lol you need to find your dirge?
but yes apply to a good guild, look in your servers forum for guilds recruiting dirges and say whether you can raid a lot or not, most non hardcore guilds allow casual players. You help them and they help you sort of thing. You will undoubtedly find a crafter with the required recipies.
first I would say get your fabled. That's the most beneficial thing imo for you to do right now. It is one of the best weapons in game afaik for autoattack etc. That will get you on good tracks, and if you're in a guild they are bound to help.
Not sure what 'dead' are like, but personally if they are a 4-5 player guild i would sack it tbh as I was in one and it inevitably died (not many people like to roleplay on a roleplaying server...). If they are quite consistant i would assume that they are going to last, and not leave. It's not that i dislike guilds like that, they just inevitably die due to lack of activity.