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

[Alukah]

New players get a soldiery bonus on top of the base soldiery reward the first time they do a dungeon, considering they have to clear each dungeon once to unlock high level roulette this alone ensures a big amount of soldiery over the time, people also get ~200 soldiery per main scenario roulette if there's a new player, which is most of the time.

By the time you unlock most dungeons you should have enough gear drops AND soldiery accessories to overcome the ilvl requirement for Titan HM, at that point you can get your zenith relic, unlock CT, unlock ST and run ST for i100 drops, UAT, oil and sand, along with soldiery, also run T1, T2 and T4 for the first time bonus + i90 drops, by then your ilvl should be high enough to unlock expert dungeons, and by then you should have a somewhat steady income of soldiery to keep upgrading pieces to i110, while still having some i100 pieces from ST and slowly working towards poetic gear.

This of course will take several days (no more than a week tho) but you are not supposed to get full i110 gear right as you get to 50.

tl;dr you guys assume too much, gear progression is fine, it's not hard for a fresh 50 to catch up, I find it a lot better than early 2.2.

EDIT: don't forget about S rank hunts, they give 50 soldiery for doing nothing but zerging monsters that take 2~3 mins to be killed, if you get into an active hunting linkshell and also happen to be online when most S ranks spawn that's a really nice soldiery boost, you can also use the seals for extra soldiery pieces and any log that drops for extra sands/oils.

[Sessurea]

yh lol, it must suck immeasurably to be starting this game in it's current warped shape.

[BreathlessTao]

Well... starting out the first time around...tons of little exclamation marks everywhere, without much indication where to go or what to do exactly. I remember that clearly, it was kind of overwhelming. Especially together with the map that also needed discovering. Main scenario did a good thing leading me through that, though, as well as to some extent the class/job I wanted to play.

Honestly, if you follow those meteor signs (that is the main story markers), you can't really go wrong. The rest is optional, just do them whenever you're ready - the duty finder takesyour hand to guide you there with the ilvl requirements. Not saying it's completely accurate or reliable, but considering it won't let you do stuff below certain item levels at least gives you the goal to aim for. Soldiery is dropping all over the place, going from wherever you can with your AF gear (and then relic) just collecting that is easy to suit up to ~i100. Which then practically opens the doors for everything else too.

Really, it just is overwhelming, but not actually as big a chaos imo. ^^ And yes, you're pretty much carried through low-level stuff nowadays, but you can always try looking for people who are either doing them while leveling up or to spiritbond stuff (meaning they won't be overgeared).

[NationOfZealots]

Try saying that as a fresh 50 who can't do dungeons with an ilvl requirement of 60+

This is becoming a new alarming occurrence in my FC, i am i93, we have many new folk at 50 with the same ilvl yu mention and then come weekend time in FC chat: COIL? COIL! COIL! COIL! However the rest of the week, those fresh 50s in our FC are so discouraged and disenfranchised because while they aren't gated and CAN do the content, the ilvl race is making FFXIV way more end-game than I ever imagined. WTF cares if WOW is i553 - I DO NOT PLAY WOW. This game isn't fun anymore.

[Prototype909]

Something that nobody ever brings up is how ridiculous starting a fresh relic weapon is going to be, not just now, but even further on.

500 soldiery is significantly harder to obtain than 1500 myth was. Hunt soldiery rewards should be doubled.

[Renvalt]

There's also the issue of Chimera and Hydra needing i52 average on your character to even queue up for the fights. And as you HAVE to do those for your relic, you're pretty much gated until you get out of your basic HQ jewelry (yes, accessories do play a role in determining your average ilvl).

However, I think it's also a good incentive for new players to pick up crafting/gathering early on to AT LEAST help support their accessory/weapon/food needs (FSH/CUL/MIN/GSM and one other). People always say "Oh, it's too expensive, you'll never afford all the mats", well... 'tis your own damned fault for wanting an easy road to 50.

And besides, all those "worthless mats" in the 4-mans that you ignore and demeaned has spread to T1-4... except this time, they ain't useless to roll on. I should know - I was part of a T4 farm group earlier, and they weren't there for the gear; they wanted the Ores and stuff.

[RiceisNice]

Something that nobody ever brings up is how ridiculous starting a fresh relic weapon is going to be, not just now, but even further on.

500 soldiery is significantly harder to obtain than 1500 myth was. Hunt soldiery rewards should be doubled.

This is only the case if you were excuslively looking at hunts (which were overpowered as far as how much rewards it gave)
Getting 500 soldierly from roulette bonuses (and especially first time bonuses) is significantly easier than getting 1500 myths, while getting 500 soldierly from normal dungeon rewards is more or less the same as getting 1500 myths.

First-timers get 50-100 bonus soldierly tomestones on their first clear. That amount was not changed from 2.3 and the amount is pretty substantial. Though I do agree that there is a bit of a drought of options for a fresh player who recently completed their main story scenario...especially bard/ninja because quest rewards just love to skip out on DEX accessories. The scarce amount of gear drop from the starter heroic dungeons (AK, copperbell and haukke) doesn't help it either espesically with how much content is ahead of them.

Sure intermediate gear is more relevant now, doesn't necessarily mean it's more obtainable. Though the bonus soldierly from the first set of heroic dungeons should put you on your way of at least getting a piece of weathered gear (to meet the ilvl requirements for trials)

[MrLeonheart]

And besides, all those "worthless mats" in the 4-mans that you ignore and demeaned has spread to T1-4... except this time, they ain't useless to roll on. I should know - I was part of a T4 farm group earlier, and they weren't there for the gear; they wanted the Ores and stuff.

The key difference between the Allagan crafting mats and the other stuff is that the Allagan mats drop in addition to the regular gear drops, not in place of. Frankly, if that's how it worked for the regular dungeons as well I doubt people would complain as much. I know I'd be a whole lot happier about running dungeons if that were the case.

[Felis]

Something that nobody ever brings up is how ridiculous starting a fresh relic weapon is going to be, not just now, but even further on.

500 soldiery is significantly harder to obtain than 1500 myth was. Hunt soldiery rewards should be doubled.

I can earn 100 soldiery during 1 roulette in 2.4
I couldn't earn 300 myths during 1 roulette in 2.3

tome rewards in hunt was unbalanced.

[Pterois]

got my second 50 a week ago and walked into ST around i70~

one week later (about 3 runs, got a little luck with mostly blm drops ill admit) i got the entire left side to i100... right side will take a little more time due to spending all my sold tombs on alex maps... so am i missing something here?