I returned 4days ago, a random person asked if I wanted help with the LB99 quest (its the only semi-hard one to do since the maat LB quest but easier than maat), I got the stone from just having logged in for 1day (you earn points for item from logging in on a daily basis), he had a tail, we went and 2 mnks just 100fisted him down. Was quick and easy.
Catching up on gear was a main worry, I haven't even got SoA yet and my jobs were at abyssea level equip but today I was shown Sparks of Reminance, I completed loads just from having done the quests already, then joined an abyssea party to level Sam from 90-99 + 30mp's, I then had enough sparks for a full set of sparks armor for my MNK and the Eminence bagnakhs. The look is diabolical but the stats are amazing and will allow me to now jump straight into EG for ilevel 119gear without feeling gimp in any way. Trust magic is also a great addition, I've just about gathered all the assist-able NPC's up so I'm looking forward to soloing sky/sea gods, limbus, and dyna etc.
So for anyone returning you can easily level to 99, then easily earn sparks to gear your job(s) so you can dive straight into EG activity without feeling gimp. The stats on them are amazing but general due to multiple jobs being able to use the equipment, meaning tonnes of STR/DEX/VIT/AGL/INT/MND/CHR/Eva/Meva/Mdef/Haste/Acc/Att, just nothing job specific so the gear lacks things like STP for a SAM, SB for a MNK, -PDT for a PLD, MAB for a COR or job specific ability or trait augments meaning there is lots of motivation to take part in current EG events.
Sparks isn't an EG event, its something that you can earn in the background of daily vanadiel life but they allow you to push your job up to iLevel117 equipment and then the games your oyster!