Quote Originally Posted by purgatori View Post
I've never had any trouble with MSQ story battles or any of the dungeons, it's only the raids and trials that are my undoing. I find that, in most games, a bit of reading and a lot of playing are usually all that it takes for me to skill up to being able to tackle the hardest content on offer, but not so in FFXIV. Given that I've been kicking around in FFXIV since the relaunch, it seems that I'd need to invest a great deal of time in order to achieve the minimum satisfactory level of skill required in order to tackle... well, content that I don't enjoy or find compelling in the first place. Frankly, I'm not able or willing to do that when the game is already a big time sink, and I have work, life, and other gaming commitments (perhaps one of my problems is that I've always refused to let FFXIV be the only game that I invest significant time into).

I'm happy to let raiders and trial-ers do their thing and not get in the way of their fun, as SE are generally fairly good at providing alternate ways to achieve a sufficient iQL to take on the latest MSQ additions---e.g., deep dungeons (loved PotD, but HoH not so much), Eureka, hunts, beast tribes, and the odd roulette are all activities that I either outright enjoy or can at least endure. The only time I grumble is when I'm missing out on story content... especially story content that calls back to my favourite FF in the series.
This may be a stupid question, but have you tried doing the raids as different jobs? Since it might partially be a matter of a playstyle not being suited for trials and raids.