Runes of Magic US / AU

you can play this game for free but it would be very difficult if not impossible to be f2p endgame

while other games sell gear directly through the shop, this game has all the actual gear in the game only, not in the shop. the catch is that you need to upgrade your gear parts to make it useful, and everything you need for upgrading is available in the shop.

I will add this. While to get to the endgame content it is pretty much required to use the Cash Shop, you can still enjoy the game without spending a dime. Now if you want to get to endgame you may have to buy diamonds for the cash shop, or if you are lucky you may be able to get everything needed from teh AH (if the prices are not outrageous).

It's very much essential, in the sense that you need items that are only attainable via the cash shop. You can buy diamonds from other players instead of paying for them yourself...but when it comes down to how much of the CS stuff is actually necessary to progress, you're looking at a very costly, long time before you can compete with people that cash shop freely, or have been at endgame long enough to have enough gold to buy whatever they need from diamond sellers.

Oh, and no one mentioned the best part - in 3-6 months, the gear you just worked so hard to stat will be redundant. Repeat process until quit.

Welcome to RoM.