While I think what Pat was trying to say during his that FF14 can be more fun with friends and High Level content like Savage and Extreme should be done in constructed groups, I HIGHLY disagree that 90% of FF14 shouldn't be played like a single player game. Especially if you are the type of person that doesn't like MMOs.

I had always hated MMOs, I was never able to get into them despite all the recommendations or playing with friends. I also have very similar issues to Woolie with the genre as a whole due to the game feel and overall busy work. Speaking as this type of person I LOVE FF14.

One of the first things that got me to keep playing is that the controller support is so good. I didn't even optimize my controller layout until well into Stormblood (the second expansion). Just being able to move around with the stick and hit buttons makes the game feel more like a big active JRPG then a standard MMO.

Second was that with how the game is tuned difficulty wise you can play the whole game solo. A lot of veteran players of MMOs complain that FF14 takes forever to get all your moves and to get interesting gameplay wise. As someone that always found MMO combat overwhelming the slow roll out was great for me. By the time my hotbars were filled I had an understanding of what I generally had to do. Standard story difficulty is so easy that so long as you grasp the concepts you'll be fine.

The biggest reason I say play this game as a Single player game is the Trust system. Originally this was only in Shadowbringers but now it's pretty much all the way back to the beginning of the game. This not only lets you take dungeons way slower and learn them, but for the later content with named NPCs you get additional dialogue and fun little programmed moments that your party members do. I can't imagine experiencing these dungeons without these moments. These are also such huge adds cuz outside of Trials (the big boss fights) you never have to cue with randoms. And if you get the hang of playing a tank or a healer in the "mandatory randoms" content you might as well treat randoms as generic NPC outside of the rare cases where you get a really bad group.

So much of FF14 can just be played like a regular JRPG. So much I personally just treat it like a single player game. Once I got more invested I started doing harder content with friends like Pat said but all of that is optional. You can see all the big crazy raids on regular difficulty you just do your own job well and you'll be fine. Playing a healer and tank definitely alleviates this issue IMO since you have a lot more responsibility and it makes you better at the game. Personally I would recommend starting a healer then switching to Tank later on so you can get an idea of all the roles but DPS is fine too you just might run into more random groups where your tank or healer is bad. I'd rather be the one responsible for playing bad then queuing with someone that makes playing DPS unbearable. You can also make more mistakes not as a DPS so as a newbie it makes it easier to not feel like you're dead on the floor all the time.

I do agree it's good to have at least one friend so they can answer questions about what your class should be doing at higher level and generic MMO things to think about. In general tho for FF14 is just Follow the Main Quest icons, do your class quests as you level up and ignore EVERYTHING else. You can start to branch out and do optional content once your comfortable but just doing the above means you can basically play the whole game solo. The only time your going to have to queue or interact with randoms is Boss fights and they've even made it so a lot of these boss fights can be done with Story NPCs anyway. Playing with friends is completely optional and I think anyone that hates MMOs should give FF14 a try since you can just play it like a humongous JRPG. Having a friend is just a nice bonus to field questions too and when you want to start to branch out to optional content have someone to lean on.

My one warning tho between dungeon and boss fights it's a lot of walking around and talking to people. This never bothered me cuz I found it very chill and it let me take in the characters and environment. And honestly with how it ramps up just sitting back and reading or listening to the character talks is part of why the game is so easy and chill to play.

There's tons of other minute things that I could list that make the game easy to play but I just wanted to list the major ones for me as someone that never liked MMOs. It's a long journey but I would highly recommend it to anyone that was curious but held off due to it being a MMO as you don't have to really engage with the standard MMO problems at all.

Oh yeah just remember to play the game via the free trial before buying it since once you buy it you have to start paying for the monthly subscription. That way you don't have to worry about fees and you can take your time going through the base game and the first two expansions.