Observations from a New Player

[Lumivyory]

- Food: Similar to potions, they are not powerful enough to serve much purpose. I just eat whatever to get me 3% xp bonus, but beyond that, I have not noticed any significant difference between being well fed and not.

You can't eat random food and expect it to help you. Different food have different buffs and you need to choose food that will benefit exactly your class.

- Linkshells: I do not know what these are for. I have my friends list and my FC. Why do I need a linkshell?

Linkshells are like little (not always so little) private chats. I don't have all of my friends in my FC and if I want to talk to some of them at the same time what am I suppose to do? Make a party for that? Why bother if I have a linkshell.
Plus there are such things as hunting linkshells, alliance linkshells (2+ FC's) and others.
Linkshells are probably one of the most useful things in the game.