Queue for front line roulette or shatter the fastest way to gear up you don't need to be good at pvp or anything just do stuff attack players or ice and not afk you will get enough garo gear to be 235 after a few runs.
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If you get close, there is ilvl 150 gear on vendors in Azys Lla I think. That won't help you if you're not really close, though. The market board is your best bet. A couple cheap items, even if they're not for your class (i.e. off-stat accessories) can let you queue into the place. Another possibility (if/when you can enter) is old Alexander stuff. I don't know how many people are queuing for that though.
I found PotD to be fairly quick for tomestone farming, but pulling it off in a few days (along with the MSQ) will be difficult. I'm sure there are faster methods, but PotD is mindless and less stressful, so it's easier for me to spam it.
I also sympathize somewhat with your plight. If SE wants to go the route of providing augmented quest rewards to help people catch up (a la ARR's 2.x quests), they should really make the change a few months before the new expansion launches. That's the window during most returning players will be catching up.
I think someone mentioned it, maybe, but the new areas in SB should have vendors who sell cheap i255 gear (just like the first HW vendors in Foundation and such sell lvl 50 i115 gear). If you have a friend who has access to the new areas, maybe have them buy the i255 vendor gear, which should be pretty cheap, and mail it to you. That way you'd get a full 255 set pretty fast on SB early access release day ^^
PvP is probably your fastest avenue right now. You can get full 235 with several hours of frontlines. You will need to speak to the disreputable Priest at the Wolves Den Peir to purchase the gear. At the very least you should be able to get enough pieces to get into the next dungeon and then use lore, dungeon acquired gear and more PvP stuff to get to the next step.
The alternative if you have a lot of gil available from a friend or saved up previously is to just buy crafted gear.
Yeah, it's just kinda weird that they gate pretty much all of the expansion (Which attracts a bunch of new and returning players to the game) behind 422 (Literally) quests AND gear grinding, without making it easier for players to catch up to that (At least gear-wise) before the expansion launches (One month prior, or even two weeks).
Yeah, but to get access to the vendors that sell those items, you have to get to the expansion areas, which are gated behing the previous MSQ.
I would do that, but since I've been away from the game for 3 years, and actually got a server transfer, my friendlist literally has only my sister (level 40 BRD lol), and a guy I kept running on during dungeons, which is in the same boat as me. lol
Will spam some PvP tonight (Probably pull an all-nighter). As for gil, I have like, 300k or less, can't remember at the top of my head, since I never got into crafting, and had to buy gear for leveling my DRK to 50.
I'm on Faerie, too - just send me a /tell and I can get that stuff for you ^_^v
At this point just wait until early access...you have just over 24 hours of server uptime between now and then. 230+ gear rewards will almost surely be added (along with XP) to the 3.x MSQ come early access. Not to mention, the first vendors in SB will most likely be selling 240+ white gear - don't waste your time or gil until then.
You can farm Aetherochemical Research Facility for Lore (150 Lore a pop), to give yourself a decent amount. You can then build up Scripture while you're at it (buy the ring for 375 scripture,, you get 10 scrip per ARF run). As well, get your i235 weapon from 30/30 aetherpool weapon/armor (beat floor 50 for it), in Palace of the Dead. That WILL push you over the i230 threshold, and quite possibly before maintenance too. Then you can enter into Stormblood. Unfortunately you're not on the Chaos datacentre so I cannot help with that by providing quicker queues for you, else I would jump on now and help you. Best of luck!