Leveling Speed?

[Zaraaraz]

I've read various claims such as "you can easily get to level 50 in a week playing casually" and "you can go 1 - 20 in a DoH class in about 2 hours," but my experience has been vastly different.

Today I spent almost three hours just going from 10 - 16 ARM.

Am I doing something wrong, or are these claims unrealistic?

Nope. You're not doing anything wrong. Those claims usually come from people who either are talking about leveling a SECOND class, or people who just want to make themselves look 'l33t', or people who grind FATEs for hours on end.

Leveling a first class takes time, if not only because you need to follow the storyline, queue up for dungeons and trails (if you're DPS, that can take time) and you are figuring out the game. Your first char, with little previous knowledge of the game, will take you about 1-1,5 months if you play about 20 hours a week.