I'd ask this in the subforum for questions about Esperanto, but I don't think I'm good enough at Esperanto the ask the question and still understand the answers.

So in English when you're talking, you use "is/are/am" and "going" a lot. You don't say "You talking" you say "You are talking." You don't just say "I will eat cake" you say "I'm going to go eat a cake." This is simple a enough because these are mostly one-syllable words and we turn "you are" and "I am" to "you're" and "I'm."

But in Esperanto is such a thing necessary. I know I don't need the "It" in "It is raining" but do I even need the "is"? Could I just say "raining"? "I'm going to go eat a cake." directly into Esperanto would be "Mi estas iras iri manĝos kukon." Surely some of the verbs there aren't needed since "going to go" was just an English way of setting up future tense when our words don't have their own future tense.

I'm just not sure when I need "estas" and "iri" and when I don't. "Mi estas skribas" is the estas needed there? I'm just not sure when it's just English being wordy and when it's actually necessary in language. If I said "Go play with your friends" would I need to say the "iru" in "Iru ludu kun via amikojn"?

Can someone with more experience clear this up?

Do not translate English into Esperanto word for word. Just read the grammar.
I'm going to... = mi intencas ...
Go play with your friends = iru ludi kun viaj amikoj

it is raining = pluvas (lit. "is-raining")

Most of the time what we know as the continuous forms in Engish are translated into Esperanto with simple forms. If you need the complex forms you can use them though.

This is simpler to understand with an example.

Mi fumas in Esperanto can correspond to either I smoke or I am smoking. If, for some reason, the situation or context doesn't make if clear that you mean I am smoking rather than I smoke, then you can say mi estas fumanta.

English forces you to make this distinction all the time, which often causes problems for foreign learners. It's simpler in Esperanto.

On the other hand, in English, we use 'I am going to' to cover more than one meaning, and in other languages this can require different translations.

'I am going to see John at the weekend' may mean you are off on a visit, or it may express your intention or expectation.

If physical motion is essential to the meaning then 'going to' may be translated with iri.

If not, then some other verb will have to be used depending on the desired meaning, if the simple future is not adequate - a future participle may also be used.

Some verbs you might use are intenci, atendi, plani, projekti, antaŭvidi and maybe some others.

English uses a lot of "helper" verbs to build verb tenses. We don't do that in Esperanto. You're making things unnecessarily hard for yourself by trying to use those helper verbs.

It is possible to build complex tenses in Esperanto using the word "estas" and the participle forms (-anta, -inta, -onta, -ata, -ita, -ota).

But in most cases it is good style to stick to a simple past (-is), present (-as), or future (-os)

Therefore, in various contexts:
mi iris = I went, I have gone, I did go, I was going, I had gone
mi iras = I go, I am going, I do go
mi iros = I will go, I'm going to go

Weather verbs have no subject. But the rest of the Esperanto verb rules apply.
neĝis = it snowed, it was snowing, it did snow, it had snowed, it has snowed
neĝas = it snows, it is snowing
neĝos = it will snow, it's going to snow

Another hint: Never say "estas iras" or any pair of verbs in the form "-as -as". It's always wrong.

You can say "estas iranta" ("is going" — but only when a simple "iras" is not enough) or "volas iri" ("wants to go"), but never "estas iras" or "volas iras".

Ah, you've all adequately answered my question. Thank you all.