Save for full banded armor of the smallest size your character can wear. If you're an Elf, you want small. If you are a barb, you want medium. Etc. You could buy the materials for a Forged Bastard Sword and have the smith making your armor do a combine and hand it off - it has a pretty decent ratio for a stock weapon.
Ghouls & Wisps will have you needing a magic weapon to hit them, along with Mummies and I believe Scarecrows. Straight up don't fight them by being in zones where you will not encounter them - OR. Get a mage summoned Spear of Warding to use for a grouping session if you expect them to be encountered. Your first set of dual wield weapons should be this -
http://wiki.project1999.com/Langseax
You can either do the quest on your own or simply group up with guildmates to get some. The other players should have an interest in them to sell to others.
http://wiki.project1999.com/Dragoon_Dirk - the dragoon dirk is a fine alternative and has a 100% drop rate off of a lvl 24ish mob in Oggok that is an absolute pushover for his con. He really sucks. Get a friend and go get one for free if you're about lvl 21+ for tanking him.
http://wiki.project1999.com/Polished_Granite_Tomahawk - the venerable PGT can be obtained as early as about level 16 in a full group. This will probably be perma camped for a while but you'll have an easier time getting into a group for it over the Orc side of the canyon, as seasoned players will be poop socking the shiny brass idol for later on.
Bags are a big deal. Use vendor purchased Medicine bags which are excellent for their weight, and score a
http://wiki.project1999.com/Forager_Bag for free. A level 5 ogre shaman can trigger the frog to appear, so it might be worth you while to level one and use it to get bags for your alts are friends after you get your first.
Folks will try to persuade you in getting a combine weapon - but if it were my warrior I was leveling, I'd just push on and get a free set of langsaxes and call it a day.