Gear allows you to make mistakes and continue longer without downtime. If you just want to root and kill guards every 6 minutes you're fine in banded armor with moonstone rings.
As you get more gear you can venture into more dangerous zones like howling stones where being hit by a couple melee mobs with harm touch will leave you no room for error. You won't be making big money taking down solo camps without gear. The ac hp and most importantly resisting big damage spells is necessary or you'll be a root resist or two away from a corpse run.
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Butchh | Facetious | Knockers
Jayce | Briefs | Squash |