As the title says. There should be checks in place to ensure that a player is properly geared before queueing into something, and average ilvl just isn't enough. For example, if I were to wear a full set of 660 gear but switch my weapon to be a level 1 starter weapon, my average ilvl would then be 550. This would allow me to queue into everything up through the end of Endwalker. It's an extreme example, but it's insane that the game would let me do that in the first place.


Furthermore, no ilvl checks for mid-expansion trials is also insane. I'm defining mid-expansion trials as the level 20, 34, and 44 trial from ARR, the level 53 and 57 trial from HW, the level 63 and 67 trial from SB, the level 73 and 79 trial from ShB, and the level 83 and 89 trial from EW. Once again, this means that I am able to queue into the level 89 trial with absolutely no gear outside of a level 1 weapon, and this is something the game would let me do.

In recent memory, I've had a Praetorium (avg. ilvl 42) run with a warrior who had all of their accessories well below average ilvl, and two actually at level 1. In that same run, there was a dancer who also had the same issue of having accessories below average ilvl. I had a run of the second alliance raid from the Stormblood series (average ilvl 335) where there was a dancer in my party with a weapon at ilvl 276. When I mentioned something about them needing an upgrade, nearly the whole party told me I need to mind my own business. Even back as far as patch 5.3, when that level 80 trial was current (avg. ilvl 465), I queued in with an astrologian who was wearing an ilvl 400 weapon who was unable to make a meaningful impact with the amount of healing they were doing.

This needs to change.