F2P is fine. What could be done is a hybrid model, similar to what Wildstar is doing. But at the end of the day, the only way to get relevant numbers of gamers is to get the game on Steam.

Dafuq are crytals?

Do what POE does, hire some starving artists and sell pretty shit for cash. It works for them, im sure it can work for you guys too.

You would be surprised at how much people will pay to look cooler than thier peers without any gameplay advantage.

If you need more info, hit up the poe devs, they are good people, and its not like you competeing against each other, im sure they will give you some helpful information.