As a new player what would be the optimal class / build to try out as a starter

I'm asking for some guidance. I do not have any tabs or such for trading yet as I wanna test and see if I really enjoy the game.

I have essentially "logged on" a few years back but not much more than the beach thing at the start has been done.

Hopefully some tips and guides will come my way. I've gone over the forums but frankly it's a bit much/hard to sort out what is really good.

Maybe lightning arrow. Sound like you want to be able to get through the campaign with something not too complex. If you are playing in the league it is slightly harder at the moment because of the mods, but nothing too difficult. Just get a build that does reasonable damage and doesn't require trading. Anything that's a "league starter" build should be fine.

Here's a list made by tyty of builds that are currently strong. https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1bkl3ut/tytykillers_leaguestarter_tier_list_for_324/

What you find fun is going to be dependent on you, but you should be able to progress pretty well with any of those. I was going to suggest RF as a good starter, but its not for everyone, you might have more fun with a ranged build.

Will leave this here if you feel like looking through it. Lots of good info on this site.

https://maxroll.gg/poe/category/build-guides