The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[Tychonius]

I didn't even know there is a story skip when I started, nor did I know the story would become such a bizarre obstacle to enjoying the rest of the game. I don't really want to skip the story either, I just don't want to have to feel like it's the one part of the game you absolutely have to get "out of the way" before you're free to engage with the content in any order and at any pace you want.

Fortunately there are only three classes gated by story. The rest are level gated. And the three story locked classes are at the very start of the first expansion. So they did listen to the feedback with that.

Good to know I guess. Still, I wanted to play Astrologian and that's definitely a Heavensward class.