Originally Posted by Panma

While the new patch does help, the quests are just a clever way to disguise the grind. And usually, grinding effectively will get you 2-10 times as much experience in the same amount of time.

The grind is completely harsh.

Even the game's producer understands this, that's why they've implemented easily accesible dungeons for certain level groups so that the grind becomes easier.

Basically, it's like any other MMORPG... just with fewer selections as to where to go. The game pretty much has one map and one dungeon per ten levels. So you get stuck in a rut fairly quickly.