New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Mavrias]

No and they shouldn't. I'm not a big fan of AAR myself, I feel it's padded out, poorly paced and kinda weak in terms of dungeon design, but it does at least serve as a tutorial to new players, introducing them to all types of content, core basics of their jobs and various mechanics reused throughout harder and better thought-out content in later expansions. A player who comes into the game and immediately pops a skip potion is doing themselves and everyone around them a disservice. By missing out on that tutorial and getting thrown into content they're completely unprepared for, they inconvenience other players they get matched with.

I believe I run into enough of such players as is. If I have to explain what a stack mechanic is in the final raid of the current expansion despite the fact that the mechanic has existed and been reused in one form of another since at least Syrcus Tower... a part of me feels like skip potions shouldn't be available to brand new accounts in the first place. Those tools by themselves do have a purpose and are entirely justifiable if one is trying to make an alt, but a new player who has no pre-existing experience with the game doing it kinda rubs me the wrong way.

That said, yes early content does have issues. However, no problem is ever solved by pretending it doesn't exist and skipping past it. What could be done is some parts of AAR being streamlined the way that Crystal Tower's introductory questline was in a recent patch, adding shortcuts and alternative paths that allow players the option to skip all the no longer necessary padding without missing out on the necessary learning experience and major plot points.

playing through 100+ hours of terrible story does not a good player make. there are people playing from 2.0 that are just godawful and there are people who skip potioned during 4.4 that are great players. if someone wants to learn they will regardless of whether they skipped or not.

like your example of stack markers; even if you use a skip pot, you have to progress through sirensong to get to endgame. the very first boss features the stack marker.