Party Poker and other questions

Friends, Romans, Gentlemen,

Lend me your aces. I am about to immerse myself seriously into the murky waters of microstakes and have a few questions.

1) As an EU resident, can you recommend softer but reputable sites - ideally with good game choice and srakeback - that are easy on the eye and with nice features? I like a classy, elegant look and I like the current look at - new-partypoker-table.jpg - and I can get 50% rakeback from ********* but is this a soft site?


2) Speaking of rakeback, I am so confused. All the rakeback sites offering so many incentives. Some offer up to 83% rake but others just 30%. There must be a catch otherwise no one would bother wth the lower-priced deals so is there anything to look out for when assessing offers?

As a sub-question, I saw Stars advertised as 80% RB but they don't offer rake so what's the score?


3) Should the VIP deals be avoided in favour of RB-only?


4) Should I dive it at 2NL or 5NL (ie: is there a noticable skill gap between the two?)


Thanks in advance.