Very conflicted new player needs a push in the right direction

[Iymala]

Arcanist to Scholar is a great suggestion. My main was originally a WHM and after switching to Scholar the pace feels much faster. Not only do you have a lot of off GCD cooldowns, but you are able to manually control your fairy outside of your casting and GCDs. If you like healers, but want a "faster" paced option this is a great one.

I do agree that Arcanist is somewhat painful to level. I personally did not enjoy it.

[Calyanare]

With Party Finder available now it should be easy. For dungeons, start a group looking for a tank and 2 other DPS, and heal. Until you reach level 30 and can just queue as a healer, anyway.

[Merryl]

Oh and by the way pick up your other classes early... Check in the actions under your character data. You'll find a surprise of which cross skills you can use from the very low levels.
I wish someone would have pointed that out to me like say 2 months ago.
Cause its a lot easier leveling other classes when you already have healing skills and protect ^^

For example.. My healer switched to archer, the sub class for black mage; my archer has been able to use cure, protect, and after level 12 be able to raise the dead.
Very convenient and handy.

[LunarEmerald]

First 15 levels is a brief look at how the class is. This is basically the tutorial. Everything is simple and you have few skills.
By 30 you have a better feel for it but you're still missing many important skills that define it.
It's not until 45 that it really shines. This is when you'll have almost everything.
You can't see what the class is truly capable of until 50 with darklight or better gear