frostner is good enough for standard enemy. The new sword is a lot like it, except slash where it was blunt, and higher dps.

Wolf armor is probably not ok. Some swamps are weak, but somewhere on your map are tons of crypts. My first map the first 3 swamps were empty and I was frustrated as well, but when I found one with crypts, it was literally every few yards, 20 or so in a grid pattern nearly. Stuff happens.

I recommend you stay out of ML but if you have beaten yag, and still no iron, ML has iron. You could try sneaking around in there to grab a couple stacks. Keep a portal near and always be ready to exit.

When its all said and done iron is still king. You need it in every biome from swamp onward. I can't recoomend enough, no matter how annoying: go find about 10 stacks.