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pffuuu no idea, It was sooo long ago when i make mine, besides i didnt really heed to the stats alone. after all like as for players mages not only rely on matk but also on cast time and cooldown reductions too therefore a good customised AI counts way more into the actual damage output on a skill oriented homunculus, then the raw atk and matk ratios.
also i didnt care much about vanil's skills i allways was on the concept that bolts are there for her to last till she unlocks ereaser cutter and xeno slasher. after that she shall never use them again (lot similarly like i dont use bolts instead of psychic wave either on my sorceress) but for example on Eleanor it counts greatly, eleanors dont have elemental HomS skills to vanil's bolt is the only thing you can do to make then hit a ghost monster.
Just for quick reference, i think on lvl 99 vanil mine was having about 100-110ish str and luk, around 120 around vit and just around 96-99 Agi, and the rest about 90-is only. compared to that my Eira on lvl 150 now runs with 250 str, 304 Agi, 216 vit, 281 int, 278 dex, 208 luk. with that much agi she already has 469 Flee to begin with so its pretty much enough to tank for a decent duration nearly anything other then biolab 3 mobs and things that are even tougher. for example the moose from airship instance has nothing on her. as for aspd she have reached 190 aspd which is cap for homus around lvl 110-120. you can clearly see that status growth after turning HomuS is way more dominant compared to their early tier growth.
i am pretty sure some people would say that Pixel is nowhere near the stats they could achieve and that you can do much better than this but i dont care much, i dont want to have the best possible homunculus in the world as long as she does what i want her to do i am fine with her, and not counting being a disobedient ditzy non-attentive support(tough that is due to her ai, which i set  up myself to be exactly that way... so i have no right to complain) she allways have been there for me and my team so i wouldnt exchange her, even if i had the funds to experiment and get a better homunculus.
as for the munching, 760*25= 95k(which equals using overed boost 5 times) is pretty much as much as  embryo costs on the market.
so yeah, she will tottaly eat you out of your zeny...
mine has natural flee above lvl 4 overed boost and 1 more aspd then with lvl5 buff so i nearly never us that thing since i dont really want to facetank anything with my genetic,
nor i rely on aspd so i dotn really find it usefull in my case, but maybe your play differently and you will make use of of the aspd and flee bonus.

1. Of course solo some places still possible, but the game almost force you to go with a party. On iRO (and most of oficial servers) cash shop is full of ovepowered gears and consumables making the game p2w, but this not happens here, nova's shop is more cosmetic even with some items necessary tp improve your gameplay, here we have the gold coins, easy to access and with the possibility of convert them into cash point, anyone have access to cash shop even without a single donation.   2. Farm here is pretty easy, go to a farming place, colect valuable items, go instances and sell the currencys (coins, shards, tokens, instance rewards, etc) or simply buy a cp headgear and sell for zeny as you said, anyone with a free day and parience can be rich here.   3. RO is a unbalanced game, sadly we can't change this fact. But most of classes have a value even with rangers and genetics dominating the damage output, alternatives like rebellions, warlocks, summoners, mechanics, royal guards or glt crosses works very well on the offensive of parties, and sorceres, performers, arcbishops, suras or shadow chasers do the supportive and lure work very well. I personally play as RG, Rebel, WL and AB, no ranger, no geneticist, I play with the class I want without this pressure of "this job is worst" concept.   Welcome to Nova RO, where the dream of a good RO server is real. (Ok I'lll stop) Star Emperors and Soul Reapers are coming! And Nova might be the first to get these jobs on hands. Stay tunned on the next episode of "More love for Taekwons". (Sure no more of this, I promisse)

1.  Many choose to solo for more drops but I'd believe that there still is a large draw for partying in NovaRO. You may get less drops but parties clear content significantly faster than solo players.   2. this can happen but the Zeny/cash rate isn't nearly as hard as it is on iRO. if you know what you're doing, clever play can cash  out more than p2w ever will.   3. Following kRO behaviour balances a lot of skills out, but class balance is always going to be skewed, certain classes do different things better. RO is a lot more dynamic than X damage = best.

@LurchingElf -- hi again! I don't think feeds will be a problem. What I meant was I can't afford to switch homunculi at the moment, as each Embryo costs a fortune. I've managed to get the current Lif to Lv. 96. Stats are again a bit questionable -- it has 8 - 10 points in excess of the average for STR. And just barely in the middle of the range for its INT. I can't remember how high the INT of my old Lif was but it wouldn't matter as it was in a different server. I've read that some values don't read right on the current build of the system.    I've got 3 more levels on that little one, hope it will turn out with better rolls. Most likely not. According to iRO Wiki the INT range for Lif at 99 is around 95 ~ 113. I'm currently sitting at 101 if my memory serves me right. The most it could go up is 107, provided it roles 2 Pts. of INT for the next 3 levels.  Still just somewhere in the middle.   I am not sure if with Mental Change the damage per hit will reach 1K - I only have a 300 something MATK at the moment. Do the Vanilmirth still reach 1K MATK at level 99?    I would probably try your suggestion of Amistir + Eira when this current attempt fails. 

1. People group up depending on the instance and what gear they have. Generally instances like Wolfchev/BMD/ET/EC requires a party because they are next to impossible to complete solo.
I would argue and say that most people tend to solo instances such as Jitterbug and Horror Toy Factory when they hit end game because they want to maximize profits. You wont be able to do that without getting the gear required, of course. So you'll be doing parties for a while either way.

2. It's easy to get zeny by yourself without paying for anything off cash shop depending on how you play the game. You can convert ingame currency like Gold Coins to cash points too. If you have a lot of money you could obviously donate, sell and not have to farm at all. But there's no point in doing it since gaining zeny by yourself and hitting end game is easy enough. I myself have two characters minmaxed and donated only around $50(for cosmetics).

3.  There's always going to be a meta in any MMO. Generally I think everything flows very well together. From what I've noticed a lot of things are nerfed on Nova too. Both skills and items. Can't speak for PvP since I haven't played it enough.