This thread took off like crazy! Thanks for the input. I want to make clear that none of my friends are WHINING about the story quests, and the comments about HOPE TO GOD YOU LEAVE, BUCK UP, BLAH BLAH were completely uncalled for. I was merely pointing out a major part of the game that i view as flawed, and is kinda standing in the way of doing things.They enjoy the game, they know what Final Fantasy is, they know what MMOs are and they aren't expecting WOW 2.0, but after 2 months or so of playing, and they don't even have the expansion unlocked, and theres a new patch around the corner for MORE unlocks, its tedious and they feel a little demotivated to do the filler stuff to Heavensward. A buddy of mine really wants to be a Dark Knight, his warrior is almost 53 at this point and he still hasn't unlocked Heavensward, doing story quests diligently. Another friend who is WHM is 56 and still trudging through, they many have unlocked HS at this point. My buddies have been doing dungeons as needed and story quests, i run with them every time I can. I'm stalled at 60 doing story quests still and even I'm kinda tired of it.

Lots of good ideas in here for handling this in the future, hopefully something is done that will appeal to everyone.