Am I playing the game wrong?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I am a new player (highest char @ 36) and I feel like I'm not getting what I should from the game.

1. I gain so much experience that I level way ahead of the MSQ which results in being synced, which in many cases removes the functionality of the spells I've earned. It also deters exploring the world and doing other quests as I detest having spells available then having them turned off. That is such bad form. How can I prevent this?
2. The game is too easy, near zero risk of death. I believe I've completed 4 or 5 different dungeons at this point and they've been super easy. Open world game play is even easier thus far. Is there a hard mode so a decent challenge can be achieved?
3. I have transitioned from rogue to ninja and lancer to dragoon thus far. In both cases the game play didn't change. I thought the new jobs would be more transformative, did I miss a quest (or quest chain) that would have made it be more game changing?

Thanks

1. Yes, it's actually very normal to overlevel. The only way to mitigate this is to -not- pick up any yellow side quests (blue quests are fine cause they unlock something), and level up 2 or more jobs alongside your main job to spread those gained experiences. This of course also depends on how dedicated you are to finish your dailies before continuing MSQ. I had a friend who basically had a lv80 back in ShB expansion with their MSQ still loitering at lv50-60 range because they do daily roulettes very often but only progress MSQ verrryyy slowly.

2. ARR Dungeons are one of those that suffers from gear (?) and potencies creep. Being faceroll-ish is unfortunately a common theme of "Dungeons" in general, and applies to some Trials, Normal Raid, and Alliance Raid modes as well. It also doesn't help that deaths in this game are not as punishing as other MMO may have taught us before (I.e., dying means loss of EXP and risk of de-leveling. We don't have those in this game aside from 1 particular side content).If you want a tougher challenge the starting point for most players are usually from Extreme Trials (You will see "(Extreme)" in the duty's name), then working their way up to Savage Raids (You will see "Savage" on the duty's name) and eventually Ultimate Raids. The earliest you can access one of these contents is after you finish your patch 2.0 MSQ, so it'll be a while before you can reach to that point.

3. Jobs are at their most barebone in term of gameplay below lv50. Most don't even 'open up' to you until at least lv64 or higher. The only job-related quest that you have to watch out are the one that appears just below your MSQ notification on your upper left window. You'll see a quest name if you have anything unfinished, and these usually unlocks new action for your job.