Level 117 Sparks armor is like the Perle/Teal/Aurore set from Abyssea. It's a baseline set to get you into current events. Better gear comes from current events, but at least you have something that can get you by.

Rhapsodies is currently set to be clearable if you could beat the Shadow Lord mission, aimed at level ~60 players. The next batch will be aimed at 75-99, and the last one will be aimed at level 119. Adoulin and maybe Abyssea are the only things you will have trouble soloing now without a very specific job and gear build. Most endgame isn't realy soloable right now, like Vagary and hard mode battles, unless you go on easy difficulty on the things that give an option.

Spark gear should let you into hard mode orb battles, skirmish and alluvion skirmish, and maybe Delve, so you can get better gear (maybe your job uses reforged Empyrean, Relic, and Artifact armor) that is level 119, so you can do harder things like Vagary. You can also farm silt in Escha Zi'Tah for high level equipment.