Yeah, friends make DPS leveling and story queues MUCH less painless since they will go as the tanks/healers thus filling up needed jobs. Weekly Tome grinding is a non issue since Expert pops easily in 5 minutes or less queuing as a DPS.

If you don't have friends or prefer to play solo, well....as others have said, Party Finder works decently well for story trials and dungeons when you do it at server prime time. DPS Leveling roulettes also go quicker Prime time too.

DPS queues really are a crapshoot though, with unexpected quick pops at times. Other times, you can end up watching a full episode of something on Netflix before you will hear the ding.