Hey everyone!
I’ve really enjoyed my time playing Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online, but I’ve kind of played them to death now and also can’t get any more of my friends to play.
I’m wondering if there are any other games with the following gameplay, in order of importance:
- Can play both singleplayer and multiplayer
- Real time, action combat (ie. I’m not a huge fan of the very rotation-heavy combat of other MMOs like WoW)
- Some level of role support (eg. tank, healer, etc), but they can be soft (GW2) or hard (ESO)
- Some level of story
- RPG character building
- Preferably a lot of open world to explore, but linear path is also fine
- Some way to at least trial the game for free
Any suggestions? Any device support is fine, but preference for PC. And any era is also fine; I don’t mind if the game is new, 40 years old, or anywhere in between.
Thanks, I’ve been meaning to give this a shot. My issue with MMOs (other than GW2 and ESO) is that they seem very… rotation-oriented. Apologies, I thought “action combat” was a term used to describe non-rotation combat.
I’ll update my post to reflect this. FFXIV is still on my radar to check out though, as I’ve heard good things about it.
I find it interesting to say GW2 doesn’t have rotation heavy combat if you say you’ve played it to death. Definitely rotations at high-end play if you’re doing raid/strike CM’s. Or if you’re playing WvW or PvP seriously, they may not be “rotations” exactly, but close enough.
Anyways, idk try Grim Dawn? Some support builds that help others, and overall the best ARPG there is really.
There is a Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults ARPG coming out eventually that is focused more on cooperation (similar mechanics to fields/finishers from GW2) as well.
edit: Forgot to say, you could try something like Divinity OS 2. Has multiplayer. I wish Wrath of the Righteous did because I personally think its a better system, but yeah.
Oh wow this looks really close what I’m looking for, thanks!
Grim Dawn is tons of fun, and I’ve played it with friends a bit… and then another 750+ hours myself 😁. Good suggestion, but the reason I’m coming across as quite picky with ARPGs is because their co-op is more “playing near each other” rather than “co-operating to succeed together”.
I actually started a DOS2 run with my friend, and it’s really fun. I’m trying to get him to continue it with me, but he’s in a pickle with his work at the moment and so hasn’t had the time or energy. My only gripe with it is its turn-based nature (that’s just a me thing though; I strongly prefer real time).
I’ve been playing GW2 for 1700+ hours and I’ve never purposefully learned a rotation. If I play a build for a long time, I often end up naturally happening across sequences of skills that could be considered rotations I guess, but I never feel forced into it. I haven’t done a lot of Raids or Strikes, and this is partly the reason: I don’t want to feel forced into a very specific build and executing a very specific rotation. I’ve been running some super casual Raid groups and we’ve been having a blast! But I don’t think anyone is focusing that hard on rotations; I’m certainly not. As for WvW/PvP; I feel like rotations are even less of a thing here? I guess yeah, you want to execute your damage combo quickly, but the gameplay in competitive modes feels wayyy more tactical and reactive than PvE.
Combat in GW2 (and ESO to some degree) also feels incredibly dynamic right from the start, whereas in games like WoW it just felt like combat was targetting an enemy and pressing 123 til it died… for the first 50-100 hours. I’m sure these types of MMOs get more fun later in the game; I did enjoy a variety of these classic MMOs for 5-10 hours, and I played WoW endgame on private servers many years ago and it was quite a lot of fun. But these days, I just can’t bring myself to get through them, and I certainly can’t convince anyone I know to try them with me.
The main thing is, their levelling experiences just don’t compare to GW2, and ESO to some extent, in terms of that action/tactical gameplay. I’m looking for games that allow us to just jump right in and be challenged right from the start, and while GW2/ESO aren’t typically difficult from early on, there are still plenty of situations where you can find challenges given how quickly you level in GW2 and how the world is de-levelled in ESO. All that being said, I’d actually LOVE to give WoW another shot again, but due to my previous experiences, I don’t want to spend so much money on something just to try something that I haven’t enjoyed in the past. That’s why I have a preference for games with a solid F2P or “free trial” experience.
Anyway, that was a lot of words. I do appreciate your and other people’s suggestions here. I was considering putting all this info in my post description, but it would’ve blown out way too much 😅
Yeah, you’re good I understand lol. Idk anything about FF14 but I assume if you’re just trying to do the same as GW2 (no crazy hard stuff or anything) you’d probably be fine without forced learning of a rotation. I’ve heard story is good but I mean idk, I can’t ever recommend an MMO that isn’t GW2. It’s just too good with fluid combat and very casual friendly ideology and for me nothing compares.
Sad abomination vaults won’t be out for a while, so you’d have to wait quite I while on that one. If you like real time instead of turn based definitely check out wrath of the righteous if you haven’t even though it is only single player.
I don’t think FFXIV has rotation based combat?
They also have a completely free trial where you can check the game out for a pretty long period of time. So you don’t have any risk trying it out.
A lot of classes have a rotation. I think there are some that don’t but I’m not sure, I only play black mage because black mage go boom
Huh, I heard differently.
Still, worth giving it a shot considering that free trial. Thanks!
Most of the DPS classes feel like that honestly, but some have more freeform ability usage and the tanks/healers are more about preparing for or reacting to specific things. Astrologian especially is the kind of job you’ll be adapting to a lot moment to moment since the card mechanic can’t be controlled.