Experience and Gold rates have been increased in all of the lower level caves to allow new players the chance to catch up.
Banya Island has become a nightmare for lower levels to party up and hunt due to high level players being able to mass kill.
Mass Killing has become easier due to the Edge weapons because they are pretty much double the strength of any of the original weapons but they are costly to make.
THC and Sleeping Dragon and still at odds in chat.
Global Chat on this sever can turn super Toxic when people start arguing on it. (Not sure if that was there when you were playing)
From what I've been told by older players the sever has also lost a lot of players over the last few months. It went from Active 350+ to about 100-250. Average around 160 ish.
Hope that helps. =)