Introducing the new sets which are mostly intended for premium players give up to +200 LP (Allan's set + one of the new horse + saddle sets if I understood it right giving +100 LP each). While this might be taken care of in the next update as you mentioned - right now it creates a huge difference between premium and non-premium players. I don't understand the new work system and I truly hope the differences will indeed be reasonable and non-premium players will be able to compete with the premium players in everything even with the inherent disadvantages.
The massive advantage that the items sets give one user over another should be addressed by the
new job system due to be introduced in v2.04.
While I do not know exactly how it works here is an assuring snippet from Da Twista's announcement:
Pros: You can't get stuck in quests anymore because at one level you can do all jobs (Even though you might not get a lot out of it because of the malus) and it will be easier to balance quests as they can be connected to a level. This will definitely be a lot easier for beginners. The visual changes will hopefully give the player a better feeling when they see that they reached a new star level.
In FF - introducing Natty's sets (clothes + weapons) made the premium players even stronger compared to players using other gear. You may say that the golden set is almost as good as Natty's weapon set and you can find gear that is almost as good as Natty's clothes but that's the point - a premium player using infinite amount of nuggets will hop from one battle to the other, fill his\her HP and use a fort buff all bought from the shop with nuggets, will get his character class bonus doubled and on top of all that will now have superior gear for the battle. The golden set is not easy to obtain - but it is possible for everyone. A non premium player can use crafted buffs for all the above or buy them off the shop with bonds - but Natty's sets are now for premium users only or for non-premium players that were given items by premium players. It seems to be getting harder and harder for non-premium players to do well in fort battles as the advantages of premium grow and that ruins the will to join battles for such players.
I feel the gap between premium and non premium users in regards to fort fighting is not as big as it may seem on the surface, it has been known for a long time that fort builds work on a diminishing returns basis and once you hit a certain point additional skills provide little in the way of results.
Bearing in mind the average fort fighter is level 80-120, the bonuses from using even standard gear before the new item sets came out could take you to this ideal spot considered to be the point at which to invest no further skills to your fort build. It is considered past this point the only useful skill in fort battles is health.
Sure, Natty Bumppo's set offers attractive bonuses but when comparing the results of players with the set and those without I bet the results do not reflect common opinion about the effect of the item set.
Another thing to consider when discussing the gap between premium and non premium users in regards to fort battles is that the very nature of fort battles is about team work, thus negating the point of a possible advantage being held by an individual.
I am no expert on dueling nor do I have a dueler character at the moment - so I cannot comment on the difference the new sets and the DoI actually created - but as you mentioned and from what I hear from others it does seem that this is the worst problem.
While I maintain my view as expressed in the lengthy
DOI discussion about the minimal effect the DOI has as an individual item on dueling it has been noticed that when taking it into consideration with beneficial parts of the xmas tombola and the soon to be released easter tombola this is surely leading to an overpowered build favoring ranged duelists and subsequently premium ranged duelists who manage to acquire these items faster than none premium duelists.
So this goes beyond just comparing the effects of the item sets on premium and non premium users but also between players with different builds ingame and of course, both really need to be addressed.
A quick fix for the secondary problem affecting melee duelists would be to alter the bonuses on the item sets to make them equally fair for melee duelers as well as ranged.
Touching on the issue of premium vs. non premium in regards to acquiring the item sets, I agree with what other folk have said about recycling, it is not beyond the reach of non premium folk to acquire most, if not all of these items (with the exception of the DOI) given enough time and effort, the market is regularly stocked with certain items from these sets, usually headgear and neckbands. In addition to this there are many folk who pass set items onto fellow town/alliance members with a decent discount. I suggest for any non premium to join a big town/alliance full of active people, you will not be disappointed by the generosity of some folk
While I can point to the problem - I do not consider myself smart enough to come up with a good solution. You cannot take back the DoI's you already sold and I remember reading somewhere that it will only be sold in the shop in a small quantity - so I guess the only solution may be to introduce an equivalent item that will be obtainable from a quest (like FF1 suggested) - as hard and long as you wish, but still ...
Once again - my point is not to prevent Inno from making money off the game - it's their right and purpose as a commercial company. My point is that forgetting the non-premium players in the process and making the game less desirable for them will end up ruining the game for everyone. Before introducing another DoI or a set mostly obtainable by premium players - please consider the effect it has on the rest of the community. The way I see it an intelligent and committed non-premium player should be able to do at least as good as a less intelligent and not as committed premium player. If you break that you'll find the non-premium players that are still here for what this game once was will lose their desire to stick around
I personally would have no objection to this idea being presented to the developers, I can think of a great many folk with a difference of opinion, refer back to the above linked DOI discussion to see where I am coming from
Even if they met the wishes of non premium users halfway by introducing future questlines with rewards that mirror the DOI and tombola item sets to an extent.
I would not imagine anyone would be discontented if they did this and made the item rewards slightly weaker than their purchased counterparts, just to close the gap a little from where it currently stands while still giving premium players something deserved of their contribution.
