Just purchased - Is the Main Story supposed to feel like a bunch of side quests that aren't related to the main plot?

You're not handicapped by being above level of your MSQ. It's fine to be over level.

I've seen a lot of people complain about this... but do you want to be level gated?

Some of the early msq is a little tedious, but you're still starting your journey. You're only level 22 in the msq. You're everyone's errand boy right now. Keep going. You will grow into a hero.

And believe me. Some of the stuff seems like it has nothing to do with the msq, but it will peek back in later.

Basically early on you're just some random homeless jackass in a weird outfit that strolled into town one day and started asking random people for work, so early on you get treated like some random homeless jackass. This only really starts to change around like 35ish.

There's two reasons you'd want extra EXP. One is because there's a part of the MSQ that goes from 44 to 47 to 49 to 50 within the space of like 5 quests, and another is since you can level every single job on the same character, you can use the EXP bonus on those other jobs too.

It's like that for a while. It does get a LOT better, but you haven't gotten to the worst part yet. There's like a big awful bit in the latter half from like 30-35 (MSQ level) and then it plateaus for a bit then starts actually going somewhere. When you get to the expansions, it's pretty much a non-issue. Maybe you've already started the Titan questline? That's the worst of it. You'll know what I mean.

As for levels, it's nice to not have to level up to catch up to the MSQ.

Those first levels, the story's just about a no-name adventurer new to the realm. The WoL is earning their bones, so to speak. As you progress through ARR, you'll get drawn more and more into the meta-plot and you'll have bigger and bigger tasks.

By the end of base ARR, you'll be firmly in Chosen One territory.

What's the point of double xp if you are handicapped by main story progression anyway?

So that you can level multiple classes more easily.

Anyway, the MSQ starts of a little slow. You are a nameless adventurer out to make a name for themselves, and it takes a while to build that up.

Eventually, when you get to the Primals you'll start to see the story come together, although the story has a few rocky places and the quality doesn't even out until just before the first expansion.

The main story is pretty rough in the beginning. Some people say it gets better around lvl 30 (lvl 30 quests, not your job level), I thought it took pretty much until close to lvl 50 for it to become bearable. However, once you hit the expansions it's 100% good stuff IMO. Also, without the experience boost you'd get the opposite problem - you'd reach a point where you couldn't progress in the main story quest because your level was too low and you'd have to go grind dungeons and FATEs for a level or two. This isn't a problem at lvl 30 but when the story finally gets good later on and you have to take a forced several hour long break from it to go run the same dungeon 5 times in a row for experience it can be pretty annoying.

I just finished the ARR quest line. Trust me, it’s a slog fest to get through it. Once you finish the 1-50 quest line and ‘finish’ the ARR quest line, it becomes hyper engaging. It took me a couple of week to get through arr quest line but the quests after took me all of a few days because I simply couldn’t put it down I had to know what happens next. It gets better, and I heard the expansions are EVEN better so I’m excited for them

The main story of ARR (the original 50 levels before you got to Ishgard in the HW expansion) was more of a tutorial than anything else.

Also had some poor pacing choices. It will be much better as you proceed to the later expansions.

This won't help too much I know, but they are in the process of stream lining the early quests and are planning to try to release an update sometime around 5.3 (assuming it doesn't get pushed back, of course).

The plot starts to get better in the first expansion, but unfortunately you are in for a long haul of fetch quests between where you are now and that expansion. I will say that the many people found the POST-ARR quests (the 100 quests after you see the credits for the first time) to be better (I didn't but that's subjective), so maybe you will to depending on how invested you are in the story.

I will also mention that the fetch-style quests never really end, it's just how FFXIV structured there content. It's basically a series of fetch quests with a few intermingled fights that eventually lead to a dungeon, and then rinse and repeat. The difference is the in the expansions there's less of what I would call "filler" quests. So basically the majority of what you do will move the plot forward. So it will at least feel like you aren't stuck in a boring limbo.

Its a very common complain about a realm reborn,Arr got the worst pacing ever(1-50 A realm reborn stuff),It got too many run around fetching quest that got nothing to do with the main story,it doesn't really get anyway better till the next exapnsion.My advice is just power through it.

I started a month ago. Joined a preferred server. Regretted it.

However, ignore all sidequests, levels, daily roulette, etc, and you'll get back in synch before long (maybe just 5 levels by the time I hit the end of ARR.

Also, as it gets to the end of the base game, it does pick up - make a charge for it, then decide

The point of the double xp is for leveling your crafts and other classes

Buy a boost. Skip all the boring shit. Watch a story summary video somewhere. Pog champ.