Hi, i'm new. a few questions.

So i got FFXIV to go along with my new gaming laptop.

Never played the original but wanted to check this out cause SE gained a LOT of respect from me for going back to the drawing board with this rather than just going F2P and milking the game till it died.

Anyhow, I am playing on Faerie, got to level 10 thus far. A few questions.

1) how exactly does a Marauder tank? Since it uses a 2 hander i am assuming that its tanking is AOE-based?

2) why dont people talk in general channels? Very lonely experience for a new player starting out that doesnt know anyone.

3) is there a good video out there that highlights the differences between 1.0 and this?

4) just how drastic was the change anyway? What percent of the game hasnt changed from the first version to the remake?

Welcome to Eorzea!

1. Pretty much. MRD tanks by using high damage attacks and abilities that restore HP depending on the amount of damage they deal. Hence they're a bit more challenging to play as compared to Gladiators (GLA), but they're still a very potent class capable of dealing a great deal of destruction if pointed in the right direction.
2. A lot of people have actually disabled /shout and /yell text because of the bad spam used in those channels by RMT (Real Money Traders), as it got really bad at one point (I've disabled shout and yells myself). Instead, players join linkshells which are a private chat channel rather like a Guild's channel that is free of that kind of nonsense. The server forums have player linkshells always advertising invitations for new players so you could do worse than check the section for the Behemoth server and see if there's any linkshells recruiting. :D
3. I'm not aware of specific videos but there are plenty of fan made videos on Youtube that show scenes from 1.0 which you can use a good guide to see the major changes that took place between 1.0 and ARR. As a starting point, I suggest this video in particular: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZkgP4Z7e0
4. For starters, ARR is an entirely new client - ARR is essentially a whole new game compared to 1.0. All it really reused is part of the soundtrack, the storyline, characters and setting and a heavily modified version of the original's battle and ability system. Everything else is completely different (especially the maps). Really, you can play ARR without knowing anything of 1.0, the game is specifically designed for new players after all. ;)

Anyway, hopefully this has helped. :D

thanks for the answers, Enkidoh. I'm actually on Faerie now, and I decided to make a Linkshell there specifically for newbies like myself. :)