Just have to be smart... like JJ said. I had a lvl 1 toon in tov for a little while while I farmed a few named. The risk/effort vs reward was only iffy. I got better gear for him doing the trick with the dain missions and 68 spell arc, killing Lord Seru and other random Luclin named, etc. I even got him into VT to loot some stuff, although the stats on a lvl 1 toon blow.
Just be careful... don't do it if anyone else is in zone, and limit the amount of time your toon is active in there.
At the moment my lvl 1 twink has about 1300 hps and 400 ac unbuffed .... lol and he's not even close to being geared in all slots yet.