Need help choosing how to play

I'm not entirely new to EQ, but never played as much as I would have like and I know this request probably doesn't fit most players here. My hope is to give the game a try again because I miss Norrath, but I'm a bit lost on where to start for what I want. P99 is not an option as I don't like playing on non-official versions of games after bad experiences with private shards in other games. I know it has been around ages and the devs of the two biggest private shards are working with EQ devs on Legends, but I still don't really like it.

I will not multibox, and prefer to be on a truebox shard (P99 wins here with zero boxing). Mercs don't bother me. So of the live shards, which ones have the least amount of porting resources from other shards with krono over, boxing, or pay to get a level 100 character? When leveling, I would prefer to start in the old zones and avoid the fancy new starter armors. Basically I want to play the game as closely to how it was played back in the early 2000s on an official server (I'm aware so much has changed that it isn't the same). What could I avoid doing, getting, using, or accidentally falling into that would take me out of that sort of retro-style hardcore playstyle? It could also be things like disabling certain UI elements or not using certain newer features. I'm just not familiar enough with the game now to really know how to ask this in a better way. Thanks for any help!

Edit: The replies have been very helpful, thanks again all. :)