Troll armor. Skip bronze armor its a massive resource sink that only provides slightly better (6 points, 15%) protection than troll armor while slapping you with a 10% movement penalty. The fact you need 2 copper and 1 tin per bronze makes it the most useless grind in the game, save the bronze for tools and weapons.
Also Skeletons are weak to blunt damage so break out a club/mace and a shield.