It differs for each player and what they want their items for. It is always a good idea to get two different weapon types in your loadout (shadow, piercing, and elemental), there is also normal damage but most people stay away from that as it does less damage then specialized weapon types.
For that reason I will be listing weapons in order of type and I will not be listing normal weapons (other then one).

Swords

Brandish line

The 5* versions of brandish come in four different versions (there is also cautery sword, but we do not speak of that) three of the four are elemental weapons and the other one is shadow. All of these swords have a very nice charge attack that lets off five explosions straight infront of you.

Flourish line

The three flourish lines all end with a pure piercing weapon, two of which have weaker attacks for a trade off for status effects (stun and fire). people tend to go for the final flourish though as they prefer the higher damage.

Guns

Alchemers

These, like the brandish line, shoot off in both elemental and shadow damage weapons. There are five different version of alchemers, four elemental and one shadow, of the four elemental three of them have status effects (fire, freeze, and shock) in a trade off for less damage.

Autoguns

The autogun line split off into three main weapons, two of which are piercing while the other is normal. Two out of the three have status effects (fire and poison) while the other has no status effect but a lot of extra damage. People tend to lean towards the blitz as its charge can do massive damage and take out trojans in one hit (which happens to be amazing in FSC).

Now that the explaining is done I will go through what I would pick. Personally I love all the brandishes and they are always my go-to sword so I think you should start with one of them(pick the one that you like the most). Now for a gun, blitz, it is really that easy, yes you can not move while shooting it but the damage it gives out is worth that drawback. Just remember that no matter what you pick always try to go for two types of weapons to maximise the damage you deal. I hope my information will help you make a decision that you will not regret.

He is not asking for original but instead the best gear for a newbie. If he wanted original I would say go for Callahan or Biohazard for your gun choice (both are quite fun to use) and Triglav or Fearless Rigadoon (yes its a toothpick, but no one ever uses it, its lonely) for your sword and if you like bombs go get yourself the Irontech Destroyer. I like to try out weapons most people pass up for the more common ones, some of them are pretty bad but still fun. I normally run FSC with my blight needle and CIC (still need to upgrade both but I am way to lazy to).

scrap the blitz and go for a shivermist buster (freeze bomb)

i have a strike needle that i only used once... (it's realy only usefull for vanaduke... try hunting fiends in T3 with that bugger and you'll know)

i run hybrid (sword, gun & bomb) and i only use 2 bombs wich are the shivermist and the Dark Retribution (dlc bomb) and i do 2 FSC runs a day and 95% of the time i'm the one on shiv duty ;)

get the gun when you have a good set (realy like i said the gun is useless outside FSC)

a bit cheaper way (if you can find the recipes outside the AH) is using boss token items.

snarb sword and shield
antigua and 2 sealed swords (slow swords so might be better going for 2 brandish 1 combuster/glacius/voltedge and 1 Acheron)
polaris/pulsar (realy good side arm for gunpuppy's)

also hurry and get some CE and trade the DLC for some free weapons (the shadow bomb will make your royal jelly farming a breeze) before the sale ends

on the armor... i'd say (and yes this realy is mainstream) wolverline. go up to ash tail and keep farming royal jelly untill you feel ready to take on vanaduke (upgrade to vog) keep in mind ash tail has piercing and the 5* are skolver (piercing) and vog (ellemental) also have a plan to what you want to do in T3 and build your first set on that.

other then this the only advice i can give you is read the weapons and armor wiki (or read the whole thing so you understand the stratums, gates, damage types, monster damage/types, etc.) this helped me alot when i started out with SK ;)

Even if you're currently 2-star, you should always think in terms of 5-star items, because that's where everything ends up (unless you're focused on Tier-2 Lockdown). You don't want to get trapped in an alchemy path that goes nowhere (e.g. Winmillion). So I recommend to new players that they try a variety of equipment, to find out their preferred play style, then select their first set of 5-star items, and then look back in the alchemy paths, to figure out how to get those 5-star items.

In other words, the best 2-star items are the ones that lead to the best 5-star items.

Just don't be lazy and stick with the cobalt line. All the "default" gear quickly becomes useless. Plan well ahead.

... try hunting fiends in T3 with that bugger and you'll know)

It's fine if you can get a decent CTR UV on it. Quite fun, in fact.

if I'd been able to choose not just 1 but 3 5* swords, the Levi wouldn't even be among them, but on a similar vein to the issue raised by Archemiday-Thebard (since evidently I'm a newb): now that I have a Leviathan Blade, what is the next best sword?

We all make non-optimal choices in equipment, when we're starting out. You might as well start getting your piercing, elemental, and shadow swords now. I can't tell you which one to get, because I don't know anything about your other equipment. My detailed sword guide might help though.

When I left to enjoy the world in Decemberish 2011, the Levi was touted. Nowadays sentiment has shifted against it

Most experts were not touting the Levi in December 2011. My sword guide has maintained the same stance on Levi since long before that. Maybe you were running with an unusual crowd.

@Bopp: I liberally used "touted" in my previous post. The Leviathan Blade was (and still is, I think) considered as one of the most versatile for those who only get one good sword in a while. In that case, I don't think it would be sub-optimal. I just had been remembering a good amount of forum posters expounding on what they could do with it.

Just Try to go on Auction House and search for the wolv armor ^_^