Its ffxiv combat really so slow and boring?

[Penthea]

Practice more.

I don't think this is a fair thing to say. For a start some classes have more abilities than others, so from that alone the difficulty of getting your ui to work for you can be harder or easier depending on what you play. Secondly some people are better suited to joypad, others are better suited to keyboard and mouse. I personally found the joypad clunky as hell in combat. I really hate it. However I know players who love playing on joypad, and some of them find using keyboard and mouse awful.

I really do think the option to play in either way is one of the great things about this game. You can use whatever you like best and still play in the same content with the same people.

As a side note I do far prefer joypad for gathering.