WoW vs. GW2 vs. FFXIV

[Nem]

WoW totally doesnt win on my view. The game is dated and blurry and lately it was turned into a daily grind fest.

In my opinion only 3 MMORPG games are worth playing: SWTOR, TERA and FFXIV.

I already gave you the overview but i will say the quick conclusions in my opinion:

WoW: Animations are primitive, the graphics are blurry and uninteresting. Its a 10 year old game and it definitly shows. UI is a freaking mess. In this game addons are a necessity for the UI otherwise the game is completely unplayable at end-game (at a satisfactory level). The questing is now generic and the end-game is incredibly boring and grindy. Blizzard needs to do something big with this game if it wants to prevent it from crashing and burning.

GW2: The event system is amazing, but the combat is not very flexible despite what is told. End-game is almost non-existant and the game is surviving with temporary event and 8 bit jumping puzzles. Everything about the game is wrong. Dungeons are a joke, it all feels like a big zerg. Great game for 2 days, but then its over. Needs to be completely redesigned.

TERA: Awesome combat system, the best you can find on any MMORPG atm, by far. The questing is dull but the end-game dungeons are a joy. This game also beckons from your observation skills to survive. You have to learn how to read the enemies next movement so you can save your life. Once you learn how to do it it gives an immense sense of satisfaction. Some of the most impressive dungeon bosses i ever saw aswell. The downside? It had masochist system, in particular the enchanting system wich makes you waste your time for virtually little reward. The teleporting system is also clumbersome, you need scrolls for every place you teleport to.

SWTOR: Great storytelling and leveling. If you like the story you will have 8 to play through so theres reason to play alts and not be completely bored. Combat is an improvement over WoW but follows the same principles, except with better animations and a few more buttons to make the whole process more enjoyable. The problem? Despite 6 week patches the content never seems to be enough. You will run out of things to do unless you want to level those alts.

FFXIV: Main problem is the grinding and the combat. While visually appealing the combat in FFXIV is slow with a 2.5 GCD. You have abilities wich you use that are off the global cooldown, but you can only use once per global cooldown and there is an internal cooldown of 0.5 seconds after you use a regular skill before you can activate the ability. Its very clunky and unsatisfying. The design of the combat is not bad though, but the execution is lacking. Second is the grinding. Everything in the game is a huge grind. Especially battle classes after your first one cause you can only go through the regular quests once. The FATE/event system is satisfying but quickly tunrs into a necessary grind for your other battle classes. The Good? The overall design is great. Everything feels balanced and worthwhile in the end. Crafting classes for example seem to be the best way to gear up at end-game and are the way to get your best weapons, wich means that in the end, its meaningful. The crafting itself is quite a fun little mini-game, though the gathering is still boring. Either way i admire how FFXIV tries to move everything forward in its own way.

What i failed to mention aswell are what i found a big turn off with both TERA and FFXIV. Its the end-game community. When the end-game is challenging most players turn into outright bit*hes. Its very difficult to enjoy the game with such people, so you have to find a good guild if you want to enjoy the game.

In short:
WoW: Too dated, loads of content from 10 years.
GW2: Great initial fun, no appeal to stay.
TERA: Pretty good, but life sapping.
SWTOR: Good but struggling long-term.
FFXIV: Grindy but meaningful.