If I were to start playing FFXIV, where should I start?

So lately I have been more and more interested in playing Final Fantasy XIV. I know Stormblood recently came out, and before that there was Heavensward. I have never played an MMORPG (not even WOW), and I haven't kept up with FFXIV to know what changes these expansions have brought, so sorry if these are dumb questions.

If I'm playing the game for the first time, should I just buy A Realm Reborn? Or should I get a pack that has Stormblood? Is the content siloed off (i.e. if you have Stormblood installed, can you still play A Realm Reborn or Heavensward)? How easy is it for people to jump in and understand the world and the story?

In terms of what I'm looking for, I'm mainly interested in some story and developing a character. I know it is an MMORPG, but I have little interest in grouping up with a team of players to do a dungeon or whatever. So with that in mind, is there one expansion that offers more options in terms of soloing?

You have to start with ARR, unless you buy a content/level jump potion, which I highly highly recommend you not do. And even if you did, you still have to own ARR to play the expansions. I would just buy the all-in-one pack you can get now (it's like $60 I think) and play through the story as it leads you through it. Without those jump potions you have to clear all of ARR and HW's story content to access SB. (However, there are some things, like the Samurai and Red Mage jobs, that you can access much earlier.) But because of that you're going to see the same story everyone else did. Barring any optional story you decide not to do.

Just fyi, you can't completely avoid group content. There are mandatory dungeons and trials in the story you have to do. But you can just queue up the duty finder to auto-party.

FFXIV forces you to do the old content before buying the new stuff. You have to finish realm reborn before starting heavensward, and you have to finish heavensward before starting storm blood. I'm not an expert in the game, I only just recently got back into it, but as far as I can tell the only reason to get stormblood right away is if you want to play one of their classes before making it into the expansions propers. The heavensward classes unlock at level 30 I think, and the storm blood ones at 50, again I think. I could be wrong about the levels you need to be at to unlock them.

Heavensward jobs start at 30, but you can't access them until you get to Ishgard, which you won't do until you're level 50+ and cleared all the story between patch 2.0 and 2.55. Samurai and Red Mage start at 50, but they both unlock in the starter town of Ul'dah, so realistically you gain access to them quite a bit earlier. I believe the only requirement beyond being level 50 and owning SB is to beat the final boss of 2.0.

I would just pick up A Realm Reborn to start since I'm sure you can it pretty cheap and the free month alone will give you ample time to get a feel for the whole thing. Heavensward and Stormblood are both substantially better than base game ARR but still better to find out if you have a taste for this style of game at all.

Later when its applicable you can get up to date by just buying Stormblood which has Heavensward bundled in.

Before you buy anything I would try the free trial first. You can play up to level 30 and most everything is available except the auction house and the mail moogle. If you like it go ahead and follow the advice above.

Also, make sure to make your character on the Ultros server if you want to join the GB guild.

Hope you enjoy the game. I recently tried it on a whim and for someone who usually doesn't like MMO's FF 14 hit me hard. 150+ hours in and I don't see myself slowing down much. It's not perfect but it does most of the important things right in my book.

Youd honestly get a better deal if you buy the whole bundle. I recently just started back up after a 2 year hiatus and am throughly enjoying it.

Oh boy, You won't really have any choice but to start at ARR and work your way from there. As with all MMO's, the quests are most and foremost, designed to keep you playing so except a lot of meaningless fetch quests mixed in with some cool ones. I don't know how the new content is reached but when Heavensword there were some complaints on how the content was reached so they might addressed it in the new one. As @fatalbanana mentioned. Join the Ultros server and someone from the GB guild will walk you through it. Have fun.

There's a time-unlimited trial where you can level every class to 30, and play the main story to that point as well. Play that and see how you like it.

If you like it then you're probably good getting whatever bundle you can find. ARR stuff is good, Heavensward is great, and I haven't started Stormblood's story yet but samurai and red mage are real fun.

Did the same at the start of this year back when it was still a 14-day trial and haven't looked back. Fantastic game. Didn't stick with it after ARR launch when my 30 days expired, for whatever reason, but when I made the choice to start over on PS4 this year I fell into it hard.