Bards gear dependence?

[Xanaver Songsteel]

Hi everyone. I just started here and was trying to figure out what to play, after thinking about it for a while I decided a bard. I love melee classes, casters do not interest me in the least, and bards offer me a nice bit of melee but still keep a lot of the utility of the casters with lulls, mez, buffs, charms, and Dots.

My questions is about gearing up. Being new I dont have access to anything as of yet and was wondering would my best option be to stick it out and level the bard now or make say a necro or wizzy, sucking it up, and use them to make plat to twink out the bard? I remember on live my bard needed a bit of gear to be decent and im guessing here is not exception.