I would also suggest consider taking up another class if you aren't completely loathe to playing another job. When I came back after a year+ break, I found myself severely undergeared. In order to get invites to parties, I spent a week skilling, cping, and gearing geo. GEO can be successful at its core job with just upgrades to its various AF sets (some of 1, most of 2, all of 3 ). Sure your nukes will suck, but people want GEOs for their bubbles not their nukes (please note im not saying a good GEO shouldn't have a solid nuking set, Im saying that a just starting out GEO with a solid geomancy set is still an asset to a party). Using GEO I was able to quickly pick up a good nuking set and add gear to other favorite jobs. Now I have SCH (my main) geared well enough I can reliably solo all the ZiTah T1s (save one which I can solo on blu), most the T2s, and all the non-caturae Sky T1s (haven't tried T2s solo yet). Plus I can easily fill in parties on either SCH or GEO. Luckily I prefer mage and support jobs, so GEO was not much of a hardship for me. But even if GEO isn't your cup of tea, sometimes it's better to work within the system the way it is rather than stand on the outside lamenting your exclusion.