Burning out so fast.

[LunaFaye]

I will answer this short and simple for you. FFXIV does not compare to the combat from the other games you have mentioned. Even so it gets a bit "faster" at 50+, FFXIV isn't a action combat based mmo and never meant to be. But that doesn't mean it's a bad game, and you will find plenty of stuff to do during your "free time", however the moment you're comparing it to the games named above or even others, you will end up very disappointed because FFXIV is nothing like any of these and it's defiantly not f2p

With that out of the way and since you're more focused on the actual end game, or at least that's what I am assuming since you're comparing the game to other fast action combat games, try this :

Do MSQ & Side Quests till level 20, from than on out ignore the side quests and do MSQ only. At level 17 you're able to unlock palace of the dead, you could theoretically level your character in there since it's faster than doing all the other things but if you have no level 50 or 60 character, it's less exp than you would get with having at least 1 class at 50/60 due to the armoury bonus. You can get to level 50 within 3 days doing just MSQ and around 6 days getting to 60. With potd and not having a character 50/60 it will be around 4.5 days to 50 and around 7 days to 60. Then you would have to catch up on all MSQ and Job quests and that would probably take another 3-4 days in comparison (if your play time is something around 12+ hrs a day) and you end up slower than just using any other method outside of potd but it's an option and you might not get burned out as quickly. Just my 2cents.

[Niwashi]

At level 17 you're able to unlock palace of the dead, you could theoretically level your character in there since it's faster than doing all the other things but if you have no level 50 or 60 character, it's less exp than you would get with having at least 1 class at 50/60 due to the armoury bonus.

Having a class at 50 or 60 has nothing to do with the armoury bonus, which only looks at whether you have a class higher than your current one, not at whether that higher class has reached any particular threshold. The real reason for focusing on the MSQ first is (as you mentioned later) that you'd need to go back and do it anyway if you didn't start there.

The whole game is structured around its storyline. All the level 50 and above content is gated behind finishing the original ARR MSQ. All Heavensward content is gated behind finishing the additional MSQ added in the 2.x patches. Then a lot of the level 60 content is gated behind the Heavensward MSQ (though I'm not sure if it's everything, like it is with level 50). And when Stormblood comes out, it will be gated behind the Heavensward and 3.x MSQ.

So, focus on the Main Scenario and any sidequests that have the plus sign in the bottom corner of the icon indicating they unlock features or content. Whenever those don't give you enough XP to continue, look to other XP sources, which can be Palace of the Dead, additional dungeon runs, or whatever. (Once a day, leveling roulette is really good for that, and if you're doing that with your main job it should provide all the additional XP you'd need.)