I've been playing on and off since the only thing worth doing was old lab and to be honest it is hard to start with a purely f2p character. But your statement is actually wrong, right now the situation with opportunities to get money is through the roof. Events are everywhere, lvl 25-30 quests (daily) can make you a proper amount of money and within a few days or let's say a week you could buy at least 2 vamp runes and if you can make money for vamp runes, you can make it for gear with vamp rather easily. To make an amazing seeker you have to put up a lot, but to make him good it's relatively cheap, 100-200k per peace of gear (lvl30) with some exceptions. I was making 30-40k per day when lvl28 was max with questing and basic hunting. If you expect to build a great character with 100k then you are not going anywhere. And you don't even need good gear to make money, right now I am lvling a new char and we just took down Hydra with 2 low amped seekers, it is insane how easy and was it was - make money that way instead of complaining that it's too difficult when you cannot make money yourself. As for PVP - yes, it seems that this class is rather week for it, but then again I don't mind that since I've always liked PVE more.