" The gearing system from level 1 to level 49 is atrociously horrendous. Many, many of the new player sprouts I've seen had level 1, or level 5 accessories from the vendor at level 40+, and so many more not understanding how gearing works in general past level 50 with the Poetics tomestones. Even with Rowena's Representatives in every major city, new players have no idea what that NPC is even for, meaning there needs to be a clearer indicator from the game to instruct new players."
Just wanted to highlight this bit, as it's even worse then you may realize. Rowenas reps don't even show up until you've beaten ARR and you can only buy gear from expansions you BEATEN, so personally I would argue they are in fact useless for new players to get caught up on gear. The only players that actually benefit are those that are done with current story but don't have all jobs leveled. Imo it was another "QOL" that was a swing and miss from sqe, it should be tied to your combat level and not where you're at in the msq to be truely useful.