Hey Norph my favourite server were freya also - dino island and cruma bgs. And also i'm with you about not wanting to buy epic jewels from the store - that in my opinion kills a big part of the game - fighting over bosses with other clans.
I'm also with serebrion on the clan importance thing - just as long as its not going too far. I mean when playing on lower rate servers having a clan and a party is everything - I would like also be able to progress soloing. Imo having the original clan bonuses are enough - the clan skills and the territory wars wards are quite a big boost in pvp and pve. So to sum it up - no epic jools in shop, and having well working clan skills, wards