Few questions regarding quests, and buying items

Just had a few questions about quests and also purchasing armor or weapons. Is there a way to tell the difficulty of quests before starting them? I'm currently a lvl 5 Rit, and I have accepted my second profession as a Nec. I then went to see the Headmaster who is giving me advanced training in my profession, such as skill chaining, getting rid of curses, etc. but the problem is that I'm getting my butt kicked. The first two tests I was able to pass because they were to survive for two minutes, so if I simply stayed away which made it passable, but not probably the best way to do it. The Skill Chaining is very difficult though. A lvl 5 character trying to go against two level 10's are making this a pain. My guess is to just leave these alone, until I am a higher level. Is there a way to tell how difficult some of the other quests will be before I start them and find out I should have never done them until later?

Also, on an unrelated note, is the only way to purchase armor and weapons with gold and crafting items? Most of the items I see to buy are around 100 gold or so, but I also need a couple pieces of leather, or cloth, or something similar to give. I've got around 2000 gold, but I have been unable to buy anything because I don't have any material to trade. I have several salvage kits, and have been using them on nearly everything I find off of creatures, but to really no luck.

Thanks for any help to a new player here.

1. Unless you've got the guide or have tried the mission/quest before, you won't know what's in an area until you've gone into it.

2. No, there are 2 ways of getting armor. The First is from the crafters as you've found out. for materials, you can buy them from material traders or from other players. It's normally cheaper to buy from other players, but check the prices at the NPC traders first so you can avoid paying too much for the stuff. The Second way to get better armor is from collectors. They're around out in the explorable areas and will trade you armor pieces for certain items. Just look for the "Collector" tag on them & see what they have to offer & what they require for trade.

Sometimes you can gauge the difficulty of a quest/mission by looking at the town you're in. If you're lvl 5, and in a town where nobody else is below lvl 10, then it may be an idea to go back a step and pick up more quests/level up.

Same again, if the henchies in the town are all high lvl, it can give you an indication of what you will face outside the town... I found this out for myself when getting to the Canthan mainland at 13, and all the henchies were lvl 20...!

But like the previous poster said - the only way to really find out for sure, is to jump in and try the quest!