Update after playing off and on over the course of three months: I still think the game is decent, but has improved a LOT with the Epic IV update - it's almost a new game. I'll give you the pros and cons of this game:
Pros:
Relatively simple and intuitive
Good for even the casual MMO player
Good server population and userbase
Lag issues are gone (at least for me on 256k DSL)
Epic IV added second jobs and more skills/items/areas
Epic IV rebalanced pace of combat - mobs hit harder but die quicker too
Epic IV makes solo play easier than ever if you're smart
Six different servers, all have a substantial int'l userbase so players are on all the time
Works great even on a laptop with Radeon 1100 integrated gfx @1024x768 medium settings
Pretty useful pet system, your pet can end up being more powerful than your character
Cons:
No WASD control
English port of Korean game, thus some Engrish and gibberish translations
Pretty much no plotline or guidance besides kill x and gather x
Epic IV rebalanced and changed the game so much 1/3 of the players left (although this means no lag :evil
Except during special events, drop rates for rare items are grind-until-you-get-lucky.
The rarest items and some cash-shop items are hard to obtain for a non-pay-to-play player
You *will* suck as a new player with no significant in-game currency (rupees).
PvP'ers/Griefers enjoy inflicting pain on newbies (mainly on Pantera, the PvP/hardcore server)
My take:
The community-based actions (dungeon parties, helping each other out on quests, dungeon sieges, guild wars, PvP, dueling) are what make this game fun to play. Grinding mobs solo is about as boring as it gets. The good thing is you don't have to do that to be a decent player because of the above.
Epic IV, the latest client/epic/game version/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, is quite different and is actually a faster-paced game more friendly to newbies. The grind has been reduced because you can kill things about 50-75% faster. In higher level dungeon parties, this is reflected in gaining about 50-75% more exp/jp in the same amount of time. A good player who knows what they're doing can get to Lvl20 (Rank 2) in about 3 hours and maybe to Lvl50 (Rank 3) in less than 60 hours. Also, at Lvl50/Job Lvl40 you can switch to the newly-implemented second jobs, which have even more skills and power...
Did I mention PETS? From the tortus and yetis which make the best tanks to the blue pixie which heals like crazy... pets in Rappelz are basically like having your avatar x2. They make soloing possible and speed up leveling.
If any ATers play this game or are interested in playing this game, I still play casually on the Pantera (PvP) server (least laggy server, and most of the n00b PKers left with the latest update crying "nerf"). When I return to college in about 10 days I suspect I'll have quite a bit of free time in the two-week space between when I arrive and when classes begin. If you want help starting out just PM me here. If we have enough ATers on we could possibly start a guild, although I am already in a newbie-help/protection guild