I've decided to finally make a post on what I think about the server after playing it for about two weeks. My ingame name is Gandalf and I am a tutor on this server.
Before I go into detail I think its a server that has potential. It has things that makes it good/bad but also unique. I enjoy it so far but because it is beta I haven't been able to experience everything in the server and considering you start with points you can get full don and you get to the end game very quickly. But I will try my best to make an honest review of the server so far, both the good and bad things and also to make new players get a better view of how the server is.
Lets start with one topic at a time.
Monsters
The server has all the regular tibia mobs but also custom ones that is a lot more powerful.
During the beta there have been several adjustments to them and I believe most of them is balanced.
Some monsters that are well balanced are Hani, Tank, SandMan, Mad Golem and Dracula.
Monsters that needs some adjusments are for example Battle Mage. Their mana drain on mages is a bit too much, which makes them easy to handle for a knight, but difficult for a mage. It needs to be a bit more balanced.
Talaturen is also very powerful. The damage needs to be lowered, considering its in multiple quests and it tends to be a lot of them at the same place.
The different Elemental monsters also needs an adjustment. I know that they're supposed to be hard, but considering its a not a boss it shouldn't require a high lvl knight that needs to be healed by a druid. Lower the damage a bit, and maybe the xp that it gives aswell. But not too much, it should still remain powerful. Something that I have noticed and other players aswell, is that the monsters has a very quick respawn time. Especially in quests. You can't backtrack on a quest or you will risk a strong mob that you just spent a lot of time killing, to respawn again. It should be lowered, atleast the quest monsters.
All in all I like that theres a wide variety of mobs which makes the end game more fun. The monsters are getting adjustments all the time and its good that the staff listens to the feedback.
Bosses
Bosses has a big part in this server, and I like that about it. Some has been balanced but some has not. Most of the bosses I've come across are fine (haven't fought them all) but one in particular that is not balanced, is Lrath Darr.
It has way too much hp, it litterally took a high lv Druid and Knight two hours to defeat it. (I do not know if an adjustment has been made after that) The loot wasn't good either. Some hp adjusments would be good.
Aside from the balance of the bosses I like the way they work. Its good that the bosses has rewarding loot. They drop items that are better than Donation items which is a very big plus for the server. It makes it
not pay to win. They are not too powerful. It requires a high lvl EK and some healers, and that's what a boss should be. Some bosses only needs an high lvl ek, but the bigger bosses that you can't reach by tp's like The King of Elementals, then you need multiple healers. Its a very good feature to have in the server, it makes the end game more enjoyable. I have only seen that boss be accessed by an event, but I guess in the future it will have a spawn point.
The way bosses work in this server is one of the things that I believe is unique and a very good feature.
Quests and items
There are a lot of items that does not have the same stats as they do originally. So there is a lot of adjustments that needs to be made for them to be properly balanced before the beta ends. For example you need to compare the donation items with the items acquired in quests. The donation mage book has Def 10 and +5 mlvl, and the tempest shield which you get from a lv200 quest has Def 5, +5lvl and +200 speed. This is good, because that makes equally good as the don version, and the quest is of course hard to complete. It has a low lvl requirement though, and should be around lv300 because of its difficulty compared to other lv200 quests. The donation mage legs has Arm 8, +3mlvl and 2% protection all, and the lv250 quest for Leaf Legs has Arm 9, +3mlvl and 1% protection all. Its good that this item is also equally as good as don, but its a easy quest compared to tempest shield. It should be more difficult considering it is very good. These are examples of mage items, thats because I main Druid, but I am sure there are more examples of this on other vocs aswell.
There should also be more items that are better than dons. Some are acquired through quests and some are acquired by killing bosses. But I dont believe there is a whole set of items for all vocs that are better than don. I am only aware that some items are obtainable through killing bosses, but not every piece. Some bosses drop don items, which also works.
The server has lots of quests which is good because it makes you busy and have something to strive for.
Map (Unique)
This is my favorite part of this server. I haven't really seen an evo utilize it in the same way. On this server you get rewarded for exploring.
Addons
Cinara 8.60 - Addon Info
A few addons is accessed by speaking to Varkhal and collecting the items that he wants. But most of the addons are found by exploring in hunting spots and outside of the city. The addons have their own Outfit Statue. Each statue tells you what items you need and what addon it holds. Some are easier to find, but some are very well hidden throughout the map. This makes getting addons more rewarding and rare.
Quests
There is also quests hidden throughout the map. So far I've found three quests outside of the city and I dont know what they hold because I dont think anybody have completed them so far. They even have bosses in them. I also found a hidden quest by looking really carefully that required a big team for lv500+. Its a very nice feature to the server which makes it standout and through my time playing, they keep mapping new areas with new features. Exploring becomes fun and rewarding.
Events
Cinara 8.60 - Bag Event
Cinara 8.60 - Egg Event
The server has two events that utilizes that city map. Hidden bags and Coloured Eggs. Every fourth hour 5 - 10 hidden bags are spawned all over the city which gives you emblems like Emblem of Donation (+5 points, 90% chance) and Emblem of Points (dont know how much that gives, 10% chance). So if you're quick you can gather a lot of points during the day without having to donate. The Coloured eggs (I believe there are 6 eggs during the event) also spawns every fourth hour and spawns on different places throughout the city. They give you different medals that either increases your xp gain, or skill gain and more. It gives you a little boost when hunting. These events are nice features to get the player more involved in the city and having a harmless competition with other players.
Spells and Vocations
I don't have to talk so much about this topic because in my experienced the vocations are balanced on this server so far, even in PvP. I believe though that other players can give feedback about this, because I do not have so much knowledge about all the other vocations. Mainly mages.
I can say though that the lv500 spell for mages does way too much damage. I saw a lv550 ED when trying to kill another player use the lv300 spell Exevo Gran Mas Energy, and he dealt 1.9k. He then used the lv500 UE and dealt 3.4k. A 1.5k difference in damage. The spell needs a little nerf. As I said I know there are more spells that needs balance, but this is the only one I've come across.
Other adjusments
Tasks
Some smaller things that I've seen that needs a fix is the Tasker NPC. The tasks doesn't count how many mobs you've killed, he always says that you've killed 0. I also think that the tasks are too big. Especially the Draculas one. He wants you to kill 4500 which way too many. That will litterally take weeks if you play a lot everyday. No reward can be given that compensates for that.
Custom Client and Botting
A very big issue that ot servers has especially 8.6 is botters. What I have understood from the staffs point of view is that this server is against botting. To fix this issue when the beta is over, you would probably need a custom client and make the server only playable through that. Or have strong punishments for the ones using bots. That will make other botters afraid of getting banned, and therefore stop using it. It should be clear that botting is not allowed. It even says that in the "Rules" book in the servers temple.
Leveling
Considering this is a beta and you get 500 points for free, I haven't really experienced how it really is to lvl up in this server. It has a lot of different spawns though which is good for variety and if multiple players hunt the same mob. During the beta you get to the end game really quick because you have good stuff and deal a lot of damage. Even though you wouldn't have don gear, I still believe you would get to the end game really quick. End game in my opinion begins around lv400. At the moment I see people getting lv400 in a day.
Without don you might get lv350. Either way its way too quick. For the server to last long, and having a growing playerbase you need to lower the rates, otherwise the servers content will run out. I heard from players that feel like they've done everything after a week of playing. It shouldn't be like that.
Here is my suggestion for the rates:
This is a just suggestion, but either way the current xp stage needs to be lowered a lot so it takes longer time to lvl up. The skill stages are fine.
Summary
The server has multiple features and a lot of unique things. It has an active staff team that listens to feedback and makes adjustments all the time. It has a very nice map that rewards you for exploring. The bosses is a really nice feature that drops items that either is donation items or better. Its very good to prevent pay to win. The events also makes it easier for you to get points so you dont have to donate if you don't want to. The vocations are balanced but as always its a work in progress. There is lots of quests that are well mapped and you do require a team with most of them. Unlike other servers you can't solo them unless you are well over the level limit. I know that this was a very long post (Looking back I don't understand how I was able to do it. I also realized I've been writing for an whole hour) but I believe that I managed to get most of my thoughts into it and that they will be to help for the servers development and for newcomers to get a grasp of how the server is.
Thanks for your time!
//Faarf (IGN: Gandalf)
EDIT: Minor grammatical changes and use of words.