New to MMO's any general advice would be appreciated!

[Anders]

If you have a Crowd Control (CC) ability, then make it known to the party when you first reach the dungeon. Sometimes a Tank will need somebody to SLEEP a bad guy to help with the mayhem. Let the Tank select which baddie needs to be temporarily disabled.

Since we can become all of the Classes in this game you can't assume that a Damage Dealer (aka DPS) character can't heal. Or that a Healer can't Crowd Control.

Therefore, it behooves you to learn a number of other Classes so that you can to take advantage of the cross-class slots that become available as you level-up. This is a really cool feature.

[seekerofpower]

If you have a Crowd Control (CC) ability, then make it known to the party when you first reach the dungeon. Sometimes a Tank will need somebody to SLEEP a bad guy to help with the mayhem. Let the Tank select which baddie needs to be temporarily disabled.

Since we can become all of the Classes in this game you can't assume that a Damage Dealer (aka DPS) character can't heal. Or that a Healer can't Crowd Control.

Therefore, it behooves you to learn a number of other Classes so that you can to take advantage of the cross-class slots that become available as you level-up. This is a really cool feature.

Only CNJ/WHM and THM/BLM can use Sleep spells. These abilities can't be used as cross-class abilities.

To the OP. Avoid AoEs always. If you are new to a dungeon, don't be afraid to ask for boss strategies. Manage your hate. If you start to pull hate off the tank, ease up a bit. Once you get a little higher and become a DRG, be careful with your jump abilities. You can't direct where you will land, and sometimes they will land you in an AoE.