Shielder would be a wise choice for your first generation, you should get a good weapon and a good shield first. If you are worried about upkeep wear light to medium armor, something in the range of mail shirt, byrnja or mail hauberk should work fine for protecting you and should be easy to upkeep. For gloves take mail mittens for now and take some cheap boots like leather boots. For head gear pick something from 1.3 to 1.7 weight.
Imo you should be able to upkeep this gear, even earn some cash. Then if you want heavier stuff you should build up a buffer of around 50k gold. A shielder is good for the first gen because you wont die that much and you will be able to get a sense of timing your strikes and battle awearness. You might even like it enough to stick with it.
Another advice for you would be to sell your first loompoint. When you hit lvl 31 you can retire and upgrade a weapon i suggest you cash in and you will never have to worry about upkeep again. You will probably get around 600k gold or more for it so you can try various weapons and armor and see what fits you best. The 1st generation is the toughest and just stick it out. From then on you can choose a different build or just stick with being a shielder (i suggest you try out diferent things so you know what fits your playstyle)
Also you should join a clan, check out the faction halls part of the forum. If you dont intend to join a clan, get a banner of one of the bigger clans so you can get a multiplyer by being on their team. Dieing doesent matter, just winning or loosing rounds.
As for builds i can give you some standard shielder ones:
This is a good balanced build where you will be reasonably quick and still hit hard enough not to glance on all but the most heavily armed oponents:
Strength: 18
Agility: 18
Hit points: 63
Skills to attributes: 2
Ironflesh: 5
Power Strike: 6
Shield: 6
Athletics: 6
Weapon Master: 6
One Handed: 156
Another good build and my personal favourite for a shielder, you will be more tough and hit harder but you will move slower, that is why if you choose this build you should use
a longer weapon (like a nordic champion, elite scimmi or knightly arming)
Strength: 21
Agility: 15
Hit points: 70
Skills to attributes: 2
Ironflesh: 7
Power Strike: 7
Shield: 5
Athletics: 5
Weapon Master: 5
One Handed: 148
This build is a more agility based build, your shield will be hard to break and you will be quick but you wont hit as hard, you should probably get a pierce or blunt weapon
with this build so your hits wont glance off ( you can play with the points here if you want more wpf or keep it like this if you want to max out your ironflesh)
Strength: 15
Agility: 21
Hit points: 60
Skills to attributes: 2
Ironflesh: 5
Power Strike: 5
Shield: 7
Athletics: 7
Weapon Master: 5
I hope i helped you, its a great game you just need some figthing experience and you will be fine