Questions about content in FFxiv

[Lilseph]

Welcome to XIV!

1) Farm stuff from previous patches/expansions (Mounts, achievements, glamour), decorating house, crafting, gathering, leveling, gearing other jobs out, treasure maps, hunts, completing beastribes or getting tokens from them, relics.
2) Usually every 3 months when the new EX primals get released or farmeable content gets released. Hard to tell, people tend to farm different stuff for different reasons.
3) They try to do it on every patch.
4) At me moment, I'm not playing till the next patch. But usually, as much as I can. To catch up on the game, not much if you know what you're doing. Otherwise, a couple of weeks because of lockouts.
5) Major patches are released every 3 months, roughly. ilvl increasements every 6. They usually release the ilvl inc. patches along with the new 8 man raid and trials and then a catch up patch that prepares the players for the next ilvl inc. The later includes more dungeons, trials and a 24-man raid.