What to do when out of leves? Grind?

[Leknaat]

And that's why they're all incredibly bland and boring from a gameplay perspective. Some of the cutscenes are nice, and if you care about the plot for this game, they're good to do. If you care about interesting gameplay, you may want to find something else to do.

I did two sidequests. One at level 5 which had me run around the city and talk to various NPC's to get a signature or something i.e. Fed Ex quest. The other one had me go kill marmots to get a quest item. That's about as bland as it gets in terms of MMO quests. They don't become more involved or interesting as you level. They remain the same.

Yes, they're content by definition, but that doesn't make them fun or compelling.

Like you I find the content bland and mostly uninspired with the exception of the Ifrit fight and even that's a bit more gimmicky than inspired. But FFXIV is... what it is...

I think the most entertaining quest I did was the one in Limsa where I had to /psych emote rather than talk to the people. Byond that... bleaugh.

Put the game down, go play other stuff. They've promised a better brighter FFXIV (a year and half down the line). (And I'm hoping there's more inspired questing down the line).