At what gear level does it actually cost less gold in upkeep than what you are winning? Anyone know the magic gear combo to actually make money yet?
This will seem awful, but:
Tribal Warrior Outfit
Nordic Fighter Helmet
Blue Hose (just to not be a hobbit)
Nordic Sword
Leather Covered Round Shield
Throwing Axes (two stacks)
That's my grinding equipment, very cheap (the axes are the most expensive), and still kind of effective. If needed, I bring out the huscarl shield, thick mail gauntlets, mail greaves and huscarl helmet.
My best gear isn't far from that actually: changing the throwing axes to heavies, and the nordic sword to tempered NCS.
I know, even my 'expensive' gear is kinda mid-tier, but this proved quite effective. I started today from level 3 and practically no gold (<1000), got to level 20 and 14k gold in a few hours. Now I'm not saying I wasn't lucky, but keeping your gear at a sensible level (cheap, but not totally useless) is crucial now.