To try and answer a few questions
1 v 1 will be pretty much only fighting people the same def as you, or fighting people SLIGHTLY higher def but lower offensive stats. This is where im not entirely sure on how it will pan out because sure somebody with 20 or 3 def and their highest offensive stat at 80 will have more hp boost and other things from armour but will significantly do less damage so i think the 1 def would combo them out and wreck them.
So i stand by when it comes to 1 v 1 it will be 1 def fighting 1 def so it is just a matter of learning how to use your account and abilities and how to tank it.
as for clanning, again if clans choose to keep up to higher defence levels will be so crap in the sense that you will have 2 clans within one. a high cb unit and a low cb unit. All it then takes is for clans to be smart about picking where they fight and ur screwed and mains will effect the 30 def still where as 1 def will not be touched.
So 1 def will be better for clanning and 1 v 1 imo.
Dont worry too much about maxing your account. The beauty of the Eoc is quite simply you only really need to be good in one thing.
You can in reality choose to be a ranger/mager/melee. The way the abilities are and so on blah blah each person will somewhat have their role and they will only be using one offensive style. So in essence you will have three units, the magers, rangers and melee and each has slightly different roles based on their abilities and dps.
Bottom line though the most useful thing for 1 def in eoc is to get 99 range as rangers have some serious and nice DPS but also have the good binding abilities.
Your melee unit will have the huge ko power but are vunerable to binds
Your magers have some cute abilities with still some tasty dps however the biggest change comes with mage not being the best way to freeze somebody. all freeze spells only last for 5 seconds on people now. Range binds can last 10 i believe if not a little more not 100% on this.
Going to be different how tactics and teamwork will come into it.
when will it come?
no idea but i hope it is sooner rather than later now. Rs has run its course and is too reptative and boring now and is slowly decreasing, i think it needs eoc more than people think or want to believe.