Best Group pvE in MMO of today ? ( Not EQ or Wow )

Never even considered playing Final Fantasy because I don't care for the whole anime/Pokemon art style. What makes the PVE group gameplay in FF so special? In EQ1 the group gameplay was special because as a bard there were so many things I could to help the group, especially when the SHTF. WoW had well scripted boss encounters for their group dungeons. No other MMO I've played has ever come close to matching either one of those games in those areas.

It seems you never even looked at the game because it's a final fantasy art style.

FF14 essentially plays like a slowed down early WoW.

Draegan_sl said:

It seems you never even looked at the game because it's a final fantasy art style.

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I know what Rescorla means. It might not be technically anime (fuck if I know, I don't know the first thing about anime) but it certainly has a very Asian-looking art style compared to the kind of stuff we typically get in the States. I guess that is standard for Final Fantasy, I don't know since I haven't played one since FFIII on SNES, but even then that specific art style didn't appeal to me.

In my opinion, FFXIV is by far the most beautiful MMO out at this time. The soundtrack is incredible as well.

Never played FFXIV. I'd say Rift.

I'm pinning this one on Early rift raids - World 4th Perfect greenscale baby

McCheese_sl said:

I know what Rescorla means. It might not be technically anime (fuck if I know, I don't know the first thing about anime) but it certainly has a very Asian-looking art style compared to the kind of stuff we typically get in the States. I guess that is standard for Final Fantasy, I don't know since I haven't played one since FFIII on SNES, but even then that specific art style didn't appeal to me.

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Correct. Draegan was just being obtuse. Whatever the fuck you want to call it, I don't like the whole Asian/Pokemon/anime art style. If there is something about the grouping that makes it stand out, then perhaps the graphics are something that could be overlooked.

FF14's graphics are damn amazing. The only asiany looking models are the characters really. Most of the environments just look like your standard fantasy genre stuff. It's a gorgeous game, but quite inferior to warcraft (mostly because it's an exact copy of warcraft with not as engaging or smooth combat).

RE: EQ, the last time I played live, probably a year ago, the game was dead as fuck. I think I found 2 groups in 2 months going LFG every single evening. Awful and not worth wasting your time.

The OP's question is so vague that we can make it about anything.

Best MMO for groupingall the time?(that isn't EQ or WoW)
- There aren't any?

Best MMO for small group content? (that isn't EQ or WoW)
- Depends on if you expect to get thousands of hours out of it or just enjoy it for a month or two and move on, because there are a lot of games out there with casual group content that are fun for a time. Very broad and subjective category, here.

Best MMO for large group content? (that isn't EQ or WoW)
- Uh, Rift raids are okay.
(the answer is WoW)

Is an emulated eq server that does what you want acceptable? Like Shards of Dalaya?

FF14 is great if you can get past the terrible anime-ness of it. the acorn heads get old fast. the group mechanics are pretty decent though.

I think FFXI did a great job. The only downside was there was literally no way to solo unless you were a beastmaster, and even then you were limited.

Vanguard did an absolutely great job mixing the two. You could solo many things, but benefited heavily from grouping as well. The game was built around group content.

DDO has/had some awesome sometimes devastatingly hilarious(usually when trap is broken instead of disarmed) dungeon crawls, vanguard had the most exciting despite the flaws, GW2/WoW/FF Realm reborn is a three way tie.

I don't list EQ because if you want to do any progression you had to have a group/guild and that was the whole game.

I'm still fond of DDO myself.

Vanguard