There's a reason why i'm trying to sell my account right now T_T
here if you're curious
The game is stupidly gear focused. If you aren't max-geared, good luck. Upgrading gear isn't really all that bad, but it's just the fact that without it, you're basically beyond useless. It's not like say, RS hybrid PK'ing or the game I still casually play, Elsword, where you can be undergeared and slap someone around with OP gear because you're more skilled, it's not like that at all. The PvP community on BDO would like to think there's some serious skill involved or whatever, the reality is it's stupidly easy. Everything is lock-on/AOE, knock-down, stun, etc etc, list goes on.
That dynamic alone is what's making me just full-stop quit the game and sell my account. I got to level 55 and just realized it wasn't really worth it considering how fast the game progresses. Like another guy said, if you don't play this game frequently, you will get left behind and it will show.
There was some YouTuber who actually quit a while ago and said the same thing even when he's upgraded to +15 everything, it's purely gear-carry and the pace the game advances is too fast for it to be considered for anyone who doesn't have time to play it on a regular basis, with the aim being any form of competitive play.
tl;dr- wholly about gear and RNG upgrading.
The game looks great and if you wanted to play it for PvE it's probably one of the better games out there, it has a very interesting and extensive PvE system involving crafting/fishing/cooking/alchemy etc.