So... what now?

[kaynide]

You have a lot of options. A metaphorical buffet of options!

1) Try a new job to level up. You mentioned tank and magic dps- With a lack of time, I’d go with Gunbreaker and Redmage (they have the highest starting level).
2) Get sucked into the fun that is Blue Mage. Takes a bit to get going…but it’s a lot of fun.
3) Look into some glamour fun, or other collections you can work on.
4) Try some side stories (older raids/trials like Binding Coil or Alexander)

[Jeeqbit]

You don't need to do anything other than the story, so it depends what interests you. Usually if people want to give themselves things to do they set themselves goals like collecting all mounts or relic weapons, leveling all jobs, doing all sidequests.

Fights are designed to introduce mechanics to you one at a time in a way that is usually obvious. Later in the fight they test if you figured them out by combining them. So guides are not supposed to be necessary, but are recommended for the challenging versions (Extreme)/(Unreal), (Savage) and (Ultimate) so that you don't waste other people's time who may have already progressed through some of the phases.

While it's up to you if you watch a guide for the story versions, you should be aware that guides do overcomplicate it. They will spend 5 minutes showing diagrams and slow-motion clips of a mechanic that lasts a split second and turns out to be really obvious when you actually do it. It can leave you really afraid of this mechanic. It's not the fault of the guide makers - it's on us for looking up a guide for trivial mechanics.

There are pros to looking up a guide for trivial mechanics, because very occasionally they do kill first timers a lot and although guides cause anxiety, they can also help with it.

For the story version of a trial or raid, it doesn't matter if you die. You could die 10 times and the healers, who are half asleep doing their rotation, will just res you 10 times, so don't worry about it.

[_Pigzig]

Play FF3 pixel remaster. Much better than the 3d version and the remixes are rad.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I recommend the Alexander and Omega raids, if you haven't unlocked those yet. If they seem complicated from a guide, don't worry, they're a lot simpler in practice. This will also unlock the Normal Raid Roulette, and as a first-timer you'll get all those nice bonus tomes.

[Nishira]

Personally I love crafting and gathering. I wanted to give a word of warning before you decide to dive into that rabbit hole tho. When they say it’s best to level all crafting classes together… they’re right. You’ll bump into needing crafted mats from other crafting classes all the time. While I really did not mind that (insert desperate wailing from flooded retainers), it can get a bit overwhelming if you have the idea of just leveling one for fun

[Averax]

This is the part where the game becomes very seasonal for some. You can either engage in the currency grind to deck your character our in gear, do normal raids, do savage raids, do ex trials, work on beast tribe dailies if you like them, etc...

Or you can peace out until EW. I usually do that a few weeks after a patch drops and i've done everything to death, personally.

The game is somewhat designed in a way that if you just decide to peace out for a while, you won't really have that much or any catching up to do when you return.

[Iscah]

Should I focus on unlocking all the optional dungeons, trials n stuff? I unlocked the Ruby weapon trial but it looked extra complicated in the guide I watched so I haven't dared queue up for it. Should I? Is there a point? What about the alliance raid? (don't even know what it is to be honest)... Are relic weapons still a thing? Should I try to do my MCH one or is that stuff for the more hardcore raiders?

The optional dungeons can be fun, and add a lot more interest to the 50/60/70 roulette if you do that. Not a priority, but worth doing at some point.

Trials and raids are eight-man content. There's not a huge difference between them except the format of the quests and rewards, and some of the raids have a mini-dungeon before getting to the boss.

For the raids, as mentioned above, it's recommended to do the Alexander and Omega series (unlocked in Idyllshire and Rhalgr's Reach respectively) and the Eden series (starting at the Crystarium) continues Ryne's story and is also a good gear source for you at the moment, as it drops tokens you can exchange for gear. The third set of raids gives i510 gear, so not quite as strong as tome gear but easier to get.

For trials, and particularly since you're aiming to finish the role quest line for Shadowbringers, you should also do the level 60 Warring Triad storyline as that ultimately links up to something in the other story.

There's also the Binding Coil series which has been recommended to play before Endwalker, but it's a bit of an oddity because it's "savage level" gameplay without a more accessible story version, so don't just queue for it through the duty finder. It can be easily overpowered if you make use of the undersized (ie. unsynched) option with a couple of level 80 players.

Alliance raids are the large-scale dungeons like the Crystal Tower series. The later ones don't seem like they'd be really relevant for Endwalker so there's no need to prioritise them.

Relic weapons are time-consuming and just for glamour at this point. Better to work on it slowly over time.

For levelling a caster you mentioned using summoner because you have it at level 50, but red mage also starts at 50 and I find it a lot of fun. Summoner is getting quite a redesign in Endwalker so now probably isn't a good time to be learning to play it.

[Lexis]

Thank you again for all the replies! Sounds like most agree trying out dungeons, trials and raids would be time well spent and I think it may indeed be time to get over this fear/anxiety over trying new things that carried over from my time in WoW. I still get filled with dread when queueing for something I've not done before out of fear that I'll make mistakes and be showered in insults, something that has yet to happen here. Just yesterday I did SoS as part of the story and it took us an hour to clear it, yet at no point did anyone berate or point fingers, rather discussing and giving helpful tips.

I think a clean slate for Endwalker would be the best gift from me to me that I could make. And maybe I can work on some other jobs/gathering along the way if time permits, who knows!

[weebtext]

You should experience the best 24man in the game by unlocking Dun Scaith!

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Well firstly no need to buy gear, so long as you have got some tome gear to meet the min lvl req of the first dungeon you can get more gear from there in EW. Save your money. Trials etc are not going anywhere, but the writer suggested we do the Omega raids for the story as well as somethiinggg else.. I forget which :x
I would focus on doing the story related suggestions so that the endwalker story hits home as hard as it can! The other stuff is all optional and can wait. If you do want a shadowbringer relic that would be the only one to try and get done sooner than later as I expect that content will die for a bit when endwalker first hits since ykno, everyone will be busy with msq for a while!