Am I missing something about leveling?

[MithrasInvictus]

With the duty finder, I just had to sit in it for some time. The server for the duty finder has been having issues, and I presume that such are why it is so sluggish. When I did Satasha it showed me as the only person, and then all of a sudden I was in with a full group; the duty finder didn't update while it was finding people. I waited a good 20 minutes for it to do its thing before I got in.
You could shout for others and then join the DF as a partial group to try to speed things up.

[Moonflower]

Thank you for all the information everyone, very helpful. One more question, when you use the duty finder is it cross server? It seemed like it might be from what someone else said in a reply here. And it's great to know I'll have more things open up once I get past Sastasha! I am 18 on my Arcanist now, so I really want to get it finished up. I am certainly in no rush to get to the level cap, just enjoying the game and seeing the sights, but I do like some engaging story lines and quests to break up the boredom

[Lachryphage]

The duty finder takes a while for DPS classes. On my arcanist it took about 2 hours to get into sastasha. Just do sidequests or fates or something while you wait. Or you can get a healer or tank friend to queue with you and it'll go faster. There are way too many DPS queueing. If you want faster queues go scholar at 30 like I did.

[Cyfer36]

The duty finder is cross server...thats why i mentioned sometimes u might be better of forming something on your server through chat. Always some others out there questin that dont feel like messin with the finder either

[TH4C]

If you want to reduce your time in DF, enable all languages and the option to enter a dungeon that's already started. The language barrier is rarely an issue. As DPS, especially, all you really need to do is follow the tank, attack what they're attacking, and stay alert. Boss strategies can be an issue, but the auto-translate function can help. Otherwise, stay alert and pay attention to what everyone else is doing. Entering an in-progress dungeon can mean you miss out on a few treasure chests, but (in the grand scheme of things) that's really not that big of a problem anyway.

[rabbitzero]

If you want to reduce your time in DF, enable all languages and the option to enter a dungeon that's already started. The language barrier is rarely an issue.

This. As dps, if i just select english and fresh start, i can wait a decent time, but if i select the others, i've had it pop in just a couple minutes. (mostly it seems almost no one chooses to do an in progress). The only issue is getting a tank or healer to join if they drop, as they can get instant anyway.

As far as leveling new classes up from level 1...if you've done all the low level quests and stuff in the area (on your main class) do you rely on just FATE and leves for getting your alt classes up?

Fates, hunting logs, leves, dungeons, that sort of thing. Remember, the higher your main, the better xp a lower class will get. It's not close to having story and side quests, but it's not as bad as people make it out.