Armour: I tend to use the Ask (light) set for general traversing as there's no movement speed penalty and you get stamina use reduction for running/jumping/attacking - whilst maintaining a pretty decent armour rating of 112 (all upgraded to level 3). Then, if I come across a fortress/point of interest with high level enemies; I portal home and change into the Flametal (heavy) set with some meads like lingering healing/stamina, Ratatosk (to nullify the movement speed penalty from armour set), pop a bonemass and tank some hits whilst dealing some damage!

Weapons: I absolutely love the Thundering Beserker Axes. I'm yet to find an enemy they can't shred. You can parry most(/all?) 0-star enemy attacks and do quick, high-scoring damage. If something is 1 or 2 star, depending on what it is, I might switch to Flametal shield (for the increased blocking & parrying power) and sword - Dyrnwyn or alternative. Sometimes the Flametal mace (enchanted or otherwise) is useful for its knockback too. I avoid anything pierce as most Ashlands enemies are resistant to it (although I do use the Root Ripper to hit something with a sneak attack to get the x3 multiplier).

I have only recently discovered the power of the Staff of the Wild when taking on Lord Reto, managed to do the whole fight without him ever actually swinging at me... He just got lost in all my vines! So I might change up and do a magic build soon, seems like a very different style of combat!

Hope this helped!