If you don't like the long queuing times for a ranged DPS job like BLM, try rolling a melee DPS. Or a healer. Or a tank.

The later I just mentioned different roles above, the quicker those players get into DF parties because there are less of them.


Unfortunately though, I believe what you're demanding is a single-player game. Most of the FF singleplayer games work like what you describe. You can easily complete the entire story without grinding, you only grind for optional sidequests or super-hard optional challenges that tangent the main story. But this is an MMORPG, and all MMORPGs involve grinding if you stick with them on the long run.

In all honesty, there's not a lot of story left in this game by the point you complete the main story, and the extension thereof that has been added with each major patch so far (only a few hours, each). You also don't need to be very geared for the main story content, only for the optional (arguably harder) objectives.