Point in gearing up?

[Vahlnir]

I would probably buy a full set of crafted 510 gear at the very least. That should tide you over for now and provide you with access to just about everything outside of the higher end Extremes and Savage. Doing it that way means you can just proceed with the expansion's content without much to worry about. Buying some higher end pieces with Revelation tomestones isn't a bad idea though should you amass enough of them. With the latest Nier raid it's pretty easy to get 520 gear as well, provided it drops something you need.

[Katie_Kitty]

Honestly you could just buy some 510 gear from the market and you'll be fine for endwalker

[Rongway]

Lv59 dungeon requires IL 120, the same as unaugmented Lv50 tomestone gear and gear dropped by Lv51 dungeon.
Lv69 dungeon requires IL 260, the same as unaugmented Lv60 tomestone gear and gear dropped by Lv61 dungeon.
Lv79 dungeon requires IL 390, the same as unaugmented Lv70 tomestone gear and gear dropped by Lv71 dungeon.

Lv60 MSQ dungeon and finale trial require IL 142, which is 12 higher than augmented Lv50 tomestone gear.
Lv70 MSQ dungeon and finale trial require IL 280, which is 10 higher than augmented Lv60 tomestone gear.
Lv80 MSQ dungeon and finale trial require IL 410, which is 10 higher than augmented Lv70 tomestone gear.

It would be reasonable to anticipate the Lv79 dungeon will require IL 520 and the Lv80 MSQ dungeon and finale trial will require 540. The closer you get to 530 right now, the less you have to worry about gear during EW early access / launch week. Full 520 should guarantee you unimpeded dungeon access until the finale, and full 530 now should easily be 540 just from guaranteed quest rewards (especially if they give us AF5 before the finale).

[Iscah]

The closer you get to 530 right now, the less you have to worry about gear during EW early access / launch week.

But there's really not that much to worry about in the first place. You'll do the early-game level 80 quests, pick up free gear to bring you up to at least i515 if you're not there already, then work your way through the game probably receiving at least two new pieces per dungeon. If you fall behind, you can crack open the level 86 or 88 gear coffers from quests to catch up, and will indeed most likely receive your level 90 artifact gear before you hit the final dungeon.

If you want the gear now, get it, but you don't have to do it now to avoid progress issues later.

[Jennah]

You'll need to be 495 to do all the non-Savage Shadowbringers content. You can get most of the way there through the Tomestones of Phantasmagoria, which will get thrown at you like candy as you finish the Shadowbringers story.

There are two main options for i510 gear: just buying it off the marketboard, or running the most recent 8-man (normal) raids.

There is no particular reason to go further than that to prepare for Endwalker (or to do anything much NOW, for that matter) but you can get 520 gear from those revelation tomestones; and upgrade it to 530 with either hunt tokens or running the 24-man raids.

[Asuro]

What kind of things can I do at end game? The raid, Farming primals for mounts and transmog. My friend recently subbed he's almost done ARR, I know he has to do MSQ but he asked me what we gonna do at max level didn't know what to tell him lol. I cant think of more, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know! Thanks in advance guys.

[Reinha]

What kind of things can I do at end game? The raid, Farming primals for mounts and transmog. My friend recently subbed he's almost done ARR, I know he has to do MSQ but he asked me what we gonna do at max level didn't know what to tell him lol. I cant think of more, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know! Thanks in advance guys.

Relic weapons in Bozja (it also rains 510 gear for your alt jobs)

[linayar]

A full set of augmented Scaevan gears is enough to get you through all the leveling contents in Shadowbringers. If the pattern holds, a full set of Cryptlurker's gears would do the same for all leveling contents in Endwalker.

Also, even with level and item level syncs, better gears still help you get to the max of the sync, which still helps, just not with materia melds.

[Seraphor]

For one, 430 isn't endgame yet. It's the end of the Shadowbringers MSQ, but that's just as of 5.0, we're now on 5.5
5 patches in, and there's 5 stages of further MSQ that will require you to gain additional gear to meet the ilvl requirements.

Come back when you're up to 5.5 with an ilvl of at least 490, and then you can discuss whether or not there's any point in progressing further.

As for endgame content. While Savage and especially Ultimate may be out of reach for many players, Extremes are certainly possible for casual players, and are quite rewarding, but they will require decent gear, usually involving some of the endgame gear such as Augmented Tome gear (which requires weekly runs of the latest 24 man) and potentially relic gear. It's quite obtainable to hit a current endgame ilvl of around 520, which is plenty to do the latest Extreme Trial, without too much grinding, so long as you're not too impatient.

[Bright-Flower]

If you don't plan to do ex trials/savage raids/ultimate there's not a whole lot of point to gearing up other than just keeping up with minimum ilvl requirements for msq duties.

Don't chase the loot treadmill for its own sake.