I have been playing EssenceRO since November 2008. Some may think that's not enough time to formulate an opinion on the server but from what I've seen, I came just in time to see the server do a epic roll into the "trash" territory. As you can see from the
few recent reviews, I'm not the only one that thinks this way.
I will go by each official rating criteria provided by ratemyserver.net and give full details on each category.
Preamble: The head GM, Tira, has been MIA since late December (her computer supposedly broke), and inactive the entire time I've been on the server. She didn't write anything about this in any updates section so I had to become a mini-detective to find out any information about this. I know that it wouldn't be that hard to post an update on the site, even from a friend's computer or a library computer. Broken computer is not an excuse not to have the true reason up for everyone on your server to read.
For the latter half of December and all of January it's been nearly impossible to get a hold of even
one GM. This disturbs me considering there is at least one GM active always in IRC, which makes me believe they just don't like being in game. Whenever [GM] Hidden, the only other GM on the server with Administrator status, has been on, things have been unstable and broken.
The other day, Survival Arena was screwed because the character server was down and we could not make parties. We were told by a GM (Faustus) that we would not be receiving our 500k entrance fee back, because it was still "doable without parties". Yeah, right.
Yesterday there was a guild rollback-- to a little before Christmas! None of this is explained in the forum, nor in updates, or basically anywhere (even though Hidden was lucid enough to write an update that WoE would be postponed, which apparently is the only thing the general population cares about). I had to get onto IRC to figure out what the hell was even going on, and why my guild (with tons of zeny worth of stuff in storage) was gone. I still don't know why the rollback happened. And I was told to remake the guild and it would reappear, but I am not able to remake it, which ultimately is my personal last straw for this server.
Server Stability: Poor, poor, poor. The server is down several times a day. I have literally had to put up my shop +10 times one day, and it just seems to be crashing constantly. Honestly, for the last week, it's been so bad my friends and I haven't even bothered to try signing on.
Server Availability: Poor as well.
GM Friendliness: Sometimes GMs are friendly, sometimes they aren't. It seems like it depends on factors we, as the general population, cannot control. I've literally been yelled at by GMs for no apparent reason, have been ignored by them, or lead on and THEN ignored. I've sat by and watched my friend be b**** out by a GM for asking a question. However, when they aren't being like that, they are actually rather nice... that is, if you can find them...
GM Availability: Good luck finding even one GM online per day.
There needs to be more GMs. Period. Seeing as Head GM Tira is MIA, that's impossible at the moment. Last time I saw her, she said that she was working her way through the GM applications, but something tells me she isn't. As posted in the preamble, you can usually get a little help for your problems if you go into IRC, but in my opinion that isn't enough. You shouldn't have to go into IRC to get problems fixed. My friend and I repoted a guy named "duplicate items" who literally admitted to phishing accounts and stealing items with several screenshots and he was STILL around even after forcefeeding the report into a GM's mouth over IRC. That speaks volumes.
GM Helpfulness: When they're around and in the mood to help, the GMs can actually be quite helpful, from my experience. Problem is, it's rare to see those two criteria simultaneously filled. I won't elaborate any further because I don't see that it's necessary. They're helpful, for the most part.
Community Friendliness: This, in my opinion, is where Essence somewhat shines. From what I've seen, the good outweighs the bad in this category. The community, although VERY cliquey, is rather friendly. I have only run into a few true a******, so if the only thing that matters to you is community then this might be the server for you (if you can stand it being down all the time, that is). And for that matter, when I've had problems, the general community has actually been more helpful than the GMs. Go figure.
Eventfulness: Since all the GMs have been MIA, there literally haven't been any events since mid-December. The entire time I've been here, there have only been a handful of events. So that means, for about two months, there have only been 5 or 6 events. And there haven't been ANY since mid-December. One of the event GMs, Faustus, can constantly be seen in IRC but is rarely online in-game to conduct events. I don't know whether that's because he isn't authorized to because Tira isn't around, or whether he just doesn't. However, there have barely been any events. Take that as you will.
Economy: Another place where, in my opinion, Essence shines. Or at least, it did before the server became unstable. The NPC sell for many items has been completely nerfed, so the best way to get items is to do quests and sell either the required quest items, or the quest items themselves. A vender is nearly REQUIRED. Despite those setbacks, nothing is *too* expensive. Nothing in-game is unattainable through hard work, and there are several zeny sinks in place, so I think this is why the economy is fairly good. Lately, however, prices have been pushed up because even though you can search shops with @ss, all the cheap auto-venders are purged almost every night (because the server goes down) and prices are pushed high again.
Guild Competition: I don't personally WoE, so I couldn't say. However,
these statistics are a little iffy. Again, take this as you will:
Shatterpoint: 7 castles
Backstab: 5 castles
The Creed: 3 castles
Ethereal Light: 3 castles
Woopers: 3 castles
Fusion X: 2 castles
Water's Gate: 2 castles
Class Balance: Class balance, for the most part, is pretty good. It does need a little bit of tweaking however. Archbishop (thankfully, in a stroke of pure genius) isn't allowed to use their archbishop skills on PVP (and essentially, MVP) maps. This sort of sweeps the unbalanced factor for this class underneath the rug.
There are a few other withstanding problems that can't be shoved under any category:
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Bugs. Bugs everywhere. I error out nearly daily. This is because they instate new features rather than fixing the old ones first (such as implementing Archbishop). Naturally, new features only make it even MORE buggy.
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Lack of communication. As I sort of touched on in the preamble, whenever something is done, it is rarely announced. The guild rollback thing wasn't even touched upon in the recent "WoE postponed" update, and Tira has been gone without a trace for a few weeks now. It may be announced in IRC or in game if you're lucky, but for the most part, there is absolutely no communication between the GMs and the players.
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GMs are unwilling to do anything. There have been recurring glitches, such as glitching into the signs in Old Payon to get a better vending spot. I've been told by a GM that this is illegal because it blocks the sign, and said GM said he would move the shops, but they were never moved. I *often* feel as if I'm being told what I want to hear to get me to shut up and go away, and then eventually, nothing is done. The same thing happened with the user "duplicate items" as detailed in the "GM Availability" section. I've lately written it off to the fact that they just haven't been around, but after the duplicate items thing, I'm more convinced that it's their own laziness or other factors keeping them from doing something (maybe lack of power?).
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MVPs are buffed, making most quests just silly to do on one's own. I understand the point of MVPs having literally 24m HP being that one is encouraged to make friends to kill them. However, it has only caused problems. Not only could I see there being arguments about who gets said item, I don't think that it's right that one is FORCED to socialize to get anything done. Almost every quest has at least one item that is a rare drop from an MVP. Without friends to constantly kill said MVP with you, it's nearly impossible to get the item, which drives its price up. For instance, an item called "Red Will of Darkness" is an MVP drop. Because it's so hard to get, it's 50m! Basically, the rich people in the economy are able to farm these either with guilds or friends, and the people who like to play solo are forced into farming for hours to get enough zeny to buy. This sort of brings me into my next point...
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Cliques. Cliques are almost as prevalent as bugs, to be honest. If you're not in the "in" crowd, it becomes difficult to do anything. Most people are friendly, but will refuse to MVP or do anything else with you unless you're in their guild.
DESPITE ALL THIS, EssenceRO has its up-points as well.- Custom pets.
- The rates are good.
- Lots of unique custom items.
- Tweaked to the point that it's very different than any other server I've played.
- Lots of people to interact with.
- Most everything (besides MVP drops, which are essential to almost all quests) can be received in game.
- No donation items
at all, not none of that "all donation items can be received in game through an epic three month quest" s*** most other servers pull.
- Survival Arena is OK. You get Minigame Tokens from it, which are sellable in the market or you can collect them and get an item. It's hard to get enough to get anything significant unless you're doing Extreme mode though.
Now, this review isn't meant to start drama or otherwise, and I know I have a lot of unfounded claims (because I had to do a computer reformat because EssenceRO's patcher was broken and it was impossible to fix without a reformat). As with any other review, you can choose to take it or leave it. I'm just telling things as I see them. From today, I'll be looking for a new server. Wish me luck~
(I won't be checking this thread from here on out; I can't be bothered to put any more effort towards this server in any manner.)
