ESO, GW2 or something else?

Mutak2400

Hey.

I want to start playign some MMORPG again, more like casual. I used to play GW2, I even had a character at 60, maybe 70 lvl. I don't have HoT. I'm not a guy which enjoys the story in games. I mean, of course I'm interested 'what will happen next', but not that I'm very keen to reading all the quests to get a deep dive what is happening. In GW2 intros were fine, they gave me enough information to be interested in whole story, and to know that I don't just go kill another XX mobs just to finish the quest.

From the other side, I'm not sure why I finished playing GW2, I finished playing like one year ago? maybe a bit longer. Maybe because of lack of time, maybe it just bored me. I know that it's not telling you anything.

From the other side, I saw a topic on forum 'HoT or ESO'. I played ES games, but I have never finished any of them. For me, the big world was a big disadvantage, because I'm not a guy which enjoys the graphic, for me if all games would look like good old Might and Magic, would be cool. 
I think that's why I liked Guild Wars (1), because the map wasn't very big, locations were nice, and there was big dynamic when you were playing GW. So anyway, I'm not sure if I will enjoy ESO if I never enjoed any ES game.

And WoW. I'm afraid of WoW, mainly because it's very old. I'm not expecting that Blizzard suddenly will close the servers, because that definietely will not happen, but from my perspective, if I would like to be in top20% of players, I would need to spend sick number of hours on grinding, sick number of hours on reading the forum, about the game. WoW is complicated, mainly because it is so old. There are many of things to do, and I'm a bit older, and I would prefer just to start game, and learn it while I'm playing it, instead of reading hundreds of guides, watching many videos on youtube, just to get the knowledge which will cause that I will be able to play the game.
What is not nice in case of WoW is the subscription. You need to spend X days on getting the knowledge, and ofcourse in that time you are not playing the game, which is waste of cash. Additionally, I'm not a guy which will play every day, I belive that there will be weeks that I won't play at all, so paying subscription for nothing is not nice for me.

In the past, when I started playing GW2, this game was that simple. I was playing and I learned. Of course, sometimes I had to go to forum and read about some things, but it was quick and simple.

I also tried Black Desert when it came out, but it was one big grind, and now developers made from this game a pay2win game.

So now, question to you guys. What should I choose. Of course, if you have any other suggestion then I'm open to them aswell:)

Truvidien88

For me I would go with Elder Scrolls Online. It allows you to explore what you want Zenimax has been dishing out DLC's and with One Tamriel patch coming out the playerbase will be higher. Also, I'm not so big on PvE myself and from watching Streamers/Youtube Cyrodiil pvp looks like a lot of fun. My character is only level 6 at the moment though so still learning myself.   Also I was a mount whore in WoW and GW2 does not have those.

Scorchien

ESO , really enjoyable experience alll around , Questing , Lore and Crafting are top notch , combat and builds are fun ... World is exactly what you would expect from ES game ...

Loke666

Since you already have GW2, give it a go and see if it catches your fancy again. Otherwise ESO might certainly be worth a try, or FF XIV. Both are good games.

Albatroes

I'd say keep an eye out for ESO definitely with all the changes coming in November. Can try Revelations Online's beta next month, either buy in or get lucky enough to get a key for the first cbt.

TheScavenger

To be honest, Guild Wars 2 kinda sucks.

First, I'll get to the positives

The world is amazing (far better than ESO's world. ESO world is craptastic compared to the singleplayer games). The cities are massive, and feel like cities. The features are overall incredibly amazing (random events everywhere, less reliant on a quest path, pretty open progression, vastly less grinding than most MMOs, not really any uber items you can pwn everyone with like in other games (warcraft).

There is one, massive, game ending problem I PERSONALLY (personally) have with GW2.

Guild wars 1 had a vastly superior class system. I loved every class in GW1, each class+combination was amazing. Some were weak and needed balancing, but that is nothing new in a class based MMO. On top of that, GW1's necromancer (my favorite class in any game) is so superior to GW2 necromancer that GW2 necromancer is like a broken nerfbat with what Arenanet did with it. But not just necromancer, just GW1 classes were all amazingly fun

GW2 has the most boring classes I ever played in an MMO. The necromancer sucks like I just took a trip to hell and that was my punishment of being forced to play a crappy class (GW2), and heaven (GW1) gets the amazing necromancer. But then, GW1 I could be a necromancer that healed people, a ranger who healed, or a necromancer tank, or a mesmer healer, or a mesmer tank, a mesmer who does epic damage. There were so many class combinations, that barely anyone was ever the same.

I hate (and I rarely use that word) every single class in GW2. They are all utterly boring compared to the amazing class system of GW1. Because of that, I can't and won't ever play it again.

d_20

I have spent a lot of time in both games, but definitely prefer ESO by a large margin since HoTs. ESO seems to be getting better. I'm not sure about GW2. I just haven't been motivated to fill out my masteries or finish exploring the HoTs zones. 

Aeander

Just find your own answer. We can't tell you what you'll like. The answer could very well be both or neither. It's a poor gamer who lets others limit their experience.

Lokero

I think both are fun games, but both are also a bit shallow, to be honest.  Both have pleasing environmental graphics but mediocre character models/textures.  I think GW2 actually has nicer armor textures and customization, though.  ESO's armor is "painted" onto the character's skin for the most part.  It really kills the look to some degree.  I'm not saying GW2 has none of that, but it's far more noticeable in ESO, at least.

I personally like ESO's crafting system better, but neither is super intricate.  But, the racial variations make crafting more interesting.

Either game has a nice big world with lots of beautiful areas to explore.

When I quit playing GW2 it was because the game was nothing but grinding with no real content.  All there was to do was grind gold/materials, etc.  Even the WvW was just a repetitive grind once the freshness wore off.  I simply got bored of how little there was to do.  I admittedly haven't tried HoT though, and they did change up quite a few things with guilds, etc.

I'd probably give ESO the edge out of the two.  It at least felt deep enough to swim, whereas GW2 felt more like the kiddie pool.

And, for questing and dungeons/adventure, ESO has a massive advantage there.  GW2's dungeons and storylines were just awful.

GW2 has no mounts, as someone mentioned.

I will say, though, GW2 had some really fun and interesting holiday events, imo.  And, since holiday season is nearly upon us, that might be something worth considering.
Also, GW2 has actual playable instruments if you like that LOTRO style musical capability.

TheFunky1

I don't come to offer any suggestions because people have already done so.  I will simply say if you wanted to try WoW and are scared off by the grinding and hours of learning and... no.  Just no.  Wow is really easy to learn and get caught up in and always has been.  I am not currently playing WoW and I didnt care about the new expansion but I just didn't want you to think it had a huge learning curve.  Other than spending maybe a few hours researching and mastering your character of choice if you wanted to end game raid or be a top rated arena team, then I can't imagine any sort of needed learning curve for your enjoyment.  Those things are more accomplished by lots of playing and being able to join the right teams.  There are definitely some MMO's out there with a high learning curve and I just don't think it falls into that category.

For what it's worth I found GW2 incredibly boring for some reason and I really wanted to like it.  I really liked ESO and bought it when it first came out, but I had no free time for gaming so I let it fall by the wayside and haven't went back yet. I definitely plan to.

Mutak2400

So I chose ESO. I'm a bit sad because of the 40gigs of files which I need to download, but let's hope it will worth it Thank you everyone!

Realizer

 Personally the only thing I think ESO has going for it is Cyrodiil. GW2 has a bit more going on as far as varied content goes.  It all depends on what you look for in an MMO though, in the end it's personal opinion. 

Octagon7711

Played both and prefer GW2 as a casual player.  Both are fun and it depends on your play style.

laxie

I like both games. Each is very decent in its own way.

GW2 might suit you better. The strengths of ESO are the story quests and exploring the world, in my opinion. If you don't enjoy lore and diving into the game story, ESO might seem like an average game.

WoW Legion seems to be getting good feedback, have you considered that?

Mutak2400

Like I said, WoW Requires subscription, and that would be fine for me if I would knew that I can sepnd 15 days in the month where i can find time to play, but I cannot guarantee that to myself, also WoW for me, has a large learning curve.

Question about ESO - I'm in Mistrel (or smth like that). I didn't played for long time, maybe 3 hours but it seems really boring. I hope it will get better soon but currently I'm running from one place to another and nothing special.. I'm not up to grinding mobs to fill the quest but really for 2 hours of playing I killed maybe 2 mobs to fill up the quest, which in classic mmo I used to play I would need to kill 10 in the first quest. Like I said, I'm not up to the story, so listening of those npcs is a bit pain.(but that's impressive that they talk so much). I'm just wondering if it will get better soon or it will be like that all the time ?

YashaX

Mutak2400 said:

Like I said, WoW Requires subscription, and that would be fine for me if I would knew that I can sepnd 15 days in the month where i can find time to play, but I cannot guarantee that to myself, also WoW for me, has a large learning curve.

Question about ESO - I'm in Mistrel (or smth like that). I didn't played for long time, maybe 3 hours but it seems really boring. I hope it will get better soon but currently I'm running from one place to another and nothing special.. I'm not up to grinding mobs to fill the quest but really for 2 hours of playing I killed maybe 2 mobs to fill up the quest, which in classic mmo I used to play I would need to kill 10 in the first quest. Like I said, I'm not up to the story, so listening of those npcs is a bit pain.(but that's impressive that they talk so much). I'm just wondering if it will get better soon or it will be like that all the time ?

I couldn't really get a picture of what type of game you like from your OP, but I was surprised people recommended ESO since you said you weren't big on story, don't place much value on graphics, didn't get into ES games, and didn't really like big maps. ESO is basically huge on story, has good graphics for an mmo (imo), is the closest mmo in gameplay to an ES game, and has fairly large maps with lots of potential for exploration.

It is possible to just grind mobs in ESO to level up, but I am not sure whether you enjoy grinding. Btw I nearly always play the Aldmeri Dominion because I like the quests and environment there.

Also, once you get past the first major quest line things do open up a lot. You can basically do whatever you want, pick up random quests, follow one of the story lines, grind, explore looking for hidden treasure etc. The crafting is also my favorite system in an mmo, so that could be an option if you like that kind of thing. If you like pvp, from level 10 you can go to Cyrodil, which is probably the best RvR pvp area in any mmo atm.

I don't know what you like so its hard to say if it will get better!

Goromhir

RIFT

laxie

Mutak2400 said:

Like I said, WoW Requires subscription, and that would be fine for me if I would knew that I can sepnd 15 days in the month where i can find time to play, but I cannot guarantee that to myself, also WoW for me, has a large learning curve.

Question about ESO - I'm in Mistrel (or smth like that). I didn't played for long time, maybe 3 hours but it seems really boring. I hope it will get better soon but currently I'm running from one place to another and nothing special.. I'm not up to grinding mobs to fill the quest but really for 2 hours of playing I killed maybe 2 mobs to fill up the quest, which in classic mmo I used to play I would need to kill 10 in the first quest. Like I said, I'm not up to the story, so listening of those npcs is a bit pain.(but that's impressive that they talk so much). I'm just wondering if it will get better soon or it will be like that all the time ?

That makes sense.

ESO will not get any better, from what I have seen. All of the quests are story driven. Many quests have no combat at all, or very little combat. As @YashaX is saying, ESO is exactly the type of game you don't like.

SWTOR could be nice for you? It is free-to-play. My friend played it for months without a subscription and enjoyed it. The quests are somewhat story driven, but most of the playtime you are killing mobs. Most of the quests are combat oriented. It seems closest to WoW in terms of quality and gameplay.
You can also play it on your own, as each player can have a companion "pet".

Another style of game to consider, is Vindictus. It's a game without quests, small areas and little exploration. You are basically sent into a small "arena-like world" to kill all the mobs. I am not sure if the game is still doing well, but it may be something to think about. That game is the exact opposite of ESO. Perhaps it is a game you would enjoy.

Avanah

Something else!
Legion in WoW is pretty good.

Mutak2400

@Avanah are you trolling ?;) Or you didn't read what I wrote?

@Goromhir I tried Rift twice, I like the way how the instances / pvp system worked - I'm talking about the group finder, I loved the rift Idea, but when I reached lvl 50, world was empty. I couldn't find anyone  which would be doing quests, with who I can do a party and destroy the rifts.

@YashaX what I like? I like when mmo has an instances since low levels, I love when mmo has a group finder (which is useful on lower levels). I enjoy pvp in group, something a la Rift had, 10 vs 10, or 5v5, but I hate pvp servers, when idiots with higher levels can easly come and kill you.
Now I think that Rift battlegrounds were working almost a la MOBA. Get the party with proper setup (healer etc), join the arena and fight. I don't enjoy grinding. I like where quests are in the middle, from one side, I like when I need to go and find someone, and I also like when I need to kill some mobs.
ESO maybe would be nice, but they are talking too much. I enjoyed few first talks, but later on when I had to listen every guy with which I has to talk, it wasn't experience which I like. Story is important in each game, but if I would like to read / listen to a book, I would take a book. When I'm playing I want to focus on playing, especially when I'm playing MMO which is specific type of game in my opinion.

You asked about crafting - I like crafting when it's not useless. I collected some stuff in ESO already and refined one material, but of course it's not enough to say if crafting is good or not good in ESO. It seems nice, I'm just wondering if items crafted at the highest levels are comparable to the top gear which can be looted from bosses.

@Iaxie I tried SWTOR but games in Star Wars universe is not my thing (I loved all movies though).

TheFunky1

Lol I don't think Avanah was trolling you as much as observing that a game that seems like it would really fit your wants is WoW.  That and they may not have read every post and only your OP.  I truly understand the no subscription thing though and I think that's the only detractor to what you are looking for.  Otherwise it seems like a great fit for you.

As far as SWTOR yeah, I think thats an amazing single player questing game but at top level I found it boring after we raided the stuff and I did a fair amount of pvp. Was a great few months though.

Dunno, then maybe try the Secret World and see if you enjoy that.  The quests are top notch but the combat is fairly boring.

MMO's by nature seem fairly grindy at times and the player base is only really solid in a few of them so make sure what you really want is one of them.  It almost sounds like a single player RPG of which there are many great ones fits the bill better and you can get your pvp arenas in other games.

Mikeha

Something else, 

Play a real mmo. 

Aion is what you need friend. 

ApexTKM

People keep recommending ESO man, I'd get it but if only I have the time to play it .

xyzercrime

Fun is subjective, you could have fun with something other person hates and vice versa.

I never played ESO, so I can't comment on it, but GW2?
It is indeed shallow, so what? I can have fun with GW2 and that's all that matters to me.

Fuck me, right?

Just try whatever you want to try and let yourself only to decide which is the best.

nerovergil

gw2 is a great game. i continue playing spvp to this day, im on dragon rank. working on crafting legendary now

Avanah

Mutak2400 said:

@Avanah are you trolling ?;) Or you didn't read what I wrote?

Not trolling, I answered the Question in the title. Simple.

 But my WoW Sub expires tomorrow.
Legion is the new Grind for stuff. People may not realize that early on, but it is so.

So...Now I am playing nothing atm.