The current rank system is one of the worst I've ever seen, and I’m not even talking about the technical side - it's the core design itself. To me, a ranking is something you earn, something you shouldn't lose. Sure, others can surpass you, but once you reach a certain rank, it should stay. Right now, the system is based on a single, dynamic variable: gold. This means that to keep rank, players have to hoard gold instead of spending it - a bizarre situation that doesn’t drive the shard economy, but rather slows it down. Lol. And the other ranking factors are poor too: playtime, account age - sure, those are definitely the top indicators of player progress.
And now, the most important point - what do players actually get out of this? Basically, nothing interesting.
IMHO, current ranking system needs to be removed.
A new ranking system should be split into three categories: PvM, Craft, and PvP. Each character - not just the account - should have a separate rank to encourage players to use the different characters they own.
In the PvM rank, points should be earned by killing mobs - the points should match the fame of the mob killed. The leaderboard should have an overall view and a monthly view (points earned per month), where the top three players each month could choose a reward, like a token or something similar. Additionally, it would be cool if the leaderboard displayed extra stats like total mobs killed, types of mobs killed (e.g., who’s the rat-killing master or the DF-slaying champ), rank place up/down, and so on. To keep things interesting, a percentage modifier for mob fame could be added each year - like gaining 5% more fame points each year so new players also have a chance to break into the top ranks.
PvP and Craft rankings could be done in a similar way.