OP reporting back - great discussion, and helpful in setting expectations - thanks so much!

I'm not sure what kind of player I'm going to be... I've raided enough in other games to know there's a big enough difference in guilds/FCs that I need to find the right one. I don't want to spend time and effort doing that until I have abetter feel for the game. I am lv 50 in all DoL and DoH, and will probably have a bunch of ilv 70 (weapon and three pieces of vanya already) before I do any of the lv 50 content at all, so gear/loot won't be a limiting factor for some time.