Ok...setting aside the sexual harassment from management, and the toxic culture, both of which are supposedly being worked on...

The Trial version of the game won't take long to get through, and will get you to level 20. Unfortunately, level 20 isn't very far, but will give you time to get used to the questing system, the keybinds, the UI, and, more importantly, the general feel of the game. It's actually very similar to FF in that regard. The art is more cartoony, but it grows on you.

Based on the original post, you want to play a Warlock. They are the class of spellcasters with DoTs. Feral druids are your choice for melee chars with DoTs (bleeds).

One thing you'll notice pretty quickly is how little instancing there is. You can pretty much get through the entire intro scenario, without ever having to wait for a loading screen once you're in. WoW flows.

The other thing you'll notice is that if you want to try a different class, you'll have to create a new character. You can send a lot of stuff between your characters, although not character progress stuff (reputation, etc), which is part of the time sink people have trouble with.

As for people complaining about WoW, I feel most of those issues are overblown. It's totally possible to have a good time playing without feeling like WoW is a job, that you have to keep playing at every moment. And there is a lot of good story, and a lot of fun places to explore. The plots don't hang together the way FF does, but that's because the plot is the main focus of FF.

Anyway, I guess I'm saying "Don't let the naysayers here keep you from trying WoW. There's a reason it's still around after 17 years, and with more players than most others out there."