Please read it all before commenting, I feel like it will give the best impression of what I'm trying to communicate.

As a new(ish?) player, these "Make 9+ level gear" quests truly feel like they're just there to artificially prolong the story of the game.

The main problem I have is that it forces you to build things that you wouldn't necessarily want. Along with that, the method of doing it in the most optimal way is to grind patrols. Just mindlessly grinding patrols isn't fun, or at least not having the option of fighting a behemoth you enjoy fighting is more so of a problem.

I'm at a crossroads right now where I'm stuck between wanting to finish my build and wanting to progress the story. Sadly with the way these quests line up, I can only do one or the other. (Umbral gear)

I would much rather have quests where there are challenges or unique monster mechanics layered onto an already existing behemoth. Such as interrupting a behemoth so many times, or fighting a certain level of behemoth with recruit or mix-matched gear.

An idea for mechanics could be something like "reversals" where, for example, standing in hellion's lava could be a beneficial effect. "Save us from frostbite" or something along those lines. The biggest problem I have right now is that it seems important story beats are being separated by too much grinding to be enjoyable, the pacing is completely off.

I believe the way these quests are structured also lead players to believe that after you're done with the grind of a quest, you're going to be rewarded with a fulfilling story beat, the fact that there was almost nothing major happening really gave me a sense of disappointment and a lack of interest to progress any further.

To use a comparison, the way that Monster Hunter World has handled their quest lines felt infinitely better. Not once in that game, did I feel like I was put through a long grind to unlock the next part of the story. The only time there had been a grind was during the endgame, roughly where you wanted to start building sets because you had access to all but one of the monsters. But even if you didn't, there was a fast track way of rushing through that momentary pause to see what was going on with the story.

Don't get me wrong, I like dauntless, I even funded it when founder packs were a thing. But the more I play, the less interested I get in the game. As a player, I'm no longer getting new or interesting content at a pace to keep me wanting to play the game to find out what's next. It feels like I'm stuck in a gameplay loop that the game has forced upon me.