Newbie friendly progression

Hello,

I saw some similar questions and concerns in other threads but the information seemed either outdated or didn't answer all my questions so I'm posting here again.
I am new to the server, and am finding myself at a little bit of a dead end already just days after having joined, so I'm wondering if I maybe am missing something.

I realise there are plenty of ways to generate diamonds in the game, but the memento and gold conversion ratios seem impossible when compared to the prices of items and gear etc. It is my understanding that once I'm able to reach the high end instances the economy would not be much of a problem, so the question is: how do I get there without spending obscene amounts of money?

Some of the suggestions I saw were:

Farming cards: aside from event cards (and no one wants to grind that 24/7), it seems that the majority of cards are worthless and pay off very little.
Farming tier stones: the prices of tier stones is lower than the charges would cost, and therefore it seems I must wait for charges to be on sale, which also requires a fair amount of money to start with.
Mementos, shells, minigames etc. seem to offer no possible path for progression or any payoff that could help in climbing the way up in order to be able to start gaining coins.


Am I missing something major here? Is there actually a way for a new player to make their way to endgame without spending a fortune and without leeching their way? If so, could anyone please enlighten me?

Another question is about gear progression. Assuming the above is resolved, is there any point to try and aim for any gear lower than the endgame gear at the moment as a stepping stone or would that be useless? And if so, how do I go about starting that?

Just to clarify: I am enjoying the game very much so far, and think it's very promising and love the changes coming up and the new concepts and effort being put into the game so this is a genuine question rather than a rant. It just seems somewhat unrealistic to be expected to invest too much in the game without being able to at least experience some of the endgame first.

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Update:
In case this helps other new players who are equally as lost, here's a possible path:

Get some refined gorge gear, and put some so so stats in order to reach the necessary minimum to run CL HM and get some coins for yourself - this is a considerably cheaper option.

I was lucky enough to have joined with 3 other people and have fallen into the hands of a kind and helpful guild but unfortunately most players don't come in bulk and would have a difficult time finding parties to the lower instances like CL HM so the issue still remains to some degree.

Would it be possible to consider implementing a couple of ways for all players to contribute and benefit from the economy, however small? Maybe by making crafting more viable (and not only through ways that are locked behind the currency we're trying to get access to in the first place), making minigames optionally more rewarding in a way that could help further progress or other things of the like? I imagine the majority of the playerbase started when it was mostly official content going on and so making the transition was not too difficult but for most new players I think there's a little bit of a gap that needs looking into in order to make it less frustrating and intimidating to attempt to become part of the community.