HexChat / Xchat is best IRC client to get started. If you are using this from long time then believe that you need some thrill.
So what I've done ??
I installed irssi , and forget that i have best GUI based IRC clients. After installing i started hacking with the irssi. So basics of the irssi is same as the Hexchat / Xchat. But that i get to know after i started hacking on irssi.
I was searching for another terminal based IRC clients and i found weechat. Weechat is same as irssi but with large set of plugins in python and more customization options are available.
I configured weechat with freenode server and it's default channels like, #fedora-india, #fedora-hubs, #fedora-apps, #pypune, #pyconpune etc. So configuring it like a fun. I completely rely on keyboard to check the messages and etc.
IRC commands which i learned:
/connect freenode
/join #fedora-india
So now i'm trying to get used to with it. Let's see how long i'm going to use it. I learn 5 commands in a day. And that's basics of the IRC. Believe or not but hole one day i'm just using that commands.
Now let's start using it's shortcuts. :P