Make it so the Current Expac MSQ doesn't level you

[Malthir]

I've played both ESO and GW2 quite a bit. GW2's hearts are like yellow quests and totally optional. I do dailies if I want to level in GW2 and even then the leveling is more horizontal at some point.
In ESO the zone quests are pretty much an MSQ. The old MSQ isn't even necessary and feels outdated. And again, there is a different leveling system in place in the game.

It's kind of hard to compare these games since their end game leveling is also different.

Edit: Also, you have been playing the game for quite a while. I have been playing for a while. We know tricks to level faster and many of us are doing fates and other content along the way. I've seen some stream and need to grind fates to catch up even in this expansion. It may not be the MSQ EXP that is the issue so much as the knowledge you have concerning leveling efficiency.

I'm not suggesting comparing them. I'm suggesting copying to a degree. Take these features that are considered good features, and implement something similar. Having 30hour cutscene heavy MSQ's 2 expac in a row is a design choice not an accident they can still course correct but they will NEED to do something about DT or it's going to be a real problem, however that's a different conversation.

The point is you don't need tricks, I literally just followed MSQ hit 100 before I was even in the last zone. Only ran the dungeons once each with trusts MSQ. That is fundementally how the devs want the game to be played it's how it's designed. I'm stating this is bad design and the game should focus on direct gameplay not watch cutscenes for hours on end to get level 100 and be able to do any meaningful content e.g experts, raids when they release. By meaningful I mean objectively meaningful, as in there is an actual goal for doing them not just doing side content for shit and giggles.

You can say, well you could just go off and do side content just for fun. But when the barrier to all other content is a MSQ and in this case a bad one, then players don't want to get side tracked they just want to get through the slog that is the MSQ.