Similar alternatives to World of Warcraft?

[Dndan]

I believe Rift is still around. Rift. It's a much older style of MMO, at least from my memory. I haven't played it since 2015, but from what I remember of it, it had a talent tree style similar to WoW before Cataclysm and continued to advance in that direction rather than remove it as WoW did. It was created by Trion Worlds and much like most of their games it runs on a free to play model with patron status rather than subscription. It's concept is to use the free to play model to restrict, but allow in game gold to be used to unlock content, as a way to give content to those active enough to earn it. As you might expect, it doesn't quite hold to the standard of WoW, but in terms of a similar MMO that can give a similar experience, that's the one I like.

[KLoWn]

I really liked Final Fantasy XIV when I tried it out a few years back, but the beginning of the game IS pretty slow. It gets better after that.

I stopped after playing though the Heavensward story, and with WoW being on shaky ground it might be time to try out the new expansion (Stormblood I think?).

[Jayden]

I'm not sure how close Mabinogi is to WoW but it's my favorite MMO and the only one that's been super addicting for me. It doesn't lock you to classes (so I can be a mage, combat, bard, alchemist, and cleric all at once) and recently they updated the game to have a better starting experience for new players. It has some story but I didn't read it when I went through it so I couldn't tell you if it was good or not. If you like the style at all and like the fact you can do whatever you want in the game I'd check it out. It's older though and needs some updates but they seem to be working on it a lot more. I'd suggest Alexia or Mari servers if you're first starting out but there's been talk of a server merge. idk just figured I'd throw it out there in case it might seem interesting to you at all, it seems like a real hit or miss if people like it or not. Good luck finding another game!

[DocDangerous]

I am similarly a refugee of the current WoW crisis. I've tried FFXIV and ESO, even DC Universe Online...none of them did it for me.

While not technically in the same genre, I've been playing Path of Exile and it scratches that same itch. It has MMO-lite elements and is extremely consumer friendly with tons of customization.

[Kastrar]

As somewhat experienced with DDO I can tell you that it might not be the best mmo experience as is, but really fills the niche for Dungeons and Dragons mmorpg really well. Plenty free content and possible to unlock next to everything for free (or faster with the real money currency). So if you want to fill that possible D&D mmo hole you'll find it's true to the lore of the setting its set in and mostly fine game mechanics for the age of the game it is!

[Drann]

I'm in much the same position as you are, I really don't like the current direction of the game and I've found it impossible to find a decent alternative. I recently tried FF14 out for the second time, after being told that it was much improved from when I last tried it a couple of years ago. The game just did nothing for me, the environments were dull and I couldn't bring myself to care about the overarching story or the world. The gameplay felt fairly generic too, which is a shame as from all I've read into it's the only other MMO right now with an appreciable end game. I play MMO's ultimately to do end game content, but that doesn't mean I can ignore everything else. The only other MMO that looked like it would fit the bill was Wildstar, and that recently shut down.

I even went so far as to try playing on WoW private servers to revisit some older content, but found it a very mixed and often poor experience depending on the server.

[ad_victoriam]

I haven't found anything. EQ and DDO are still getting new content. FF14 has fun content once you get further into it, some silly quest lines, more story. I think my favorite was an old Warhammer MMORPG but it's long dead...

This is my experience as well. I find the best alternative to WoW has been classic WoW servers, though I got majorly burned when Blizzard death-starred Nostalrius. I will never forgive them for that.

[trashfire]

I haven't found anything. EQ and DDO are still getting new content. FF14 has fun content once you get further into it, some silly quest lines, more story. I think my favorite was an old Warhammer MMORPG but it's long dead...