A thought on solving the content gating issue. Long read, pls bare with me.

[Luvbunny]

I'm actually wanting people to have to work through the 2.0 half before getting to Heavensward. A ot of these people are going to start in ishgard (i90 is probably way too low for the average player to just be heading in and fighting the new mobs in western coerthas) and a bunch of old mechanics and parts of the game that taught them how to play would be passed and ignored. You're basically giving someone a free level 50, they've never learned any of the skills they now have from the start, and they'll be in the dungeons before long making the runs incredibly miserable. I know you want all that stuff right away, but you're going to be hurting everyone else by letting this happen. I'd hate to be in this new content trying to teach a 50^ what their role is and how to play it so that we can get through content.

I could not agree with you more. There are so many beautiful dungeons, each with their own mechanic that will be essential later on since 3.0 endgame starts to throw everything and the kitchen sinks at you with bazillion gazillion AOE everywhere and bunch of adds that needs to be burn down FAST by your DPS (assume they are not too tunnel vision auto random button mashings at the boss). This is already beyond casual and easy game for newbies and extremely friendly with handholding players, showing you areas, and starting mechanics.

Tanking as dark is another beast, it helps when you have already level paladin or warrior to at least 40-50. It makes the dungeons run so much smoother and enjoyable. There is absolutely zero reasons to aggravate your random party members by making dungeon runs longer than needed because "I am too new to read wiki and watch youtube - and frankly I have no clue what I am suppose to do, and oh I don't read any of my abilities tool tip, because you know, who has time to read when I just want to random buttons mashing."

They will probably do a condensed version of 2.0-3.0 later on when they launch the next expansion on 4.0, but for now, as new player, you have so much content to go through, you really do get your most bang for your bucks. Why not enjoy this, take your time and experience the games as is intended by the creator.