Honest and impartial review about NovaRO

[Fu Wind]

I always see people who had bad experiences take a long time to express themselves about NovaRO. So I think is fair that people who had good experiences (which is a huge majority) also take the time to say what they think. But I wan't to be honest, so i'll explain both positive and negative points of the Server. So here's my honest review:

During my years of experience in RO, I've played in almost 10 servers. No server is perfect, all servers have their positive points and drawbacks. But NovaRO is objetively THE BEST renewal server of actual times. Since January 2018, I always come back to NovaRO. Updates have only a few months of difference with KRO.  Bugs are fixed in a few days after they're confirmed. Customs are very fun and so balanced that they seem to be like official content.

The game is not so slow as 1x, but no so easy as 100x kindergardens (just like the good mid-rates it is). 

Many people (including myself) don't like its Bio 5 system cause is WAY too grindy for the server-rates, like totally not related to a mid-rates. But that's just a personal opinion.

In general, it's very pollished and GMs put a lot of effort in all the aspects of the Server.
Yes, it has some issues but they're OUTSHADOWED by the great amount of positive points.





SERVER RATINGS:
- Stability: 10. 5 years straight on, and population STILL GROWING. This is a huge achievement considering the majority of servers start lowering their population after 3 years or less. Right now, there's about 2600 accounts ON during the pic hours (counting autotrades, obviously, something that all servers have). And the population keep growing and growing...

- Avaibility: 10. Literally always on. I've seen zero fall-overs in all the time that i've been playing (1 year and a half). Update disconections last about 5 minutes.



COMMUNITY RATINGS:
- Friendliness: 8. PVM community is very kind and helpful. If you ask for tips or support, there will be always someone there to help you. On Gramps parties, people wait for everyone to finish their killing counts, even if they lose their precious time by doing it. When finishing a party, people always say "tyfp" (thanks you for party). This is very cordial behavior, and you see it in Gramps, Instances, Bio 5 and generally on any PVM party.  The official Discord also is very active, most of people is very kind in there, and you always find someone there to talk about Lore, Game Mechanics and others: https://discordapp.com/invite/0X6cg1g2J4IBmIqa

However, PVP ambient is not newbie-friendly, is hard for new players to get into it. BG is very active, which is rare in servers nowadays. But PVP community is very troll with people that comes with an idea of PVP balance based on Official Servers (or in their previous servers). If you have a previous PVP experience, you'll have a very hard time adapting to customs and to people trolling you. But, as in every community, there's always kind and not-so-kind people. If you wanna get into it, you just have to be patient with trolls, farm a lot to improve your gears, and adapt to the customs of the server.

- Eventfulness: 10. Big events every season (Summer, Halloween, Christmas). Small events everyday organized by some GMs ingame.
Public PVP Tournament once every month, with a lot of concurrence there to watch it!!!! One of the coolest and more popular activities of the server.



GM RATINGS:
- Friendliness: 8. Most of GMs are usually very kind. However, Head GM Nova has a strong personality that is not liked by many people. I by myself have no much compability with Nova. But he acts with maturity, impartiality and he doesn't get biased about the imcompability of our personalities, something that I thank a lot. He even accepted me back in the Official Discord so I can interact with other players. And I have to accept that he puts A LOT of effort on his Server, working day and night to improve it. He even has improved the cordiability of his answers to the "Bad Reviews" in RMS, which requires a lot of patience and maturity. Good work there, Nova. 

- Avaibility: 10. Always an available GM on the Official Discord, at almost any time of the day.

- Helpfullness: 10. All of them are totally Helpful. When I've had problems ingame, GMs have been always there to help me (i'm especially grateful with Panic and Tokei).



GAME-PLAY RATINGS.
- Economy: 9.: Is not perfect, but it works well and there's always movement. There's no excessive price inflation.
This  because there's a lot of active players, which also means there's a lot of competition on the Market. You can watch it by yourself in the Market Page, that is a very comfortable Page by the way:  https://www.novaragnarok.com/?module=vending

- Guild Competition: 8. As said, PVP ambient is not friendly with newbies, especially the ones that come with ideas from Officials or their previous servers. But at least they keep a Status Quo with old players and keep the WOEs active with them. There's no entry of new Guilds to WOE, but old players keep it alive... Even Draft WoE is extremely active, that is a custom version of WOE that's more newbie-frienly, cause team distribution is about leaders picking players by turn, and everyone gets picked (even the newbies). And BG is also very active, which is extremely rare nowadays.

- Class Balance: 8. Class balance has always been an issue. But that's totally normal. That's not a Server-related problem. Not even a RO-related problem. NOTICE THAT MY CALIFICATION IS HIGH NOT BECAUSE THERE'S EXCELLENT CLASS BALANCE, BUT BECAUSE IS NOT AN ISSUE RELATED TO THE SERVER. This is an issue of all Games nowadays. Literally all Videoames and Card Games have their own meta-games (Pokemon, ToS, WoW, LOL, TCGs), and competitive players will always pick the characters that are easier to use to achieve victory.

In the case of NovaRO, a few time ago the Top-meta class was Doram, then was SE, now is Ranger. One just have to accept that classes are not equal, there will always be a dominant class. If you like a class that's not part of the TOP Meta-game, you just have to work harder than them to have a similar performance.






That's everything I have to say. Thanks you for your time reading!

I explained both positive and negative points, so I hope this helps outsiders to form a right opinion about the Server. 

[betwixtbetween]

Your nova points have been credited to your account.

Thank you for fighting for the cause.

[Fu Wind]

Your nova points have been credited to your account.

Thank you for fighting for the cause.

What you're implying is VERY serious, but I'm glad to confirm that it couldn't be more far from reality. 

I don't recieve a single incentive for saying the truth. Just the satisfaction of supporting the objetively best Renewal Server of 2019 and the last years.   

Your reading comprehesion is very questionable, since I even specified that I don't have a good relationship with the Head GM.

- Friendliness: 8. Most of GMs are usually very kind. However, Head GM Nova has a strong personality that is not liked by many people. I by myself have no much compability with Nova.

Also, if i was biased, there wouldn't be a point on remarking the negative points, don't you think?  That's why I'm proud to confirm that I wrote a totally honest and objetive review, exposing both the positive and negative points of the Server.

Yes, no Server is perfect, but with my years of experience in many Servers, I can assure that NovaRO is the best and more balanced Renewal server there is in 2019. But don't just believe me, believe the numbers, cause the people still coming, even beyond the dramas. 

Even when the GMs have made mistakes, NovaRO's possitive points keep bringing more and more people everyday. Population-on is about 2600 now (counting merchants ofc), and still growing. There's definitively a long and brilliant future to NovaRO. 

[Fu Wind]

Playerbase still growing everyday. Reached 3K now. 




Quality pays off. 

[Herpderp]

Playerbase still growing everyday. Reached 3K now. 




Quality pays off. 

Their population is not genuine. 

[Boreas]

Nothing new. rAthena restores autotraders when the server crashes or reboots. That'd explain the population jumps. Plus a few hundred players hammering the login screen to get back in.

[Lai]

I remember a server named HoneyRO, with 14k online players.

[WinterAoA]

Mhmm   
What ever, I'm enjoying my time here playing Battlegrounds (BG). Well, about 60 people joining BG on happy hour.
When it's time to conquest mode, "Wait.. this is BG or Woe?" with that number of players participating I don't know anymore hahaha