On the spell upgrades, you are overstating things a bit. My 46 zerker has mostly legendary armor and weapons but only adept 1s for spells and he solos just fine - anything white and under - although power regen can be an issue after a half dozen fights.
You're actually a bit ahead of the curve then for where I would consider things more than doable. When I said main spells should be upgraded to Adept 3 I meant like one or two spells at the most. Like a main heal, or an adept 3 pet, or a main nuke or damage spell. I think it's worth spending the money/time to upgrade the one or two spells you use the most as much as you can.
Sky: Adept 3 pets do make a HUGE difference. My alt is a 34 conjuror and I noticed a big difference in upgrading to adept 3 pet and the adept 3 offensive stance for the pet.
As far as gear I think the quest stuff is usually treasured or at least treasured quality so that's usually pretty good stuff as well.
If anyone does start off on Grobb let me know by sending an email (in game) to Lerk. I can at least set you up with a little bit of gold or a few 12 slot bags which helps immensely in getting started.
Righ and I play on Steamfont. That's where people from here played before. I'm sure I'm the only one left in Bat Country, though I've started a new character. Bat Country guilds are everywhere, although nearly all of them are empty.
I have filled my bank with snowballs.
My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
I'm on Lucan D'Lere (lower pop RP server). My playtime is about the same as Margalis, and that's across /all/ games, so usually less for any particular game.