Back in the Shade (Levels 5 - 8)
Objectives: Ghulam boots, claws upgrade(, Hunting boots)
By this time you will be level 4 or 5, and the newbie area mobs will have started to turn green. This is time to move out to Shadeweavers Thicket and on to lesser shades, skeletal hunters, swarmers and saurek hoppers, which will mainly be found, as well as some higher level mobs, to the north of the tents and merchants. Collect shadowed claws from the lesser shades for another piece of ghulam armor from Kaza Raj.
It may be worthwhile saving claws and scales from all the various saurek types for some other quest armor items and weapons - but I didn't find them any better than the basic Ghulam armor. See Captain Tarief for the scales and Hunting Leather items. There is also a quest series involving collecting jawbones from shades and other skeletons; talk to Spiritist Karina; these also aren't any better than Ghulam, and the jawbones are very rare.
By this time you should have collected a few high quality hopper hides; these are used in the next stage of the claws quest. If you haven't already, deliver the seal given to you by Poren to Mahron Sood, near the bank, and in turn deliver his map to Kery Miann, upstairs in the tailoring vendor. Use the stone blade she gives you to cut 2 straps from HQ hides (tailoring skill trivial is ??); give them to her with your claws, and you are given new claws, plus a note for Hollowshade that won't be worth delivering until you reach level 15.
Round about level 7, gaining experience starts to slow; you don't have the additional skills to make combat with whites and yellows easy any more, and fighting dark blues will become tougher - and you will notice that these are becoming scarcer, until the brigands and thugs are feasible targets. If so, see my comments about Paludal for a quick boost to your levels.