Advice for reasonably easy to obtain melee/bard'ish gear?

[Frudrura]

It has been a long time since I started fresh. The last time I did it on blue, I played a necromancer and it was easier to level without much gear since I am not as dependent on gear.

I have rolled a bard. I can swarm kite in areas where it seems to work out well. I would like to try and get some basic gear, including a melee weapon or two.

My plan at the moment is to get some Lightstones to make some plat, and then I will see if I can find someone that can make me a set of banded, or in the mean time I might just buy a set of Leather armor from a merchant (this is most likely for now).

As I probably won't be able to make plat for a while (level 7), are there any easy noob quests that can be recommended to get a weapon? Or maybe some things that aren't too difficult to obtain with a group in a dungeon? I just don't have a lot of knowledge of playing ungeared while being non-caster.