Other weakly designed MMORPGs are almost impossible to happen in Albion
Stop shouting P2W P2W. This game is nothing about pay to win. It is pay to level up faster. Does leveling up faster make a winner? Answer that yourself.
Speeding up faster is an advantage, that is right. However, any non-premium player can reach the level (or expertise) of a premium player later on.
Regarding of this MMORPG dying, I hope not. It is not apparent that it will die anytime soon, because the mechanics and the rules of the game are well studied and well thought-of by the developers, and extreme conditions that happen in other weakly designed MMORPGs are almost impossible to happen in Albion Online.
I tried albion online (not to its fullest) in the last beta release, and then I quit. Simply because I got bored from grinding and found that the game is somehow brain-dead. What I mean by brain-dead is that you (i.e. the player) do not need any skill to play well in the albion online. You just simply GRIND. Moved to Dota 2.

May
There are no viable passives for arcane mage playstyle
The problem with this playstyle at the moment is that it hugely lacks synergy with nearly every single passive on the game... even the great arcane staffs passives are borderline useless as they provide cast speed or energy regeneration.

Sep
Does Albion Online Need More Solo Play Areas?
Many of the people here in the R4PG.com office have had a lot of fun with the game but from many of you guys who come here looking to buy Albion Online Silver. We have heard you say that playing as a solo player is really, really hard.

Dec
Revamping the Albion Online Skill Tree
I know this game is a hardcore grind especially on collecting and crafting but as of right now only "limited" people but growing community of albion online

Aug
AlbionMall's Suggestions to Improve Albion Online
These could be weapons that have unique skins as well and are actually used by bosses you encounter.

Sep
The OP's questions hit the crux of the problem with Albion Online
Don't worry about specializing in anything yet, never use LP for that anyway. That will come eventually as you realize exactly what type of gear and weapon you want to use and craft.

May
Albion is in a unique situation since there is a gear ceiling determined by tiers
By this what I mean is that the fundamental game mechanics were designed to be so complex that it could take a player hours to figure out how much each skill in an individual weapon tree could potentially do for damage