conquests are good for grinding out gold. black market pit fights are also good, and they let you tweak your strats a bit too

try not to get discouraged by the slow progress from 9-10. it's slow, but worth it. if you get too impatient though, just put a single point into another skill so that you reach the required points to unlock skills deeper in the tree. you can then go back and unlearn those placeholder points and finish leveling stuff up.

also, because you're low level, stamina is probably the best thing to look for in gear. a lot of fights at low level go for a while because of fumbles and soft hits, so endurance to last longer goes a long way. stamina will also be great later on once you start tanking.