I was going to make a review on the site, when I realized that there is probably so much more to be said about this place. So, where do I begin...
ValionRO is a 200/200 HR with a 255/99 max level, that is a "tribute" to the long-dead FaithRO HR(one of the best servers I have ever set foot on). Unfortunately, Valion just doesn't stack up...
Stability, stability...wherefore art thou stability? - Score: Stability - 2/10 Availability - 8/10
Server Stability? The running joke is "What stability?". Lag spikes are frequent, and by frequent, I don't mean every couple of hours...you are guaranteed a 10-second spike just about every other minute. To make matters worse, there are points where neither the site nor forums will load, leaving new users frustrated and current ones well...frustrated. The Flux CP they use also isn't very stable, certain aspects of it do not work. Surprisingly enough, they ensured that the "Vote 4 Points" system works. Huh.
There is a saving grace, however, in the fact that Valion never really has any downtime. I guess there had to be some sort of positive point to it all. Even so, the lag spikes makes the game damn near unplayable at times, especially when trying to farm Zeny via mobbing.
We have a community....? - Score: Friendliness - 4/10 Eventfulness - 2/10
Being a spanish speaking server, you can't expect a whole lot of English Speakers around, but that's not even the worst part: The worst part of it all is that unless you're "somebody" here, NOBODY will speak to you(outside of your guild, of course). The players and Admin all seem like bots, just placed to make it look populated: They rarely speak, rarely interact, and half of them just sit in Prontera. If you're going to join ValionRO, sure hope you know somebody. The Guild I regularly chill with(Freshmen) are good people, though. However, due to the lack of interaction between other people around, can't give anything higher than a four.
Events? Rofl. Don't make me laugh. The events are auto-scripted, a "Mortal Square", which is just an offshoot of eAthena's "Devil's Square", sans grammar("3 players is still survive in the mortal square"). There's also a Dice event, but I don't know if anybody even bothers with it anymore.
Game Masters and Admins are the pillars of any server's community...just not this one. Score: Friendliness - 3/10 Availability - 2/10 Helpfulness - 4/10
Yikes. Omega(Admin) is on once in a while to stand AFK in Prontera. PMing him on Forums will have you waiting days for a response. When he DOES respond, it's usually a snarky comment towards the user themselves(such as going out of his way to say how a user was a "*****" for having a problem). Beta(Event/Support GM) has been on here and there, as has Kyoshi(Head GM/Co-Admin). To be honest, I feel bad giving this sort of a score for the Game Master category, as they both try hard and are very approachable and easy to get along with, however, Omega just drags them right down with him, in the category of both laziness and rudeness, as Kyoshi and Beta pretty much do the work while he rakes in the donations.
Economy? Eh. Guild Competition? Barely there. Class Balance? ROFL. Score: Economy - 5/10 Guild Competition - 2/10 Class Balance, 4/10
There's really not enough players to have a stable economy around. There's two Guilds that are actually GUILDS and not just a smattering of players with the same emblem. But, WoE just ends up with those two aforementioned Guilds clashing while everybody else does something that isn't WoE. Class Balance? Don't even start...there's skill problems through the roof.
To sum up, is ValionRO worth it? If something drastic were to happen to turn the server around, I'd say go for it. Now? A month from now? Possibly a year from now? If things don't change, don't waste your time.
