New player experience

[Garlyle]

I'm honestly fine with XIV's combat pacing. I've been through MMORPGs with absolutely 0 cooldown time, where you're gated only by how fast you can spam the button... and I've been through XI's, where you're waiting a minute just to be able to do anything at low levels. XIV's GCD system seems a really nice midpoint between the two, allowing for more complex rotations and skill weaving where execution and speed still matters, while giving you enough "breathing room" to handle the other aspects of fights later on that require your attention.

It does drag at low levels, however, when you don't have many off-GCD abilities nor particularly complex rotations either (And Gladiator is like, the worst, in terms of rotation complexity)

[sciondar]

Gladiator/paladin is probably the slowest of the combat classes because you're meant to stand in the monster's face and annoy him with your shield. The marauder/warrior tank is a faster paced tank that helps you not notice the gcd as you get higher leveled. If you really want fast combat I'd suggest looking at the rogue/ninja then. That one has you doing flips and spins and you gain an ability to speed up your own attacks. Hope you continue enjoying the game!

[MageBlack]

If you liked the aesthetician then you will love the Hildebrand quests!

The combat speed really picks up when you have all your skills and good gear with skill/spell speed on it. Trust me, once you get to end game, its not as bad.

Most of your other complaints are coming from beta and the 1.0 experience is my guess. the time on dungeons is not really an issue like it was, there is more than enough time to complete the dungeon in its entirety way before the timer is up. Gil selling is an ongoing issue i'm afraid. using the /busy status helps with the tells or so I hear.

Keep plugging away and I would love to hear how things feel for you once you hit 50 then again once you complete all the MSQ. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the game!