The F2P ones, I don't know why you even ask and don't just D/L them and try them out.
I have played all those games. I own GW2, FFXIV ARR, and TSW (and Rift and Lotro before they were F2P). I have played GW2 and ARR a good bit, TSW I haven't had the chance to play too much yet. I played ESO a good bit in beta (both open and closed betas - yeah I'm one of those guys that treats open betas like free trials, because that's what companies treat them like anymore).
SWTOR, TERA, and EQ2 are both good recommendations as well.
All the games there have pluses and minuses and it's just a matter of personal taste really. And there isn't much that really locks you into any of them, or prevents you from playing multiple games.
I liked the Fellowship Combos and Chapter-questlines in LOTRO - it feels like Middle Earth. Rift I liked once I had gotten far enough away from WoW that it didn't taste the same - the triple-Soul setup is pretty engaging, especially if you are a min-maxer. I really enjoy TERA's combat - it's fluid and over-the-top and very fun. I still go back to this one now and again to go hit some BAMs. I found the SWTOR storylines interesting enough to have leveled a couple of different classes through it EQ2 has hands down some of the best crafting and housing, and a lot of well developed lore and content. ESO looked pretty, but I didn't get very far into it so I can't give you much else. I won't say it was bad, I'll just say it didn't excite me enough to buy and sub on release. TSW the story is really good. I haven't got very far into this one yet, but it's not because i don't like it, I just don't have enough hours in the day yet to devote to getting into the lore - once I set ARR down again I probably will get into this one.
I enjoy GW2 and FFXIV ARR overall, and those are the 2 I'm playing the most at this moment. GW2 I like because I can just kinda hunt and peck at the content there and it's always engaging and easy to come back to. ARR I really like the little details in the game - there is always something new I hadn't noticed before, and the community is good now (much better now than it was at re-release a year ago).
Rift was the only game of those that I have played much that focuses on end-game so much. There's plenty to do while leveling, but the leveling aspect just seems to be the means to the end and the game is more structured towards the end game (kinda like WoW).
ARR almost focuses on endgame, and I say that loosely. The story line requires you to get fairly deep into the end game content, but the game is designed much more broadly - the end game is kinda there if you want it (and it gets grindy) but it's by no means the only thing the game has to offer, it has deep crafting and side-jobs as well as great cross-class play that keep "end game" from being the only thing to do once you are done leveling.
GW2 feels more or less the opposite - the entire game seems focused around just getting into the world, and leveling is more or less a consequence that just kinda happens while your doing that. It's very organic feeling (as long as you aren't just setting out to grind out your level). The "endgame" is pretty weak - a few dungeons and "evolving storyline" events that change periodically, but are very well done.
Basically, I am looking for two games : (1) mmorpgs with decent popularity & endgame and (2) mmorpg that feels like a single player game.
I will be playing with my gf so duo-friendliness of a game is important.
For the first category, I found GW2 / Rift / FF ARR. I would like to avoid a game that focuses its end-game contents on structured & difficult raids as in WoW. Actually, I enjoyed playing WoW with world-class raid team 4-5 years ago but now I don't have enough time to do so and would want to avoid WoW style endgame.
But I am little worried because all game seems to have their own drawbacks.
GW2: Are there enough endgame contents?
Rift : Is it WoW-clone and its end-game is large raid focused?
FF ARR : Does it simply focuses on old-style grinding where I do the same stuff repetitively?
For the second category, I found TSW, ESO and Lotro. Basically, to me, it seems like I can enjoy most of them with my gf as we do in RPGs with co-op support. I am leaning toward TSW but would like to hear more opinions.
GW2: Good leveling experience, endgame is Fractals, WvW, PvP, cosmetic once you're in all ascended gear. Many leveling paths, alt friendly. No real tiered gear progression to keep you on the hamsterwheel till you drop, but from the sound of what you're saying that's good.
Rift: A prettier WoW clone pretty much but with less content, raid for the top gear. Small world, not alt friendly.
FF ARR: end game is raiding as in Rift and WoW.
TSW: interesting game for a while, graphics a bit dated, but F2P so no harm in checking that out. Not fantasy good or bad your call.
ESO: not even duo friendly, wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not intent on solo play to end game grind.
Lotro: graphics dated, but a unique feel if you dig the lore. Long term not really all that hot, but it has something. Freemium will only get you that far. It's a bit of nostalgia really, one of those games you should have played a few years ago.
imho playing them all ESO is where i am at now, ff14 ARR is also really good if u can get past the crappy leveling and fetch quests. Rifts populations is doing ok i suppose if you dont mind it being F2P, GW2 never really had an Endgame and lotro is last i played it dwindling.
FF ARR seems not to be the right game for you. It is more for hard-core players who rush through the leveling process and then spend all the time raiding. However, their crafting system is very good. And there is cross-platforming between PS3 and PC.
I don't know why ARR is for those who rush through the leveling process, there's a lot to do and experiment horizontally and the script & lore is top-notch. The devs also cater to casuals more than the hardcore players, although not so much now than they did before. The more you rush the more great details you end up missing. Plus the story cannot be skipped - you have to do it to participate in the raids.
Just my 2 cents as a casual player.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
I'll have to recommend ESO, mainly because it is what I'm playing right now. The only issue that you might have right now is that while I think there is enough endgame (especially considering the frequent updates with content), the Veteran Rank system is kind of a grind right now. In the coming months they plan to fix that so it feels less of a chore and more of extra content you can enjoy.
Very single player oriented in the PVE, however I did probably 85% of the content so far with my friend.
I'll just add that by this account SWTOR doesn't have a half bad f2p either. If you're willing to spend time leveling and gathering money only to buy unlocks, swtor can give you a HUGE game for free. I mean the only things you CAN'T(no way pedro!) influence are:
-> RE chances(a hit to high end crafting): 10% instead of 20%
-> Money limit(notable only during the endgame): 350k max(it can be purchased via escrows, but it'll get pricy as all hell)
-> Chat restriction: you can't chat normally. There's a limit(3 messages?) after which you have to wait 30s to chat again(annoying, but not make or break)
-> Forum restriction: you can't use the forums AT ALL. This could be a make or break(it is for me). But I understand and fully support them for doing this(otherwise they'd have a LoL forum on their hands!)
I mean with a high level char feeding the alts with xp boosts, you won't even feel the xp diff. And a fully unlocked f2p SWTOR feels more like a full game than some P2Ps do.
Just saying(if it applies to LoTR:O, it applies to SWTOR as well)...
It applies to SWTOR for sure. In SWTOR, as you perfectly pointed, you can play for free (or better, start as sub for 1 month for preferred status and faster leveling and no money limitations) and gather enough money to practically unlock the full game. People sell unlocks on the Global Market (Auction House) for ingame money. After one month my first char was 50 (max level at that time) and my account had everything i'd ever need, After that, it took me 1 day per week to do enough quests to buy the weekly raid and pvp unlocks (only need dungeons for dailies - dungeon access is NOT restricted, only loot access from dungeons, and after a while loot from dungeons is not needed anymore). When i've started raiding, i did not even need to do quests anymore - currency drops from raids were enough, so i've funded my account by just doing the stuff i've liked.
LotRO seems to need years in comparison, from the guides i've read (if someone knows a good way to do it with a little invested, please direct me - i'm ready to invest a bit, just not 70-80 bucks as it seems it is now).
LotRO seems to need years in comparison, from the guides i've read (if someone knows a good way to do it with a little invested, please direct me - i'm ready to invest a bit, just not 70-80 bucks as it seems it is now).
I wrote a few months ago in a thread about my buddy, who (with planning, of course) unlocked the whole game from scratch, and it costed him about 60 bucks. That was before HD, but HD also was on sale this year at least twice, for 20 bucks.
So yep, from 80 bucks you can have the whole game, without the need to spend a cent anymore. I think it's a good price for all the truckload of content LotRO has, especially since it's not a one-time fee, my buddy payed it in $10-$20 chunks in a 6 months interval. And of course -opposed to TOR- you can get there fully free too, if you don't mind the grindy lifestyle.
I know about players who are at around Rohan, everything unlocked up to that point, started playing at the f2p switch and haven't payed a dime so far. That's almost three years of fun, for free... I disagree with that playstyle, but it's definitely do-able.
Meanwhile in TOR even if you find unlocks within your credit cap (highly unlikely nowadays), after all the unlocks are used you'll still be far beneath the subscribers and will have plenty of restrictions. That's a big difference between the two models...
LotRO seems to need years in comparison, from the guides i've read (if someone knows a good way to do it with a little invested, please direct me - i'm ready to invest a bit, just not 70-80 bucks as it seems it is now).
I wrote a few months ago in a thread about my buddy, who (with planning, of course) unlocked the whole game from scratch, and it costed him about 60 bucks. That was before HD, but HD also was on sale this year at least twice, for 20 bucks.
So yep, from 80 bucks you can have the whole game, without the need to spend a cent anymore. I think it's a good price for all the truckload of content LotRO has, especially since it's not a one-time fee, my buddy payed it in $10-$20 chunks in a 6 months interval. And of course -opposed to TOR- you can get there fully free too, if you don't mind the grindy lifestyle.
I know about players who are at around Rohan, everything unlocked up to that point, started playing at the f2p switch and haven't payed a dime so far. That's almost three years of fun, for free... I disagree with that playstyle, but it's definitely do-able.
Meanwhile in TOR even if you find unlocks within your credit cap (highly unlikely nowadays), after all the unlocks are used you'll still be far beneath the subscribers and will have plenty of restrictions. That's a big difference between the two models...
I'm not actively playing TOR now, quit some months ago, but I doubt things changed drastically - maybe they did. I guess it's different from region to region but i could find upgrades in the credit cap easily (not all account wide upgrades, but that's why there's guildies around). Don't know what you mean by being "far beneath the subscribers", as I only had just a few limitations, credit cap being the most annoying one (in fact, the only one i cared about). Guildies bought stuff for me when the cost was higher than the cap, and i've re-paid them almost instantly - i bought stacks of "junk" which i could sell back to npc's at the same - or higher - price when my balance was zero, in order to fill the cap again.
I respect you immensely for your attitude (always nice to everyone, trying to help and defending the game with arguments) and dedication on the LotRO forums , which i read a lot, LotRO being a game i've tried many times (bought it at launch, bought moria at launch too, now those don't count because while it was transferred to turbine from... codemasters? it seems like i had to do some stuff which i did not do, as i did not know / care at the time... w/e, i have both boxes, can't benefit at all, but that's another topic).
For me, the huge difference between the two games F2P systems is that it took me one raid to unlock let's say 10 market slots in TOR, and it took me almost one week of doing boring deeds while walking in order to unlock a mount in LotRO (which was 95 TP's?). It does not get better with time (deeds don't give consistently more TP's at higher levels, or at least that's my feeling) and expansions cost a ton (in terms of thousands of TP's each?). In TOR, unlocks just "happened" during play, currency from raids and quests being consistent, in LotRO it seemed i had to dedicate my next 3 years to unlock the full game. I'd sub to LotRO if they'd give the expansions (all but the last one) for free, in EQ2's "sane" way - the game is kind of old, and not that incredibly popular, after all. Gating content while imposing quality of life restrictions is a bit too much. It would cost me 20 bucks to get "up to date" with a game like WoW (a way more popular game, with a lot more content to offer and content being developed) but LotRO is 4x times more expensive? Sorry, that seems like a rip off for me, and that's the main reason I don't give Turbine a dime, even if I could afford the full price.
Oh, a fellow player from Codies sorry to hear you've missed the transfer period... there were some people who managed to get help from the customer service even years later, but I don't know which state were their accounts in.
Those who "farm" TPs are usually doing it on a low-populated server, with droppable toons. (that's why I don't like this whole playstyle, deleting a character was always a No to me... I rather buy more char.slots if I'm out of slots. Altoholism ftw ). Now with the faster reputation gain after U14 it's easy to get 3-400 TPs in a session of a few hours. Still takes longer than a usual raid, but much easier on the other hand, especially in a group (and these folks are usually working together in f2p kinships).
TOR, as I wrote above, during my last play I've seen no unlocks beneath the cap on two servers, during my month. I checked every day due to professional curiousity (I like playing the market ). I even contacted a guy -he had quickslot unlocks up for sale during the whole month- to ask him about the point of offering it for 500, an item useful only non-subscribers, who have 200/350 cap, and wondered if it isn't boring to reoffer the items every day (since obviously nobody bought them), but no answer from him of course
Restrictions without option to unlock: I guess it depends on playstyle, for me not the cap was the biggest issue, more like the missing med.probes (ok, you can bypass this one, but only with real money), the chat restrictions, the crafting hinderance, and most of all the longer fleet pass. That is my main issue with being preferred, even with the Legacy upgrades you have a long cooldown on fleet jump.
That's why I only "play" TOR when subbed, and when I'm preferred I just log in sometimes to look around, or upgrading the client. I have the same with AoC too, I only play it on subscription (the difference is that I love AoC much more, so I sub to it more frequently Actually I've subbed to TOR maybe 2-3 times total, since it went to f2p). Both TOR and AoC have some aspects limited to subs only, and that simply invalidate the option to spent any cents on their cash shops. Instead, if I need to spend real money anyways to lift those limits, I spend it on the sub.
(LotRO is different, in there I spend money on the expansions and occasionally purchase some TPs. Since I have the whole game, subscription would give me nothing extra in there.)
edit: "I'd sub to LotRO if they'd give the expansions (all but the last one) for free" there was a huge sale on the Quad-pack once for $20, and a couple more sales for $40, that's less than 3 months sub, and then you'll keep the expansions without subbing.
Eso and gw2 are the best mmos I have played since wow. Gw2 offers crazy good value for money. Eso has a beautiful world and the questing is quite enjoyable. gw2 in this area feels a bit meh due to the way they deliver their quests or hearts. Hearts offer almost no story, no chains to tell a more meaningful story.and the personal story is the biggest cheesy piece of you know what.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Originally posted by fivoroth Eso and gw2 are the best mmos I have played since wow. Gw2 offers crazy good value for money. Eso has a beautiful world and the questing is quite enjoyable. gw2 in this area feels a bit meh due to the way they deliver their quests or hearts. Hearts offer almost no story, no chains to tell a more meaningful story.and the personal story is the biggest cheesy piece of you know what.
if we talk about PvE in GW2:
Most dynamic events have chains and story.
Also u forgot about living story - crazy amount of totally free content in GW2
Originally posted by fivoroth Eso and gw2 are the best mmos I have played since wow. Gw2 offers crazy good value for money. Eso has a beautiful world and the questing is quite enjoyable. gw2 in this area feels a bit meh due to the way they deliver their quests or hearts. Hearts offer almost no story, no chains to tell a more meaningful story.and the personal story is the biggest cheesy piece of you know what.
Hearts were just some extra content they put in a while before release because some testers needed more tangible goals then "walk around and see what will happen", it is not a way to tell any kind of story.
The personal story really depend on what race you play, some of it is really bad other parts fun even if it after claw island can feel grindy if you make many characters.
The new living story content is good, chains is usually something you see in DE content but not for something else.
Personally Do I easily prefer GW2 to ESO besides the hearts but the only reason to do them anyways is if you grinding for a legendary besides the one heart you need for your story (which is also optional). Just play the way you prefer and ignore the rest of the content, it is one of GW2s best parts.
Comments
The F2P ones, I don't know why you even ask and don't just D/L them and try them out.
I have played all those games. I own GW2, FFXIV ARR, and TSW (and Rift and Lotro before they were F2P). I have played GW2 and ARR a good bit, TSW I haven't had the chance to play too much yet. I played ESO a good bit in beta (both open and closed betas - yeah I'm one of those guys that treats open betas like free trials, because that's what companies treat them like anymore).
SWTOR, TERA, and EQ2 are both good recommendations as well.
All the games there have pluses and minuses and it's just a matter of personal taste really. And there isn't much that really locks you into any of them, or prevents you from playing multiple games.
I liked the Fellowship Combos and Chapter-questlines in LOTRO - it feels like Middle Earth.
Rift I liked once I had gotten far enough away from WoW that it didn't taste the same - the triple-Soul setup is pretty engaging, especially if you are a min-maxer.
I really enjoy TERA's combat - it's fluid and over-the-top and very fun. I still go back to this one now and again to go hit some BAMs.
I found the SWTOR storylines interesting enough to have leveled a couple of different classes through it
EQ2 has hands down some of the best crafting and housing, and a lot of well developed lore and content.
ESO looked pretty, but I didn't get very far into it so I can't give you much else. I won't say it was bad, I'll just say it didn't excite me enough to buy and sub on release.
TSW the story is really good. I haven't got very far into this one yet, but it's not because i don't like it, I just don't have enough hours in the day yet to devote to getting into the lore - once I set ARR down again I probably will get into this one.
I enjoy GW2 and FFXIV ARR overall, and those are the 2 I'm playing the most at this moment. GW2 I like because I can just kinda hunt and peck at the content there and it's always engaging and easy to come back to. ARR I really like the little details in the game - there is always something new I hadn't noticed before, and the community is good now (much better now than it was at re-release a year ago).
Rift was the only game of those that I have played much that focuses on end-game so much. There's plenty to do while leveling, but the leveling aspect just seems to be the means to the end and the game is more structured towards the end game (kinda like WoW).
ARR almost focuses on endgame, and I say that loosely. The story line requires you to get fairly deep into the end game content, but the game is designed much more broadly - the end game is kinda there if you want it (and it gets grindy) but it's by no means the only thing the game has to offer, it has deep crafting and side-jobs as well as great cross-class play that keep "end game" from being the only thing to do once you are done leveling.
GW2 feels more or less the opposite - the entire game seems focused around just getting into the world, and leveling is more or less a consequence that just kinda happens while your doing that. It's very organic feeling (as long as you aren't just setting out to grind out your level). The "endgame" is pretty weak - a few dungeons and "evolving storyline" events that change periodically, but are very well done.
GW2: Good leveling experience, endgame is Fractals, WvW, PvP, cosmetic once you're in all ascended gear. Many leveling paths, alt friendly. No real tiered gear progression to keep you on the hamsterwheel till you drop, but from the sound of what you're saying that's good.
Rift: A prettier WoW clone pretty much but with less content, raid for the top gear. Small world, not alt friendly.
FF ARR: end game is raiding as in Rift and WoW.
TSW: interesting game for a while, graphics a bit dated, but F2P so no harm in checking that out. Not fantasy good or bad your call.
ESO: not even duo friendly, wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not intent on solo play to end game grind.
Lotro: graphics dated, but a unique feel if you dig the lore. Long term not really all that hot, but it has something. Freemium will only get you that far. It's a bit of nostalgia really, one of those games you should have played a few years ago.
I don't know why ARR is for those who rush through the leveling process, there's a lot to do and experiment horizontally and the script & lore is top-notch. The devs also cater to casuals more than the hardcore players, although not so much now than they did before. The more you rush the more great details you end up missing. Plus the story cannot be skipped - you have to do it to participate in the raids.
Just my 2 cents as a casual player.
I'll have to recommend ESO, mainly because it is what I'm playing right now. The only issue that you might have right now is that while I think there is enough endgame (especially considering the frequent updates with content), the Veteran Rank system is kind of a grind right now. In the coming months they plan to fix that so it feels less of a chore and more of extra content you can enjoy.
Very single player oriented in the PVE, however I did probably 85% of the content so far with my friend.
It applies to SWTOR for sure. In SWTOR, as you perfectly pointed, you can play for free (or better, start as sub for 1 month for preferred status and faster leveling and no money limitations) and gather enough money to practically unlock the full game. People sell unlocks on the Global Market (Auction House) for ingame money. After one month my first char was 50 (max level at that time) and my account had everything i'd ever need, After that, it took me 1 day per week to do enough quests to buy the weekly raid and pvp unlocks (only need dungeons for dailies - dungeon access is NOT restricted, only loot access from dungeons, and after a while loot from dungeons is not needed anymore). When i've started raiding, i did not even need to do quests anymore - currency drops from raids were enough, so i've funded my account by just doing the stuff i've liked.
LotRO seems to need years in comparison, from the guides i've read (if someone knows a good way to do it with a little invested, please direct me - i'm ready to invest a bit, just not 70-80 bucks as it seems it is now).
I wrote a few months ago in a thread about my buddy, who (with planning, of course) unlocked the whole game from scratch, and it costed him about 60 bucks. That was before HD, but HD also was on sale this year at least twice, for 20 bucks.
So yep, from 80 bucks you can have the whole game, without the need to spend a cent anymore. I think it's a good price for all the truckload of content LotRO has, especially since it's not a one-time fee, my buddy payed it in $10-$20 chunks in a 6 months interval. And of course -opposed to TOR- you can get there fully free too, if you don't mind the grindy lifestyle.
I know about players who are at around Rohan, everything unlocked up to that point, started playing at the f2p switch and haven't payed a dime so far. That's almost three years of fun, for free... I disagree with that playstyle, but it's definitely do-able.
Meanwhile in TOR even if you find unlocks within your credit cap (highly unlikely nowadays), after all the unlocks are used you'll still be far beneath the subscribers and will have plenty of restrictions. That's a big difference between the two models...
I'm not actively playing TOR now, quit some months ago, but I doubt things changed drastically - maybe they did. I guess it's different from region to region but i could find upgrades in the credit cap easily (not all account wide upgrades, but that's why there's guildies around). Don't know what you mean by being "far beneath the subscribers", as I only had just a few limitations, credit cap being the most annoying one (in fact, the only one i cared about). Guildies bought stuff for me when the cost was higher than the cap, and i've re-paid them almost instantly - i bought stacks of "junk" which i could sell back to npc's at the same - or higher - price when my balance was zero, in order to fill the cap again.
I respect you immensely for your attitude (always nice to everyone, trying to help and defending the game with arguments) and dedication on the LotRO forums , which i read a lot, LotRO being a game i've tried many times (bought it at launch, bought moria at launch too, now those don't count because while it was transferred to turbine from... codemasters? it seems like i had to do some stuff which i did not do, as i did not know / care at the time... w/e, i have both boxes, can't benefit at all, but that's another topic).
For me, the huge difference between the two games F2P systems is that it took me one raid to unlock let's say 10 market slots in TOR, and it took me almost one week of doing boring deeds while walking in order to unlock a mount in LotRO (which was 95 TP's?). It does not get better with time (deeds don't give consistently more TP's at higher levels, or at least that's my feeling) and expansions cost a ton (in terms of thousands of TP's each?). In TOR, unlocks just "happened" during play, currency from raids and quests being consistent, in LotRO it seemed i had to dedicate my next 3 years to unlock the full game. I'd sub to LotRO if they'd give the expansions (all but the last one) for free, in EQ2's "sane" way - the game is kind of old, and not that incredibly popular, after all. Gating content while imposing quality of life restrictions is a bit too much. It would cost me 20 bucks to get "up to date" with a game like WoW (a way more popular game, with a lot more content to offer and content being developed) but LotRO is 4x times more expensive? Sorry, that seems like a rip off for me, and that's the main reason I don't give Turbine a dime, even if I could afford the full price.
Oh, a fellow player from Codies
sorry to hear you've missed the transfer period... there were some people who managed to get help from the customer service even years later, but I don't know which state were their accounts in.
Those who "farm" TPs are usually doing it on a low-populated server, with droppable toons. (that's why I don't like this whole playstyle, deleting a character was always a No to me... I rather buy more char.slots if I'm out of slots. Altoholism ftw
). Now with the faster reputation gain after U14 it's easy to get 3-400 TPs in a session of a few hours. Still takes longer than a usual raid, but much easier on the other hand, especially in a group (and these folks are usually working together in f2p kinships).
TOR, as I wrote above, during my last play I've seen no unlocks beneath the cap on two servers, during my month. I checked every day due to professional curiousity (I like playing the market
). I even contacted a guy -he had quickslot unlocks up for sale during the whole month- to ask him about the point of offering it for 500, an item useful only non-subscribers, who have 200/350 cap, and wondered if it isn't boring to reoffer the items every day (since obviously nobody bought them), but no answer from him of course 
Restrictions without option to unlock: I guess it depends on playstyle, for me not the cap was the biggest issue, more like the missing med.probes (ok, you can bypass this one, but only with real money), the chat restrictions, the crafting hinderance, and most of all the longer fleet pass. That is my main issue with being preferred, even with the Legacy upgrades you have a long cooldown on fleet jump.
That's why I only "play" TOR when subbed, and when I'm preferred I just log in sometimes to look around, or upgrading the client. I have the same with AoC too, I only play it on subscription (the difference is that I love AoC much more, so I sub to it more frequently
Actually I've subbed to TOR maybe 2-3 times total, since it went to f2p). Both TOR and AoC have some aspects limited to subs only, and that simply invalidate the option to spent any cents on their cash shops. Instead, if I need to spend real money anyways to lift those limits, I spend it on the sub.
(LotRO is different, in there I spend money on the expansions and occasionally purchase some TPs. Since I have the whole game, subscription would give me nothing extra in there.)
edit: "I'd sub to LotRO if they'd give the expansions (all but the last one) for free" there was a huge sale on the Quad-pack once for $20, and a couple more sales for $40, that's less than 3 months sub, and then you'll keep the expansions without subbing.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
if we talk about PvE in GW2:
Most dynamic events have chains and story.
Also u forgot about living story - crazy amount of totally free content in GW2
Hearts were just some extra content they put in a while before release because some testers needed more tangible goals then "walk around and see what will happen", it is not a way to tell any kind of story.
The personal story really depend on what race you play, some of it is really bad other parts fun even if it after claw island can feel grindy if you make many characters.
The new living story content is good, chains is usually something you see in DE content but not for something else.
Personally Do I easily prefer GW2 to ESO besides the hearts but the only reason to do them anyways is if you grinding for a legendary besides the one heart you need for your story (which is also optional). Just play the way you prefer and ignore the rest of the content, it is one of GW2s best parts.