Everyone is for some reason assuming Heavensward will be gated behind the 2.X Main Story. This very well may true but not necessarily. Only Rise of the Zilart had this gate in XI. It will depend a bit on their marketing strategy. Is this going to be an endgame focused expansion or something new players can hop into to entice more new subs? DRK looks to be a starting choice from what Yoshi said in the Fan Fest so there's at least SOME element that caters to new players. Will the story? That remains to be seen. If we assume that beyond DRK and whatever tweaks they do to low level dungeons the expansion will be endgame focused, then the 50-60 grind for a new player is going to be long. They will need to plateau at 50 and grind out to i80