The whole problem of p2w is that there is no clear definition what p2w means. Due to this people trend to bend it as progress to win, or pay walls, etc..
There is only one description of pay to win
But where do you write the line? What does "advantage over other" means ?
Back in the time, p2w was if you could buy those "legendary items" with +999 stats, which were not achievable by any other means in game than real money Shop.
Today people call p2w even if you can buy VIP that give you 10% exp gain... (Oh this guy have 1 level more, if he didn't have VIP he would be my level and I could win)
WRONG! a person who can invest 12 hours/day to game will have more advantage over somebody who plays 1 hour, yes there was no real money involved..or wait, was there? Better job=more money =´better PC = better ping and FPS = more dps, no family/hobby = more time to play = advnatage
Where do you draw the line? The answer is nowhere, you can not define p2w, but people are too lazy and uncaring to even read a references, they will watch 10 min YouTube review of "is it worth playing" then they hear "pay to win" and they leave with comment "I will not bother with this game"
BnS:
When you start fresh you will be most likely in very very bad position, no items, no material, no golds.
There are call to arms events 4 times to year which can make you lower tier gear (with this gear you can access 70% game content)
With C2A gear you can easily farm mid tier gear to access 90% of game content, while you continue to farm and upgrade from mid tier to high tier it will take you several weeks/up to half year to reach it.
End game gear is unachievable purely as F2P, only if you have very good friends/guild to carry you through last dung/last raid to provide you with necessary material. You can possibly try to pug it, but there is about 20-30% items in game that are locked behind progress walls, such as Soul which needs about 160-300 oils, but you only get 4 per week, while by paying you can get more through RNG boxes during some events.
- To answer the final quesiton, is BnS p2w? most likely yes, do you need to pay to play ? no, only if you want to progress last raid or play 6V6 pvp and due to how game works, once you reach high end gear there is not much difference between end game gear, you will 1-3 shot most people based on class once they dont dodge/block your skill. So end game gear is more like flex where you do 50mil dps instead of 25mil, but to clear content you only need 8 ...