General Discussion

I'm sick of WoW and I'm looking for a new MMO, and I've pretty much squared it down to DDO, LOTRO and Vanguard. Can anyone help me out with this?

I've played the DDO trial a year or so ago so I know the most about that.

One of the things I hated about WoW was the combat, I know DDO has interactive combat But I haven't heard much about Vanguard's or LOTRO's combat.

One of the things I liked about WoW was the grouping up and working together for quests and dungeons. DDO obviously stands out here. But is there lots of this in LOTRO or Vanguard?

And which MMO has the most replay -ability? A nice mixture of races and classes? Lots of character customize-ability? Fun side-activities (Crafting, PvP etc etc)?

Please vote your opinion and post any details....

Thanks in advance.

You will like Vanguard now, if you choose to play it make sure to try out the diplomacy and crafting they are almost a sepreate game within. Harvesting is somewhat fun and the community and gms are helpfull.

If you have 200 bucks get the lifetimg subscription to LOTRO its a well made game with alot of quests and new stuff added all the time.

About the combat system u mention lotro and vaungaurd use both the usual auto- attack system with vaungard being little bit less than wow-copy in combat system.Lotro seems to have some interctivity wow-like with other players concerning group but its pve-only game ..the monster pvp mode is ridicullus aanwy...

Vanguard is huge and due to lack of big ammount of online playedrs it seems a lonely ranger like game..

It has though niced gathering system the way you chop trees down is amazing, but i cant tell if any players would come back to it now..

I my self would like to go back to ddo to check if there is now any free roaming world adventuring or it is as it was instance spam world,which kills the game, and adventruing..

If u value though interactive and skill based combat more than gear wow-like depednded combat i would recommend AOC.. I never met any serious bug till 36 lvl, despice the fact ppl as i read mass complain about bugs.. where i stopped it..and till that lvl i found the game exciting..

The problem with aoc lies in the lack of quests and content after 40 lvl ,which means u have to farm monsters for the rest 40 lvls which is very tiring and thus i stopped it for that reason..AS much as anyone would like a nice and challenging combat  system, farming gazillions of monsters cn be tiring, especially if u have to fight well in almost every combat in order to survive..With the various patches i hope in 2-4 months aoc will be fully playble

DDO and LOTRO have free trials.  Start there and make your own decision.

Not sure if Vanguard has a free trial.  If it does I'd give it a try myself.

PS.  I love LOTRO, but ymmv.

Im a LotrO fan and have never played Vanguard (played DDO for a short while) but I voted Vanguard because it sounds more like your type of game... but both LotrO and DDO have free-trials so you can check them out before bying.. LotrOs combat is slower than WoWs so maybe you will find it boring and the arent many race/class chocies... have heard alot of good things about Vanguard combat and it have alot of classes... DDOs combat thou is pobably the best there is (IMO) and have alot of character custimization..

all 3 have alot of grouping I think... try them and see which one you like most!

Originally posted by Thradar

DDO and LOTRO have free trials.  Start there and make your own decision.

Not sure if Vanguard has a free trial.  If it does I'd give it a try myself.

PS.  I love LOTRO, but ymmv.

VG doesn't have a trial yet, but it's coming soon.  The trial island is on the test server at the moment, so it is coming.

To the OP, I don't have any experience with LOTRO or DDO, but I recently tried VG after hearing that it has improved quite a bit since release.  I'd definitely recommned it to anyone looking to try a new game.  I know I was having a hard time finding a game that I liked.  Vanguard has a huge world and the community is very helpful, which is one thing I really like about the game.  The combat style is fun (I play a necromancer) and like someone else already mentioned, the crafting and diplomacy is like a separate game in itself.

You cant go wrong with DDO if you are looking for a roughly two month experience.  If you are looking for the traditional 6 month ++ build a character for long term type MMO then DDO will leave you wanting.  DDO probably has the best dungeon crawls, grouping, combat system available in gaming today-the HUGE HUGE problem is it just ends to quickly.  DDO doesnt have much of a community beyond the traditional guild-centric type enviornment-just not a lot of inter-guild interaction/chat in public channels etc.  Its a great choice though if you are looking for a few months worth of diversion or really dig leveling a half dozen alts...

Vanguard would be a fine choice if LOTRO didnt exist.  That said there is nothing Vanguard offers that LOTRO doesnt offer with about 10 times the performance and 20 times the polish.  There just really is no comparison in terms of how "finished" the two games are-with LOTRO being the overwhelming winner.  I cant see anything that Vanguard actually offers that is better then LOTRO and see tons of things that LOTRO offer that are better then Vanguard.

I think LOTRO is quite simply the best choice for a traditional fantasy MMO.  It offers a totally polished experience.  The best graphics in MMO's, the best performance in an MMO of like quality.  The community is mature and pretty interactive.  The is great growth (at least on Landroval) with tons of new players coming to the game and lots of folks returning.

LOTRO continues to add content- book 14 has tons of neat enhancements coming with an expansion and level cap extension from 50-60 coming this Fall.  In LOTRO you can solo to 50 with ease, group for quests and instances and basically chart your own course in terms of play style.  I never felt as though i was being forced to group, or forced to solo or forced to do a particular dungeon.  MY only complaint would be that it is a tad linear in the 17th-30th levels with most folks funneling through LoneLands and North Downs-it opens up a good bit from 30ish to 50.

Raiding in LOTRO is solid and getting better with new loot tables coming for the 24 man raid.  Group dynamics are solid and interesting.  Heck even combat requires some thought as you figure out what the best attack/defend patterns are-Virtues/traits/deeds make character development different and interesting.

So in summary. I have always been a huge fan of DDO-think they do tons of things REALLY REALLY well..i just think its far to small and ends far to quickly for those of us that really like sticking with one character for a long time.

Vanguard would be good if it was 5 years ago-as it stands now-i can see no reason for Vanguard to exist.  It doesnt advance the genre and virtually all of its major competitors do 95% of what Vanguard does better.

Lotro imho is the current standout fantasy based MMO for the modern gamer.

Play lotro, very good community and also now is about the good time to join for the reasons of the new expansion is coming soon and book 14 is gonna have some decent changes.

Vanguard is still a very good but not half as good as lotro.

also some guy said earlier that lotro combat is slow, well its not so dont listen to him, he obviously hasnt played it.

Of the three, LOTRO is probably the best one.

Vanguard is a typical quest grind with a huge beautiful world. Quests are about as boring as WoW's though if not worse...you don't care what the NPC's say at all.

LOTRO is a bit the same but many of the quests are well written and give the quests a bit more of an interesting factor.

I'd say try LOTRO at least for more interesting quests and it still has a beautiful world.