Non-tomestone ways to get to item level 460? Crafting?

[Omedon]

Well, the game assumes when you're at the current endgame that you'll run optional content and gear up a bit.
Once Endwalker is released the patches will give gear so new players passing through won't need to touch the old endgame.

But I will still be staring at this dungeon, with all the potential catch up rewards in the quests behind me. In order to play Endwalker (when I almost certainly buy it) I will need to face this grind... to advance the certainly mandatory story! Imora and I will be in this same situation, unless there's a detail I'm not aware of!

That just... I don't know it just seems weird to me!

[Moomba33]

But I will still be staring at this dungeon, with all the potential catch up rewards in the quests behind me. In order to play Endwalker (when I almost certainly buy it) I will need to face this grind... to advance the certainly mandatory story! Imora and I will be in this same situation, unless there's a detail I'm not aware of!

That just... I don't know it just seems weird to me!

I don't find it weird personally, but I don't play other MMOs so it's just normal to me. For what it's worth again, the normal raids are not a big step up from story trials, and they have their own stories which are fun and worth experiencing imo.

Edit: I think I may have come off more combative than I intended.
Good luck to both Omedon and Imora, I hope you both are able to find an agreeable source of gear to continue the story.

[Iscah]

Ok, while I'm sure these are all viable directions, what is truly mindblowing for me (and I absolutely concede that this is clearly just a difference between games, but, man...) is that all of this... is to advance the story one step! Like, that doesn't strike anyone here as being a little nuts?

"All of this" is quite so convoluted because you're so determined to avoid the side content that is supposed to be part of the game progression. Playing the Eden or NieR raids is still "playing the story" – not a particularly good one in NieR's case if you ask me, but Eden is an MSQ offshoot continuing Ryne's story and you easily get some gear boosts out of it since you purchase the class you need with tokens rather than relying on the right one dropping. It's particularly easy to get belts and jewellery since it's a single token per piece.

Also, current endgame is more difficult to progress through than old endgame. If you put it aside now, you can come back in 6.0 when it's all simplified to poetics and the MSQ gives you free i490 gear (though you've probably missed that bit).

But as I said before, I recommend scraping over the i465 threshold to complete 5.3 now, if you can, then waiting to progress beyond that when it's reduced to "ex-endgame".

[Missbone]

Ok, while I'm sure these are all viable directions, what is truly mindblowing for me (and I absolutely concede that this is clearly just a difference between games, but, man...) is that all of this... is to advance the story one step! Like, that doesn't strike anyone here as being a little nuts?

"Run dungeons for the week"

"Go make a fortune"

"Unlock this other convoluted world boss zone"

... To have enough gear to advance the story... a questline that has provided gear here and there... that is on its own not good enough to advance the story.

There are multiple degrees of community interdependence (roulette, market board, mass FATEs) to advance the story!

That doesn't strike anyone as a little crazy? Maybe it's my WoW brain haha!

Well you shouldnt forget that you are near end of this expansion as new player to catch up. Means when the story updates came out players already had spent time to upgrade their gear. If someone didnt had done that he also needed to upgrade his gear first to meet the new requirements. You are in the lucky position that you basicly dont need to spend time twice or more for getting your gear to the current max.

With a bit paition and time investment you can skip all the low gear and start right with the current top gear. Also are you really complaining that you need to work a bit for your gear and char in an MMO to catch up? It dosnt take that long, if you focus on it and spend a bit time you can get everything done in less than a weak (upgrading your gear and finishing story).

And yea WoW works a bit different, you shouldnt expect every MMO follows the same roulles that you get used to while playing WoW.

[Reinha]

There are multiple degrees of community interdependence (roulette, market board, mass FATEs) to advance the story!

That doesn't strike anyone as a little crazy? Maybe it's my WoW brain haha!

There are multiple options, but if you aren't willing to touch a single one then yes, it's going to slow you down. Just pick one. I would recommend the Eden raid story since you will have a co tank and you won't have to lead people in a circular platform.

[Jojoya]

What I'm looking for is non-interdependent ways, slow or fast, to get past what will, now or later, be a mandatory dungeon where the previous questlines don't gear me to enter it (which is just beyond the pale ridiculous but I digress on that point).

I need to frame my progression here in a way that is not reliant on a community that won't care about (or more to the point, likely won't tolerate new tanks within) this content when I likely get around to doing it. It's very important to me that I don't "need" other players to validate my subscription. Especially to progress the story. Yes, I know all duties are in the roulette, but as a tank main I'll be expected to know it all to lead, and, well... no, I won't. And my usual method of maintaning a DPS class for when the mandatory dungeons hit just doubles my work. I'm a tank for trusts, I'm a tank for questing, and for everything else (like this gear grind MID STORY) I need to work within my comfort zone.

Rank A hunt trains may be inter-dependent on others but they do fit your requirement that no one is going to be frustrated with a new tank. There are always multiple tanks present so you don't need to worry about others putting you under a microscope because a more experienced/better-geared tank will end up the main aggro target. The hunt community on Crystal is pretty relaxed and welcoming for the most part (always those few individual exceptions).

They're very rewarding and you can participate in multiple trains a day (join cross world linkshells and/or hunt Discords to get notifications for trains that are running when you're online). One train with all 12 marks will yield 120 Revelation, 240 Allegory, 360 Poetics and 480 Sacks of Nuts (use to buy augments for tomestone gear) so you can gear up very quickly with Crystarium gear (same ilvl required for the final dungeon of this expansion) as you more slowly add Cryptlurker gear.

Other solo but slow ways to get current end game tomestones would be Gliderskin treasure maps (can be done solo) and beast tribe quests. If you don't plan to return until Endwalker's release, all current end game tomestone gear will switch to Poetics at that time so you may want to work on capping your Poetics before you take your break so you'll be able to buy a few pieces once the expansion is released.

Otherwise crafting is an option but it's pretty time intensive getting to the point you can craft the higher ilvl end game gear on your own. It would be easier to focus on ways to make gil then purchase it off the MB.

[LaylaTsarra]

I'm a big fan of A trains. It's how I gear my alts for the most part. They are easy don't take a lot of time and are very rewarding. I typically do those and Eden as well but the trains alone can get you pretty well geared.

[Rilifane]

Ok, while I'm sure these are all viable directions, what is truly mindblowing for me (and I absolutely concede that this is clearly just a difference between games, but, man...) is that all of this... is to advance the story one step! Like, that doesn't strike anyone here as being a little nuts?

"Run dungeons for the week"

"Go make a fortune"

"Unlock this other convoluted world boss zone"

... To have enough gear to advance the story... a questline that has provided gear here and there... that is on its own not good enough to advance the story.

There are multiple degrees of community interdependence (roulette, market board, mass FATEs) to advance the story!

That doesn't strike anyone as a little crazy? Maybe it's my WoW brain haha!

FFXIV is story-driven but it's also an MMO so it was neccessary for devs to set certain requirements to keep players from (consciously or not) griefing other players. So we have a min ilvl for dungeons.
You expect to leave and return at any time and whenever you come back, you will be able to play the whole story in one go - that's not a realistic expection. Story patches have often months between them. Months even the least active players had time to something occasionally like once a week to bring them way above the required treshold to advance with the story.

You have multiple ways and people spend time and effort to research and explain what you can do. None of those ways are particulary complicated or time-consuming because all of them are casual content that is meant for players who play very infrequently and only for a short amount of time when they do. WoW also has min ilvl requirements for dungeons, just as a side note. And you don't just get it by doing the story either, you also look for other resources for gear.

A hunt train usually takes around 30-45 min, they get announced in the Centurio Hunts discord aswell as in LS, although discord is the easiest way because they ping everyone that signed up for it. Join, set a role, done.
You can hop on/ hop off any time you want during the train and you don't even need to be able to fly in all zones. You can either "skip" that particular zone by just staying at the aetheryte after porting so you see in chat which destination is next or ask someone to give you a lift. I often see it with freshly 80 players and it's no problem at all.
They reward tons of tomes and nuts, done on a daily basis and at various times on all servers of your DC. Very quick and easy way to get gear and something that people always do, no matter the patch.

Eden normal raids offer a nice side story, if you're not interested in that you can always skip the cut scene and just do all the bosses you're eligible for with your current gear/ story prog. You have already unlocked the quest for the 1st tier by reaching the end of the ShB core story, so it only takes talking to one NPC.
1st tier rewards needs 425, rewards 450, accessories/ belt cost one token, boots/ hands/ helmet 2 token, pants/ chest 4 token. Since it has been unlocked ages ago, you can need on all 8 token that drop and will most likely even get all of them because only very few people still need them.
2nd tier rewards needs 455, rewards 480, same rules as above.
3rd tier rewards needs 485, rewards 510.
The boss fights usually take aroun 6-8min, depending on the fight and party, mechanics are lenient, no prior knowledge required. Going in blind, regardless of role, is completely fine. Doing normal raids is a great way to quickly get current gear and catch up with alt classes, so I'd keep an eye on that for the future.
Thanks to your own first timer bonus, you'll also get bonus tomes for each boss in addition to tokens. Doing the 1st tier gives you enough tokens and tomes to get above the 2nd tier threshold, which in turn gives you enough to easily continue the MSQ.

Those two options are the cheapest, quickest and most reliable ones that require almost no effort (like long unlock quest chains etc) or otherwise significant time investment. It's a hop on/ hop off thing you can do anytime you feel like it.

Getting gear though dungeons or alliance raid is a matter of luck because not only does it have to drop, you also need to win it. Less an issue on a tank because you're the only one there, but it's not guaranteed that even a single tank piece drops and you might leave the raid/ dungeon empty handed. They still give tomes, which is nice because you get 490 and ilvl is an average - so you can buy multiple cheap pieces that boost your ilvl for the same amount as one big piece (like chest).

Buying crafted gear is an option, but best thing to is being selective and do some server hopping. Overall it's probably a matter of 20min tops to check all servers and buy only a select few pieces of current or last tier crafted gear. Some last tier crafted pieces (ilvl 480) are sold for 10k in HQ because nobody really needs it anymore and they just forgot to sell it on time. Current tier crafted depends on the server, but they generally don't go below 50k.
A few pieces easily get you above the required threshold though.

Leveling crafters so you can craft gear yourself is probably one of the most time-consuming and expensive ways because you can't craft 510 just because you hit 80. Even crafting 480 requires some gear you need to at least get through scrips first. Then you still have to acquire mats, some of them are still fairly pricey.
If you want something that is time-efficient, fits your budget and is still done long after the content came out for the first time, I suggest sticking to hunt trains, normal raids and doing the occasional expert/ 80/ trial/ normal raid roulette. Whichever tickles your fancy. Just remember you need to do trial/ normal raid roulette at 80 to get tomes.

But honestly, none of this is "convoluted", you're making it into a much bigger problem than it really is because you have unrealistic expectations. It doesn't take nearly as much time or money to do most of this than you make it sounds.
You don't need to farm a dungeon for a week straight just to do one quest. You don't need to be filthy rich to get some nice deals with server hopping. You don't need to a crazy-long quest chain for a single boss.

[Missbone]

I'm a big fan of A trains. It's how I gear my alts for the most part. They are easy don't take a lot of time and are very rewarding. I typically do those and Eden as well but the trains alone can get you pretty well geared.

Serious question, how do you manage to find a train? I find it allways very hard and time consuming to find something, thats why i usualy only do them 1 or twice per expansion. Sure there are linkshells, but all this zone hopping and running around without anything happend is highly demotivating for me. To make it work you usually need to rely on external tools and discord because there is no real ingame solution to keep track of the spawns. The should be atleast a option in the dungeon finder where you could auto join a train.

[LaylaTsarra]

Serious question, how do you manage to find a train? I find it allways very hard and time consuming to find something, thats why i usualy only do them 1 or twice per expansion. Sure there are linkshells, but all this zone hopping and running around without anything happend is highly demotivating for me. To make it work you usually need to rely on external tools and discord because there is no real ingame solution to keep track of the spawns. The should be atleast a option in the dungeon finder where you could auto join a train.

I use Discord. For Chaos I use Faloop - FFXIV The Hunt. They will ping various Data Centers including Mana in Japan although I have a hard time with that one given the relays are in Japanese. You can set it up so they ping A trains only or other things too like S rank spawns, Boss Fates and more.

Discord is easy. I belong to multiple ones given I have characters on Aether, Crystal, Chaos and Mana. You could probably find a good cross world link shell that will announce when A Trains are starting and on which servers.