Hmm, I wonder how they will prevent every single player from wearing heavy plate armor. As it isnt round based there wont be upkeep.. Some sort of detoriation and repair system i guess?
As all other 100% loot MMO, biggest drawback from wearing epic stuff is losing it.
Basically you will not go out in the woods alone to chop wood at night wearing your best.
If the dying can be swift and brutal, everybody will grow eyes behind their back and be very cautious when using shiny stuff.
In Mortal Online and The 4th Coming, to name them, some pvp was done wearing nothing else than a rusty blade and other shit. Using good stuff was done when you really felt secure (mostly going in groups) or audacious (betting it will net you a bigger profit).
Overall it would create a spectrum of danger where you will see from naked people to lightly equiped, to heavily armed... going in 1 or 2 or big groups, each being potentially robbable as long as you yourself are confident you can kill them. Like real life highway robbery.