The longevity alone makes the server worth checking out. (Even if you don't care for low rate servers)
And if you don't particularly enjoy low rates, The Hero's Journey quest that is currently offered upon making a new character, will get you through both job changes and to level 80/50 in the space of 30 minutes to a couple of hours. (depending on how quickly you find some of the NPCs)
Speaking of...The Hero's Journey quest is probably the best custom quest I've ever seen on any server.
It's very good at blending traditional RO content with some of the custom towns and areas on HeRO.
It begins as a "go here, do this" quest, and culminates in an instanced dungeon quest with some NPC party members (giving you a feel of what a balanced party can do in a mid-level dungeon) and ends with a message about the legacy of RO and what has made it special over the years.
It's a good story line that lets you reminisce on the history of RO, while letting you look forward to the future of this particular HeRO server.
Possibly most useful of all...if you are wanting to play a class that traditionally has to reset its build mid-way through leveling, this quest will take you to a second job, level 70/50, with only having killed 5 Porings and 5 Lunatics (can be done with the base 1 stat point in every field)...or if you've already allocated every stat point, you also get a free reset ticket.
You'll end the quest with 100k-200k zeny, and some decent leveling gear.
The server has quite a bit of custom content/towns/fields/dungeons/gear/cards, but somehow seems to keep everything relatively balanced with the regular RO content.
It's almost as if they've created enough custom content, that if you wanted to play solely in new areas...you probably can.
Or if you want to play in only traditional RO content, you can; or mix and match...and neither choice seems to benefit you more than if you'd chosen the other.
Everything seems to be meticulously balanced out.
The population is pretty small...or just really quiet in Main chat.
But the people that are online have been very friendly and gracious in helping others.
I wasn't able to kill some of the monsters to hunt parts of a custom gear set that I was wanting to use...so some of the players helped me complete my set.
(Results not guaranteed for every new player...my experiences are mine alone and might not reflect your experience)
Likewise, one of the events drops some loot for players to pick up...often times players don't fight over the loot. They pick up a little, walk away, and let every player get decent amounts of loot for themselves.
I've been pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying HeRO.
I'm not usually a low rate fan...and I'm not super content with the pace that I am leveling at.
(But I did choose to main a Crit Soul Linker, which is notoriously slow at everything...so it's my own fault
)
But somehow I still find myself logging in almost every evening to hunt around, and explore their new content.
They also take reports seriously. I reported a player impersonating a GM. I had an email the next day thanking me for the report, and notifying me that the player had been banned.
I'd give this server a solid
8/10..."should try"In case you're wondering, the only draw backs for me are the smaller population and the low rates...which aren't anything to fault them on really.
They can't control the size of their population (which could actually change if a lot of people get tired of these classic "progression" servers)...and they have seen 15 years of success being a low rate server...so it's working out alright for them.
So if both of those are your thing, this server is
10/10 for what you're looking for.
(If you play on a low rate progression based server here's a spoiler'd opinion to consider)A small side note for low rate progression based server players (because I actually stuck with one for awhile a few years ago)
You know when you get to that point where you hit the progression cap for your server, and then you're stuck waiting for an undisclosed amount of time for the Transcendence update to hit...or for the next set of towns and dungeons to get unlocked...
Why do we do that?
I didn't find that fun.
You don't have to do that here. This server has years of new content to explore. Decently designed, well thought out content, that is new to you and me.
I haven't hit 99 yet, here. But I'm already enjoying exploring new content. It's tickling the nostalgic buttons...but it's totally new.
I'm still having to do the old RO dungeon entrance quests.
You still have to physically travel to a town before you can unlock it at the Warper (still have to pay 200z per warp).
This server is hitting all the good things I enjoyed about the 1x official iRO that I grew up with, and loved; while offering new things for my brain to make memories of.
Seriously, leave your classic progression for 2 or 3 days, and check out HeRO.
The Hero's Journey quest just got added (I think in October for its anniversary.) And I'm not certain if it's a permanent addition, or just an anniversary month only thing, to get new players somewhat up to speed.
If you don't like what you experience...chances are, you're no worse off when you get back to your home server, because of the spaced out progression release schedule.
But I don't think you'll be disappointed.
This server could stand a few more people. And I'm pretty certain that there are 50-60 of you out there playing progression based classics that don't actually want the progression part of it.
I didn't intend for this post to turn into a server review. I guess I should actually leave an RMS review now.
Anyway, Happy Birthday HeRO!
It's refreshing to see a well established unique older server, in the time of multiple dime-a-dozen servers with short lifespans.
