Game state after recent update, Infinite Odyssey

I have not played the game since the awakening update, and am considering a slightly more than casual-play return to the game.
I was wondering if someone could summarize the state of the game since then, some questions:

• Is the brooch system game-changing? Is it difficult to obtain mid-level jewels for brooches? I don't need to have the best items, but if the difficulty for even moderate items requires significant investment, especially if it's NC Coin heavy, then I'm not going to even consider returning.
• Is dual boxing (a buffer, i.e. ISS) still a requirement in order to play the game reasonably? Or to phrase it differently: is soloing still needed? I know you get free buffs until level 90. But is soloing still viable/required after that?
• Ertheia classes: how are they? I have attempted to search for information on them, but the only things I get are PVP videos. All L2 classes look amazing if you just look at effects, but I was hoping someone could give a more indepth breakdown of the class, e.g. pros and cons.
• Server activity. I still have characters on Chronos and Magmeld (mainly chronos); looking at http://ift.tt/1GpOZu3, it seems like Naia and Chronos are the only viable ones. Does Chronos still feel active? Numbers sometimes don't tell the full story (see next question...)
• I know L2 will always have a botting problem, is it still as serious as before? Again, I don't need to be top at everything, but if everyone is botting, I don't want to spend half the playing time I have dealing with them (training, reporting, PKing...etc), which I did while I played.
• I can see that they have remove the level cap completely now, how does that affect players who aren't no-lifers? If I put in a few hours a day, does that still allow me to be a factor in a fight? i.e. if I'm only lvl 95 with mediocre gear, will I have a noticeable effect to outcomes of a battle? If so, how much of a difference would it be compared to a stacked player?