New player question - Does this sound right?

[Tyssyn]

The 'problem' you will run into at 50 is that by the time you are out of ARR and into Heavensward, you will likely be lvl 55 if not higher and you won't be able to get the level 51+ gear until you are in heavensward. But on the other hand, you really won't need it until you get there anyway, you will be doing LVL 50 stuff. I would recommend not doing many side quests at this point, save them for leveling other classes, because you don't need the exp on your main battle class.

[Dmoloth]

The 'problem' you will run into at 50 is that by the time you are out of ARR and into Heavensward, you will likely be lvl 55 if not higher and you won't be able to get the level 51+ gear until you are in heavensward. But on the other hand, you really won't need it until you get there anyway, you will be doing LVL 50 stuff. I would recommend not doing many side quests at this point, save them for leveling other classes, because you don't need the exp on your main battle class.

I started out doing the side quests but ended up dropping them pretty early after I noticed my gear starting to slip. Since about level 20, it’s just been MSQ, class quests, and the stuff for my mount.

I just finished the mount chain, and it’s great to no longer be running everywhere. Overall, the game has been great.