First of all, I need to ask a question-- isn't it
illegal to have a donation shop that includes unmodified items of Gravity's? Or items of theirs at all. That's profiteering off their intellectual property, isn't it? But I digress; this is a server review, not a case for Phoenix Wright. (Although I guess you'd need more of a Miles or a Godot to handle this...)
My name is SirFuzzi; I'm an RO player of many a year, though still no veteran. You can always learn, you can always grow, and somebody is always better. (Logical fallacy!)
I don't normally do this; I leave the concise reviews on RMS' review blurbs and I am content to let it rest there. However, my intense, burning passion to reveal this server for what it is flares deep within my loins like some sort of Hellborne fury. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I unleash that fury.
And I will ask you to take a seat. Grab a cola, a cup of coffee or tea, some milk or juice, or maybe just a nice tall glass of cool, refreshing water, with ice in it and the glass is all frosty. Mmm. That sounds good. Get a snack, too, and call your mother, and remind your friends they're important to you.
Are you ready? Then let's begin SirFuzzi's objective (sort of) review of FaithRO.
INTRODUCTIONFaithRO is a
server fun place hangout place run by mods who I don't know personally, so I can't say much about them; the rates are 3000/3000/xx (I don't remember the drop rates; they're irrelevant and I will approach that issue when we get there), while the max levels are 150/100 and 120 stats. The server's average players-connected is a steady mean of 30, give or take for peak hours. It's got a mall with many things readily available, including poorly sprited wings and helmets that seem to have come out of that coloring book I left under my bed when I was a kid because I thought my friends would laugh at me when they came over and saw it. No less, these are all equally available to all, and a gold room with porings that I easily killed in one hit on my Super Novice with 6 strength and a Main Gauche makes this only more apparent. Many other merchants, including EDP and 3rd class item sellers, litter Prontera's sidewalks, making sure that anything that makes YOUR class overpowered is always there at your fingertips.
Well, except Runes, of course. You'll still be farming all those items yourself, as far as I know, despite all EDP and poisons being readily available. Eh, we can't all have our cakes and eat 'em, especially if that cake balances our class with the glorious Assassin tree.
To start off this objective (sort of) review, I will analyze everything step-by-step. Bear with me; I embellish everything because it keeps your attention.
ALPHA:Server SemanticsAs I mentioned, merchants are readily available to dispense almost everything to you. Magic Gear armaments, poisons, rune bases, arrows, traps-- almost anything that's there, you name it. EDP, Yggdrasil Berries and Leaves (and Seeds, too, I believe)-- you name it, chances are, it's there. Most gear is on sale with the exception of some of the newer things (Abbey and Rachel Sanctuary drops, for instance)...
I suppose it's worth mentioning, too, that there's an 'MVP arena warper.' It warps you to a map with a single MVP (there's always one there, they spawn as soon as the current one is killed) and you kill it for points. Exchange points for a motley collection of MVP cards-- the ones that are 'niche' useful, but I think there's a few in there that are pretty solid cards. Eh, it's not really breaking since none of the solid ones (Kiel, Doppelganger) are available in there. If, mistaken as I'd be, they are... then there's a completely different case going on here. We'll get to that later.
What bothers me here, however, is that Guillotine Cross poisons are right there. Literally, RIGHT THERE. You don't need to make them. And yet somehow, Rune Knight runes are still left out for us to hunt. So while a Guillotine Cross has but to kill a few porings to load up a beltful of poisons a'la a merchant-class, Rune Knights are forced to hunt all the items individually (again, except the base runes). Is it just me, or is this a little unfair? I mean, those Assassin poisons are nothing to scoff at-- not to mention EDP, of course, being readily available. I don't care how expensive it is, because Merchants mitigate all of that with the greatest of ease and while you'll spend an hour to clock in enough Zeny to stock your EDP shelf for a lifetime, a Rune Knight could spend an Hour getting enough for-- ah, on his/her own, perhaps 50, maybe 100 Runes. Since this server's at standard levels, dying to mobs isn't uncommon, and in PVP even less so-- that, however, is a tree that we cats will climb later. In short, the server seems to gloss over a few things for an Assassin's benefit, and there's just far too much leaning to favour for them. EDP should come at a price-- but wait, Fuzzi! This argument is pointless! The server's commandlist includes @warp and @mobsearch; classes whose huntables make them good, and classes whose huntables are just extraordinarily strong (a'la EDP) will be caught at the impasse all custom servers hit one time or another: Assassins are freaking broken.
And no; none of their skills are nerfed, all are functioning while other classes are still crippled, and there hasn't been word in all the month-and-some I've been there of the GMs working on anything relevant.
In summary: The server favours Assassins, while neglecting to respect the imbalance that brings.
Next!
BETA:Community in ScopeThe community leaves little to be said. Elitists, but not the prissy-whiteboy elitists you see who are racists; these guys are just "we donate, we play Guillotine Crosses, we're better." There's a nice guy here or there, and I haven't seen the GMs/moderation team themselves sassing people about like slave drivers, but I haven't seen them more than twice in my month'n'some here. So... that should speak for that.
The forums are dry like a desert. Some fellow-- "SimplyNice," for whom I admittedly have little respect-- seems to make it his job as a forum moderator to tell anyone who's asking a question that, in some form, they or their question or perhaps both deserve to be shoved in orifices best left unspoken. I don't know why he's a forum mod. He doesn't help out, he just swears at people. Now I won't bring into question his habits, but the name 'SimplyNice' is a poor taste in irony, don't you think?
The suggestions part of the forum has been untouched for eons, I think, and I don't know why. There's pertinent issues regarding the client download there, and if anyone's having trouble, maybe you could post here because they might look at this review.
In summary: Community leaves a lot to be desired.
It's also full of Naruto-loving Guillotine Cross-using donation-abusing elitists.
First off: Sorcerors and Genetics don't "work." Sorceror skills are functional at best, and Genetics don't even get that grace. Genetics have, oh, maybe one skill that works as intended. I wouldn't consider this server 'ahead of the curve,' by any means, so much as I'd consider it 'trying to race before the race has started.' Penalty, lose, sit out, no more race for you, disqualified. Please, any makers reading this: don't include 3rd classes if you haven't got the skills working
100% as intended. It just isn't worth it, and you'll probably have error reports left, right and center.
Time and time again here, I've shoved things 'later.' 'Later.' 'Later.'
Gentlemen, ladies-- that later is
now.Let's take a virtual tour for a moment. Would you indulge an old man's simple requests? If not, the step-by-step here will allow you to see things first-hand, the horrors of letting daft folks near computers.
Let's go to the FaithRO website.
http://www.faith-ro.net/Easy on the eyes! I like it. A newsfeed, alright, and votey tabs. Then there's the menu along the top. Well, I'd love to let you adorable little scamps travel any which way, but I shan't. No; humour me. Click the 'Donations' tab.
http://faithro.frantech.ca/flux/?module=purchaseHere we are at a far less visually pleasing section. The first thing that will grab your attention, if you're like me, is the Sleipnir; then, the Aespika. Under a donations tab? Hm.
Take a moment. The three items labeled "Emperor's _____" are our subject of reading today; they're easy enough. Please read through them.
For those of us who didn't follow Fuzzi's little fun tour, the spoilers marked are the listings of the items. They're huge, so I tucked them into spoiler blurbs.
Slotted[3] The Emperor's Helm. Increases Int and Agi by 3. Increases Vit by 5. Increases resistance to magic by 3%. If equipped with Emperor's Wing increases Int and Vit by 5 and Luk by 10. Mdef + 10, Def + 3, Critical by 4. Base attack + 3%, Magic atk + 5%. Max hp + 5%. Max sp + 5%. Increases flee rate by 3. If equipped with Emperor's Sholders increases int by 5, vit by 10, luk by 5, def by 3, magic defense by 10, critical hit rate by 4, atk rate by 3, magic attack by 5%, max hp by 5%, max sp by 5%, and flee rate by 3.
Slotted[1]. The Emperor's Sholders. Increases max hp by 5%. If equipped with Emperor's Helm, Vit + 5 and defense by 3.
Slotted[1]. The Emperor's Wings. Allstats + 5. If equipped with Emperor's Helm, Str + 6, Vit + 5, Dex + 4, Luk + 6, and Int + 5.
You'll take note that none of these are typos. That is 3 slots, and this is a server with official slotting.
I don't think that I need to say anything else, so I'll say a lot more. These are three pieces of gear. Yes, three pieces; quick calculations, that's 35 Vit, 15% extra HP, and a 20 MDef.
With the Aespika and Sleipnir, that's 35(!!!) MDef with 5 pieces of gear. Couple in that they now have five headgear slots to play around with (allowing for gratuitous use of Kiel, Maya Purple, resistances, etc.), as if they needed them after the 35%(!!!!!) boost to HP and the 35 extra Vit, the only thing they lose out on is a footgear slot-- which you'd probably just end up spending on a Verit or a Matyr to try and keep up to that ridiculous HP anyways. And then, and THEN, 30% to all resists from Aespika, and the lovely 35 MDef-- Mages are now useless. Even Warlocks will be hard pressed to deal enough damage, between cooldowns and cast times, to drop anything before it makes mincemeat of them.
Drop rates? Who cares? Why would you need cards after those items? You could spend them on resistances, I guess, but with that much HP you're bound to be nigh-unbeatable anyways. You'll never match up to the donation items, and I doubt you'll convince those who donated to use regular gear in all the PVP settings, or when hunting MVPs, or anything.
And I repeat, these are donation items. Those of us who don't feel like spending money to be able to win need not apply, apparently.
In summary: 35 Vit, 35% boosted HP, and all that before factoring in shields, weapons, accessories or armor. Or skills, or anything.
Wow.And I hadn't even taken you to look at all the other donation items. Feel free; my favourite is the slotted ring with a chance to autocast Heal and Coma. Quaint, really.
Finit Coronat OpusSomething really pretentious in latin(Actually, I believe it's "The End Crowns the Work," but don't quote me.)
A server with an unwelcoming, bitter community riddled with poorly constructed classes. Forums that go neglected and have poor moderation teams. Class balance non-existent with yet another slant towards Assassin tree classes. Really, it doesn't get much worse, but they by Jove, they managed to do worse. Good lord in Heaven and unmaker in Hell, they did it, and these donations are worse than anything I have ever seen in all my 6 years of RO. It does not make any sense. Three items, 35 Vit. What the hell? You can't even get that high with buffs and cards in the normal game.
I'll stop barking up that tree now, I guess.
Listen; I don't know what's in this server, but after you hit 150/100, there's not a lot to do. Eh, you can hunt for MVPs, or kill in the MVP arena for some mediocre cards, or try and find cards, but you'll still never match donation gear. And if you have donation gear, you'd really have to be trying to lose-- like, really, you'd have to be five kinds of negligent. That, or a very, very casual player. Without serious activity, WoE's a minor bustle at best, and PVP is dominated by a bunch of
elitist Naruto-loving Guillotine Crosses illustrious individuals as per usual in custom servers.
This server-- what does it offer? A refuge for people who love to donate and become overpowered, I guess. For those of us looking for a video game to play, we might as well go outside, or something. After all, at least outside, there's... like... uhh...
..Well, anyways, you've long-gotten the point. I'm glad you stayed with me; I hope this was informative, and as objective as it could've been given my obvious dislike for the server.
I understand that it seems a bit flame-y, but there's just not enough I can say about this server-- it's poorly constructed, like a jenga tower made of tennis balls.
Avoid FaithRO; it's a painful experience best left to masochists.
