So because you knew how to junction material to a weapon at the end of a tutorial you were an expert, you knew of maxing out xp on it to make duplicates, how all future companion materia would be used, how certain effect materia worked with some and not others, how some weapons modified xp growth.... I call B.S., you were introduced to it and needed time to mess around with it to figure it out.

anyway to go ahead and provide the figures for why newbs do not stand even a bit of a chance against protobears, and why player skill amounts to nothign here:

ok so militia assault rifle, 34 hp dmg*`4.5% (2 heatsinks) *48 rnd clip = 1704 HP dmg....
no skills apply to militia gear, and newberries have no skills really so we will leav it at that, Also your shot grouping is far less accurate due to nothing helping out rifle kick or accuracy

duovolle 37.4 HP dmg * 1.15 for proficiency *1.15 (2 protosinks)*60rndclip*1.25 for ammo skill=3709 HP dmg...
wow thats totally balanced.
with a 25% tighter bullet grouping and 25% less rifle kick even further improving grouping,

Lets do suits too ok?

militia suit 180 hp shield + 180 hp armor and 3 total slots that can be used for tanking totaling 380
vs.
amarr assualt proto 180 hp shield *1.25 (skill) =225 hp + 180 hp armor *1.25(armor amount skill)*1.10 (armor resistance skill)=247 HP altogether totaling 472 with 5 possible tanking slots.

lets just assume some armor plates in everyones low slots since they are amarr to amke things easy (not nessicarily how you would want to go)

2 armor plates for militia boy makes 460 HP
2 armor plates for protobear makes 750HP with 2 plates and a dmg mod or 889 HP with 3 plates.


This is of course neglecting the 25% faster shield recharge time from the suit or the even faster amount of shield recharge gained per second due to having more shields total.....

This doesn't take into account numerous other advantages. Yeah I think that gap might be a bit much.