After a considerable amount of time played, I have come to the conclusion that private servers make a lot of sense because the original game is owned by NCSoft, a company that loves to milk players. The minimal cost to feasibly start pvping is around $6,000 to buy a brooch and upgrade enough gems to be used with it. There are a lot of flaws that I was completely unaware of, and this post kind of seems stupid now. Aside from that fact that you can't even strafe, although it will be added next patch, the game has too many mechanics that give buffs and they are all paid methods. There is no tried-and-true method of even farming for materials to buff your character because brooches, one of the biggest pvp power spikes, aren't even available to players who don't pay.
This is the first time I'm going to say it, but I actually wish this game was Pay 2 Play because that way they wouldn't need to add all of the pay 2 win options.