[Gozuk]

If it's your first character I would take a stab (hehehehe) at just doing the epic quest yourself. It is widely considered the easiest of the epic quests but you will definitely need to join a guild that goes up to Hate if you aren't already in one. Everything else you can pretty much do on your own up to the point of killing General in Kithicor, which for most people is preferable to have about 2 groups with a level 60 tank and a few healers. The Renux fight in Steamfont can be done very easily with you and any (preferably level 60) character that can snare kite her. You have more than likely looked into this already but many people will just recommend buying it which for me doesn't make sense on your first character. To each his own.

As for the OT hammer I would probably recommend just purchasing the MQ service like previously mentioned. It may not be everyone's favorite zone but ruling out KC for yourself at level 50 would be rough unless you planned on knocking out the quest before grouping again. 2k is pretty reasonable though for how important the hammer will be for you.