Last played in Cata (except a brief return in January where I didn’t have fun and quit again). Came back for classic, but old AV being on retail has sucked me back in. I’ve been playing it, first on my main (started level 111 after boosting to 110, now 120) and now playing my mage in AV pretty much exclusively. The problem is that playing in AV I level super fast and I’m not getting gear, so when I try to quest between matches I’m way undergeared and really struggling. Is there an easy way to accumulate gear (the AH has greens but on Windrunner/Horde they are insanely priced, I saw a level 113 green for half a million gold) that is level appropriate? I have heirlooms but I outleveled them and upgrading them is WAY more gold than I could dream about having. Alternately, is it easy to pick up 1000 gold really quick somehow?
If you’ve got gold buy heirloom armour. It scales with your level up the the upgrade level you have bought for it.
I’d suggest offsetting your AV leveling with some dungeon queues or quests. Korrak’s revenge is GREAT for leveling quickly, but it’s not so great of an overall experience for new or returning players that are leveling.
If you’re a tank or a healer, the queues to enter a dungeon are very short, and will get you in a group within minutes.
If you’re a DPS player, what I normally do is queue for a dungeon while doing quests out in the world. That way I’m still gaining experience even if the queue is 30 or 40 minutes. While gaining level appropriate gear at the same time.
Edit: Missed where you said you’re already 120 in your OP. Keep an eye out for world quests that award gear, as well as getting to Nazjatar as soon as you’re able to. The catch up gear mechanics in that zone start at 385 ilvl, and can be upgraded from there.
Other avenues of gear acquisition are capping your weekly conquest points through pvp, completing Mythic dungeons (and Mythic +), and killing world bosses with a reroll token for an extra chance of gear. Vendors for reroll tokens are in Boralus and Zuldazar next to the transmog NPC’s.
Thanks for the response. I was able to finally cobble together a decent gear set by using honor marks and the AV timewalking vendor, plus timewalking dungeons. That got me high enough to be able to quest and do heroic dungeons, then raids, and now I’m pretty much back on track. I really appreciate you taking the time to type out those tips. I’m actually at the point on my paladin now that I can solo elite world quests (except the purple ones) so things are a lot smoother now.
To be fair, those purple ones aren’t meant to be solo’d. You’ll generally need a group to take down those guys. Glad to hear the rest though! I hope you’re enjoying yourself! 
Yeah, I went to try soloing a purple, saw the skull, and was like “OK I’ll lfg this tomorrow when people are actually awake and playing.” And actually, I’m having a lot of fun. World quests and the design of the zones means I can just kind of hobo around, exploring and finding cool little caves full of treasure, and it all feels like meaningful progress of the story. For the questing/exploring aspects, this is the best WOW has ever been. It’s also neat to break it up with occasional pops of battleground queues or LFR runs. I see a lot of complaining, and I’m sure some of this will eventually get old, but my steam library is full to bursting and I only buy one month at a time so it’s all good.