Solid MMORPG's other than WoW

[Deleted]

Of the games mentioned so far, which one is best for solo questing + max 5 man dungeons + small scale pvp battlegrounds (the parts I liked best about WoW)?

FFXIV has 8 player *raids*. (24(?) player LFR) 4 player dungeons (that get better as you level up) awful PvP and slow, yet enjoyable questing. The raids are extremely fun since boss encounters are rather beautiful designed but the game pretty much starts at lvl 44~50 (out of 60 lvls) everything before that is, gameplay wise, pretty much a freaking huge tutorial... most players gave up before they reached the higher levels. They made leveling a lot quicker now though, but be warned... the low level stuff is so-fucking-boring to play, you have like 1/10 of your skillset and while lvl 60 rotations and openers include like ~20+ buttons (bloated as fuck, yes it's really that many for some classes), the early ones require like 3-5.
If you play it, I'd recommend a Lancer/Dragoon, Archer/Bard, Thief/Ninja or Pug/Monk, because they have oGCDs which you can cast between the 2+ second GCDs. Caster's are turrets. All healers are 50% dps 50% heal throughout most of the content, if you enjoy that kind of class, go for it... in my case, they are the most fun healing classes (especially Scholar and Astro) I've played in any MMO so far. (Even better than SWOTOR's bounty hunter)


GW2 has enjoyable leveling (the MSQ are fun), decent-good PvP, god-awful PvE (dungeons). Classes are extremely unbalanced in PvE.


Swotor and Rift seem to have changed quite a bit, I'll refrain from commenting on them.

[Champagne Supernova]

Relatively newish MMO Skyforge is quite entertaining, Set in a futuristic environment (High tech ect) freedom to switch between 13 classes and specialize in a class once you unlock it. Action combat oriented , pretty good solo and group content. Classes feel interesting and visually impressive. It's F2P with no B2W shop items or gear, shop is all cosmetic. Progress through a class talent system to reach godhood for that class unlocking a powerful form with improved spells for a duration. Only downside is it's pretty grindy but what f2p mmo isn't?



Here's a few trailers mashed together showcasing some features the game has to offer. -



Also can't go wrong with a bit of Guild Wars 2 or SWTOR for story. Elder scrolls online is also up there.

[Deleted]

Mmorpgs are dead. Disappointment after disappointment they finally died.

[ryanmahaffe]

There haven't been any for a while, and WoW is looking like it'll never get back to being good.

That's such bullshit...

@OP
Solid alternatives to WoW
My top 3
Wildstar
FFXIV
Gw2

Others
Swtor
RIFT
Trove
ESO


all these games qould qualify as "solid"

[natrodamus]

Black Desert has held my attention, and eaten up the majority of my gaming time for the last 4 months. Everyday I log in, and everyday I do something I enjoy and have fun with. Yesterday, I got on did some gathering, grinded some mobs, killed some world bosses, then did a 15 v 15 skirmish outside a small castle for fun. Sunday, I took part in a 4 guild node war where no one was allied, and due to an awesome job by our guild siege equipment team, we took the node.

I think the biggest draw is the personally responsibility aspect. Everything you earn is because you worked for it.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

That's such bullshit...

@OP
Solid alternatives to WoW
My top 3
Wildstar
FFXIV
Gw2

Others
Swtor
RIFT
Trove
ESO


all these games qould qualify as "solid"

Yeah, Wildstar is so solid they laid off nearly half their staff and canceled the release of the game in China. SWTOR is complete shit if you don't pay. Rift is like vanilla WoW, which means it is shit. GW2 I spent all of 10 minutes playing before being turned off by the awful combat system. Trove and FFXIV are the only two you listed that I would even consider suggesting, but I would avoid them if you don't like Minecraft or JRPGs. ESO I haven't played so I can't really comment on it, but nothing I've seen of it made me even consider trying it.

[Syce]

current games im subbed to are SWTOR and Rift. i will say that SWTOR is for the most part a Single player game with multiplayer aspects. i still love the game and play it when i can. Rift well it might be tougher for the newer players to get into it, but ive been with it since beta and still love the game. i just fired up WoW for the first time in like 5 years so im kind of enjoying it at the moment but the dated graphics are bringing back those "ugh" memories of mine lol.

[PenguinChan]

Action Oriented

• Tera ................................. (F2P)
• Guild Wars 2 ..................... (B2P / F2P)
• WildStar ........................... (F2P)
• Trove ............................... (F2P)
• Neverwinter ...................... (F2P)
• Defiance ........................... (F2P)
• Blade & Soul ..................... (F2P)
• Black Desert Online ........... (B2P)
• Elder Scrolls Online ........... (B2P)
• Skyforge ......................... (F2P)

Tab Target

• Star Wars the Old Republic ..... (F2P)
• RIFT .................................... (F2P)
• FFXIV .................................. (Subscription)
• Aion .................................... (F2P)
• Star Trek Online .................... (F2P)
• Lord of the Rings Online ......... (F2P)
• The Secret World ................... (B2P)

And many more, honestly. You can google most of these MMORPGs which are somewhat relevant and interesting to play. Some of them stretch the word MMORPG though, which is why I didn't include things like Warframe or Vindictus (And all of the clones). Most of these are either F2P or B2P anyways, a select few aren't -- I've labeled them accordingly anyways.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Nothing is better than WoW

I'll second that notion!

[Johnnysquaw]

I'd love to see some fresh quality MMO's but I also feel the genre is suffering.

[Slaughty8]

I'd love to see some fresh quality MMO's but I also feel the genre is suffering.

Crowfall and Albion Online are waiting, both in beta, both seem to provide the necessary quality

[Witchblade77]

Action Oriented

• Tera ................................. (F2P)
• Guild Wars 2 ..................... (B2P / F2P)
• WildStar ........................... (F2P)
• Trove ............................... (F2P)
• Neverwinter ...................... (F2P)
• Defiance ........................... (F2P)
• Blade & Soul ..................... (F2P)
• Black Desert Online ........... (B2P)
• Elder Scrolls Online ........... (F2P)
• Skyforge ......................... (F2P)

Tab Target

• Star Wars the Old Republic ..... (F2P)
• RIFT .................................... (F2P)
• FFXIV .................................. (Subscription)
• Aion .................................... (F2P)
• Star Trek Online .................... (F2P)
• Lord of the Rings Online ......... (F2P)

And many more, honestly. You can google most of these MMORPGs which are somewhat relevant and interesting to play. Some of them stretch the word MMORPG though, which is why I didn't include things like Warframe or Vindictus (And all of the clones). Most of these are either F2P or B2P anyways, a select few aren't -- I've labeled them accordingly anyways.

couple of corrections.

ESO is buy to play not free to play - with optional subscription. (truly optional, every DLC can be bought separately, and while subscription comes with very decent perks, its not necessary, as gameplay overall is not restricted)

SWTOR is free to play in a name only. its heavily restricted in f2p form (even if you buy every possible QoL unlock, its still very restrictive) and the only way to acess new content right now is by subscribing

wildstar is actiony, but it also has an option of sticky targeting and non fixed mouse cursor. (as in clicker possible)

lastly - I would honestly add The Secret world to your list. its very decent, keeps getting new content at regular pace - buy to play, but its it has a very similar subscription model to ESO - basically tab target style game and while I'm personaly playing it solo, it does have group content, including raids and at least some sort of pvp. it used to be a lot harder to solo in, but they rebalanced combat at some point, because when I cam back recently - it was suddenly much MUCH easier to progress in, even if your initial built is... not optimal.

[PenguinChan]

~ Snip ~

Right, wrote that list when I was passing out. Fixed the ESO bit!

SWTOR is F2P and while I do agree you have limited end-game options, and some QoL locked -- it's not a terrible experience. If all you obsess over is end-game though, SWTOR will be awful even if you subscribe (Like many MMOs honestly). Regardless though, it does have restrictions if you don't sub at least once; which do release a lot of the F2P stipulations (During and after it's gone).

WildStar is first and foremost an action oriented MMORPG, there is no tab targeting casting that I know of. Sticky Targeting is in a lot of MMORPGs that are action oriented, which is not surprising. Not everyone is like Monster Hunter, and actually I don't think any MMORPG ever takes it that far in action immersion. Still, you need to learn how to use your right mouse button in WildStar or else you will just fail -- keyboard turning isn't very optimal.

Forgot about The Secret World, it's actually a very good quest oriented MMORPG with puzzles that no other equivalent has. Granted these puzzles are really arbitrary and heavily built into finding the correct object to pull, which dick head to kill, and secret phrase or number. Don't think there are many physics puzzles or the like, which can get tedious. Obviously google exists and lets you skip any you just don't enjoy. I may actually try it out again if they fixed the fucked up progression system, where if you experimented too much early on you were pigeon holed into grinding out for many days to get enough points to get stronger builds.

[Cthulhu 2020]

RIFT was great for years, in the last 6-8 months though it has taken a heavy dive.

OP- SWTOR is still pretty good, currently has an event going atm. FF14 isn't too bad if you like Final Fantasy and don't mind the more grindy aspect of leveling or slower paced combat. Wildstar I found fun, but due to being Australian I stopped playing due to latency issues. GW2 is pretty meh these days.

FFXIV isn't slow or grindy in the least these days, not since its reinvention three years ago.

FFXIV has amazing story, tons of side activities, beautiful armor, landscapes and vanity outfits, as well as a growing community. Since I started playing again over a year ago, servers have been getting fuller and fuller, even the "Dead" servers are seeing a lot more action these days. It plays a lot like WoW, and we've recruited a lot of new friends who started in the last few months. They easily level way ahead of the story quest without feeling like they're grinding once.

It "has" end game raiding but it's a bit meager compared to WoW's, so if your ENTIRE fetish in MMOs is raiding, just stick with WoW. But FFXIV has a lot to offer if you can rip yourself from the "raid or die" mentality. Despite having meager raid content, they still manage to give you a ton to do at end game. Lots of alternate paths of progression.

[PenguinChan]

FFXIV isn't slow or grindy in the least these days, not since its reinvention three years ago.

Correction, it's as slow and grindy as you want it to be. If you focus on one character, progress them from 1 - 60, and gear them up -- it's about as grindy as any other MMORPG... Maybe more or less, depending on how much you actually enjoy the story content. Because if you hate story at every step of the way, I know people will just quit when they reach about 50. Those MSQ blockades are brutal sometimes, I swear.

But you can easily go down the spiral of leveling multiple aspects of your character in every which way. I do this and holy crap do I have so much to still do... I still don't have a 60 because I'm enjoying alt leveling on my main.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Correction, it's as slow and grindy as you want it to be. If you focus on one character, progress them from 1 - 60, and gear them up -- it's about as grindy as any other MMORPG... Maybe more or less, depending on how much you actually enjoy the story content. Because if you hate story at every step of the way, I know people will just quit when they reach about 50. Those MSQ blockades are brutal sometimes, I swear.

But you can easily go down the spiral of leveling multiple aspects of your character in every which way. I do this and holy crap do I have so much to still do... I still don't have a 60 because I'm enjoying alt leveling on my main.

Yeah, I guess in my personal experience I love the shit out of the story, always have with final fantasy games. The filler patch content from 2.0 to 2.5 sometimes felt drawn out with little point to what I was doing, but most of the time I felt that the story quest I was doing was advancing a good book. At the very least, they jokingly admit when they're sending you, the warrior of light, on simple fetch missions. As I recall, a couple of NPCs comment on why such a prestigious person is delivering menial objects. So that was appreciated in the tedium.

But that is what I was referring to when it came to "alternate paths of character advancement" other than just running on the endless gear treadmill. I have all my craft and gathering classes at 60, but still only 4 combat classes there. I've been so busy acquiring just about everything else this game has to offer that I haven't had time to level more combat classes... hell I still haven't done the new Hildibrand quest line they added, and that's near the top of my list of things to do.

There's just so. Much. To. Do.

But as said above, if you don't enjoy stories and are solely after the gameplay, FFXIV will be a toss up on whether you like it or not.

[Ciddy]

Tera is the only MMO I've recently touched other than WoW. It was alright, but the whole reason I played was because some of my real-life friends were interested in playing together. We played together for one evening, and that was it. I actually loved the game, but I didn't feel like playing alone after they all lost interest, so I abandoned it as well.

[Kazgrel]

FF14 end game...boring? Maybe if you only take part in one or two aspects of the game, tops, and those aspect being hard mode (savage) raiding and/or pvp. I don't bother with either of those, yet I often find myself in the predicament of "Damn, I want to do this, that, and this other thing, but fuck, not enough time in a day".

Sure, that mindset of being on the borderline of overwhelmed will subside as I get more and more things done, but by the time I get more things done...SE adds more things to do. Palace of the Dead (rogue-like dungeon system) just got added in yesterday's patch, and I haven't even touched it yet.

There's a promotion going on until the end of August where I believe inactive accounts can log in for up to 5 days for free and check things out.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Truth is sad for me, but once I am done with WoW I am likely very done with MMOs. I am attached to WoW because of the friends and family that still play the game and of course some nostalgia to a game I have played for many years. If it wasn't for those two things odds are I would be extremely board and tired of it as well (it still happens from time to time anyway I have to admit). MMOs just feel like a tried over and over again of the same old thing of a linear grind that leads to RNG repetition. Not to mention the communities usually all go down the road of rot which has made the whole MMO game a much more que and forget game. I won't say every game ends up along all of these things, but each has enough to make me, personally, feel they are all the same. (yes, that is just a personal opinion)

[theun]

My two cents on the matter:

ESO: Initially I did not really like this but after a couple of years now I recently came back to it and it is actually pretty decent now, especially after adding quite a few of the things that made Elder Scrolls Elder Scrolls in the first place. When I'm not doing quests I enjoy sneaking in places and picking people's safes and selling them to Fences. I do like how there is a more complex way to build your character. I began as a ranged sorcerer with staff but wanted to try something new so tried a melee who wields a sword whilst using spells that shields myself and do dot damage to enemies, which is surprisingly fun and not half bad either!

The Secret World: Hadn't played this is a while but it is the only MMO I played where it is set in the Modern setting. It had imo one of the best lores and story telling out of any MMO. The combat needs some improving but the way they design it so you can eventually have all the skills in the game. It is just limited but how many you are allowed to slot in your action bars. So respeccing isn't necessary since quests aside from the main story quests are repeatable. Speaking of quests, there are ones known as Investigations where there is little to no combat but instead relies on clue gathering, riddle solving and your general knowledge. In quite a lot of these you might want to look at a guide for parts but there has never been anything MMO-related that's more satifying than completing an Investigation mission by yourself.