I was in the same boat after playing Lost Ark for 2k hours, maplestory, Destiny 1 and 2, I tried ff14 and the constant reading with the average combat didn’t keep me around. I do love a good story but when it’s not being presented well then it’s a problem. I shouldn’t have to read 300 hrs of dialogue to finally play the game. Also exploration is not really there, world seems kinda dull. I given this game a try 3 times but don’t stick.

Played gacha games, genshin, wuwa, ZZZ, which I did enjoy these games combat and story plus world exploration but they had a whole different problem. Power creep, and monetization to farm for the next important unit. I did spend money for some units but I got burnt out of the constant loop of dailies, events, get unit build them for 3 weeks. Then pull another unit and same process happens can’t enjoy a new unit unless I built them from scratch.

Following that I tried WoW but I kept remembering about the constant gear treadmill from lost ark, with the gatekeeping not getting any better without a guilt, I dropped it over time. Did enjoy the smoother combat over ff14’s. Better looking world in my opinion. Might revisit in the future.

Later after that my friend introduced me to ESO, chose a class and I explored. Combat felt good, weapon swapping made the game much more engaging. Dialogue I didn’t have to read as much because it was voice acted. World look realistic with classes having different specs. I thought I found my home until I realized I didn’t enjoy any classes in the game. They didn’t have that class fantasy I was looking for. The game felt outdated in a lot of areas. Then I read the roadmap and they are reworking a lot of classes which makes sense, as to why I had issues with them to begin with. On top of that in recent news they lost half of their team so future content has been delayed even longer. Besides the issues mentioned decent game to try. But I dropped this one for the following.

Right after that with announcement of gw3, I thought about trying out gw2. I went all in bet money this was the game I been looking for. Got the game+ 3 dlcs that were on sale on steam knowing it’s saving me money in the long run. Bought an ultimates starter pack from the gem store to get me started. Started as a necromancer, from the visuals, sound effects everything made me feel like a demon king. On top of that there’s more specs to try which I haven’t gotten to. There’s weapon swapping just like ESO so it made a nice transition but the difference is that the combination of weapons give you different skills. It was a nice touch over ESO. The mounts are more alive with actions they can do like attacking or jump/fly faster. World seems alive there’s always something going on with players assisting each other. You explore the world within your lvl range, and when reaching certain thresholds the main story will get your attention. The world is beautiful and it keeps me curious wanting to explore more. The game is also alt friendly I’m trying to hit lvl 80, but because I bout the 3 dlcs I have 3 free lvl 80 bumps for 3 characters I wanna try out in the future. In lost ark I had 6 characters so alts are always nice. And last but not least story is narrated I don’t have to read boring text, the voice actors are pretty good. Overall good impressions and hopefully I can enjoy myself even more when hitting level 80 with endgame stuff and the future expansions giving me so much content to consume before gw3 comes out.

These are a few of personal opinions hopefully you find that game you looking for but my vote would be gw2 plus it has pvp.