The whole leveling experience of a new player... is this?

[SeriousxSarcasm]

Doesn't sound right at all tbh. o.O I was always majorly over-leveled for the main story. I hit level 52 before getting to level 45 in main story LOL. Though I probably logged more hours than that, so maybe impatience is making it feel like you're grinding more than you really are?

Have you been doing your levelling and trial roulette/guildhests for the EXP boost every day? It sounds like you just need a few roulettes between story quests, Side Quests I find aren't great for EXP, they're more useful for gear/food/money rewards.

Anyway, good luck.

Edit: Also dungeons are your best friend. Hours of fate grinding, you can get the same amount of EXP by running a dungeon near your level twice. tbh I've never had longer than a 45 minute wait (that was during slow times), but the average is around 10 minutes. Queue up and go level a gatherer while you wait for it to pop or something. It's how the rest of us deal with it lol.