You need 400 favour points to unlock drow, 1750 for a +2 stat tome, favour is gained by doing quests, elite gives the total amount, i agree that its a pain to lvl up, i have 4 toons and is taking me ages to get them capped, my best advice is join a guild, that way you will almost be guarneteed a party or items from fellow guildies.
Drows are nice, my main is a human Bard, until i unlocked my drow and now i have 3 drow toons, a wizard, paladin and a ranger.
Advice on you 1st toon, depends on how you play, wizards and sorc arent very powerful in the early lvls, but you will almost always get a party, clerics are a sure party invite and also become more powerful thru out the game, fighters/barbarians will amlost always get an invite but for soloing be prepared to bring lots of health pots, paladins, rangers and bards are the 3 toons that is easier to solo the early quests with as they can all heal themselves from wands/spells and have good fighting capabilities, however from my xpereience bards and rangers arent much sought after even though they are great classes, bards have *** crowd control spells and songs and rangers are ranged/dual weild speclaistes. As for the last class rogue i cant ofer to much advice about it as i havent played 1.
Hope that helps abit
