This is a fantastic game, with a Developer that really, really cares. This game has one of the most devoted Developers I have ever seen. The Dev reads and posts regularly, shares knowledge, updates the players on new material, and listens to players needs.
617 hours into the game at the time of this posting. I have reached around top 250th player status, I am finally gold 100, with only 2 levels remaining. (gold 102 is currently max).
The community in this game is amazing. Everyone has been helpful, and the few that arent, just keep to themselves. Free buffs help progress, teaming up with other players happens often (complete strangers), etc.
Players grind exp through killing enemies, and completing quests. The players reach level 60, and "rebirth". After a rebirth, the player becomes silver level, and starts again at level 1. At this point, the player has only seen about 45 to 50% of the actual game. The player now gets extra points to place into stats of their choice as they level up yet again, this time to 100. This grind, will open up the remaining areas of the map in the game, but those first 60 levels go twice as fast because of now having special gear from the first run (you keep everything), and the extra stat points. Once a player reaches 100, they then Ascend. This makes a player level 1 yet again, and makes the player gold status as they grind through again, much a similar repeat of the second silver play through, but now the player gets even more stat points as they level, making them stronger then ever, allowing the best spells and gear in the game to be used. This final grind ends at level 102.
Some complaints I have heard, revolve around the time it takes to craft, and the gem system. Lets discuss the gem system first. Yes you can buy gems with real money, packages are well priced. Gems can be used to purchase cosmetics, buy teleports, upgrade personal stash, or speed up crafting. **Please note, players who do not pay, get a generous amount of gems daily by completing some simple mining quests (all together they take less then 15 minutes to complete total time). Also note, this is not a pay to win system. Even if gems are used to buy teleports, the scrolls which do the exact same thing are extremely cheap with in game gold, which is found everywhere. The stash does not give much of an advantage, just helps store more things, and the speeding up of crafting things, still requires a player to reach the level in which to wear the item, so it is not pay to win at all.
Time to discuss the complaints about crafting. Players can make Gear, this gear is made by using resources found in the game. Enough resources and you can craft your item. The craft time of each resource compounds as the player combines resources to make even better resources, for even better gear. Every single one of these "crafting sessions" requires real time to complete. (every resource upgrade, and the set item itself). The first 3 full sets, can be easily obtained on the players first run through 0-60, with very little time. This is when it gets complicated. The Tier 4 and 5 full sets, take a tremendous amount of time, due to a ton of resources. I found the 5th set painfully slow. This was partly because I wanted to get all these things done myself, solo. Almost all major resources can be purchased on the market by other player selling, and can seriously reduce these times if players wanted to speed up the process. Also note, free gems per day, saved up can reduce the time things take to create. 1 gem = 1 hour reduction (but you must have the full amount of gems to finish the item when paying), the max of something is about 1 day, or 24 hours, so that would be 24 gems. It is because of all this, that I believe that while the time to make sets can be painful at times in the late game, it is well worth the reward, and can be reduced in many different ways if the player choses to do so.
The only 2 bugs I have run into in the entire game (again over 600 hours at the time of this writing), You can get stuck on a wall or obstacle from time to time. The dev has /stuck command to fix this, if you cant unstick yourself by trying to attack enemies around you. The other I have run into, is the game might "freeze". I have to reload. This reload just takes you back to the character selection screen, not out of the game. You can select the same or different server, and log right back in, only takes a few seconds. This does not happen too often, and has never happened during a big boss fight or anything like that.
Anyway. This game is a great addition to everyones library. If you like some old school feel, like runescape, enjoy a RPG story, and a good grind, this game fits the bill and checks all the boxes.
