Andor's Trail

So I have been saving all my gold so that I may buy the Jewel of Fallhaven. It was a little bit on the pricey side at 3.5k, but I thought it would be worth it. Now I am stuck at a crossroads. I also have Irogotu's necklace at 5% block dam resist +1. The Jewel gives me one more attack with my steel sword, and whereas I do have the dagger that is supposed to allow you to attack 5 times in one round, I don't like the block penalty it gives you. I feel that if you don't kill the mob quickly, then they will hit you more and kill you. I miss a lot, my attack % is 131 and with my sword, I do 9-13 damage. So I guess the question I have is which neck item do you guys suggest? Also I was considering getting one of those nifty shields they have, you know the ones in that one city where you have to earn their trust and what-not. Yeah that one. They got some nice items in there, but man are they expensive, if someone could point me in a gold grinding direction, I could get my grove on. Right now I am lvl 11. I really like this game and I can't wait to hear some of your suggestions.

Learn by doing.
Try the various equipment items and see how easy/hard you can kill different monster types. With those results in mind you can select the best equipment - now set a time limit for an area, note health items, gold and experience amounts and then start killing. Note the used items along with gold and experience gained, then continue to the next area.

After you complete all the areas you wanted, compare notes and see which area and/or monster types provided the best gain for your time used.

I did that last year (earlier version, so less areas). My comments are located on the wiki, which lady black not long ago questioned here.