Lexia is right about the gear. That being said the Lore gear is only 10 ilevels off of the current max without upgrading it. (currently only possible by doing Savage) But my guess is that they will repeat what they did with Void Ark and give you a weekly token that can be exchanged for the item you need to trade in with the Lore gear to upgrade it to i240. The only difference is time to acquire. SE's philosophy seems to be that they offer more than one avenue to gear up from raids to tomes to tokens so that you can find the path that works for you. And as far as the story goes you only need like i180 to get into the Antitower to get through the current MSQ end. Anything beyond that is optional.

Also don't forget to use your DF for the bonuses and PF if you are looking to get through some specific content like Sephirot (a very fun fight with good music). And I hope you find a good group of people to play with during the times you are on.