Comparing end-game P2P MMORPG's

[Squeak2]

I'm trying to spend my money wisely on the next MMORPG I buy (Will P2P as F2P's suck), so can I get some opinions/comparisons?

First off, what does the games have end-game content wise, both PvE and PvP?

How does Healing (or Defending in City of Heroes) play, is it spamming, is it thought provoking, is it strategic?

How long does it take to get to the end-game for a new player?

Anything overall you'd like to mention about Healing in general in the game? Maybe it is some special thing they get, or how they work as they advance, it doesn't have to partake to end-game only.

If possible, try to be clear between PvE and PvP, I like both, but I know the mechanics are different between the two.

Games I'm currently looking at:
WoW
CoH/V
FFXI
WAR

Don't be afraid to mention anything else, just support your claim, please. Thanks for all who decide to help!

[Thalamast]

WAR is mostly pvp once at endgame their is no pve for u to do

[f3191]

I currently play FFXI and I will warn you, the grind is quite intense, but each time you gain a lvl imo you actually feel accomplishment, it takes quite a bit of time to get to what you call end game content, quests are quite long, and usually it's a good idea to have a party assist you on getting it done, missions typically must have a party to make it manageable to complete, and some strategy is required when you battle enemies. If you are in a party each class must be careful and think about what they are doing before the initiate and assault, mages especially since they tend to lure monsters in, so warriors should take the initiative first and mage classes support and nuke when needed. I think this game is very awesome, and you should take advantage of the free trial to get 3 free content Id's.

Goodluck on your decision.

[js0823]

For me FFXI was a bit too grindy for me, but that's just me playing it a year ago.

CoH was quite fun as you could fly and stuff, but I never really tried end game contents so I don't know about those.

WAR is just PVP. There is no real PVE at end game in that game.

WoW has both PVP and PVE. I'm a PVE type of guy and WoW has some of the most interesting PVE contents compared to other MMOs, but that also depends on your taste.

I don't really know what MMO to recommend, but I do know what to not recommend, and that's Age of Conan. Don't buy that game it's a waste of money. I seriously hated it ><

[ASNZern]

WoW has the best end-game content for me.
Do all raids, and raiding pvp BGs, get all achievements, go back do all story-related quests, get all the lores, that's already a lot.

[Eepoo]

WoW is the only one of those games in which I've reached endgame and I pretty much like both pve and pvp content in it although in my opinion WotLK raids are way too easy.

PvE healing is easy and pretty much spamming to keep everyone alive. I healed all through TBC and moved to dps role as I couldn't take any more of that shit . I played a paladin so that might be the problem (they have less healing spells than other healing classes so it's pretty much spam one heal). PvP healing needs more skill because you need to be able keep your teammates alive and survive through enemy's attacks. One thing you should note that WoW has basically no World PvP instead all the PvP is done in battlegrounds(10vs10, 15vs15 etc.) or smaller arenas(2vs2, 3vs3 or 5vs5). Good thing is that there is four entirely different healer classes so you should be able to find the one that suits you.

Nowadays you should be able to level a character to max level in no time. As long as you can read some english doing quests is easy and levels come quick as blizz has reduced the amount needed to levels from 20-70. In general I have to say that you don't want to level up as a healer spec. It takes a lot longer if you level as holy priest than as shadow priest.

[ASNZern]

... WoW has world PvP if you play on PvP servers.

[Eepoo]

... WoW has world PvP if you play on PvP servers.

Ye you can world pvp but there practically is no world pvp. Atleast if you don't count highlevels ganking lowbies. Well there is Wintergrasp lake but thats basically another battleground.

[korncob]

AO had the the best "endgame" content...because there is no real endgame. You can do the endgame content at level 20 (and fail hard unless you are a *****) but basically once you reach highest level on one char you can do the raids they have now, alien invasion, battlestations, towers, social stuff like partying, or, the one that's the most fun, make a new char and ***** the crap out of it along the way :P

Healing in CoH/V is spamming (ctrl + click skill I believe and it repeats the skill) not to say it isn't fun though.

As far as healing in AO, doctors are the ultimate healers, fixers are fairly good at it but more about buffing and shooting/other random benefits. Docs have HoT, HaO, long term HoT, and I'm not sure what else but there's a bunch..some health buffs I think but I've never played a doc lol

for WAR you reach endgame at the beginning...the only thing is it is bad the way its setup with 4 tiers because there's almost no one at the first tier (not sure about the other tiers) which is why I quit after beta :/ but it was a fun game.

FFXI endgame you get to do some sort of pet thing where you raise them and battle them I think? not sure exactly...but I know there's a nation war thing and something else. Sorry I'm not more descriptive but I only played it for like 30 minutes xD

Most other endgames are just pvp and raids...there's probably more out there but I can't think of any atm.

[Eepoo]

As far as WoW goes, I got tired of it. Once you hit max level, you go do some battlegrounds to get you started out on gear. After that, you move on to Arena or Raids. Either way, you do the same thing over and over to get Purple items and when you're all decked out, what do you do? =\ The PvP is unbalanced so not only can you be a certain class and win a lot, but if you are in all purples and someone else isn't, no ****ing way are they winning. The raids are fun at first, but then it becomes a rinse and repeat process. The mob paths are predictable and it become a tank-n-spank type thing after a couple of runs of everything. So, it all gets boring. As for achievements, the only real reward is bragging rights. No items or anything.

Actually in wotlk you do heroics to gear yourself up for raids. PvP gear pretty much sucks balls for PvE and most of it requires arena points to get nowadays. PvP is unbalanced as the arena season just started and blizz hadn't had time to balance it. It's true that most of the time there's one or two classes that kick *** but you can counter that with skill and gear.

As for the raids, some of them have pretty nice tactics but everything is way too easy as it is now. For myself achievements don't mean a shit because they're worthless. You can get a couple of mounts, titles and tabards from them but nothing useful.

[RoMFans]

CoH had no PvE end game to my knowledge, unless you consider raising alt a viable option. Once you get to lv 30s and obtain every power available for your toon, you're basically done with the game.
Someone really need to start a end game thread for F2P games. It would be interesting to find out which one had a PvE end game.

[Wicked315]

I reccomend World of Warcraft, just if you want to have fun roll either Druid or Shaman. They're highly versatile and pretty fun to play as, plus everyone wants a druid in there party (If resto specced)

[RoMFans]

Now, PvE endgame is a little lacking, I'll admit. But there are arch villain runs, the praetorian version of earth to see an alternate dimension and face bizzarro heroes and villains, the shadow shard to fight mirror versions of heroes as people like to call it, time traveling in ouruborous, then there are special task forces which are sort of like instanced raids for both heroes and villains to co-op against giant monsters and world threatening villains..Come now. >_> done with the game..

Perhaps you were right, perhaps they did add a bunch of raiding content. I can't really verdict to anything you said since I quit the game a while ago. That's why I said to my knowledge. BTW, ain't 36 part of 30s?

[Elegance]

I suppose it is. xD. Wasn't aiming to flame you, I'm just a fangirl. Sorry~