Nov 2010
Server Ratings
Stability: 9/10
Availability: 9/10
Stable and Available. Not much to say here really. Only goes down when it needs to update.
Community Ratings
Friendliness: 7/10
Eventfulness: 9/10
Community is what you'd expect of an MMO community; trolls, FFfanboys, and the occasional (not rare) helpful person. Want to get screwed over on a price check? Ask main. Want to ask something obvious that can easily be looked up (LIKE ON RATEMYSERVER, HOLY ****)? Be prepared to get hit with a stupid response. Want to go trolling? Be prepare to be assaulted by non-existent moderators (though you will likely get reported via Support Ticket, and consequently be dealt with later by the GMs)! Why so high rating? Because people actually do try to help. I just don't feel like highlighting those points, because I'm a troll myself. (Note: keep trolling to a minimum)
Events exist. This is evidenced by records kept on the heRO wiki (USE THE WIKI PEOPLE). Unfortunately, the timing of these events is... not geared towards daytime players. So choose thy playtime carefully.
Game Master Ratings
Friendliness: 9/10
Availability: 6/10
Helpfulness: 8/10
The GMs aren't dicks (well, there was that one guy...). Fortunately, the opposite is true: The GMs are actually friendly, socialize a bit before holding events, answer player questions ingame, deal with bots, etc.
Unfortunately, their availability is a bit of an issue. You can never quite get a hold of one during the day, and seeing them on the forums is almost a rarity. A curious observation was that "we have so many GMs (8 to be exact) and I can't get a hold of one?" Given that our true player base (not counting @at merchants) is around 150, maybe 200 on a good (or WoE) day, perhaps there would be JUST ONE online at any given time? Too much to ask?
Game-Play Ratings
Economy: 4/10
Guild Competition: 5/10
Class Balance: 3/10
Here we go. Economy sucks. Or, if you actually know how to make zeny without making a stupid whiny forum thread about it, then you win. Seriously. It's just THAT easy. How can we surrounded by people who don't know how to make zeny when so many obvious solutions are present if you would just look for them? Standard UP/OP argument here, over-saturation of some things, idiots OP'ing semi-rares, etc. Public item/account selling for real life money was recently banned, so don't expect to guy buying your 99 trans anytime soon, unless you're extraordinarily discreet about it. Server zeny sinks exist, but the frequency isn't so common as to keep item prices balanced over the long term.
Guild competition also sucks. Same people, recycled guilds. Like seriously. People wearing Marcs (excluding GR users)? What are those?
No BG (yet), so don't expect anything epic here.
Class Balance has changed dramatically since I last posted. Way too many Snipers/Champs now, all thinking they're pro just because they're... Snipers and Champs. SIGHHHHHHH....
Donations: Way too much from too few people. While there's no unbalanced gears from donating, people just sell the received items (OCAs, BBs, OBB/OVBs, other various consumables) for zeny, which has in turn thrown the economy around a bit.
Customization: High. REALLY high. Almost exclusive timeframes for some items too, which can be pretty powerful, though you'll occasionally see old stuff being sold.
/ramble
/opinion
Like a true nature's child~
We were born, born to be wild~
We can climb so high~
I never wanna die~
Born to be wild~
Born to be wild~
-----
Old Review from 1/25/10
Stability (9/10) / Availability (9/10) - Pretty much up whenever, though there have been hiccups as of late. No explanation, though I'm sure GMs have noticed by now. Various hackings and downtimes have been rectified and compensated swiftly (albeit to much debate).
Community friendliness (7/10) / Eventfulness (8/10) - It's there (the friendliness) to an extent, though I think it seriously lacks a lot of common sense. Though I've personally never understood why people go to private servers to learn to play RO in the first place, it seems like we get all the people who want things handed to them on a silver platter. Events are plentiful, but variety would be appreciated. The lack of common sense tends to bring out the angry side of people, so you'll likely see some hate thrown out on @main every now and then. It's not even really a "it's on RMS/iROWiki/the internet" or a "this should be obvious to anyone who has half a brain" mentality that's exhibited, just that after you see people repeatedly display their lack of common sense, it gets old tiresome.
GM friendliness (8/10) / availability (5/10) / helpfulness (7/10) - The GMs are friendly enough to the server population as a whole. Certain biases against certain people and/or guilds prevents a 10/10, but that should be true of nearly every server; certain people just grate on other people's nerves after you hang around them for years on end. However, certain GM decisions (along with their legits) have been... questionable at best and outright biased at worst, though nothing majorly affecting overall gameplay. Timing is the primary factor of these decisions, as events tend to chain upon another. Oops, digressing here...
Unfortunately, GM visibility isn't very high; they're around for events and whatnot, and they do resolve support tickets in a relatively timely manner. However, for more immediate WTFBOT moments, there's typically none around, and waiting for a ticket to be looked at tends to waste time and cause damage (if nothing more than less monsters on the map). This isn't to say that they don't do bot checks; they just simply aren't around at convenient times. Helpfulness goes hand in hand with availability; once they're on, they're helpful. If they're not on, then.... tough luck and hope they get on soon.
Economy (7/10) - As with any long-established server, the economy tends to deteriorate over time. Items tend to saturate the market, and the longer a server has been around, the more likely that old-timers are likely to A) have a better grasp on the market B) have 95% of everything they want. By better grasp, I mean control through MVPs, high-end dungeons, etc. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be an ultra-lifeless guild farming high-end MVPs/dungeons nonstop, nor ultra-lifeless people (though it may seem that way sometimes).
The server has its zeny sinks (Fairy auction, hatter, warper/healer), yet people can still throw zeny around like nothing. It's actually quite hard to find an item for item trade nowadays, unless it's high end for high end. On the flip side, sometimes it's actually hard to sell something rare and useful for straight zeny, because the portion of the server that can't get it themselves is too broke. This brings back the point of community friendliness. When someone can't get what they want, they whine. If they can't afford it, they whine about how expensive it is and how hard it is to make zeny, when in fact it's really easy to make zeny. But I'm digressing again....
Guild competition (4/10) - My @$$. 4 is the number of guilds that actually count. 3 is the number of castles. 2 is the number of castles that matter (2 for trans, 1 for nontrans/nonextended). 1 is the number of guilds on one side of the competition. 9384759347598374 is the number of social guilds on the server.
So, 4 - 1 = 3 WoE guilds remaining. Those 3 guilds are allied. They hold 1 trans and the nontrans castles. Let's talk trans for a moment.
As with most servers, WoE goes through cycles of "wow that was a lot of guilds in that woe holy @$#*" and "wow where the hell is everyone". We don't have that. We have social guilds. Thus, a 3 guild vs. 1 guild WoE atm, and it's not really going anywhere. Though attempts are made by both sides to take the other castle, it just doesn't quite work as well as it should. And so they sit. And.... attack some, die some. But otherwise just sit. Oh and precast. Obviously. We like precasting. This is WoE 1.0, for those haven't gotten it yet. Now, let's talk nontrans.
Nontrans WoE is nonexistent. There were a few attempts made, but retooling your WoE mentaility down to a nontrans level is a whole different ballgame, not to mention time constraints (trans and nontrans woe are held at different times). So yeah, if you have a nontrans WoE mentaility, feel free to join. Bring some friends. A lot of them. A LOT of them.
Class Balance (8/10) - I can't say I really pay attention to it, but there isn't an overwhelming number of AD spam in WoE, or Sniper DS spam, or Champ Asura spam. It's a fairly even mix, with the obvious lack of people who main a Prof/SL/etc. You will likely notice it in PVM/MVP situations, but that's to be expected.
-----
It's a good server. I do like it. Every guild I join tends to bring it's own drama, and drama is what keeps the game going for most people.
/opinion
I need a hero~
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night~
He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast, and he's gotta be fresh from the fight~
