may be you could reintroduce weapons drops for new players in adventure or quests on a sliding scale up to say lvl35 or what ever appropriate, we have invited lots of new players to our guild and give lots of help but 9 out of ten drop out before lvl 35 some earlier, when i started there were weapons in the loot and it made the game much easier to start, most players who started with me are still here, this is a big game to learn
Robblack1