New player, loving a lot so far but feel I'm being driven away

[Floortank]

OP, yowch. You have run into a class that has some inherent experimental strangeness to it and you're getting a skewed impression as a result.

Play SCH all the way to 80, it becomes its own thing, and it is fun and challenging to heal and DPS with it effectively in the endgame.

[ItMe]

My girlfriend and I planned a whole day around running a dungeon and were super excited to jump in but

Out of curiosity what do you mean by this?
How did you plan a whole day around running a dungeon?
Also, was it Sastasha?

[LineageRazor]

I haven't played WoW, and so cannot speak to the complexity of dungeon runs in that game, but in this one, the only stuff that could be considered in need of a day of prep are the advanced endgame activities: Extreme Trials, Savage Raids, and so on. Dungeons are made to be deliberately easy, as players are expected to run them again and again to obtain the currency needed to buy gear and such, or to level up swiftly. Because these dungeons are run over and over again, long-time players have them very streamlined; they move swiftly through the dungeon, and often complete them in under fifteen minutes.

You are correct, in that dungeon runs are not very social at all. Socialization in this game comes primarily by joining a Free Company (or, depending on server, you can get some great social activity on Novice Network, as well; don't know if Coeurl is one of the good NNs or one of the bad ones, though). If you want to take your time and enjoy a dungeon, it's best to run it with a pre-formed team of friends, rather than random players encountered through Duty Finder.

I'm sorry to hear that your expecations were shattered, but it's not necessarily the case that the experience you're looking for can't be found - it just may not be in the place you thought it would be!

[Vickii]

The whole dungeon rush thing is an inevitability of you coming late. Happens in literally every MMO, starts off with CCs and new people working things out and talking to each other and being relaxed about wipes and becomes something you just need to get through for quest, xp, reputation etc.. those players in your dungeon may have been running Satasha for years at this point.

The only real solution to this is to go with an organised FC group and play at your own pace.

[Kearion]

As an example, and what compelled me to post, was my disappointment upon reaching level 30 and unlocking Scholar; I've been excited about Scholar since I picked up the game because I heard it was a complex healing class with a lot of support options after reading some guides, though after I unlocked it I lost more abilities and complexity than I gained. Similarly, the pets seem redundant which was both very confusing and disappointing as a new player; I was looking forward to the support pet as I want to play a support class but I've learned since that the two pets are the same now I think? While I'm sure the healing functionality is useful in groups, it not useful or fun for me while leveling with my girlfriend as the game is too easy to require heals (another issue which has made things less engaging). Gameplay-wise it doesn't feel like the class that is depicted in the story or that I'd heard about. Basically, it sounds like much of what I read that had made me interested in the class (and game as a whole) has since changed in the recent expansion.

You're level 37 and don't have access to many of the classes interesting abilities or oCDs until 50-80. It's unfair to judge a jobs complexity when you've got a third of the recipe.

Similarly, the dungeon experience is not very new player friendly. My girlfriend and I planned a whole day around running a dungeon and were super excited to jump in but instead of an interesting experience with social elements and teamwork, we were thrown into an AoE rush and honestly felt overwhelmed, confused, and bored all at once. We had no time to learn anything, meet players, or actually play the dungeon. We felt like dead weight and we weren't having a good time because it was mindless.

That is the Party Finder in a nut shell. Many of us have ran these dungeons hundreds of times, and are trying to get our dailies out of the way. Did you try chatting with those in the party and letting them know it was your first time. Most players are friendly and will understand. If you're looking for something more ... paced and engaging for dungeons runs, find a FC and run them with FC members and let them know you're new. Otherwise the PF will continue to be a speed contest.

[Vahlnir]

Dungeon rushing is a fact of MMO life period.

Yep, but I was just talking about this game since that is what this thread is about.

[EtherRose]

Ooof. Well for one, you're only Lv.37 on Scholar. Those things you heard about Scholar are mainly around max level. You don't have much leveling up until you hit 60+. Overall the game has been out a while and for classes/jobs in general if they weren't simplified there would be way to many actions/skills. Dungeon runs are all done in big pulls unless you specifically state that you are new and want single pulls and to take things slow. It is common practice to pull everything in the dungeons in FFXIV these days.

[Juzjuzz]

Normal mode is really easy and the begining can become boring quickly if you learn how to play properly fast. It gets a little bit better when you level up (more skills), but every story dungeon or raid is easy. I think it's a good thing to start easy for new players but the game makes a lot of things easier with time.
Old stuff becomes more braindead with each new expantion because a lot of new players don't want to learn and a lot of old players don't have patience for new players (don't want to loose time). You can even go in a old lvl70 raid or less with your lvl 80 job, crush everything in your way and get the loot, there's almost no reason to try to learn old stuff now (unless you can't skip something). I blame the "i want everything i want as fast as i it can get" mentality.
New stuff in end game will give you more difficulty but if you want planning/scocial things then new extreme/savage raids is the way to go (look for a group of players who want to do stuff together or create one). Sadly this content too will just become easier, until it becomes braindead. The only content untouched for now is ultimate (maybe it's a little bit easier but every single one of them are one of the must difficult raids you will find) there's not many of them but i heard it takes a lot of time to clear.

So there's two solutions, either you just enjoy the story even if the rest isn't great (just chill while you do it) and you'll have more complex stuff to enjoy at the end OR stop now if story is too boring right now don't torture yourself.
If you want to play for story, i advise to continue until you get lvl 60 and if you find the heavensward story boring it's a good time to stop.

[ReynTime]

About dungeons I'm sorry to say but once you start Heavensward (if you choose to continue) dungeons will actually become simpler due the shortsighted design decision of designing every single duty finder dungeon for daily roulettes.
They will become increasingly more pretty and cinematic, but increasingly more streamlined.
So basically you're expected to just go all the way to the end of all of the MSQ before you can do challenging content, unless you somehow manage to get a group committed to do ARR, HW or SB extreme trials or savage raids synced. Although I wouldn't advise doing these last ones for their reward, but only for the challenge, else it isn't worth it at all.

Your complaint about extreme lack of actions at early levels is somewhat common and probably an oversight from the developers when ensuring the amount we have by max level doesn't increase every time. There were all kinds of suggestions given to continue keeping that number consistent without making early levels more and more dull, but I guess until the next expansion comes we will never know if they're planning to do anything about it.

I know this post is pretty negative but I'd rather be upfront about these issues being very real instead of just trying to convince you it will get better. Although on the actions and rotations front it does get better later.

[GeminiReed]

In general Square appears to have adopted a design philosophy that minimizes button bloat. Unfortunately their implementation leaves a lot to be desired so they've been robbing lower levels of skills so they can pad the top end. Worse, healers' skillsets got gutted across the board in what most guess was an attempt to make the role more approachable.

I've only been playing for 2 years now and the lower level dungeons are pretty much old hat at this point.