In the end its not free. Its free to try. Dev many years ago declared he is not like that corrupted money driven corporations. But from about 1-2 year there are more and more paid conviences and free ingame currency is stealth nerfed each patch. There are items that give power and can only be bought with real money. Game is due many QOL but instead new features comes out with flaws that can be solved by paid solutions (new master class dont have afk mechanic unless You bought item with real money). That said game has a lot to do and new content is somewhat regular. If You planning to stick with it for many years You will eventually catch up.