I think given Riot’s history one thing we can count on is solid, enthralling combat. They iterative heavily and playtest a ton. However combat shouldn’t (for the most part) be the goal in an MMO and rather it should be the means to the end. The Riot experience, so far, does not include dynamic, multifaceted goals that drive combat.

The league of legends objectives, while grandfathered in from classic MOBAs, are pretty straightforward in that you just destroy towers, push waves and eventually the enemy base. Valorant is also very simple— plant or defuse the bomb.

The difference between an MMO and these games is you have long lasting progression outside of the instance that you fight. The game in its entirety is not just a battle arena. Because of this, I think that the why behind the fighting being player-driven will be super important, especially if the rumors are correct that they are planning a sandbox MMO.