Yep, I'm also from FFXI! Welcome, and I'm sure you will notice lots of good stuff in EQ2 compared to FFXI, like I have. Some good changes of pace:
1. Items that help you regain power (mana) are actually abundent, and the game is not stingy with them (no 2mp/ 3secs for 1 min lol)
2. You can actually make money crafting from the begining levels! It took a fortune investment to start making any money from your items. In most cases, the ingredients would cost 2-5x more than the item itself sold for. I dont know what they were thinking
3. Soloing is possible! Even after level 12! LOL
4. Pets down suck! BST and SMN were plagued by not having any pets worth charming/summoning until level 20+. Luckly, that is not the case here
5. You dont have to pay an extra $1 a month per extra character! Nuf said :P
6. Spells have much more of an impact. I was amazed to see some of the spell effects, as some of the spells I got at level 14 or 15 would be either high level spells in FFXI, or not in the game at all. One example of this is Soothe Servent. I got it at 15, I believe, and it sets it so that when someone in the party gets hit, they are automatically healed for 40 seconds. I do not even have to heal after casting this spell! I dont think anything like this would be in FFXI, as the spells there just seem kind of "watered down", and weak compared to some other MMOs.
And it goes on and on. I am so much happier with EQ2 than FFXI. Dont get me wrong, I love FFXI, but it just seemd that EQ2 had some issues of FFXI in mind when a few things were changed.