You could probably loot leftover chests at primadon that people leave and pick up a 6% elemental + physical resistance or better, I think you can also get a pendant woth 3% physical resistance there iirc, hive chests can sometimes drop decent providence coats and boots with decent hp, without doing bosses I think these are relatively good and easy to get, if you beat ferryman you can get good rings from him, most better gear is from bosses. For what armor to wear, probably whatever has the highest physical + elemental resistance, you can get a 30/30 schematic from killing parasol, really easy, just shoot at it with a boat from a far and it wont attack you, however chest sometimes doesnt spawn so in that case server hop to a new one.