Labyrinth Raid Required for 5.3 MSQ?

[Shibi]

At this point you've been at least level 50 for a long time and you have access to much higher ilevel than 90.

I'd say he's 9 days since level 50. As we are not grinding dungeons, but just following the MSQ... is it worth wasting our few poetics on iLevel130? Crafted gear exceeds it, will the starter quest gear in HW exceed it too? Would they be better saved for a point in HW when the gear requirement grows?

An average item level of 90 is enough to get into all three Crystal Tower raids - running them can get you some better gear along the way.

ok, that's heartening at least. No need to gear for months to get past this new gate and into Ishgard.

While I raided in WoW and Rift and EQ2 and clearly recall the months of gearing up and failing multiple times (and angry people), he is brand new to MMOs and although coming along well, not at a point to do raiding That's end game stuff, not for leveling.