at this things from an old player's point of view. A newbiew reading this might not even know what you are talking about.

Cities have cool good stuff in shops, yeah.. Newbies won't ever have gold to pay for that stuff. What you pasted having at level 5, a newbie like me won't have at level 30. I count what i pay for food, not to think of shop gear and poitons.
Also from what i ran into, Udgaard, Arkham, and TirTalath are newbie graveyards. No tribunal + no trustable friends + common area = summon-sleep/trip-bash-trip/oneround = newbie steak
If you see someone in your pk range in those places, first run away, than check who it was.
Someone who can see you and pk you, will try to do so unless he knows you from previous group and prefers you as a friend. Although some may have grouped with you before, and will still kill you now, which won't stop them from asking you to join them again later.
Most important thing to know in other cities. Tribunal is your friend. Tribunal is what stands between the newbie species and total annihilation

Before level 15 you don't even know your rolls, untill level 20 or 25 you don't really know your armor. Comparing items is deluding yourself. A newbie can't know what gear is good or bad. A newbie can't even know what is better for him when he DOES see his roles and armor.

Unlike what you said, letting people know you are a newbie, is simply a call for fast death. Even those who won't kill you, will only group with you if they can't find a third to join. Who wants to drag a sack who got no idea where he is, how strong which mob is, what he should attack and how. Newbies should use the great and simple design of the home page to read all they can about their class skills, and try to appear experienced to their group as much as they can. Any other way will ither kill you or make you a "we need a third, and we can't find anyone better" guy.


Groups and people help a lot, but in much more cases they hurt. A newbie is asked for to group, he does, his group realizes he doesn't know anything about anything. . . They kill him.. And after they kill him they kill him few more times.. with a much stronger group.. this ends with the newbie finding no place to hide and just die and go to the previously mentioned #$!@#@$ with no time to relax and breathe, because if he won't starve to death because because he didn't find his cash and food bag, The same nice group will be there to kill him the moment he'll unghost.. and yes They are smart enough to know all the places you might try to run into, and they know all the turns and curves so they'll move faster. The fact that the "where" command will tell them your location room title will make it a metter of seconds for them to get to you once they are in the same area.
The best solution i see to that is: Don't play bad/good. Only play neutral and only group with good, no neutral. Bad will kill you the moment they realize they can, neutral can do the same unless they are gracious. Good are usualy unlikely to do that. And where's the fun with those limitationts?
Basicly this brings a newbie to a state of paranoya when he tries to avoid all possible groups because they all can easily turn on him/lead him to a trap/just realize he sucks laugh at him and drop him to group with someone who killed him a while ago.

Like i said before. Give newbies a chance.

-Tan.