Please let me skip MSQ

[Edweena]

Just gonna be another voice pining it in but typically those who story skip don't skip around as a result of the "end game" content being more limited than other games as a result of the game focusing on it's story telling and lack of retentive mechanics meant to keep the player playing a result of compulsion.
FFXIV's more of an RPG than MMO, an RPGMMO. And if you do skip to the end game you may just get bored and quit all together after wasting the money on the skip. Your mindset should be more akin to a single player game than that of a multiplayer game, whenever I recommend it to friends I aim to hear their thoughts and experiences, but not partake in them through the game.

[ValStryder]

All my friends play this game and they are already done with MSQ. I have barely started because I don't have a lot of time especially with the long queues. I don't care about the story I just want to have a good time with my friends doing dungeons. But I haven't been able to do that because everything new is locked.
The game is actively preventing me from playing with my friends. I have cried over this.
I want to have a good time when I get home from work and not be stuck running from point A to B for days completely alone because I have to earn the ability to not be alone in a multi-player game.

At this point I regret asking my friends to play this game with me because I isolated myself because I can't keep up anymore.

Please just let me play with my friends.

I have to say, if your friends aren't offering to help you with dungeon runs - are they really friends? Running dungeons when you get to those points in the MSQ is hardly an arduous task to accomplish when helping someone. Playing through the MSQ is actually the single fastest way to level your first job to max level, and it takes little effort. You will always find content gated behind quests, especially end game content in ANY mmo. Final Fantasy has always been a story driven franchise. They sell story skips for previous expansions but never the current. It's a simple matter of pacing yourself. I personally be like "Ok, I'm questing till I complete the next dungeon, then break" and come back the next day or w/e. I reach a dungeon or trial, finish it, and that's my queue to break from the game. I do this with both MSQ levelled job and when I go to level alt jobs.

[Tlamila]

Why do people always have to be so offended just because not everybody cares about the story?
You say it's a story-driven game, but it's also a MMORPG. MSQ is basically solo content.

I have plenty of friends who couldn't care less about the story, go through new expansion msq in 2 days, and then just enjoy all the content and the social aspect of the game for the rest of the time. And they play all day and never unsub.
Conversely, I know also people who only play for the story and don't care about the combat system or anything, and basically play it like a single player game just for story. They only sub every couple of years when new story is out, catch up on story in a few weeks, unsub.
Honestly, you all say there's not much end game in this game, but the constant tome grind, EXes, weekly normal raid, savage, weely alliance raids, hunts, and so on are what keeps players subbed and playing most of the time. The MSQ is in proportion pretty hort and lonely. And the most important thing that keeps people playing an MMO is, guess what, playing with your friends/other people.

And while people are saying "can't your friends do MSQ with you", the dungeons and trials are only a small part, most time like the OP said you'll be running back and forth, which doesn't make sense to get help for, as well as doing solo duties. Luckily EW had very few solo duties, which made me very glad, but with the OP coming from just finishing ShB, that expansion has an insane number of solo duties, there's at least 2 per area, and they're all pretty long too, so I understand the tiredness. I'm going through ShB again with my lala, skipping cutscenes and dialogue and all, and it still takes forever because of the constant solo duties.

As for learning mechanics, an MSQ skip doesn't give you a class skip. Conversely, someone may have done all MSQ and loved the story and drooled at all the waifus/husbandos and stuff, but still have not a single clue on how to play their class, because they only dragged through for the story and didn't actually care/put an effort in combat, or the class they play later is not the one they did msq on and they have even bought a class skip for it. Or someone could have been just carried/enabled bad gameplay by their friends.
There are a million reason why someone may not even know what a stack marker is, you can't blame it all on skipping msq. Especially since, as per OP, you can't skip the last expansion and yet people still don't know how to play.
Yesterday I was farming Syriu and a lvl 90 RDM was there who never even once went into melee combo. Imagine. Not to talk about using Embolden ofc.

As someonewho likes the story (but then I'm someone who loves even more BDO story, where not skipping is considered crazy, just saying), I'd personally love to be able to skip my alts all the way through.
I also think new players should be able to skip, in a game that cumulated all these years of cinematics and all. Just be able to play with their friends and all, have a taste of actual gameplay and then go back to the story with calm, without pressure, and out of their own choice, rather than "because you have to do story first", like the example of vegetables before dessert. New Game+ is a thing, or for a full experience there's always alts. Nothing wrong with it.
I have a friend who quickly skips through story to be able to do endgame right away, when new story drops, and then goes back to it with calm with inn cutscenes/new game+/whatever. Just because you enjoy story first, and gameplay as side-effect, it doesn't mean everybody has to be the same.

[Walkerged]

I guess your friend doesn't know that some cut scenes have to be watched the first time through to be able to view them in the Inn, there's no getting around it. Not that those are extremely crucial, but they do give you lore behind things like a certain bar wench from an area of ShB just to name the most recent one I can think of.

[Gokki]

I strongly suggest you stick with the story. Any good friend will say the same and help you running the dungeons/raids for your completion. Any friend urging otherwise is... not a good friend imo.

[Besame]

You can buy story skips from the mogstation.

Fair warning, though, the game is very much story driven and just spamming dungeons will get old pretty quickly. Just a heads up so you don't waste your money, just make sure this is really what you want.

Really? So SE does the ol Pay2win hehe, does not surprise me.

[StriderShinryu]

Really? So SE does the ol Pay2win hehe, does not surprise me.

Eh, it's more like Pay To Lose in the case of FF14. The game is very story focused, and even much of the side content has story relations or ties either directly or just through common characters. If you skip the story you not only miss a lot of the content in the game but you also cut off potential interest and emotional connection to the "current content." Of course, some people can find enough value in just doing the current hardest content in the game on repeat or what have you, but most players find the content to be additive in nature rather than something you can just pick apart and take in cleanly divided content chunks.

As for money, I'm sure SE would much rather a new player buy the game, the expansions, multiple months/years of subscriptions, possibly some cash shop merch, etc. as opposed to buying the game, a single story and character skip and then have that player quit in a month. The former is not only more money for them, but it's also a longer term, more consistent and predictable income flow.

[SuperIchi]

Your friends can help you progress through the MSQ and do all of the story duties. If they REALLY wanted to help they could ferry you around on their flying mounts, I've seen some of my friends do this for others in our group.

Let's be real - if they aren't willing to help you progress through the MSQ, you may want to sit back and question what kind of friends you have??

I started an entire Discord community because I love helping my friends progress thru the MSQ. It was a perfect excuse for me to level up all my non-main jobs to max, whereas otherwise I would never have even touched most of the jobs in the game. Plus it's not like you get nothing for doing that old content, you get experience, tomestones, Wondrous Tails progress, etc etc.

[HemlockEvergreen]

Y'all have some shit friends, FFS.

I love seeing people going through the MSQ and seeing them react to the major story points. When I have a friend going through the MSQ, a lot of time me and some other mates are with them on discord, having them share the screen and actively engaging with them and enjoying their reactions. We were all talking about plot points on our discord server too. We don't let friends who are doing the MSQ go through dungeons and trials alone, the vast majority of the time there's a veteran with them.

Seeing people going through the story is one of the little joys I get in this game, and I know I'm not the only one. Streamers doing MSQ are very popular for a reason. Maybe find some better people to go through this journey with you.

[ElysiumDragon]

The Endwalker story is 6 dungeons, 3 trials, and a few solo instances. I powered through the entire thing by the end of Early Access (with practically zero cutscene skipping), and Trusts can get you through most of the content without having to rely on your friends. It won't take that long to catch up if you're willing to put the effort in.

Although, I'd strongly advise against rushing it, as FF14 is very much a 'story first' game.