Returning player: Where to start?

[Urthdigger]

I've recently returned after being away from the game for a year: When the level cap went up, the endgame LS I'd been a part of started to die off, until it was practically non-existant around the time of the 99 cap, which led to me leaving myself.

I'm having trouble getting back into the swing of things due to missing out on content when it was current, and I worry that it's impossible to enter the endgame scene nowadays. Furthermore, it would appear that the Adoulin content is impossible for a player whose only accomplishments are a handful of 99s with empyrean +1 and +2 armor. I attempt to join in on reives, only to find myself unable to kill them fast enough to avoid getting link after link after link until utsusemi is going down as soon as I can put it up and I'm soon dead. Again.

Finally, I worry about player expectations when it comes to finding a LS... or hell, even an xp party. It seems it's just assumed that a player already has an empyrean weapon or five under their belt already. Unfortunately I don't. I don't have voidwatch armor either... or anything from Legion, Nyzul Uncharted, Meeble Burrows, all that newer stuff.

I'm at a loss. I've missed Vana'diel, and the new expansion looks interesting. But it seems sometimes the game is for existing players only.

[Unctgtg]

Urthdigger /wave how you doing man. There are plenty of still playing that don't have an emp. You can catch up rather easily.

Check out Grommets LS aka on my server. Perfect for returning players. Not endgame just a social.

http://www.cynosure-online.com/forums/

/Unctgtg

[Urthdigger]

Hey! Haven't seen you in a long time! Found work, lost work, went back to college, took a break, found work again... been a crazy trip since then.

As for the suggestion at hand, I did actually run across a social of some sort shouting for members the day after I posted this, go figure (It's a rule of the internet: Throw a fit, and your issue will only resolve just in time to make you look like an idiot). I'll see how that pans out. I'm also a tad hesitant to change servers, as I don't want to pay to move over myself and all my mules if I don't have to. While I do know a number of folks on Ragnarok, I've also run across old friends on Fenrir here and there (Albeit usually in endgame shells with requirements I don't quite meet yet), and I know friends on Lakshmi as well... sometimes I wish everyone played on the same world. Except for, ya know, the inevitable overcrowding of everything that would occur.