I played on the NA servers. I started the game back when it still had a level 24 cap. I kept up always having reasonable gear on my Saint up to the level 40 cap, and was winning a surprising amount of pvp matches.
My friends all quit long before I did, and it was starting to become a little dull to me. The nests started to be nothing but instakill traps that kill people with bad internet, which wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
Still, its early days were easily the highlight of my childhood, without question.
Yeah the early days were the best, in the long run the amount of skills became more and more OP turning PVPs into spam fests compared to the earlier ones where the need for combo and proper timing was of utmost importance. Nevertheless, it is still one of the best mmorpg I've played to date.