Been doing the newbie quests, they give out some pretty good (but not overpowered) items as a reward for getting 50 in a skill.
Weapon trainers give weapons.
Tactics/anatomy/etc. give armour pieces
Mage related gives jewelry/spellsbooks
etc.
Necromancy gives you a full necro spellbook (as without inscription the spells are monster loot).
After getting all your template skills to 50 you should end up with a pretty decent blessed outfit.
As for the new graphics coming out, you need the new client for that.
As of the latest patch the new client should be 100% compatible with the current servers though, so now it's just waiting until the Beta is over and KR goes platinum.