You've got to make sure that the quests you're looking to existed when Kunark was out. I made the mistake of getting all excited about an armor quest starting in Neriak/Nektulos that wasn't out until Luclin.
After that, I gave up on the armor quests and just focused on leveling, grabbing whatever cloth/plate dropped.
Also, a very nice Dark Elf cleric dropped a full set of bronze armor on me when I was level 12, so there's that too
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] There's a lot of people on this server who hand out items to new players, you're bound to run into one.
Not suggesting you wait and beg... but yeah, if I see a new player I usually hand them some platinum or banked gear. It's pretty common for people to do, I think.