As far as relatively easy to get damroll items go, I'm probably not the best authority anymore. But as for what I can remember, the 'easy' questcards were always far and away the best for damroll. I imagine it's similar still now.
Weapon, again I'm not entirely sure. I havn't been a newbie in a while, someone else would have a better idea. Robin Hood's Dagger is probably one of the better options for thieves.
Mud school + the seekers board are probably the better places for this information.
Another thing I think is a big issue is the current HINT system for newbies, which I think is a script based system on the Seeker feather. It's currently extremely spammy and more off-putting than anything. Luckily the most common hint is "TO TURN OFF HINTS USE NOHINT" but which also kind of defeats the purpose of them. I think the hints should be more actually hintworthy, and not just annoying. Kind of like the quest academy hints are actually helpful.
If the hint system was revamped, I would recommend:
All players with the Seeker feather getting hints on a less regular basis.
Refining the set of default hints that players get, to be only the most helpful hints and not just spam.
Adding hints that depend on the player specifically, eg. caster hints, rogue hints, fighter hints.
Specific hints should be thrown in amongst default hints.
Specific hints might be something along the lines of:
As a fighter, you should work on getting good at skills to use during combat. Kick might be a good bet!
As a caster, you will do a lot better if you focus your energy with an orb. Try searching the Greek Archipelago for a good weapon to manifest.
As a caster, you should work on mastering one or two good spells to use during combat, rather than trying to learn everything.
etc. someone else should think of some more.
Another thing newbies get really jipped on is movement and mana. Movement and mana is vital to pretty much all of 4d, exploration and combat, and the vast majority of the current playerbase never has to worry about movement or mana, because after a remort or two they have a decent amount. Newbies though, have to sit down and stop exploring every so often (annoyingly regularly) and if they're not in a good resting spot it can really hamper the fun of exploring when it takes 4 hours to regain your 25 move points, and not all newbies are confident enough to recall, rest up, and then make it back to wherever they were before they were forced to sit. And then during fights, any normal player can just spam the hell out of kick or chill touch depending on whether they're a fighter or a caster, whereas a newbie can manage maybe a few kicks or a few spells per fight, meaning it drags out a lot.
Stamina is a much better idea for a stat, because it affects everyone the same amount, and in a realistic way. If I'm exploring, I will never run out of stamina. But if I go try speedwalking halfway across the world I'll run out of breath. If I kick a few times here and there throughout a fight, I will be fine. But if I spam kick constantly I will run out of breath (or should!). Stamina seems to be pretty much what movement should be, but for some reason we have both.
This is pretty much what defines one's progress in the mud: once you have enough movement points, you can spam the skills that require X amount of movement points and run around as much as you like. Once you have enough mana points, you can spam the spells that require X amount of mana.
Combat is then based on spamming skills or spells during the fight because you have the movement or mana to be able to, when it should be based more on how fast you are doing things to discourage spamming, and push combat in a more interesting direction.
