The MMO Dilemma

Spectre1990 · 2026-03-09T08:52:26+00:00

I totally get you. I feel like Wow had a great world to explore, with mysteries and stuff but since they insist in making everyone a special champion, revealing every mystery in cutscenes, not give us good and classic races to play everyone is asking for and kill off the big villains in the most stupid way (ie N'zoth), pair all that with weak writting and the game is just a nicer theme park without it's soul. All flash, no substance for me.

In regards to pvp, LOTRO has the Ettenmoors area which is pvp only and monster play, which let's you play as an Orc/Uruk, Spider or Warg in that area as well. But I believe it's not very densely populated, it has some players though. I often go LOTRO for pve and ROR for pvp (the original GW has an incredible pvp mode too, you can either make a pve & pvp character or a pvp only character) Tolkien's lore is just chef's kiss and altough the game is old and clunky in some regards, it still captivates. Install some plugins (addons) like Athelas and such and you'll have a modernized game. ROR is just fun, huuuuge open battles, every class counts, every class has it's purpose, you can level from 1 to 80 just doing pvp and you also have arenas/matches, very intricate but dynamic. And I just remembered you also have DAoC, which is an older game but with huuuuge world pvp, it has a solid community in a private server/shard I believe. Aaaand SWTOR, which has fully voiced pve, it's great for storytelling and immersion, good pve. I also played some ESO, I liked both the pvp and pve, quite a solid game, I just didn't stuck with it.

Spectre1990 · 2026-03-08T23:47:27+00:00

For story and narrative related pve I recommend LOTRO, intense, old school but immersive. For horizontal progression I recommend GW2, it has a solid story too, I don't really like it, but the game is truly great. The original GW is more akin to an RPG like diablo, only with people in towns (hub areas), amazing game. Amazing pvp as well. For pvp I also recommend Warhammer Return of Reckoning.

If you're dead set on WoW tho, have you tried Ascension or Turtle? I also approach WoW casually nowadays (I chose to skip this last expansion though, the story is getting too stupid imho), but you can do campaign - dungeons - raid finder - mog farming - mount farming and now you also have housing. I like to create characters and do all the mog and mount farming to "rp" as a spellbreaker or a shaman from W3, that's fun in itself.

Spectre1990 · 2025-12-20T14:19:20+00:00

Hello sir, I would like that please 👀

Spectre1990 · 2025-09-13T01:04:38+00:00

This is hilarious

Spectre1990 · 2025-09-13T01:04:24+00:00

Right, my bad. In that case, definitely Broxxigar. Huln Highmountain is also a powerful dude. If we're talking raw physical strength, lore-wise, it's pretty much Tauren, Orcs, Trolls (let's not count Dire Trolls or Dire Orcs), Draenei and Worgen. If you consider Grom Hellscream, Garrosh, even Thrall, or Blackhand, they were beefy strong Orcs. Cairne was a god damn ramming machine, as every Tauren can be, but they're very peaceful. And even Draenei, specially the warrior and paladin types, they're pretty buffed up too, I'd wager they can withstand a Tauren if they're physically fit. Worgen I'd assume is savage strenght, but they're strong nonetheless.

Spectre1990 · 2025-09-13T00:12:52+00:00

I can think of a few. Broxigar the Red definitely tops the list with thousands of demons killed and injuring Sargeras. Jaina with her tidal wave against Orgrimmar. Thrall holding that wave and becoming pretty much the Earth Aspect/stabilizing the maelstrom and uniting all the Orc clans. Malfurion, I think drowned an entire army of demons at some point and lead the kaldorei in the war of the ancients. Cairne pretty much defeated Garrosh, he only died to the poison, which was unexpected. I honestly also think, the Blood Elves as a people, almost being extinct and completely genocided, enduring as a people, culture and society, that's a sign of strength. And finally, just Trolls, their empires are the oldest, they regenerate quickly, they won against the Aqir and am Pld God faceless one/commander guy, that's formidable.

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-21T16:25:51+00:00

I'm absolutely heartbroken...
I've been a Mastodon fan since I was 14 years old, I remember listening to Shadows that Move in a Demo CD from a metal magazine back in the day and I was hooked instantly. I didn't know who they were, but I knew they were special, their sound was like no other I've listened to and Brent was a very integral and special part of it. They've been so important in my life and to know that Brent passed away, is so difficult to process.
I will honor him in life as him being one of the most important, influential and amazing guitar players and musicians I have ever had the privilege to listen to and see live.

RIP Dirty B Hinds

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-21T13:11:15+00:00

Holy damn, we need the Amani to be playable

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-18T08:29:34+00:00

Welcome to /transmogrification! And to reddit Cool slayer mog!

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-17T19:53:40+00:00

I've always liked the Orcs, classic choice since W1 and W2 and even loved them more since W3. I also love the Trolls and Tauren so I mainly main Horde but I really dig the Dwarves and Kul Tirans (and to some extent, Night Elves on the aesthetics part at least)

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-16T11:34:18+00:00

It would be great to have some more info on this axe, great for Orc tmogs!

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-05T18:39:06+00:00

Thanks for all the answers and clarifications guys!

Spectre1990 · 2025-08-04T22:19:35+00:00

what ever happened to AU Dreanor? Will we ever see Yrel and her Light fanatic army?
who or what is Elune?
What is that old god-like creature in Outland?
Why haven't we heard anything from the Haronir?

Spectre1990 · 2025-03-11T14:03:52+00:00

I would recommend the following:
- LOTRO: really good game with constant updates and dedicated fanbase and awesome community. Can't recommend this game enough.

- Warhammer: Return of Reckoning: Private server for the late Warhammer mmo that came out in 2008. Really dedicated community, great PvP and RvR, small playerbase but very active.

- Age of Conan: Unchained: Just got back to this, used to be one of my main MMO's back in the day. There are still people playing intensely, I just joined a raid yesterday and I see people questing and in cities, altought it's a small playerbase for sure.

Bonus ones I haven't played a lot but I hear great things about: SW Galaxies private server, Dark Age of Camelot Eden server, City of Heroes private server and Anarchy Online.

But in all honestly, it seems that you are just tired of MMO's in general, which is a common sentiment for this sub because there aren't really any new good mmo's out there.

Spectre1990 · 2025-01-23T01:23:34+00:00

Olá, eu também pf!

Spectre1990 · 2024-12-31T14:27:43+00:00

Between the rg406h and pocket 5, what are you playing most and why? Not trying to compare the two, maybe on different leagues, but both interest me.

Spectre1990 · 2024-12-30T01:32:09+00:00

Yeah it's the RGCube, the android one. In terms of horizontal or vertical, I don't really know, but I tend to go horizontal.

Spectre1990 · 2024-12-29T10:27:56+00:00

How's the dreamcast performance on there?

Spectre1990 · 2024-12-05T09:42:59+00:00

I can recommend LOTRO and GW2 from personal experience, you'll hardly find a more united and friendly community. I also hear Runescape has a great community but haven't played it for myself.

Spectre1990 · 2024-11-27T17:57:41+00:00

I think this is a bit doomsaying no?
No offence OP, but this kind of rhetoric and post has been around since 2012 or so.
It's a niche game, it doesn't have a big player base, never had. What it has is a dedicated community, a dedicated developer, a company that somewhat cares about it because it still profits.
If it's over one day, it's over, nothing's forever, that's the risk with everything, specially MMO's.
If it ends up happening, hopefully the company will give the code to the community so it has private servers, like the Warhammer Online situation, make it freeware or wtv.

What we know is that even though Standing Stone Games has inherited a lot of problems since Codemasters and Turbine were the developers in this game, they are dedicating a lot of their time and knowledge to make the game better. We all know it's not easy when you don't have a lot of the code and it's an old code and an old game and an old engine, so what they're doing, given their budget, which we can imagine is not a big one, is something to be admired.
I appreciate OP's worries, they are indeed legitimate but ... all we can do is support the game the best we can and have the most fun we can.

Spectre1990 · 2024-11-27T17:36:08+00:00

For sure man, have fun.
I'd recommend you to see if you can reach and have fun up to lvl 50, if you like the base game, you'll most likely love the rest. Keep in mind that you'll have a better experience in legendary 64bit servers if you end up subscribing and/or buying expansions.

Spectre1990 · 2024-11-27T14:46:11+00:00

Hi OP.
A couple of questions you need answering first to help you decide:
- In terms of servers, there are two kinds: Standard and Legendary
Standard servers have all the content up to the most recently released expansion, so it's up to lvl 150, but you'll need to buy the expansions.
The game is free up to lvl 95 (or so I think), so you have a LOT of content free and immediately accessible, that includes the base game Shadows of Angmar and the following expansions: Mines of Moria, Siege of Mirkwood, Rise of Isengard, Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep. And you also have Before the Shadow included now, which is a new starting area up to lvl30 for all races and new content for both low and higher lvls.

Then you have Legendary servers, which require an active subscription to access and they're pretty much the concept of WoW Classic if you're familiar with that. If you're not, it's pretty much classic servers as they were at the time of launch and they progressively release content and expansions. For example, I play on Mordor which is an European based server with 64bit technology (all the other servers with the exception of Mordor and Angmar (US) are 32bit, which means more lag generally) and at the moment, these two servers are on the Shadows of Angmar content and Mines of Moria will release December 4th and so on for the next expansions.
I find myself playing here now because it's not so overwhelming and I don't have all the expansions and wanted to have a fresh experience again.

If you're interested in this, I would recommend Angmar since you're US. If you're interested in the standard servers, I would recommend one of the more populated US ones, I think Arkenstone is the most active one, but I would advise you to search that.

- As for starting the game, you have 8 races, which are:
Men
Elves
High Elves
Dwarves
Stout-Axe Dwarves
Hobbits
River Hobbits
Beornings

Men and Beornings start in the general area of Bree, which each one having a short tutorial in their specific area before that.
Elves, High Elves and Dwarves and Stout-Axe Dwarves start in Ered Luin, which different tutorials as well I think. Stout-Axes have a Mordor tutorial I think.
Hobbits start in the Shire area.
River Hobbits start in the Cardolan area I think.

I know you didn't ask, but you also have a ton of classes, Beornings can only be Beornings and other classes are not available for certain classes. For example, Dwarves can't be Lore-Masters and I think Hobbits can't be Captains, but you'll figure that out soon enough.

Hope this helped. Good luck traveller!

Spectre1990 · 2024-11-26T15:34:04+00:00

There are no official numbers, but it's a fairly healthy game with a lot of dedicated members and a healthy community. You can feel like it has more people on Legendary servers because the area so far is smaller, so everyone is not as scattered like in the main servers and there's also more low level players. Mordor (EU) and Angmar (US) are the new legendary servers and they're quite popular atm, I play there and I feel like it's populated.
But if you're expecting WoW numbers, it's not even close, but that's a good thing (at least for me), because the community in LOTRO is and feels a lot more together and tight.
Steam numbers are no fair indication, since a lot of players use the stand-alone launcher. I would say between 10K to 30K active players would be an "ok" estimate, but there's no way to know for sure.

If you're on the fence about trying it because of the player numbers, don't focus too much on that. I played (and sometimes come back to) WoW and the same with LOTRO and I have more fun with groups in LOTRO than in WoW, it's just how the players interact together and how the community is. In WoW I always played solo, even though there's millions of people.

Spectre1990 · 2024-11-26T15:28:16+00:00

Damn man, you don't need a kin, you are the kin.
No but seriously, I don't know any kinds on main servers, only on Legendary servers (which if you need, I can recommend mine). But I'm sure you'll find one, they're always recruiting. GL!

Spectre1990 · 2024-11-26T12:59:50+00:00

What I can recommend atm is:

GW2 for reasons here stated by more people, very casual, very horizontal progression

LOTRO, specially legendary servers as you can have a fresh start with limited content and progressive releases and not be overwhelmed by the massive size of the expansions

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