How do newly chreated characters / new players supposed to progress naturually

[Lemuria]

Now that the super cheap i90 gear from hunts is gone, you actually have to start running dungeons getting tomes for the i100 gear.

FTFY

It sucks, but there's a pretty big leap now. Farming dungeons for the ilvl 90 gear is a waste of time. You're casting lots against multiple players, many of whom just want it for desynthesis skill, and you have to participate in high level dungeons to even get a shot. Prior to getting to that ilvl, every single dungeon now drops soldiery tomes which can be used to purchase level 100 gear. Welcome to progression SE style.

Step 1: get CT1 full gear
step 2: get ancient gear from the new dungeons
step 3: buy ilevel 100 gears you earned from CT1 and the new dungeons and get ilevel90 gears with the ancient gears

Why...? CT gear is worthless now too! ST gear is far more relevant, but even then it's now meaningless thanks to the abundance of soldiery tomes. Given that you can work towards ilvl 100 as a fresh-faced level 50 character now that every dungeon drops those tomes, there's no reason to do any of that content aside from a change of pace.

Call me crazy if you will, but the whole point of philosophy and mythology tomes were to enforce a nice steady progression. You worked towards Philo gear, then you built up Myth gear. It made sense. Then they ditched Philo, making Darklight a worthless random drop. Now they've done the same to mythology gear. SE just don't understand steady progression.