I swear, Field Skill gating story progress in this game is the worst design choice I have seen in any game in literally years. Worse than Starfox Zero's controls even. It is so utterly pointless and adds NOTHING to the experience but annoyance and wasting the player's time.

It is annoying but honestly very easily gotten past.  If you have a bunch.  Literally the only instance that took me any time to get past was Chapter 8.  Every other one was pretty simple stuff.  All the blades equipped to all party memebers count towards the totals needed afterall.

But yeah, I feel the field skills are a cool idea taken too far.  When they let you reach secret placed or get extra loot, they're cool.  But not when getting in the way of story.

I cannot for the life of me get Ancient Wisdom Level 3. The game has wasted the last two hours of my life with making me do stupid arbitrary tasks to unlock his other affinity points, like there was one for "use his favourite pouch item", I look it up and Google tells me its a tasty sausage, so I backtrack to bloody Gormott to buy one, only for nothing to happen when I use it. All I want to do is continue the goddamn story and I've spent more of the last 3 hours doing menial busywork than actual gameplay.

What chapter are you on?  You ought to have Aegaeon by now, no?  He has Ancient Wisdom.  Just equip him and up Ancient Wisdom on Dromarch.  Also, try opening some core crystals, some of the rares have it.   

For pouch items, just grab a whole bunch at all the vendors and try them.  You don't actually have to use their favorite, just something close to it, like favorite food group.  And just spam it, don't bother letting it do its cooldown thing.  It counts the moment you put the item in the pouch.  

Check and see how many of your blades have ancient wisdom.  If so, equip them to their driver.  Honestly, if you have Aegaeon by now, you shouldn't have an issue here I don't think.  

Oh and to make the whole ancient wisdom thing easier, I strongly advise breaking off from the main story at some point in chapter 8 or right before 9 to go get Poppi's third form.  She gets Ancient Wisdom and can be a serious boost for Tora.

I have Aegeon but none of the unspecified insect items it says I need for Ancient Wisdom. Meanwhile the skill circle with Level 3 won't even unlock on Dromarch.

You have to raise Dromarch's trust I believe.  That is easiest with questing, main or side.

But are you positive you have gone the right way?  I mean really sure?  I don't recall running into this kind of barrier.  The worst I had was a wind and earth mastery that was easily achieved.

I'm at the Stele of Judgement. It demands 3 Levels of Ancient Wisdom. I only have Dromarch at Level 2.

Honestly, it saddens me to say it, but I'm starting to wonder if I will even finish Xenoblade 2. The infuriating annoyances are really starting to pile up in earnest and overwhelm the game's positive traits. I'm getting really sick of the game constantly cockblocking me from continuing with the story by making me go do boring side stuff. Xenoblade 1 never did that.

That would be a big mistake in my frank opinion.  It's worth continuing.  

Aegaeon is your easiest way forward here.  Go do sidequests or explore, checking collection points as you go.  You have fast travel points unlocked.  I get the feeling you haven't done a ton of sidequesting recently in this.  

And sure Xenoblade 1 did.  It's called grinding.  I had to do it several times.  And the sidequests in 1 were worse than here.

Also, for more ancient Wisdom, open cores with Truth boosters.  You are looking for Perun and Adenine.  Both have ancient Wisdom.  

Yeah, some of the stuff they do with the field skill stuff is fine but a lot of it annoying.

I especially dislike certain side quests where if you don't have the right field skills equipped when just talking to an NPC it will move on with you not getting either an extra piece of info or item. Or situations where it requires a certain field skill combination only to lead immediately afterward into a boss fight. I understand how they can make even the lowliest of blades valuable for certain field exercises and merc missions but it still is annoying to progress through more often then it should be.

Also Blade quests where it requires you to go to specific places or talk to people with their unique field skills at certain levels despite never giving indication on what level you need leading to failed activation after locating the person or spot. Agate's quest is too damn annoying without a guide.

I just started Chapter 6, so I guess the halfway point, unless the last few chapters are super short. Have 60 hours clocked, and my team is around level 50, which seems way over-leveled for story stuff. I've started to outright ignore bonus experience from inns, just gonna save that all for post-game I guess (or right before the final boss-game...which is close as I get sometimes). I should just focus on the main story, but I can't help but want to explore every new area as much as possible, it's all just so cool.

Overall...I really love this game. Beautiful worlds, interesting story, very addictive gameplay, and a great cast of characters that are all at least likable. So far the story has gripped me a lot more than either Xeno 1 or X, and unless the eventual twist in the game falls flat, this might end up being my favorite Xenoblade.

It also gave me Mythra...which I won't forget anytime soon. Heh.