Originally posted by xxpeddyxx

1-2 months? Try 4 minutes.

4 minutes? Seriously?

Free to play usually means heavy grind, but this is mega grind. First, you have the grind to get out of Normal Mode (NM) which is kind of like nub mode. Sure you can play it and level it to level 70 now, but you'll have way less stat pts. from levels, gear, and short some of the better skills availiable at other modes. NM: 5 stat pts. for stat allocation. 3 skill pts. to unlock limited amount of skills for that class.

Hard mode (HM) comes after you've reached level 40 on a NM then you can start the level grind again with a longer grind cause you'd need more exp with higher modes. Slightly better gear from NM and more skills to add, but still not quite there with the ridiuculousness of the next mode. HM: 7 stat pts. for stat allocation. 4 skill pts. to unlock all but 3-5 or so skills for that class.

Once you've reached level 40 on your HM you've unlocked Ultimate Mode (UM) for the sheer joy of mode-advantage and the risk of character deletion if you die without getting resurrected by players or an item mall $$ item. This mode unlocks the best equippable gear and overpowering skills exclusive to UM. Also, enjoy the even longer level grind sessions. UM: 9 stat pts. for stat allocation. 5 skill pts to unlock all skills.

If you choose to switch servers you start this all over. If you choose to switch factions, you start this over on another account. You just might enter a server where one faction is currently overpowering the other or an item mall $$ item that is totally biased into one faction will shift the balance.

Let's not forget the skill = $$$ aspect of this game. If you would like to spend $150-1,000 or whatever incredible figure a month on this game you will do fine with the rest of the idiots. Not only do you have the mode advantage you have the item mall advantage. With items such as remedies(+stats), helmets(+stats), capes(+stats), accessories(+stats), lapisias(+dmg/def), lapises(+stats), MAX stat (they will max out a stat for you), you can buy your way into potentially 1,000+ stat pts. advantage. Who needs skill when you can one hit people and say you were better skilled? They'll even reward more stat pts for kills, so buy buy buy! With great E-peen comes great resposibility to support giver of e-peen.

The rest of my rant:

Currently the inflation is insanely high. I started over a year ago and with each month the prices have increased rapidly. Three months in, prices doubled. Nearly a year in, prices have now gone up over 7 times the amount I've seen at start. Gold is pretty useless for mid end trading even, asking price for things have shifted to item mall $$ items. Tens to hundreds of an item mall $$ item, worth $9-11US, will be sought for a piece of high end gear.

Customer support is one of worst. These GMs have no concept of a watch or calendar as proven by the numerous late starts on things and even wrong dates posted. They don't waste time even in posting and reading as there're tons of copy and paste mistakes constantly which leads to mass confusion. Griefing is high in this game and the way the support system and reporting works actually supports griefing.

Buggy descriptions been around since the game started I've been told. (Oh, if you screwed up your skills because the game's buggy description you can buy an item mall $$ item to reset it. No other way? Oh well.) 

Forget 1500 v 1500 or whatever number they have posted, everyone will lag to hell and drop connection with about 50 v 50 or so. This isn't from any low end systems or personal internet connections from various people across the world, it's their servers.

Hidden pitfalls can get you trapped and you'd need to port out (z-axis bugs?), they're all over the map.

There is one good thing about Shaiya, it has the great ability to milk the dumber playerbase of their money. Those who enjoy the skill=money spent aspect enjoy forking over money each week/month to the point of complaining about how they can't throw their money at the game any faster. Shaiya has a measly 1% chance of linking lapises to max 50% chance linking (usually with item mall $$ items) with a chance of gear breaking unless you have an item mall $$ item. An unknown % chance for lapisia enchantment, which turns out to be pretty low before the 7th success (max now 20?). These low, low percentages yielded with actual cash being spent would make anyone mad, but I guess the ones staying around love the returns.

People who buy from the item mall and sell those items for in-game gold or trade for in-game drops should just quit early. People who use real money for in-game gold or in-game drops shouldn't either. There is never a good reason to do either. Don't support no life grinders, gear farmers, or gold farmers with your money. It will only support more of these idiots across all games and make games worse.

Shaiya hasn't changed much from what I've gathered. It's gotten worse and I've only stay around long enough to understand it well enough. I've never liked reviewers who play for a short while and don't understand enough of a game to post a decent review. Shaiya isn't enjoyable at the least. I've stayed long enough to post a great bash and this game doesn't deserve any better.