This is going to be some of your most accessible and effective gear early on. The BP in particular is easy to get:
http://wiki.project1999.org/Dreadscale_Armor
This armor is quested, and some of the items can be looted from corpses of things people are already killing. I had fun doing the quests.
I would echo what was said above with regard to Disease Cloud, that is your staple agro spell, and it will make groups love you when they can do whatever they want and you still keep agro.