Oh my gods!

Hey everyone, I'm relatively new to FFXIV but I am an avid Final Fantasy veteran.

Personally... I haven't thoroughly enjoyed an FF title since Final Fantasy 10 (Thats more than a decade!).

I've been playing for a week and am now a level 35 Dragoon. I've found that aside from the few pointless quests I have to do and the occasional FATE grind... my level gaps have been filled almost solely through story progression!.. and I have to say, it's really drawn me in.

For years now with FF12, FF13... they were good but I just couldn't get into them as much as some of the older titles, I felt as though Square lost the touch when they merged with Enix. FF14 has really presented itself in a way that is so reminiscent of other titles and involving that its now one of my favourite games in the series.

Theres so much attention to detail and little things that really make this game feel like it was made with love and made for Final Fantasy fans.

Yes, you can get to max level by just following side-quests and main story lines, mostly.
I leveled my first job from 1 to 50 without any grinding. Just do every sidequest, every dungeon at least once, join FATE as it happens, no need to grind.

Just some hint for you, in case you miss any:
- In "Character Configuration" > "General" > "Duty Recommendation", turn ON for both option. This will alert you all the quests available in an area.
- Seems like a lot of people keep missing those sidequests around lv46-48. Those are in Waking Sand, easy to miss.
- If you go to FFXIV official website, there's a online library which you can search for all quest by level range, use that to see if you miss any.

This forum is filled with a lot of negativeness, but there are a lot of people enjoying the game thus never post :)
Enjoy!

Because of a certain plot event, starting the 46-49 quests is impossible until getting to level 49. At least this is how it was when I was leveling at launch.