How would you design a new player start expansion?

[Enkidoh]

Essentially, I wouldn't. Because each expansion is a continuation of the previous story, and even 1.0 players started ARR with their existing levels and EXP intact, it wasn't reset (thus there was a whole section of players who started ARR at level cap), so such an idea would completely invalidate that.

New players who want to skip ahead to the most recent expansion have the story skip items on the Online Store to use anyway, so such an idea is completely redundant.

[ForteNightshade]

Essentially, I wouldn't. Because each expansion is a continuation of the previous story, and even 1.0 players started ARR with their existing levels and EXP intact, it wasn't reset (thus there was a whole section of players who started ARR at level cap), so such an idea would completely invalidate that.

New players who want to skip ahead to the most recent expansion have the story skip items on the Online Store to use anyway, so such an idea is completely redundant.

Except that's asking new players to pay an additional 50$. So no, having a built in option is far from redundant.

Part of the reason for the declining player numbers is new players aren't supplementing the loss of veterans. And that's because it takes hundreds of hours just to catch up to current content. For a lot of people, that's a deal breaker. Especially once you factor in how horrendous the game is at allowing you to play with friends. You look at any online discussion and you'll see people frustrated how they constantly have to break parties because the game goes seemingly out of its way to do so. Nevermind, it's not exactly fun for the friend is will be left waiting around with little to do.