OK, let me give you some advice I learned over too many weeks: Knowing how to play this game will get you much much further than the gear you have. The gear helps, no question about it, but it helps much more at lower depths. You can take the proto-gear that everyone starts with and do all of the first Tier, and a good portion of the second Tier with it. Or, at least I can now, I couldn't when I was getting my first set of 2*/3* equipment, which is why I died way too much on Tier 2.

I hope you have lots of fun playing the game, but please don't get frustrated when your really nice equipment doesn't save you from dying all too easily. The game is about skill.