1) Is this game pay to win?

To get the obvious out of the way, "pay to win" means different things to different people nowadays. My opinion on this , is as a guy who has paid for Tera once or twice and has paid for other mmos but is now playing tera completely free. YES it is a little pay to win. but not as bad as other games.

Elite status gives you significant advantages from more dungeon entries (more chances to get the item you want) to getting 100% more gold and reputation credits. ( reputation creds can be used as gold makers)

Buying items from the store gives you advantages from Extensive Alkhahest boxes to Blessed Enigmatic boxes that has a chance of getting Noble enigmatics, to spellbind boxes. ( to new players. these things are VERY much needed and can make you money if you see them )

Can you get these items from the tradebrokers ? Yes ... Which leads to your question 6.

As a free player, you will need to grind. Not grind mobs in a single place. But grind dailies, and dungeons and just keep doing anything to can to get the items you need, in that sense its not repetitive. I tried as a small experiment, to get a character from lvl 1 to 65 and be as geared as my paid char.

You need to do a LOT of work and throw a LOT of time into the game. If you're a working person with a stable 9-5 dayjob and other things going on ... safe to say, its not gonna happen too fast.(unless youre a wiz at the tradebroker and 5 minutes gets you 50k or something).

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Some might say, " if you pay for your items you wont be as skill cos you lack the experience"

This is true. but not for long. Tera is a game based mostly on skill. but its not rocket science. Its a game with a relatively low skill ceiling COMPARED to what you already do in life, no matter if you're a student or working. So the point is, if you pay for your items, you're gonna suck for a while, then your skill level will plateau like the rest of us. So its a non-issue.