If you wanna get gold tier and don't wanna buy kits you should be able to fairly easily over the course of the event by farming energy essence and crafting energy. I was initially farming elondrian essence to craft crates and I ended up with a back log of energy essence which I can't craft enough to keep up with. Try farming essences in camp boulder or watchers tombs where the drop rates are fairly high You will get to gold tier.

For friends coming online I suggest you find an active guild and get involved there as you will never be short of people to play with

Good luck!