Well, Shulk dealing more damage than Reyn isn't that surprising, a character would be OP if he/she were able to deal a ton of damage and resist a lot it too.

Since you mentioned slots, items with gem slots are way better than the ones with a little higher stats.

Wait until you have three characters before killing unique monsters, that'll make things easier.

Get used to the quick travel mechanic. You can travel to any landmark in any area instantly. Open a map in the the map menu and choose a landmark in it to go there instantly (I don't remember if the game explain this).

Get used to having high level enemies around, they'll be there in many areas. You can't beat them so just avoid them.

Yes, Monado Shield is the best one you have right now, even if its usefulness is quite restricted. Monado Enchant is a trap because later in the game (about 50% of it) the other characters will be able to damage Mechon on their own too, so it becomes almost useless. Don't spend many points in it. Monado Speed gets outclassed by another defensive Monado Art you obtain later in a quest. They're very different, but the other one is way better. Monado Buster is the strongest Monado Art in the game, even against non-Mechon, but that isn't too important to beat the game.I maxed it later for the secret bosses, though.

Outside of Monado Arts, you should've learnt Shadow Eye already. It's really good. Stream Edge is ok-ish too (it fills the Monado gauge). Light Heal doesn't hurt either.

Why do you want to play a sequel to a game that you just can't get into?

Oh gosh, yes!

I don't understand what the designers are thinking when they deem it a good idea to have all the characters speak so many useless words/lines every second of the fight, without pause. There's not a single moment during a fight where you don't hear a character shout something. Both Xenoblade and Xenoblade X are like that, and it's freaking annoying!

I beat it on my 3rd attempt, and I also got into it the most on that attempt. It takes a long time to get used to. I'm now on my 2nd attempt with Xenoblade X. I'm resolved to beat this game prior to starting XC 2.

Specifically for Xenoblade?

My thought is that they are a very different style of games than I am used to. I typically HATE HATE HATE JRPGs. They are unnecessarily complicated, like Disgaea 5 (which I gave up on playing after a few hours) or are beyond boring and repetitive (Project X Zone). Xenoblade Chronicles borderlines on too complicated, and for a while it did feel that way to me. X, on the other hand, isn't borderline; it's just flat out too complicated. When a game has a armor, skill tree, and class tree, with literally hundreds of thousands/millions of different combinations, it is just too complicated. I want to spend time playing the game, not worrying about which combo will get me that edge to beat a boss, and too often JRPGs make you depend on those skill/gear combos in order to beat the tough fights, or you have to grind like crazy like I had to in XC1 for the last few fights.

You'll find most of the books that unlock the next three art levels in shops. The ones that unlock the last levels are found in gold chests from high level enemies.

Given that characters can't spam the same art due to the cooldown system it's better to level up all of Sharla's healing and protection arts (Heal Round, Heal Blast, Heal Bullet, Shield Bullet and Heal Counter). Heat Bullet is very useful too because tension has a big impact in battle despite being "hidden". Even if she's a healer you'll want to level up one damaging art that match the color of the arts of the other two characters in your party to deal good damage with chain attacks (probably two arts later in the game as the chance of extra attacks during chains increases and you get gear with 100% debuff protection, so you don't need the arts that remove debuffs anymore).

As you've probably guessed Tranquiliser is another trap.

I have to say that Sharla's AI is surprisingly good when compared with the AI healers tend to have in other RPGs.

Check the Refugee Camp shop and Daza's shop in Colony 6, they sell art books.

If you need money, do quests. You need to do them to raise Area Affinity, which is needed to unlock the quests that unlock extra skill trees. It's likely that you'll get some useful rewards too so you'll need to buy less items. Selling slot-less gear should be safe. Now you should be getting level 2 crystals, I guess you can sell the level 1 ones (but keep the gems).

About Head Shot being the best offensive art, well, it depends. Thunder Bullet deals more damage because it hits twice. Head Shaker is better for healing purposes because it doesn't rise her talent gauge so she won't have to use Cool Off so often.

That being said, what's important about which offensive art to use with Sharla depends on chain attacks. Since the damage multiplier is lost whenever an art of a different color is used during a chain, you want her to have an art that matches the color of the arts you want to use with your other two characters during a chain. If you want to use red arts, then use Head Shot, if you want to use purple arts, use Thunder Bullet, etc.

Head Shot is worth getting because red arts are the most common (I think all characters have at least one) and Shulk, Reyn and the next character you'll get have powerful red arts, so it'll be useful most of the time. However, if I'm planning to use a purple chain with my party I'd drop Head Shot for Thunder Bullet, even if Thunder Bullet was at level 1.

Since we're speaking about Sharla, unlike the other characters whose arts get minimal boosts from Strength/Ether gems, Ether gems boost her healing arts a lot.

The plot at the end of the Ether Mine was when I totally got hooked with this game. Let me know how you liked the event that happened at that point of the game.

I switched my party members a lot and still unlocked all the skills of Shulk, Reyn, Sharla and Dunban easily. Hitting level 99 is easy too (there are normal enemies with level 99). Give all characters a try (except the last one).

In fact I recommend switching out Reyn a good amount of time. It takes a lot of time to unlock his last skill tree because you have to get items from level 90+ enemies for it, so if you stick with him all the time you'll unlock all the skills from his first four trees early and from there until you unlock his fifth you'll be wasting SPs. Even if you put him in reserve you'll be wasting points because characters that don't fight still get a good amount of XP/AP/SP.

Besides, Dunban is very good, and his voice and battle quotes are cooler and way less annoying than Reyn's

great to see you are liking the game and progressing well. one of the best JRPGs I've played in a long time. my only problem is if I want to play NG+ or not.