If you don't want to keep losing your nice things what people used to do about (I don't know if people still do this, I did this 2 years ago) is create a few farming accounts. Store all the pots and equipment that you want to keep on your main and just use these alternate accounts until you feel that your main is well equipped/maxed enough to play without dying. Generally necromancers are good farmers because of their range and healing. Wizards, priests, archers, and huntresses also work.
If you get potions or pots as they are called in game, you should try to get decent gear for your class first instead of using them to max your stats. One defense pot can buy a moon robe ( Don't quote me on that, not sure about prices anymore) which gives robe classes: +3 ATT, +11 DEF, +6 WIS, +50 MP. After you have decent gear (t10,11) then you can start maxing your characters.
As for maxing stats I would max Dex, Speed, Def, Att, Vit, Wis. (I left out Life and mana because those are prohibitively expensive to max) Dex is first because it is the easiest. The dungeon that drops it sprite world has mostly low damage monsters. The boss can be troublesome for beginners as it's in a room with moving tiles and fast and accurate shots, but it also has low health. The stat dex will increase your firing speed. Speed comes from various gods like medusas and djinn as well as snake pit. Medusas are dangerous enemies that can one shot you, but their shots are easy to dodge if you know it's attack pattern. Djinn are the easiest god because they have relatively low damage and can only attack while stationary. Speed is important because it allows you to dodge shots. It's better to dodge a 100 damage hit and take damage than take reduced damage. Defense reduces damage. It drops from many gods as well as the abyss of demons. Ironically it's hard to farm defense from abyss of demons without maxed defense as the mobs inside do high burst damage. Drink defense potions when you have them, but it will not be easy to max this before speed and dex. Attack increases damage per hit. It drops from sprite gods and white demons. Higher damage is behind other stats because it's not that easy to max and staying alive is more important than dealing damage. Vit and wis are nice to haves, they increase hp regeneration and mp regeneration respectively. A decent pet (maxed uncommon) out performs maxed vit and wis by a large margin and so in a way nullifies the need to max vit and wis. Life and mana are luxuries even more so than vit and wis. One life is worth 6 defense, but only increases your hp by 5 points. The average value in defense pots to max life is 105 defense pots and 70 for mana.
Good luck in your farming!