DreamerRO

[no0b]

I have yet to see a recent review of DreamerRO, so I will post my personal opinion of the server here.

I have been playing RO for around 8-9 years, and on this server for around 3 years, and have noticed notable patterns in this server and staff. Overall, DreamerRO represents an above average server with an outstanding amount of customization and donation gears. As it is an up-to-date server, it allows players to play all the third classes, which are more or less completely usable. It also offers a great amount of competition and has an enormous community to sustain its growth. DreamerRO does well in showing the full extent of customization of iRO or kRO. DreamerRO, at face value is great server. However beneath this, it is plagued by problems that are frequent in many other large popular servers. Besides these problems however, DreamerRO has the potential to be the best server (as it is currently ranked at rank 2).

As a result, I will be going over the few categories of a server. This will include issues I have noticed, as well as the many feats that bring this server up.

A. Class and Item Balance
So what problems are there with dRO? From my experience on this server, the most fundamental problem it has, as well as other RO servers, is maintaining balanced classes while updating the game. No class specifically is OP in this server, however many classes are notably weaker and are not helped by any custom gear introduced in the game. An example of one such classes is the Ninja. Many of the ninja's skills are either bugged or nerfed to a point in which they do not work/hit. However, this is not the primary example of the balancing issue.

The main class balance (or misbalance) that has occurred, was the recent change in the Champion. Recently, asura strike has been nerfed to a 10(?) second cool down so that one cannot spam Asura strike. Although the server did well in balancing out the Asura Strike to not be multiplied by the entire SP bar (it only multiples with 2000 i believe at max[?]), they took out the ability to Asura time after time, therefore effectively destroying the Champion class in woe as a primary killer class. You may argue that champs are not supposed to be able to asura frequently in RO, but in most high rate servers, if the champ has the means to replenish their SP, then they are allowed to spam. It is a bit rare to see a highrate server nerf the killing skill of a champion. Most highrate servers also allow the Ghostring card the Deviling card to be used as an defense against Asura Strike. Although this server offers the same defenses, the nerf to Asura Strike seemed to have been invokd by complains from players saying they didn't want to change gears. I personally find it unfitting to nerf the primary skill that defines that class due to the fact that other players refuse to switch equipment. Another argument you may have is that Champs have other skills to kill as well, such as TSS or a Combo champ. Due to the extent of the customizations of the server (in terms of donation gear), the two ways to kill with a champ as previously mentioned due not offer enough DPS in order to kill geared individuals (Donation gears offer a great amount of demihuman defense, almost to the point of 95%)

The second class misbalance that I have noticed, is the fact that ninja's, taekwandoes, and gunslingers are not offered Hero and Elite Hero weapons. I'm not sure if Hero weapons are unique to this server, so I will explain what they are. Hero weapons are weapons that essentially weapons that offer stats to players on par with the rate of the server. By that I mean, they offer a decent amount of stats for a level 500 character on a highrate server with donation gears that increase damage to players by 20% or offer 35% demihuman reduction. Hero Weapons are introduced to classes in to better accommodate the high level and stats of the server. This being said, they allow for players to have a great boost in damage and defense. Non trans class players do not have these sorts of weapons, as the most they can acquire are customized "Death sets" from battlegrounds, which offer much less then that of Hero Weapons.

Besides that mentioned above, DreamerRO does very well in balancing out many classes for the high level and variety of things offered in a high rate. A great example of the balance is the new Rune Knight class. The skill "Fire Breath" could be considered godly on a high rate server where a player can stack stats very high(I have gotten up to 700 of a particular stat at most, even if 500 is the cap). It would be able to wreck anybody and everybody irregardless of what they have. The staff at DRO have nerfed Dragon breath so that it A. doesn't hit the entire screen and B. doesn't do as much damage as it should be doing. They also add more cast delay on it as a precautionary measure to make sure that the previous two would not be negated by spammability.

The items in DRO are also relatively balanced with each other. An example of a very balanced item is the Gastra Bow, rank B Hero Weapon of Snipers. Snipers in regular servers are very weak in terms of taking damage. With the high amount of stats, they would easily be melted in a fray that may occur in woe. DreamerRO does well to provide them a one handed bow in which they can equip so that they can use shields like every other player. The Gastra Bow is quite similar to many other Hero Items that would provide balance to an otherwise overpowered world. An example of this would be the donation gears which offer almost 20% more demihuman damage. 20% of damage in highrate can represent a lot of damage. However, in order to balance this out, the staff introduced items which offer up to 35% demihuman resistance. Along with this, Hero items can also provide extra demihuman damage or resistance. These items, seemingly OP individually, come together to create fair play.

Another great balance that DreamerRO has is the Nerf to YGG berries. Ygg berries which would heal for your entire health are quite common on a highrate server. As such, DRO staff has made it so that it only heals for a small percentage of your health and sp. In addition to this, they make it so it can only be spammed once every second, therefore allowing for proper death to take place. DreamerRO also does well in balacing the usage of skills on a highrate server. The staff of DRO have placed a noticeable aftercast delay on all skills, so that in order to actually proper spam skills, players would need to acquire items and equipment in game, much like a normal server. This also allows for certain skills which were not meant to be spammed from being overpowered.

B. Economy
The economy on this server varies a great amount. Like a real worlds economy, it moves and changes depending on the will of the players, which is a great thing. When one item comes into need more then the other, prices for that specific item will skyrocket, while others will drop a bit. At the same time, when there is too much of an item out there, that specific item will fall in worth. The economy of DRO at first glance seems very inflated and overpriced. But in reality, it is very stable and is relatively easy to predict. An example of this is the introduction of new Donation gears. New donation gears obviously start off at a relatively high price. Even after weeks of the release, the donation gear will start to climb/fall depending on the amount of players who buy it. Eventually, do to the oversaturation of that specific gear in the community, its price will die down to the price of a normal donor gear. The economy in DreamerRO has been a huge controversial topic for as long as the server stands, but in the long run it has been one of the most stable economies I have seen.

C. Community
Players on DreamerRO are a sight to behold. Almost 600 to 800 players online daily, and even more in WoE. A great bustling forum that holds thousands of topics updated each day by players. The community of DRO is a great spectacle.  As a whole, the community can be defined as relatively friendly. Most players will give help to newbies (in guidance of some sort), or if busy, let them know they are busy. The community is relatively fair mannered in terms of discussions on the forums. Also, because of the amount of players, there is a good amount of diversity as well as tolerance for each type of player. The friendly/competitive banter between guilds does get a bit out of hand occasionally, but problems are usually dealt with quickly and swiftly by the staff. Although the general maturity level of the players  seem to be a bit lower than that of other servers, the combination of players from all over the world, as well as ages from 10-40+ (The youngest/eldest I know represent these numbers) blend together to create a brilliant community.

The community as a whole can be portrayed as friendly. However, certain individual groups of players on this server uphold a egotistical attitude looking down on other players. Although there is nothing wrong with having an attitude that is higher than that of other players, I have noticed that certain groups of players throughout the game s*** on other players, repetitively which alters the gameplay for other players significantly. Rude players who constantly bash lower level players happens in all forms of games typically, however the ones that may occur in DRO are generally followed with pages (on the forums) and pages of flame, or repetitive "troll" which causes other players to quit the game. In one phrase, some of the community of DRO does not know when to "go too far" insulting another player, whether it be race, religion, sexuality, or anything of that matter.

That being said, the servers community as a whole would be an 8/10 or 9/10. They typically offer great support to the DRO staff for keeping up their work, as well as support to newer players who are in need of help. The rude players who cause problems in game, or causes a person to maybe feel uncomfortable playing on this server, although are rarely checked by Staff (At times it may feel as Staff doesn't care about this), only represent a small portion of the community. After all, which server doesn't have rude players?

D. Staff
Although it pains me to say it, many GM's on this server are corrupt or extremely biased. After playing this server for 3 years(ish), and owning around 4-5 guilds, I have noticed certain guilds do get favoritism over other guilds. Also, I have noticed that certain players have less/harder times with specific GM's. Since on this server, GM's are allowed to join woe guilds on this server, many GM's do not agree with each other simply because of competition between guilds. This leads to severely biased GMs who favorite certain players.

An example of this is when a Staff member caught a party in a daily event. This Staff immediately jailed the party, maybe even banning a few players for duel clienting in the event. This is fine, in that it follows the rules. However, this particular Staff has also seen his/her own guild doing the same in that said event, and has not done anything against them.
Another example is when the WoE Castles were accidentally reset to regular IRO time. Multiple illegal castles were broken, and held (this server only allows specific castles to be opened during WoE in order to better monitor the WoE [I think]) for months at a time. When the higher GM's found out that this had happened, they banned A guild leader who had taken and held the castle. The other guild leaders who held the castles only had gotten their castles taken away.
The last example that I have of abusive (relatively atleast) GM's on this server, is when dealing with bugs. When a bug is reported to GM's about a skill, usually that said GM would pass it on to a higher GM or a scripter in order to try to fix the problem. Although I was not aware of this (I am only a player), it was revealed to me by another staff member, that a GM abused a bug reported to him until another staff member had figured out the bug and fixed it. This GM instead of reporting it or fixing it, used it to gain advantage in WoE's as well as PvP event, however was not punished in any way.]
Many players on this server have been jailed/banned for exploiting bugs on this server, which is a just action. However, many GM's/Staff also ignore players in their favors exploitation's as well, hunting only for the competitions exploits (which is also a good thing, as exploitation shouldn't be allowed in the first place). The result of the fact that many GM's/ Staff are in guilds lead also to much dissent that occurs in the GM staff (from what I hear). It evolves to GM's taking sides of players who they favor, finding any and every loophole there is to save them from whatever fate should have been bestowed onto them.

Besides ^, however, GM's can be relatively helpful in fixing problems. Also, because of the amount of GMs and Staff employed at DRO, any @request (for a problem) will usually be answered swiftly after the request. Also, due to the large amount of staff online at anytime, there are always many friendly events and encouraging/enraging (but encouraging) broadcasts created by the GM's.

E. Conclusion
As a random player on the server, the GM bias/corruption does not affect me too much, so I am currently able to continue playing on the server. However, if I were to one day manage one of the largest guilds in the server, and acquire a ton of competition who hate me, I feel as though it'd affect me greatly to have the Staff of the server who is able to see my inventory fighting against me. But besides this, this server is very playable. The terrific community, as well as the amazing customization allow for a terrific experience, as long as none of the problems mentioned above affect the play. There are many shortcomings of this server, as with all servers. However many gleams of greatness that arise from this server may be able to overcome the shortcomings. Should some of the problems I personally have noticed (Remember, this is MOSTLY my opinion, with things that I have noticed) be fixed, I feel that his server would become even greater.



*Ps: As a Ragnarok Player for a great portion of my life, this has been the only server that I felt required a review, due to its controversail stats (If you look on the stats page, they're all over the charts).  I base my experience on the 20-30 servers I have played in the few years of my life. So its up to you whether you agree or disagree with my opinions but try not to flame.