Aeria is only allowing players to log onto the NA version of Elsword (Actually hosted by Kill3rCombo) using Aeria Ignite. This is why I couldn't simply launch Elsword from installation folder.
On the other hand, it's actually more time and stamina effective to party up. As I've experienced, your EXP gain is from 150% to 250% greater if you're in a full party, and that's another thing I hate about Elsword--it pretty much forces you to party play if you want to level quickly.
Of course, this is assuming all the party members are competent: I've seen plenty of leechers and lazy assholes, both when doing Secret dungeons or Henir (popular dungeons in Elsword)
Then you have those who simply hack in PvP/Fields/dungeons, and the admins don't do anything about it. They ask for video evidence, despite the fact that the largest file you can upload is 1MB. Videos they determine to be "low quality" is not accepted, and this brought HUGE numbers of people to hack and cheat freely without much fear of getting banned.
I've never tried GC, but I hear it's full of kids who want to show off their small epeens, like Maplestory so... I kinda avoided that
And I'd rather see Rena's or Ara's jiggles instead.