Almost Level 50 and Terrified

[Zantetsuken]

Any tips to someone NEW to end game? What should I do first? What should I avoid doing? (By all means, include some of your experiences when you hit level 50, good AND bad!)

My advice is to find a group of other new players (or a really nice FC) and stick with them... ARR is not a place where it's generally 'ok to fail'. So stick to smaller group stuff and regular friends.

If you have to play with strangers, just remember that the ratio of asshats to decent people seems to exponentially increase as party sizes grow.

Party Finder Dungeons can be a crapshoot.
Primals and Coil are often bad.
Crystal Tower, Hunts, etc. are the worst.