My tip, don't learn to use equipment as a crutch, instead, use equipment to enhance your skills.
Yesterday when I had retired my main, I was playing on NA server, I killed some guy who attacked me, he had weaker head armour, I was level 2 with a one handed wooden sword. But because he didn't know how to block or to dodge and I had to hit him about 10 times in the head, then he died, without hitting me once because he sucked.
Then I remember when I was at level 8, I had the cheap nomad sabre thing with 2 power strike, still in shitty armour, came up against some guy in full plate who had some axe, guess what, I was owning the shit out of him because he couldn't block, he didn't hit me once and I hit him for damage about 8 times or more, until he finally tried to run away and his team mate shot me.
Lesson? equipment and stats do not mean anything if you have no skill, if you can fight well at a disadvantage, i.e cheaper/weaker equipment, then you can fight even better when you do get decent equipment.