Hey im going to respond to each of these best I can, and try to address some of your issues and concerns
(Blue will be my response)
First of i'd like to say, Archlight is a server about knowledge, if you dont know the tricks and tips, you will have a hard time, trading is a massive part of the server, smart trading, Epidemic was notoriously the best player in Archlight in the era's he played, he never donated a single dollar, and we without a doubt was the biggest powerhouse on the server, purely by smart playing and smart trading.
1) stats
theres a total of 640 stat points (each increasing your characters stat 1% at a time)
EDIT: 900 stat points I'm sorry >.>!
for example
vitality will increase your health pool by 1% for each "stat point"
the only way i know of getting stat points is pritty much donating for keys & looting boxes
the cost to "max out a char would be around 1000 euros just in stats
this does not incluse the premium , health potions , donation set
I dont believe there are any chars who would actually care to max out stats, for example a mage isn't going to care about haste, strength etc. Additionally, there are 150 stat points you can get ingame, many of these are in the stronghold questline, something that you will have not gotten to after 5 days of playing, also you can receive stat stones ingame from hardcore dungeons, something you also will not have done avidly yet (as you wont be doing them all daily until you are around 2k~).
2) weapons
i've seen it claimed several times that there are better weapons then the "donation" weapons
and yes i agree the rift weapons are better (and require weeks of grinding there is not a single rift weapon made yet)
besides that to make a "MASTERCRAFTED" (aka the best weapons) donation weapons are part of the crafting recipe..
Donation weapons are notoriously easy to get ingame, people trade 3 crates for them... and yes, rift weapons are better, they do not require weeks of grinding, there are over 150 rift weapons already created 5 days into launch, IE. 150 people within 5 days have crafted better than the donation weapon.
3) the limited "donation sales
Receive a trinket or backpack below when you donate 80 euros...
lets not talk about the stats this thing gives compared to the 2% bp we can loot >.> (maybe down te line a better one is lootable right???)
Seven trials quest (something people will be doing in probably a week) gives a backpack almost exactly as strong ingame.
4) u call the era "age of war"
a skull remover costing 2.80$
a frag taking 8 hours to go away
spells hit people even if you ain't pvp flagged
the result is anybody using aoe spells risks getting a red skull quite fast...
i remember me & hatsune doing a single fight in wich we both went from 0 frags to red skull (i got 7 frags in 1 fight)
hatsune then died by some higher lvl monk and lost his bp , weapon , ring , and i think shield...
age of war.. my fucking ass >.>
i would somewhat understand if the logic was that u don't want people pking to much on your server but seeing as u added skull remover in your donation shop i came to the conclusion its just another way to earn money for u.
The age of war is regarding to the pvp events, pvp ladder and guild tournaments. Archlight has never been a massive server about random pking, but more event related pvp. The reason frag removers arn't super cheap, and frags are 8 hours is to avoid people power abusing hardcore which happened in an old era when it was 4 hours for a frag.
5) the 15~ outfits that are buyable from the shop instantly
wich u listed the advantages of nicely a bit back
Sorry dont really understand what you're saying here
6) the amazingly crappy class balance...
i'm a noble guardian (heroic) i got 51K hp .. this sounds like alot until a reaper hits you for 28000 dmg with a single dot spell
as the "tankiest vocation" my healing per turn is +- 2K healing turn >.> (oh and my 10 minute cooldown 5000 hp heal ftw)
You're the tankiest, not the biggest healer. Guardian is a facetank class, not a healer, they tank the hardest bosses far before anyone else can, that however requires a healer. It's just like a prot warrior in wow isn't healing himself during a dungeon, he is a TANK, he requires a healer, I know many are cultured to tibias "Im a tank and have the biggest potion heal in the game", but this isn't real tibia. However once you spec you can spec into holy which gives you pretty strong healing, additionally if you read the patch notes we already said we will be buffing the healing of Holy Flash and Flash Heal.
7) the legendary mob system (nothing to do with the p2w side)
apparently there are legendary mobs all over the map u can check this out with !legendaries
wich is nice if it wasn't for the fact that theres not a single clue as where to find them i know of 2 respawns personally by running into them (out of like 30?)
nor am i likely to run into the respawns because they are farmed by over 200 people second they respawn its just plain stupid.
Like i said, takes time to learn the tricks, I know one of the guilds has a google doc with the location of all the legendaries.
the server imo has some potentials its donation system tho is just straight up wrong
the only reason the numbers are what they are is because your entire system is one that basicly shouts "mc 10 characters in trainers and stand afk to get rewards so i can stay up on the otservlist list"
20:10 985 players online. (server online list) this inclused ofcourse xlogged players in trainers
archlightonline.com LAUNCHED TODAY 234 (303) / 1000
these are the real online numbers (or close to it) knowing howmanny mcs there are just in trainers with an active client i estimate the population to be close to 100 unique players online right now
of wich a good 25% is standing in depot
We do not take into account any players not connected to the client, something many servers do take into account, that's why our numbers will never match up, the player count on otservlist shows the amount of people that are connected and playing, not afk training (something most servers count on their otservlist numbers, which can run into trouble after time)
with the remaining 75% of the playerbase u better hope you are able to find a party within your level range to hunt with (because solo hunting is a huge waste of time in comparison)
in 2 hours time i went from 900 to 1200~ (with exp boosts on & happy hour) if i did the same solo i wouldent even have hit 950
Team hunting is stronger than solo hunting, this is a mechanic we encourage on Archlight (I know weird right? teamwork = better than solo D:
We will be adding a new system where players outside of the 33% level can still party with a group if they are outside the level requirement, however they will suffer an exp penalty.
imo the server is doomed to fail because of the server being made to party yet there just not being enough active players to party with. once ox server comes out i'll go have some fun there while waiting for another custom server to come out .
Real maps are fun, i'm excited for it too 
