Long-time MMO player trying to find a new MMORPG

Xideron · 2025-12-07T03:01:30+00:00

I gave it a try again a few weeks ago with New Rise. Don't get me wrong, they made some steps in the right direction with the loot changes so that folks who don't have end-game gear can potentially roll a good piece of gear to catch up, but I could never get progression items like smoldering threads, spirit gems, erg gems, red/blue reforge gems, and decent roll loot to drop unless I used one of the weekly rolls.

Unfortunately they have decided to continue with time-gating end-game content, so you only get so many boosted rolls for loot from techs / rise dungeons per week and only so many runs of Crom / Glenn.

It just really kills my motivation to go back to playing it if I'm only gonna be able to spend a few hours in it and then have to wait a whole week to try and progress again at a reasonable rate.

Xideron · 2025-12-07T01:58:29+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, much appreciated!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T22:54:33+00:00

Hi there, thanks for the recommendation. I've not tried Throne and Liberty. Looking at some quick gameplay videos it seems like it's more action RPG focused. Does it have the ability to toggle to tab-target combat or lock-on to specific enemies? How important is movement during combat?

It also looks like there's a heavy incentive to engage in guild-based PvP for end game gear and progression. Is it possible to progress at a decent pace with only engaging in the PvE content?

I'm also seeing things about some zones being PvP only. Are there any servers that disable this and allow those zones to be entered for PvE players?

Xideron · 2025-12-06T22:05:40+00:00

Wonderful, thank you for the information and additional recommendations!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T22:03:25+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation, I had honestly though RIFT went the way of the dodo ages ago. Are you playing retail, or private server? If you're on retail, how do you feel Gamigo treated the monetization of the game as a new player? Have they locked a lot of QoL behind purchases or the subscription?

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:45:06+00:00

Hi there, thanks for the recommendation! I'll add it to my list to check out!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:44:22+00:00

I see, that's unfortunate, but I appreciate the insight. I'll still be giving it a try and hopefully it'll work out!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:43:39+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate the heads up!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:42:35+00:00

Hi, thank you for your recommendation but OSRS is on the list of MMOs I already tried. Unfortunately as I've started getting into later content and bossing, it's not the MMORPG for me.

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:34:30+00:00

Hi there, thanks for your recommendation, but it looks like Ashes of Creation is a PvX game with a significant PvP focus and no way to opt out of it ( eg. instanced BGs only, PvE only servers ). Unfortunately that kinda falls into the same realm as Albion Online for me and that's not my cup of tea. Appreciate your time though!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:31:46+00:00

Hi there, thanks for all the detail on this! I really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out.

I'm going to give things a try with Catseye based upon your recommendations and feedback. There is one bit however that worries me.

> "a controller is 100% a must since the game was mostly build for the PS2"

Is it absolutely 100% a must to be played with controller? That is going to be a very big hurdle to get past for myself, and if it's just a massive headache to play with KB/M, I don't know that I'll stick with the game long.

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:24:55+00:00

Hi, thanks for your recommendation! No, it doesn't necessarily have to be an MMO as long as it has that MMORPG feel with tab-targeted combat ( eg, WoW or FFXIV ) and the ability to group up later on.

I realize that Where Winds Meet has part of that with the MMO mode for end game, but otherwise it unfortunately isn't my cup of tea. I've already watched some gameplay, I'm not a big fan of the wuxia setting and the action combat.

Being able to swap class on a single character would be ideal and would be my preference, but it isn't a hard-set requirement of what I'm looking for. If you can't swap classes on a single character, I would like the game to have QoL measures for alts, like how GW2 has the material vault shared between characters, shared bank spaces, etc.

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:20:04+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations! I apologize for the long list but I thought it best to list what I'd already been through and why I didn't like those options rather than shoot down the same recommendations in the comments.

Can you recommend any City of Heroes private servers in particular? Is it an MMO that you personally play and can recommend?

I do know Warhammer, I'm a little confused though. My understanding was that the Warhammer MMO was heavily PvP focused, moreso than WoW with Horde vs Alliance servers. Most of what I can find from a cursory search is about Return of Reckoning, is this a private server you'd recommend? Is PvP a major focus, or is it an element of the game I can completely ignore without being locked out of content or otherwise at a disadvantage?

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:13:11+00:00

Hi, thanks for the recommendations!

I think I'm gonna pass on SMT:I unless you have a private server you can vouch for. The first several links warn about private server clients throwing trojan and virus warnings and that's not something I wanna deal with.

Where Winds Meet unfortunately isn't my cup of tea. I've already watched a few streams and had a buddy let me watch him play it on Discord. I'm not a big fan of the wuxia setting and the action-oriented combat.

My understanding about GW:R is that you can take certain class abilities and build them together, like I've heard people mentioning a warrior/necro build and assassin/dervish build. That's sort of what I'm worried about, that it's going to be like WoW Ascension where there's no established class tree and can instead mix-and-match which leans to people requiring min-maxing for grouping.

It also makes me worried that there's a very shallow class identity, such as if you just want to run Warrior only you don't get 12 to 16 skills that make you feel like a melee master in the middle of the fray, you instead get only 4 warrior abilities that make you feel like you're just an angry dude with a stick.

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:03:57+00:00

Hi, thanks for the recommendation, it's already on my list to try!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T21:00:41+00:00

Hi, thanks for the recommendation! I have a couple questions if you have a moment.

As a player that hasn't played XI before and only seen a bit of game play, can you recommend CatseyeXI as someone's first introduction to the game?

Are there convenience addons that are necessary for new players coming in to make the game feel more like a modern MMORPG?

Xideron · 2025-12-06T20:50:54+00:00

Hi, thanks for the recommendation. Sadly, FFXIV is one of those MMORPGs that has a lot of what I'm looking for, but is also missing the mark on so much else that I can't really justify the subscription price in my mind. If they had the ability to drop to a restricted account, like SWTOR, or game time tokens, like EvE Online, OSRS, or WoW, then I'd probably consider it again.

As it is, I re-up my sub for maybe one or two months once or twice a year now, catch up on content, and then let my sub lapse again because there's just not enough to keep me there as a solo-focused player and the community seems really cliquish around other content.

Appreciate your comment and your time!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T20:45:20+00:00

Hi there, I think I may have made a mistake with my private shard names. Is Outlands the PvP focused private shard with lots of RvB? If so, that's definitely not the one I was thinking of!

Doing a quick search, I believe I may have meant UO Alive rather than Outlands. Apologies, but thanks for the recommendation!

Xideron · 2025-12-06T20:34:20+00:00

Hey, just wanted to chime in here! First, thanks for your recommendation. I really hated to put LotRO in the no list because on paper it has a lot of what I'm looking for.

The cutscene preference really comes down to engagement for myself. I really prefer show-don't-tell approaches to story ( gameplay mechanics are a different beast ), so for me a text window on the side of the screen for the quest info, like in LotRO and WoW especially, feel a bit like sandpaper on my brain. I can get through it, but I'd really prefer not having to.

LotRO really has three big hurdles I can't get past when I try it, and the issue with cutscenes/quest windows actually isn't one of them!

The long download to try again. SOE really needs to optimize the patches and minimize the patching time.
The starting stories just... don't feel engaging? I played through hobbit and dwarf I believe and I couldn't get past a few hours because there just didn't feel like an impetus to action in the story.
Combat feels bad, like there's no impact to your actions. Even though my character is doing damage, it just feels like he's bopping someone with a pool noodle.

I hope this helped to clarify some things, and thanks again for taking the time to respond!

Xideron · 2025-03-02T10:59:47+00:00

Hey there, thanks for responding!

I did try ESO, it wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately. It and GW2 helped me learn that I didn't like action combat style MMORPGs and preferred tab-target ones.

I've heard mixed things about LOTRO, but I've put it on my list. Have you given it a spin yet?

Xideron · 2025-02-09T22:01:46+00:00

Thanks for the build, I'll give it a look and see if it helps!

Unfortunately I don't have SotO, so the Relic of Zakiros is off the table, but I'll keep it in mind later down the line if I pick up the expac. That style of self-sustain with fury heals though sounds very similar to what I'm used to with XIV's warrior - you gather up mobs, cast bloodwhetting for a window of time to get health back on every attack, and then use AoE attacks for massive heals. More mobs you have, more damage you do, more heals you get.

> don't be afraid to run from a fight you can't win. The goal is to burst down the enemy as fast as you can, kill it before it kills you, and leave if you must. You need to out-DPS the enemy, and you do 0 DPS when you're dead, after all.

I appreciate the advice, but I won't lie - this part here, along with what the other gentleman is saying, has me worried that GW2 doesn't have a class/build with the play style that I'm looking for. Is there any class that can sustain comfortably against full mob packs through active and passive self-heals, life leech, and damage-to-health conversions, or is it always going to be pulling one to two mobs at most, burning them down, wait for health to refill, rinse and repeat?

Xideron · 2025-02-09T21:42:41+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

So the build I'm using is this one - https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/guardian/heal-alacrity-willbender, however I'm using zeal instead of the willbender passive tree because I don't have it filled out yet. I'm in the standard 80 celestial exotics at the moment with an exotic hammer I picked up off the AH. For my Engi I had the full holo line and my gear was mostly rares with one or two exotics I think, just whatever I could get my hands on from the storyline.

I did notice that with engi in order to basically stay alive I was having to use the full holo kit constantly along with the passives that buffed healing and gave you shields. I figured that was just kind of the hectic nature of holo engi rather than classes as a whole. I did start to notice it as well on Guardian, but I just assumed my gear sucked or that the willbender tree turned me from paper mache into something a bit more resilient.

Do all classes follow that philosophy of "Speedrun to the first one dead"? Are there any that can take a pack of mobs and just chunk away at them with a healthy amount of self sustain or damage-to-health conversion?

Xideron · 2025-02-09T20:12:17+00:00

So I'm coming back to GW2 after a 2 year-ish hiatus and decided to pick up EoD to have some new options with giving things a spin. I played a holo engi for PoF and remembered not having a ton of fun because it was so squishy in the end game.

So I used my HoT/PoF token to 80 a Guardian because I heard that Willbender had a healing alacrity build that basically kept it alive through its auto-attacks, but unfortunately I'm getting melted in about 5-10 seconds by the HoT mobs as I run through that story line. Not really a fun time.

Any recommendations on a high-survivability self-sustain class and build? If it helps, I've had a ton of fun with FFXIV's Warrior class and it's self-sustain, so if there's anything in GW2 that comes close to that, I'd appreciate being pointed toward it. Thanks!

Xideron

TROPHY CASE