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

[Omedon]

You're asking the wrong question. You're not looking for a non-tomestone way but a quick way.

I did phrase it wrong, but not in the way you're suggesting.

Yes, I'm going away in another 10 days, but I don't need to get the gear in this stint. I'll be back, and I need a plan for when I return in order to justify a return.

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.

The way for me to go is likely to be trusts and, as you've suggested, a gil-purchased weapon. Thanks for that suggestion BTW, I knew I'd be buying some slots and it seems weapons have the lion's share of the weight and the work on this front!

Just buy some 510 gear from the market board its pretty cheap right now. On our server you need for a full set only around 1.5 mil, thats pretty cheap.

Currently I only have just over a million gil, and that's MSQ one-time quest reward money after buying an apartment. I don't have a way to replenish that that isn't interdependent (MB is interdependent) and so burning my fortune on 100k or so per slot is not feasible. Buying a weapon does seem reasonable and so that's my likely course.