I started playing a bit back in December 2013 but ended up stopping when my roommate got me hooked on another game. Before I stopped I got a lv30 Dragoon. Now that im back I started up leveling the guardian class and trying to become a Paladin. My questions:

I just got really awesome looking gear at lv26 and has 4 sockets on it, I bought some Materia but cant seem to find the info I need on how to install the Materia. How do I get the Materia installed into my gear, I know its gotta be a simple solution lol

If I plan to play mostly Solo, would it be better for me to just drop the Paladin and stick with the Dragoon? Or does the Paladin actually become a better heavy hitter later on? right now I feel like im spending too much time killing mobs.

I noticed that the Gilgamesh server was locked down, I couldnt create a new character on it. So I stuck with my old one but releveled as a Guardian. Does this mean that any friends I get to play the game will not be able to play with me?