Hello GeoDarthVader,
Take whatever I'm about to say with a grain of salt because I don't like beating around the bush and waste your and anyone else's time.
First, it's not impossible to get gears, in fact, it's very possible to push your gears to 6k without cash shop.
I've witnessed many players achieved this on their own, so the question now is: Why are you not one of them?
Some common issues with players that struggled to geared up are the following:
1) Spent the majority of their time waiting for someone to organize a raid for them, and hope they would be invited.
2) Not putting time and effort applying to a competent and decent raiding guild. Global is not your answer, check the forum, look through their requirement and application.
3) Not stepping outside of their comfort zone. If you want something in life, you need to go out there and fight for it. Nothing will be handed to you on a silver patter.
4) Lacking a source of stable gold income.
Here's how you can fix it
1) It's time to leave the backseat and move into the role of a leader. Make and lead a raid yourself! Lack the skill and tactic mind to lead a raid? That's what Youtube is for. Failed your first raid? So what! Get bashed by haters? **** them, ignore them and move on.
2)Check through the guild forum and read their requirement and type. For a new player, I advise to join --> Casual(raid once a week), Progressing &Standard Raiding guild (raid 2-3 times a week). Just stay away from hardcore raiding guild for now.
For guild application, most are pretty straight forward, they will ask you questions on tactics for ICC, RS, etc. Just do you homework and you will be fine.
3) Wow is an MMO, not a single player game. Move out of your comfort zone, befriend other players. There will definitely be some toxic *******s along the way, but one out of every 50 players, there will be one player you can have a great time and friendship with. This will considerably improve your wow experience and maybe even get some carried runs from your new pals. The same can be said for real life.
4) Without Gold, you lack the ability to improve your gears and dps/ hps/survivability. It's important to watch and read some gold guides online. These knowledge will funnel you with a stable source of gold to buy potions, elixirs, gems, enchants, etc.
TLDR: "If you want something you never had, then you have to do something you've never done"