I'm still a newbie to EQ, (playing since sept) and don't even know aht all the accronyms mean, take DPS for example, got no clue. But my first Char is a rogue and at lvl 40 he is still a blast to play. Picking pockets pays for rations and water for me, but that's about it. Picking locks hasn't paid for anything yet and I have yet to find a situation where it has been useful to have, though I'm certain it will eventually or it would not be in the game, so I keep skilling it up whenever I find a lock that I can pick.
Soloing: I solo'd my rogue quite successfully up to about 16th lvl, then it would be kill a mob, bind, heal for an hour and then do it again. In other words, REALLY SLOW XP. Certain potions and items, (SoW, Vigor, Skin of Flame, Resistance, silk nets, etc...) as well as getting temped at PoK are essential if you want to solo at levels much higher than that. You will also want to skill up on your poison make/use. I still do it, play solo, but not nearly as often as I used to.
Groups: I have no problem at all finding a grp. Rogues in groups can do tremendous damage. At 40th lvl I hit on backstab for over 200 pts several times per melee and my char is not much twinked. If I get aggro i can just turn off atk, hit hide/sneak and the mob will turn to the tank and I backstab again. Mini Nuke with no mana cost makes grp happy. With dual wield and dbl attack even my regular damage is not bad when you figure the avg damage per mob that I inflict. With hide/sneak Rogues can also draq a corpse from just about anywhere with almost no risk. this makes a lot of people very happy indeed. There are exceptions of course, but they are relatively few.
My only other advise would be to start with a piercing weapon. I went straight to slashing until I hit 10th lvl because I liked the idea of a scimitar wielding rogue. It was to this day my biggest mistake in the game. Slashing is an important skill for a rogue to have as there are a couple of nice swords you may want to use, but you can only backstab with a piercer. When you get backstab, pump the training into it because it comes up very slowly, especially if you are going to solo a lot.
I now am playing a shammy and a war in addition to my Rogue, but he is still my favorite char to play and I reccomend them highly. Good luck and have fun and if you see Nebu wandering around Norrath, tell him I said hi.
Stahn