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LF MMO with CREATIVE classes
I'm bored while I wait for TSW and GW2. Does anyone know of any good MMOs with creative classes? I'm referring to MMOs that avoid the traditional healer-tank-dps trinity, or at least break away from having all "pure" classes, like "warrior", "priest", and "wizard". MMOs that are heavy on hybrid classes would be a good start.
I've already played the superhero MMOs and DDO. I'm hoping for other suggestions. It would be interesting to find a game that started as F2P and didn't have the standard array of classes.
Comments
The MMORPG that stands out in my mind as having the most creative classes ever is Anarchy Online, but it is old, looks bad, and has always had a clonky UI. Still, you can't get more creative than that game for classes: Trader (a skill vampire), Bureaucrat (has a pet android, crowd controls enemies with redtape, carries around coffee that gives buffs, carries a briefcase, and wears suits...), and the Agent (a sniper spy who can use some skills from every class and can make himself extremely small), just to mention a few.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
I havent tried Rift yet...
Not 100% sure as to why aswel lol
seems like its right up my street, I guess its because I dont want to try it, and it remind me of WoW
*shudder*
If you like to customize classes ,give the Rift trial a shot.
The sooner you fall behind the more time you have to catch up.
vanguard has same great classes, eg:
bard - who creates his own skills (songs) - put together pieces to get result (specific buff, dam etc) you desire
monk - healer who must be in melee fight to heal
necromancer - classic undead raiser with great mechanics for creating his undeads
etc.
GW1
.
Entropia Universe is kinda fun for a bit. But it does cost.
I second VG's class selection. Really can make a nice diverse character with a plethora of race choices. It's pretty nice and a ton better than todays "You get 8" mentality.
The four classes that Rift has (Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Mage) are as generic as it gets. When a game announced that it will have exactly four classes, you can guess that those will be the four (sometimes with different names) and usually be right. That's the opposite of creative classes. Extra versatile talent trees within each class isn't the same thing as the class itself being creative.
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Some other people have mentioned Guild Wars, which might be the best answer for what you're looking for.
You could give Champions Online a spin, and it will take you a while to figure out what the game's nearest equivalent to a traditional MMORPG class is.
Or, even though this isn't at all what you're looking for, you could try Uncharted Waters Online, and it will take you a while to figure out what the point of classes in that game even is. How's that for creativity?
Perhaps you try Vindictus. Tanking works quite different there and theres not a real healer.
Greets Niffi
I agree with the Rift generic classes. There is a thin veneer of choice in that game as far as the souls go.
I thought GW1 had overall decent classes, but they are not creative: the Monk is still a Priest type, the Warrior is still a well, a Warrior type, the Elementalist is still a Wizard, but it is true there is no real Rogue. The closest is the Assassin. There are some interesting classes though, such as the Ritualist and the Mesmer. The skill setups are cool in that you get more seeming flexibility with your class' functionality than in pretty much any other MMO.
In the same vein as Champions Online, there is also CoH/CoV. The class types are quite different from normal MMOs, and you also get to customize your character's appearance in ways that most MMOs do not have.
I guess another MMO to throw out there, if you like sci-fi, sandbox/themepark hybrids, is Fallen Earth.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
While Guild Wars doesn't really let you pick skills at random and expect to be effective, you can have a huge number of very different builds that work very well. And unless you're loading up on PVE cheats to make everything trivial, you even have to switch to a lot of different builds to suit different areas.
Some classes in Guild Wars are staples of the MMORPG genre. But some most certainly are not. Which other games have a class analogous to the mesmer, ritualist, dervish, or paragon? You might be able to dig up a few examples for the others, but the mesmer is pretty much unique.
Another nice thing about classes in Guild Wars is that they don't break into canonical archetypes. Vanguard and EverQuest II have a lot of classes, for example, but they tell you up front, these are the tanks, these are the healers, these are the melee damage dealers, and these are the ranged damage dealers. So if you want to ask, which class is most similar to this tank class, the answer might be debateable, but it's definitely going to be another tank.
In Guild Wars, suppose that you make a graph with a vertex for each class. You draw an edge from A to B if you can make a decent case that class B is the class most similar to class A. Each vertex will only have a few edges, of course. But the graph will be connected--and that's unusual.
Another important thing to note about Guild Wars:
Some of the classes look more staple than they actually are at first glance. I.E. A common mistake a lot of new players make is to assume that warriors are a very 'tanky' class. Not only do other classes do it better, but Warriors are really best for dps. Additionally, aggro works differently in Guild Wars, so don't expect any threat mechanics (ie taunts). Also, the game is pretty rough on melee characters, just a heads up.
I haven't played the original campaign in a while, but all the expansions have a lot of monsters that inflict attacks that make it difficult to hit with melee attacks. (Blind, weakness, adrenaline leech, energy leech, %chance to miss, damage to you on physical attack, etc.) Having condition & hex removal will be a must if you're set on playing a melee class. Assassins & Dervishes do have it a bit easier than warriors, though.
Also, monks are often viewed as the staple 'healer' class, but they haven't been forced into that role for a long time. In a lot of cases ritualists actually make better healers, while monks make for good support / smite damage. It's a very complex game, so if you decide to go that route, be prepared to invest a lot of time into it.
Ok, I am being a bit of a devil's advocate here (or pain in the ass if you would rather) but:
The Trader in AO is essentially a GW1 mesmer. It is crowd control and lockdowner, plus you can vamp other peoples' skills and add them to your group.
Ritualist is a lot like the DAoC Animist.
Dervish is a lot like some of the DAoC hybrid melees (Savage comes to mind except that the Savage sacrifices some of his own hp to use his best abilities, or Valewalker).
Paragon has some similarities with the Warden in DAoC (though Wardens in DAoC use melee only).
I am actually surprised you didn't mention the Ranger as a fairly unique class in how it plays. Despite its name, its pet and its bow, it is not really like Rangers/Hunters in other games. Ranger can be a buffer/lock downer/dps depending on how you see fit to play him. Rangers in most games are just dps...
There are no direct analogues of course, but there are enough similarities to draw comparisons.
Ok so DAoC is a game with some creativity in the classes. It does have some archetypes, but the classes are cool. They are not as flexible as in GW1 with its skillsets, but you have three spec-lines for each class, 10 ranks of 10 levels each for realm abilities that you can customize your characters with, 10 champion levels that add more customization, and of course a lot of spellcrafted gear templates to tweek your abilities further. There are cookie cutter specs, but you can also experiment on your own and come up with some decent builds depending on what aspect of the game you want to enhance. Some of the cool classes are:
Warlocks : can add a primer spell + secondary spell to change what effects the final spell has and also can charge up to several spells at a go and discharge them when he wants. The class can vary between healing, dps, or utility.
Heretics : a melee/spell damage hybrid that charges up spells to do gradually more and more damage to enemies, buffs himself, and heals a little.
Animist : a pet-spammer who can buff his group, debuff enemies, crowd control enemies, do dps through pets or spell bombs, and some minor healing. This is a more tactical class in that you have to decide where to place your pet mushrooms that do all of the dps.
Vampyr : a melee/magic hybrid that can buff himself, attack and cast minor spells at same time. He has a few rogue abilities, but is mainly a light magical tank.
Bone Dancer : casts permanent minipets that act like small armies (mix of healers, buffers, ranged and melee dps) and has some spells of his own.
These are just the ones that come off the top of my head. Some of the DAoC classes are some of the funnest I have ever played. The game is a little outdated and buggy, but still worth a try at the very least.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.