Tips for getting better at bounty hunter?

So I have been trying bounty hunter lately, and it seems there is a big difficulty spike between being decent at LMS/anti-pking in the wilderness vs Bounty Hunter.

Everyone I faced against had either bounty hunter specific weapons, except the one other person who had a soul reaper axe.

I was mostly in budget gear with an AGS as my plus one. VLS and Morrigan throwing axes were ripping through me.

What’s the play for learning bounty hunter? It seems everyone doing it has the points or cash to use weapons that hit like a truck. Are ancients useless since you can’t freeze? Should I just be using vengeance?