If a mob is same, or within 1 or 2 levels of you, you will probably get 100% of the loot and experience. BUT if the mob is say 10 levels higher or lower, you're probably getting a loot/exp penalty. So it's a good idea to fight mobs your own level. Higher level mobs also deal way more damage towards low level players and take reduced damage.

You will need some basic base of operations to succeed. A few chests and a salvaging station is the bare minimum.

Salvaging station is your primary way of getting important materials by destroying useless loot drops you find. The resulting stones you get are used in nearly everything Mine and Slash!

Reset Potions are cheap, you should be using all your points every time you level up to keep up with higher level mobs!

A lot of gear stats scale with levels, as a newbie you probably don't know what are the best stats to pick. Therefore a safe bet is grab the highest level and highest rarity gear you have, or gear with the highest base stat.

Some might think you can just ignore professions until you reach max level, or that they're a waste of time. Both are completely false:

• Leveling professions gives you rested experience which gives you bonus combat exp when you next kill mobs. This means after you spend some time leveling farming for example, you will have a bunch of bonus exp next time you go fight mobs.
• Some professions provide important things during leveling, like gear crafting, which allows you to craft gear you specifically need

Weapons with Mine and Slash stats are your main way of scaling all your damage, even spells! Make sure your weapon is the best you can find, the most important stat will be Weapon Damage.