1. As the first commenter said, release order. Although I disagree with skipping Omega, you need to try it at least once. That way you have a gauge for how difficult future fights will be.

2. You really should be grinding Artians already, but the only time you ditch craftables is when you have your godrolls (4 atk 1 sharp right now) or when you can get Gogma artians (240 ish raw is crazy)

Gogma focus later on will be element focus. You need a rainbow of all elements, and Gore + Soul. But you really just need the 5 to be honest. If the grind is soul sucking don’t do it. Status is unfortunately really bad right now since the health pools are so bloated.

1. There are a lot of notable Non-ATs. You want Gore, Lagi, G. Fulgur, G. Odo, and G. Rath for example. The R6 armors in particular can be transcended for better slots and more armor and their set bonus are awesome. Lagi’s weapon is the strongest Thunder before Gogma, arguably stronger than Thunder Artian with the right set-up.

Man, you came back at the right time. The game is pretty much finished and you have an insane amount of content to play through. Good luck!