Returning player questions about game

[EclipseBringer]

Hello everyone, I left the game around 1 year ago, now decided to return, but have some questions I hope community will answer:

1. How is the dungeons difficulties as of now? I mean starting from Desolate Tomb up to the newest and most hard dungeons? Which ones requires a lot of mechanics? (I don't want to spend hours or days learning new gimmicks etc. since I have many things to do in my life and want to just play casually 1-3hrs a day)

2. What is BiS items right now? 

3. How is the population? 

4. Is it possible to still have fun in this game and be somewhat competitive by playing healthy amount of hours per day + maybe spending casually( let's say 100-200$ every month)? Or is the game mostly heavily p2w and time consuming?

5. I remember I liked the game a lot a few years ago since it was somewhat very similar to my favorite mmorpg game Lineage 2, I liked the combat and graphics a lot, but what discouraged me to play as I remember, NCsoft started to lean more to the p2w side + rushed content and each new dungeon just became harder and harder heavily relied on mechanics(which also probably wouldn't have been a big problem, but toxic community made it really hard to learn it etc.) 

Basically most important thing to me is to know if the game got easier over the time(in dungeon/raid mechanics) and if it's p2w?

 

[Grimoir]

1. Most dungeons except the newest ones are completely brainded....because they were "too difficult for newer players" so they got nerfed to the ground

2. Earring / Ring = Emperors Tomb, Necklace = Temple of Eluvium or the New one from the solo dungeon, Badge = Temple of eluvium, Bracelet = Sandstorm Temple

The rest are pet / soul / heart which you buy and upgrade.

3. Still veru populated. But like every other mmo people come, people go.

4. Yes it is. the game is as much fun as you make it out to be for yourself. There is that p2w group of players, but you can still have fun.

5. Community still somewhat toxic, depends on who you talk to, the game isnt really p2w but i would call it more p2progress, since spending money gets you your stuff faster.

dungeons are easy, BT / VT raids are a bit more demanding but still easy. TT is the hardest raid atm.

[StrykersGaming]

As a returning player, I'm still getting up to speed on everything. The one thing I can address is the community from my perspective. While Grimoir is correct, I learned long ago before I left that questions I needed answered I did so in faction chat and no where else. Since I returned I've found many very people very helpful when I asked questions about gear, accessories, and other pertinent things concerning the game. I've had a number of them contact me via PM and go into depth. Of that, I am most appreciative. If you're going to ask a question, just let them know you're a returning player in faction chat, I'm sure you'll experience the same thing as I.