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[Kokonoe]

Hello, me and my friend are looking for a MMORPG to play together and are having difficulty finding a nice decent one. Well, Phantasy Star Online 2 is positively awesome, best MMO I've played in many years, allows you to team play with others of any level and still get exp, allows you to change classes whenever you wish, allows you to use controllers and SEGA is always giving away free stuff + it's free to play. It's an awesome game, but we're wanting to have 2 games to play instead of just one.

Below are games we didn't care for or we probably somewhat liked but had deal breakers that ended up ruining the experience.

TERA Online
-Very poorly optimized, not even i7 3770k with GTX 670 and 8GB of DDR ram can keep this frame rate stable. I even set the settings to 720p and absolute minimal and it still does this. I did research into this and it just turns out it's poorly optimized.
-Repetitive typical MMO fetchquests.
-Graphics are kind of dull and dreary to look at.

Aura Kingdom
-Far too solo based. Can't get EXP or share quest results in a party unless you hit the same monster.

Ragnarok Online Pre-Renewal (haven't tried renewal)
-Dungeons are poorly balanced. There are hordes and high level creatures all over the place that'll swarm or one shot you and the quests require you to use Teleportation/Fwing so avoid all the aggro or one shot monsters.
-Classes are poorly balanced. You have classes like Gunslinger, Dancer, and many more that just absolutely suck eggs for PvE.
-The quests also have you killing like 100 of a monster which is extremely repetitive and time consuming.
-Very, very, very grindy, especially so since classes end up sucking until you go back to level 1 and Transcend.

RaiderZ
-Gameplay isn't fluid enough, kind of slow.
-Artstyle isn't pleasant to look at.

Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn
-The player base, unless you stick to certain guilds, is awfully rude and it is required to play with them for Dungeons throughout the story if you don't have friends with certain classes. Someone I played with a while back actually was called aspergers because the Tank rushed in and died before they could heal them. People tend to abuse you if you wish to watch the cutscenes for the story despite it being apart of the main quests. I know this was altered a tad later, but my personal experience with this hasn't changed.
-The gameplay is too repetitive, and I'm not a fan of World of Warcraft so I didn't appreciate the similar combat.
-Didn't appreciate running across the map all over the place back and forth to get EXP from FATEs.
-SE treats their customers poorly, like that incident involving merchants being banned before proven guilty (which ended up them not being guilty and unbanned later).

What we're looking for
-Preferably a game where you can pick most of the classes and them not being "low tier" or suck.
-Stable frame rate.
-Can play with two people and still get EXP.

Thanks.

 

[Wurdfurd]

I'm excited to try out The Elder Scrolls Online tomorrow (Beta). First MMO I actually want to try.

That said, have you and your buddy ever tried WoW? As far as MMO's go, isn't it king of kings?

 

[Saren is Bad]

Wait for Wildstar. Can get a weekend key probably with minimal effort.

Elders Scroll Online has a beta weekend this weekend. It looks pretty garbo, but it meets your requirements.

Rift is F2P and its awesome.

 

[Kokonoe]

I'm excited to try out The Elder Scrolls Online tomorrow (Beta). First MMO I actually want to try.

That said, have you and your buddy ever tried WoW? As far as MMO's go, isn't it king of kings?

Oh is it? I'll have to take a look at that. Thanks for the suggestion.

We have, actually. It's not our style of game personally although I am aware it is the king in profit. Haha.

Wait for Wildstar. Can get a weekend key probably with minimal effort.

Elders Scroll Online has a beta weekend this weekend. It looks pretty garbo, but it meets your requirements.

Rift is F2P and its awesome.

Wildstar, is that FPS? I think I heard about that.

So Elder Scroll Online has nice class balance?

 

[Hedge]

Elder Scrolls Online I thought was terrible, and I have similar experience of FFXIV as you.

I am currently playing GW2, because the combat isn't as dull as other mmo's, and it is pretty fun to play with friends. The actual writing of it is awful, though. As if the writers intend to drive the playerbase out of their minds.

 

[Saren is Bad]

Oh is it? I'll have to take a look at that. Thanks for the suggestion.

We have, actually. It's not our style of game personally although I am aware it is the king in profit. Haha.



Wildstar, is that FPS? I think I heard about that.

So Elder Scroll Online has nice class balance?

Not entirely sure about ESO's class balance. Still in beta, so probably a lot can change. Wildstar is basically WoW 2.0 (horribly cliche, but it kinda works): heavy emphasis on raiding/endgame, player housing, questing, etc. The class balance is pretty fucked right now (again, like ESO its in beta) and its probably not going to release until May or June. To answer your question, though, its not an FPS, its a straight MMORPG. Plays like WoW and borrows heavily from GW2 and Tera for combat (in terms of being more action based)

 

[Gaz_RB]

So Elder Scroll Online has nice class balance?

Make sure you buy the limited edition so you can get the best race!

I'm kind of kidding.

I recommend Guild Wars 2. The only MMO i've gotten into.

 

[dentoomw]

I second the Guild Wars 2 recommendation. Pay once for the box and it's free forever. Regular content updates, breakaway from gear reliance, and a strong community, among many other things, make it I think one of the best MMO's out there right now

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

Halo 2

 

[Nyx]

Rift.

Seriously!

 

[Paertan]

Yeah Rift. My favorite MMORPG and F2P these days. And not Pay to Win!

 

[Boken]

+1 to rift

or diversify and play dungeon crawlers like PoE or d3

 

[Mxrz]

GW2 - no sub. fast-twitchy combat. All classes are good. Other players have no impact on your XP & loot drops. Most mid-range pcs can pull 30-60fps . Lotsa pvp.

 

[StudioTan]

SWTOR would be a great choice as it's really nice to play with someone else. For one thing the quest conversations have multiple options like all recent Bioware games and you can both take part in conversations (unless it's a class quest). You each choose which response you want and a roll is done to see who's answer is picked and then that character speaks. It can lead to some great conversations when your partner picks something unexpected, like choosing to kill someone you were were going to save.

The other thing I really like which is underrated and I find missing when my girlfriend and I play other MMOs together is that you can see THEIR quests on your minimap. If it's a quest they have but you don't it shows up as a different colour but it allows you to know where you're going. This helps because my girlfriend always gets lost and I can help lead her to her quest objectives.

The classes are quite balanced so that's not an issue.

The game is F2P as well.

 

[novenD]

From my experience, Guild Wars 2 seems to be exactly what you're looking for.

 

[El Diabolico]

ehh.. (not) Age of Wushu/Wulin.

It's probably the best mmo I've played in years but it's also the worst run mmo ever.

Its basically a Kung-fu movie mixed with bits of Ultima online. It features a pretty fluid fighting/movement system. You'll be running up walls, jumping off rooftops and atomic piledriving people into volcanoes, getting drunk, schooling chumps in go/weiqi, and laying down the law. Its filled with tons of stuff that adds emergent gameplay so there's always something to do, brawls to incite, people to save/kill. so much fun fun fun.

But then, as i said, Snail games practically ran that shit into the ground to the point where its bleeding players. the client is pretty much the chinese version with very little localization. Stuff is obviously translated with google translate which honestly adds to the charm but makes actually figuring out what stuff does be impenetrable. And the ingame shop (as the game is f2p with optional subscription) carries pay 2 win skills and other things. Customer Support is terrible. They have gotten hacked a few times. Instead of bugfixing and patching the game they are instead following the chinese release to the letter, allowing any exploits that exists in those versions exist in the US version. And the list goes on and the list goes on.

I am hearing the folks running the europe version are better but, for an action based game, the lag can be bothersome.

Still, though, those first few months of playing that game were magical and I will never forget those memories. There is nothing like Age of Wushu in the market right now which makes me sad how poorly handled it was.

 

[b&jy77VjiKn$#F]

Subbed. I want myself some MMO as well.

 

[Linearskillz]

Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn
-The player base, unless you stick to certain guilds, is awfully rude and it is required to play with them for Dungeons throughout the story if you don't have friends with certain classes. Someone I played with a while back actually was called aspergers because the Tank rushed in and died before they could heal them. People tend to abuse you if you wish to watch the cutscenes for the story despite it being apart of the main quests. I know this was altered a tad later, but my personal experience with this hasn't changed.

I've been playing FFXIV pretty hardcore lately and my experience is the complete opposite. Everyone has been exceeding kind and fun to play with. I honestly haven't met a single rude person yet which has amazed me after having played WoW for so long and watched that community degenerate into something very ugly.

This was going to be my recommendation, too. So now I have no idea. Maybe Rift or something? Is Aion still around? I really hated Guild Wars 2 (really disliked the combat) but some love it, so there's that too.

 

[Dr.Acula]

Ultima Online

http://uoancorp.com

This new mega server just went up, perfect time to start.

 

[Duress]

I've been playing FFXIV pretty hardcore lately and my experience is the complete opposite. Everyone has been exceeding kind and fun to play with. I honestly haven't met a single rude person yet which has amazed me after having played WoW for so long and watched that community degenerate into something very ugly.

This was going to be my recommendation, too. So now I have no idea. Maybe Rift or something? Is Aion still around? I really hated Guild Wars 2 (really disliked the combat) but some love it, so there's that too.

Yeah, I find Blizzard games are filled with more and more assholes. I really wish I had the option to just turn off chat in their games.

 

[Kokonoe]

I've been playing FFXIV pretty hardcore lately and my experience is the complete opposite. Everyone has been exceeding kind and fun to play with. I honestly haven't met a single rude person yet which has amazed me after having played WoW for so long and watched that community degenerate into something very ugly.

This was going to be my recommendation, too. So now I have no idea. Maybe Rift or something? Is Aion still around? I really hated Guild Wars 2 (really disliked the combat) but some love it, so there's that too.

I played it for a considerable amount actually, I wish my experience was like yours, but practically every dungeon was like this. I actually stopped playing sometime after I received my relic weapon. Everyone I've played with has had issues with the community on this game outside of guilds, although I was on the Ultros server if that says anything. Also a lot of players are like incapable of dodging the AoEs which makes partying and instances a nightmare when you have to wait like 50 minutes to finally get into a party or 50 minutes to get into a party and have the Tank AFK or people start bickering or leaving for no reason. I'm a fairly competent player myself, even leveled White Mage to try to counteract this and even then I still had these issues.

 

[DJIzana]

GW2 - no sub. fast-twitchy combat. All classes are good. Other players have no impact on your XP & loot drops. Most mid-range pcs can pull 30-60fps . Lotsa pvp.

Yep. Add the fact that it's buy to play (you just buy the game, play online for free, only pay micro transactions if you're interested in what they offer, not even required and certainly not game breaking at all.)

The only thing I wish this game will do is expand on their world. Jumping puzzles, the actual world design, everything is amazing about this game. If it wasn't for that and for lack of cool looking spell / skill animations, I'd still be playing it. I'm being super nit-picky though.

 

[BeekleMatter]

Geee Dubbss

 

[Kokonoe]

Sounds like Guild Wars 2 and Rift are the way to go right now. If there are any other suggestions I'll be glad to see them.

Question.

Does Guild Wars 2 have a trial to test the game?

 

[Cipherr]

Give Rift a whirl. All classes have some good specs because theres only 4 base classes. For example you can roll a mage, and be a Warlock Mage(DOT's) and Pyro Mage (Cliche Mage throwing fire spells) a Chloromancer (A healer) or other Mage specs, one of which is a pet class I believe, and the other is a freaking melee class. Its crazy.

But RIFT is very WoW like. So if you don't like that sort of combat don't bother. But it has some impressive production values which is important to me. I get tired of F2P games that look awful.

 

[UnrealEck]

I find no reasoning behind the thought of a game's playerbase being good or bad. People play games. All kinds of games. You might meet arsehole bob in game X and a year later you'll meet arsehole bob in game Y, still being an arsehole.
It's such a broad generalisation I struggle to express just how broad it is. I have good and bad encounters with people online all the time. Every single day. In and out of games.

Now onto the topic specifically. From the games you haven't played, I'd reccomend Guild Wars 2. I've not played it much though but it seemed to be a pretty good game.
Keep an eye on Wildstar too. It's quite good, though nothing groundbreaking or outstanding.

Personally I'm sticking to the tried and true-ly fun and almost timeless WoW.

 

[Kokonoe]

Give Rift a whirl. All classes have some good specs because theres only 4 base classes. For example you can roll a mage, and be a Warlock Mage(DOT's) and Pyro Mage (Cliche Mage throwing fire spells) a Chloromancer (A healer) or other Mage specs, one of which is a pet class I believe, and the other is a freaking melee class. Its crazy.

But RIFT is very WoW like. So if you don't like that sort of combat don't bother. But it has some impressive production values which is important to me. I get tired of F2P games that look awful.

Not a fan of WoW or WoW variants but I'll still give it a shot, thanks!

I tried FFXIV as well. I actually like that type of battle system compared to the spammy feel of GW2. But I also prefer almost everything else about GW2 except for the god awful writing in the main story.

GW2 puts so few barriers between you logging in and having fun. There's no bullshit to struggle with. If a friend logs on, as soon as you finish up what you're doing you're off doing something totally different with them.

And it has WvWvW, a PvPvE sandbox with its own progression that you can play all by itself. I don't think the game is well-suited to structured PvP, but this mode is so much fun.

I would probably be playing it now if single player RPGs weren't constantly releasing this year. Maybe after Original Sin/Dark Souls 2 and before Risen 3/Witcher 3 I can get back to it?

Hmm..that kind of worries me because I felt FFXIV's combat system is rather spammy as well. I go into this one combo and just spam it over and over until the thing dies. It's probably why I'm not really into WoW styled gameplay.

I find no reasoning behind the thought of a game's playerbase being good or bad. People play games. All kinds of games. You might meet arsehole bob in game X and a year later you'll meet arsehole bob in game Y, still being an arsehole.
It's such a broad generalisation I struggle to express just how broad it is. I have good and bad encounters with people online all the time. Every single day. In and out of games.

Now onto the topic specifically. From the games you haven't played, I'd reccomend Guild Wars 2. I've not played it much though but it seemed to be a pretty good game.
Keep an eye on Wildstar too. It's quite good, though nothing groundbreaking or outstanding.

Personally I'm sticking to the tried and true-ly fun and almost timeless WoW.

Actually, I am aware there are bad people everywhere in all games, I always expect that, my issue with FFXIV was that it was heavily prominent by comparison to other MMORPGs. It was like playing F2P Nexon MMOs or League of Legends. Not my cup of tea.

 

[Ceebs]

Sounds like Guild Wars 2 and Rift are the way to go right now. If there are any other suggestions I'll be glad to see them.

Question.

Does Guild Wars 2 have a trial to test the game?

Just a heads up on Guild Wars 2, if you are looking for group play it will be either like it or loathe it situation. It will be fine if it's just you and your friend, but if you play MMOs for the dungeon type gameplay you may want to read up on it more.

 

[Kokonoe]

Has anyone tried Ragnarok Online 2?

Just a heads up on Guild Wars 2, if you are looking for group play it will be either like it or loathe it situation. It will be fine if it's just you and your friend, but if you play MMOs for the dungeon type gameplay you may want to read up on it more.

I see. I actually don't mind that at all! I prefer killing stuff in the open world.

 

[Mercury Fred]

Try DC Universe Online. The gameplay is a lot of fun and the two of you should be able to level up together as free-to-play without needing to sub or anything. Once you hit a certain point if you like the game you might want to move past free-to-play though.

 

[DJIzana]

Has anyone tried Ragnarok Online 2?



I see. I actually don't mind that at all! I prefer killing stuff in the open world.

The problem with RO2 is it's WoW with an RO skin. If you want a REAL sequel to RO, wait for Tree of Savior.

Here... this should wet your appetite. If you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBuPMfG5y4

 

[Blablurn]

Played a lil Rift this week and thought it looked ugly as hell. And yeah, it's pretty much a WOW copy. Couldn't believe it how much it really loosk like WoW in terms of menus etc

You can say what you want about WoW but I think the graphics have agred pretty well.

 

[Damigos]

WoW is a classic and i totally recommend it
FF XIV , i am playing PS4 beta right now and the game is very very good, even for a console.
I recommend both

 

[MysticX]

I personally love Lord of the Rings Online, both the world and the lore around it.

 

[Retro]

What we're looking for
-Preferably a game where you can pick most of the classes and them not being "low tier" or suck.
-Stable frame rate.
-Can play with two people and still get EXP.

I'd give Guild Wars 2 a try. Here's how it stacks up against the specific 'wants' in your list:

• - Because the game eschews the "Holy Trinity" in favor of giving every profession the tools they need to survive (everyone has their own heal, everyone can control an enemy, everyone can revive downed players, etc.), which one you decide to play is purely a matter of personal preference and play style.
  
  
• - The game remains fairly stable except in very crowded areas (which is a problem endemic to all MMOs): Large populated towns and world events will likely cut your FPS down quite a bit.
  
  
• - The game automatically down-levels you to whatever level content you're doing. If your friend is level 80 and comes back to help you in a level 10 zone, he'll have his stats lowered so that he is essentially Level 10.

Additionally, here's a few other quick points on the negative features you listed from other games you've tried;

+ it's free to play.
Once you buy the game, there is no subscription fee for Guild Wars 2. There is a cash shop, but in over a year and a half since launch they've never offered anything that wasn't a convenience or cosmetic feature.

-Repetitive typical MMO fetchquests.
GW2 features "Dynamic Events" instead of static quests where things are constantly happening even if you're not there and form complex event chains. For example, enemies don't just stand around in a field waiting to get killed for 10 trophies, they actually come out of their camp and attack villages. If players don't drive them off or no one is there to stop them, the enemies occupy the town and players have to fight to take it back. If they fail that (or, again, if no one is there) those enemies will push further and further into friendly regions unchecked. Some event chains cross entire zones and some of the higher level zones even have complex webs of events where players need to work on multiple fronts simultaneously to gain footholds in enemy territory.

I have never once been sent by one NPC to go take something to another NPC. It just doesn't happen.

-Far too solo based. Can't get EXP or share quest results in a party unless you hit the same monster.
No mob tagging or kill stealing in GW2, whether you're in a party or not. Because events just happen out in the world and not tied to any individual player, you actually want other people to show up because everyone contributes towards the event's completion (that, and events scale up when more people are present, increasing the difficulty but also the reward). You never have to worry you're stealing or hindering another player by your presence, and vice-versa. This even applies to things like resource nodes (mining, herb gathering, etc.) because every player has an instanced copy that nobody else can steal.

-Gameplay isn't fluid enough, kind of slow.
Movement is essential in Guild Wars 2, as is dodging (there's an actual dodge mechanic with invincibility frames and everything), positioning, situational awareness, on-the-fly weapon swapping, environmental hazards and weapons, etc. Very fast paced.

-The player base, unless you stick to certain guilds, is awfully rude and it is required to play with them for Dungeons throughout the story if you don't have friends with certain classes.
Guild Wars 2's community is routinely considered one of the nicest in gaming (lots of mentions in this thread here). Also, you don't HAVE to, but the GAFGuild is pretty awesome, if I may say so myself. Community thread is here. Also, the aforementioned lack of a trinity means you don't have to wait for the one friend who plays a healer to show up; everyone can do everything.

Does Guild Wars 2 have a trial to test the game?

Unfortunately, no. They do have free trial weekends once in a while, but they haven't in a few months. It's usually on sale (20% off at Green man gaming, but it's currently out of stock).

That said, if you end up liking it, $50 is pretty cheap for the hours of entertainment you'll get out of it. Even people who played for several months and then lost interest have said they think the time they spent with the game was worth the price of admission. And since there's no sub-fee, you can always come back to see what's new (which is every two weeks, actually).

I see. I actually don't mind that at all! I prefer killing stuff in the open world.

Most of their big updates recently have been open world stuff. For example, the "Living Story" chapter occurring right now is that the main hub city in the game has been invaded and everyone is rushing to escort citizens out of the city before the invaders flood the area with toxic gas. It's a whole zone-wide effort that has lots of people spreading out to try and maximize the number of people saved (which increases the reward).

 

[Dr.Acula]

Maybe it's not a traditional MMO, but consider giving Diablo3 a shot? The new patch has reinvigorated the community.

 

[Kokonoe]

The problem with RO2 is it's WoW with an RO skin. If you want a REAL sequel to RO, wait for Tree of Savior.

Here... this should wet your appetite. If you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBuPMfG5y4

OH.....OH MY GOD....;_;;;;;;afkakkeagek

this is...what ive been waiting for.

Is there any release date?

 

[DJIzana]

OH.....OH MY GOD....;_;;;;;;afkakkeagek

this is...what ive been waiting for.

Is there any release date?

It's actually just going undergoing its first focus group test as of February 25th. After this is done, they're going to release an international version or talk about release internationally. Hopefully this will include North America though and not just other countries in Asia.

 

[Kokonoe]

I appreciate the advice guys! I'll definitely check into Guild Wars 2!

It's actually just going undergoing its first focus group test as of February 25th. After this is done, they're going to release an international version or talk about release internationally. Hopefully this will include North America though and not just other countries in Asia.

I'll do whatever it takes to play this. Looks so freakin' sweet, man.

 

[DJIzana]

I appreciate the advice guys! I'll definitely check into Guild Wars 2!



I'll do whatever it takes to play this. Looks so freakin' sweet, man.

Aye. It's created by the same man who made the original Ragnarok Online. Apparently there are a ton of character classes though. Not sure how balance will work and if there will be PVP or PVP at launch either.

 

[ryanofcall]

The Secret World

+Great Story
+Modern Day Setting
+You can pick every class and reskill On-The-Go
+Dungeons are Insanely hard (and fun) on Nightmare Mode
+No monthly fee
+Great Quest ideas (Riddles etc.)
+DLC
+You can play with players from other Factions (only PvE not PvP though)

-It's "hard" to understand the skill/progress system, since there are no character levels. (once you get into it, you'll love it though)
-It's hard (if you consider that a "bad" thing
-There are a few Missions you have to do on your own to progress the Main Story Line.
-PvP is ~ (but I never was that much into PvP in MMOs)

 

[nubbe]

I've always found that people on EU servers are very helpful and polite, except in WoW.

SWTOR is probably the best co-op MMO right now

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Aye. It's created by the same man who made the original Ragnarok Online. Apparently there are a ton of character classes though. Not sure how balance will work and if there will be PVP or PVP at launch either.

War of Emperium, that will be the one thing that will get me day one.

 

[K.Sabot]

Gonna keep pimping Dragon Nest:

If you don't want to read my thoughts, this review makes my case pretty decently as well.

+It's a connected hub game like Guild Wars 1, and combat takes place in dungeons set up like Dungeons and Dragons Online. Community is very nice if a bit on the young side.
+Some of the best quest text writing I've ever read ( I seriously want to know who translated it). Super hilarious stuff. Each base class has their own reactions and responses which makes quests easier to palate again when you make another character.
+The best action combat system in an MMO. It's like Tera at Sonic speed with air juggling, animation canceling, straight up defensive Bursts from anime fighting games.
Here's a great video explaining the mechanics of the combat system in full (maybe a bit excessive) detail.
+2nd and 3rd tier classes that lead to impactful and unique gameplay styles between each class.
An archer could have chosen to become a sharpshooter sniper type that only uses the bow, or she could have chosen to become an acrobat that mixes martial arts with light bow action. And both of those secondary classes have 2 of their own classes to choose from.
+Great game to co-op with a friend, higher level raiding requires decent co-ordination. Game was oodles of fun to level with my friend.
+The art style, to me, is evocative of the Tales of series, which fits because the gameplay reminds me of it.
Though, I understand why people can be put off by the characters looking chibi-ish.

Now for the bad stuff:
-Has fatigue system. If you're out of fatigue your loot becomes crap and the xp you get from dungeons drop, but quest xp is uneffected. Most people leveling usually wont have to deal with this as it goes down very slowly when you aren't max level, but at max level you get like 5 or so dungeons runs before you won't get any more loot. Raids or Nests as their called in this game are not effected by this stamina bar, but have a limit of times you can do them in a week. While it sucks that I can't exactly farm gear to my liking, it does serve as a decent economic control and has kept the loot that you do get pretty valuable even 3 years after it launched.
-It has some dumb free to play stuff with upgrading weapons, example: getting a weapon past +6 gives it a chance to break, but you can buy a consumable item to keep it from breaking when you try (because it's only a chance to upgrade) to upgrade it further. Even the highest level content is just fine with +6 gear though, so it's only if you want to feel super leet. Gear does effect you in ranked arena PVP, but most people play the lobby based pvp where gear is leveled off.
-PVP is very unbalanced, and the community has taken measures against this by creating an unofficial blacklist of skills that classes can't use. It's pretty amazing that nearly 95% of people I run into understand and follow the blacklist. Ranked Arena is a shitshow that people use to get better items, but true PVP (the kind that takes place in a lobby) doesn't use anything but skill crests.
-Lag can also be an issue in PVP because it requires precision comparable to a fighting game.

It's my favorite buffer MMO that I play in between releases of other MMOs I want to try. I always tend to go back to it, and am looking forward to the sequel which is supposed to be a true open world. In terms of action, no MMO (and most single player action games outside of Platinum / Capcom's work) can compare. Vindictus is child's play compared to this even if it looks more mature.

Come check out the pitiful OT and marvel at how little attention this game got since it released (because this game was a hit with GAF back in beta)

 

[samman6]

I don't know if it is mentioned here, but Warframe is a great PSO style co-op game, not really a true open mmo, but still highly enjoyable with really good 3rd person ninja scifi combat, that lets you change classes at will, once you unlock them at least. It plays great with a controller, and is F2P as well.

 

[Boken]

Dragon Nest is a good recommend too

its combat is what guild wars 2 wished it could be. 10x more dynamic and fast paced

shame there was no blacklist when I played because the PvP turned me off

 

[K.Sabot]

Dragon Nest is a good recommend too

its combat is what guild wars 2 wished it could be. 10x more dynamic and fast paced

shame there was no blacklist when I played because the PvP turned me off

My life would be truly fucked if Guild Wars 2 nailed the combat.

Blacklist was a thing before the NA version released, but wasn't used because only higher level abilities such as ultimates had to be banned. The classes balance out better at high level when applying the blacklist, but you'll still meet people who refuse to play certain classes.

 

[fedexpeon]

Still waiting for Blade and Soul...

 

[Keasar]

My personal suggestions would be to check out Wildstar and Guild Wars 2. Wildstar has quite a lot of potential and Guild Wars 2 is pretty fun.

Been playing some Final Fantasy XIV right now, so far "only" reached lvl 15 as a Pugilist but I would say my reactions so far isn't great. The combat is slow and the progression doesn't feel good at all, its taken quite a lot of hours to reach lvl 15 and I only so far have three abilities to use in combat that I cycle through constantly, literally cycle, 1. 2. 3. repeat. Gonna keep playing to see if it gets any better but I don't think I will continue after the included month.

 

[KiteGr]

Try Guild Wars 2.

It has no subscription and insane patching every two weeks, while the cashstore doesn't force you to spend money in any way (rare case for subscriptionless MMOs).
It also has great combat and encourage exploration rather than dragging you around with quest givers.

The problem with this game however is that the 50-70% of the patched content is temporary and disappears after a month, changing forever some areas and landscapes, to give the "feeling" of a "living world". So the faster you get in, the fewer stuff you'll miss.
The second biggest problem is that the Story mode is shit. Don't take it as an example for the rest of the game.
Other problems since launch like ballancing, bugs, end-game content and group finding have been fixed!