Am I missing something about leveling?

I wasn't in any of the betas for this game so please forgive me if this is a dumb question. I get that FF14 is an open world, but am I missing something about leveling? I am lvl 15 on 2 classes at the moment, and I "think" that my main story won't let me progress until I complete the first dungeon (Sastasha). I have sat in the duty finder more than a few times trying to get into this dungeon with no luck. I find quests here and there, but once they are gone I am forced to do leves and FATE's to level up (which gets quite boring after a while).

I found a guide that basically says "Once you hit 15, just grind out dungeons over and over" .... so is this what the game is about? Grinding FATE, leves, and dungeons? Are there more hubs with quests I can keep doing that I missed? Do I HAVE to complete Sastasha to get my next story quest and to open up Tam Tara?

Nah the grind isnt half that bad until u have like one job maxed out. U just gotta get past that dungeon and there will be a buncha more quests

Yes you need to go through the dungeons to advance the main story quest. Though it is not all dungeons, some are optional.
I guess they are correct in saying that once you do all the quests it's grind with FATE parties or Dungeons until they release more quests or the next expansion comes out.

To be honest though it really isn't their fault that people have just rushed to the End Game so fast in a matter of weeks. :P

Thanks for the replies guys! As for the duty finder...are people just not using it? The times I have been in it, it shows me as the only person waiting forever, not even dps are added or joining? Is there a better way to go about getting into the dungeons?

Tanks and heals r just scarce i guess. Personally as a tank i rarely wait. U could just try forming a group from your server through chat. Sometimes it can be much more efficient....and im pretty sure it never shows dps the queue til u have tank and heals. They r queued just probably waiting on that 1 key role

Grind fates

dungeons and leve's don't give anything close compared to fates

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Originally Posted by Thunderz

Grind fates

dungeons and leve's don't give anything close compared to fates

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true..and u will end up throwin em in regardless cause u will need grand company tokens. Just that one dungeon has to do with the story so u have to do it unfortunatley. After that though theres plenty of quests to level without ever seeing a dungeon...your first job at least

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Originally Posted by Moonflower

Thanks for the replies guys! As for the duty finder...are people just not using it? The times I have been in it, it shows me as the only person waiting forever, not even dps are added or joining? Is there a better way to go about getting into the dungeons?

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No many tanks and even less healers. As DD you need to wait around 30 minutes to get a party.

Yes, you need to finish Sastasha to advance. And a lot of the story contents such as your personal chocobo and grand companies don't open up until you are further along.

As for the duty finder, it's very difficult to get matched right now as a DPS since there is an acute shortage of tanks and healers. The algorithm prioritizes near-complete teams first so if you have 2 DPS and a tank already matched, they will likely get the next healer that signs on, for example. DPSs only get fast matches if there is an existing group that lacks one DPS (unlikely since there are so many), otherwise they will need to wait until they get lucky and an unneeded tank gets matched with them.

A good way to reduce wait times is to create a party with at least one other player. Starting out with a two person party in the duty finder will place your far ahead of most others and makes the system prioritizes your party when assigning matches to you since it favors more complete teams than individuals.

The duty finder doesn't update group info until it has a complete group. I discovered this on my first dungeon after restarting the duty finder a few times trying to figure out what was wrong. I knew there were plenty of dps yet it looked like I was the only one being added to my group. If you are dps, expect as much as a 45+ minute wait although I've had some go quicker. Once a group is found, there will be a pop-up which you have 45 seconds to accept. After that the group x/1 x/1 x/2 will show up. As each party member accepts, the numbers fill in and a check appears on each box when requirements are met. If everyone accepts in time, you will enter dungeon. If a party member does not accept, you should get another pop up quickly (last night it took me 3 rounds of these pop-ups before a full group formed).

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Originally Posted by Yachi

No many tanks and even less healers. As DD you need to wait around 30 minutes to get a party.

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I had to wait 1 hour in que as a healer for a tank.
Tank's are far less than healers I'm guessing.
30-1hr for Dps.
Don't be scared to /Shout in your area too.

With the duty finder, I just had to sit in it for some time. The server for the duty finder has been having issues, and I presume that such are why it is so sluggish. When I did Satasha it showed me as the only person, and then all of a sudden I was in with a full group; the duty finder didn't update while it was finding people. I waited a good 20 minutes for it to do its thing before I got in.
You could shout for others and then join the DF as a partial group to try to speed things up.

Yup i can tell u personally as a tank...queues r close to instant...and half the time ill b the only one ingroup who ran the dungeon before...god only knows how long some wait

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Originally Posted by Cyfer36

Yup i can tell u personally as a tank...queues r close to instant...and half the time ill b the only one ingroup who ran the dungeon before...god only knows how long some wait

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Yep, started out as a Pugilist and ended up with Gladiator higher than that once I got to Satasha. As a tank, I actually got a group from the duty finder after about five minutes of waiting. Unfortunately, I got D/C'ed on the final fight of Satasha, so I have to run it over again. But, as far as I can tell, the dungeons don't seem to be too bad.

Thank you for all the information everyone, very helpful. One more question, when you use the duty finder is it cross server? It seemed like it might be from what someone else said in a reply here. And it's great to know I'll have more things open up once I get past Sastasha! I am 18 on my Arcanist now, so I really want to get it finished up. I am certainly in no rush to get to the level cap, just enjoying the game and seeing the sights, but I do like some engaging story lines and quests to break up the boredom :)

The duty finder takes a while for DPS classes. On my arcanist it took about 2 hours to get into sastasha. Just do sidequests or fates or something while you wait. Or you can get a healer or tank friend to queue with you and it'll go faster. There are way too many DPS queueing. If you want faster queues go scholar at 30 like I did.

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Originally Posted by Arriverderci

I had to wait 1 hour in que as a healer for a tank.
Tank's are far less than healers I'm guessing.
30-1hr for Dps.
Don't be scared to /Shout in your area too.

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Sorry for double posting. Stupid character limit. >.< Anyway, my longest queue as a healer was like 6 minutes or something. You're right though that tanks are more rare.

The duty finder is cross server...thats why i mentioned sometimes u might be better of forming something on your server through chat. Always some others out there questin that dont feel like messin with the finder either

Ya i came into this game wit the intentions to tank. Tried a lil of everything during beta though...after seeing some of the queues though it was a no brainer

If you want to reduce your time in DF, enable all languages and the option to enter a dungeon that's already started. The language barrier is rarely an issue. As DPS, especially, all you really need to do is follow the tank, attack what they're attacking, and stay alert. Boss strategies can be an issue, but the auto-translate function can help. Otherwise, stay alert and pay attention to what everyone else is doing. Entering an in-progress dungeon can mean you miss out on a few treasure chests, but (in the grand scheme of things) that's really not that big of a problem anyway.

As far as leveling new classes up from level 1...if you've done all the low level quests and stuff in the area (on your main class) do you rely on just FATE and leves for getting your alt classes up?

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Originally Posted by Whizawk

End Game so fast in a matter of weeks. :P

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You mean days

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Originally Posted by Whizawk

To be honest though it really isn't their fault that people have just rushed to the End Game so fast in a matter of weeks. :P

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In less than a week.

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Originally Posted by Yachi

No many tanks and even less healers.

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You have that backwards. Its the tanks that are the scarcest of all. Yoshida came out and said so, while trying to encourage more people to play as tanks.

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Originally Posted by TH4C

If you want to reduce your time in DF, enable all languages and the option to enter a dungeon that's already started. The language barrier is rarely an issue.

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This. As dps, if i just select english and fresh start, i can wait a decent time, but if i select the others, i've had it pop in just a couple minutes. (mostly it seems almost no one chooses to do an in progress). The only issue is getting a tank or healer to join if they drop, as they can get instant anyway.

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Originally Posted by Moonflower

As far as leveling new classes up from level 1...if you've done all the low level quests and stuff in the area (on your main class) do you rely on just FATE and leves for getting your alt classes up?

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Fates, hunting logs, leves, dungeons, that sort of thing. Remember, the higher your main, the better xp a lower class will get. It's not close to having story and side quests, but it's not as bad as people make it out.

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Originally Posted by Whizawk

Yes you need to go through the dungeons to advance the main story quest. Though it is not all dungeons, some are optional.
I guess they are correct in saying that once you do all the quests it's grind with FATE parties or Dungeons until they release more quests or the next expansion comes out.

To be honest though it really isn't their fault that people have just rushed to the End Game so fast in a matter of weeks. :P

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In fact it is entirely their fault that people have leveled that fast. Nobody else made the game and made it possible. To be honest you should say things out loud and think "Is this stupid?" before you post.

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Originally Posted by Slatervonjager

You have that backwards. Its the tanks that are the scarcest of all. Yoshida came out and said so, while trying to encourage more people to play as tanks.

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Probably you are right. I get it wrong, i supposse.

As marauder i have no problem to get a party.

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Originally Posted by Moonflower

Thanks for the replies guys! As for the duty finder...are people just not using it? The times I have been in it, it shows me as the only person waiting forever, not even dps are added or joining? Is there a better way to go about getting into the dungeons?

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First of all - always select all 4 languages on the top, don't leave there just your default one - this will noticeably decrease the waiting times. Secondly - it pretty much depends on the on your class category - tanks and healers get almost instant DF joins while DPS are waiting for the former two to join. Lastly - you can team up with at least one other friend and then join the DF queue together - you're more likely to be quickly joined by other 2 players nedeed. Failing all above - you can always try to either /shout for the group for particular dungeon or watch the chat for shouts of other players and offer help / joining where you can, Before you know it you'll have a bunch of people on your friend list.