The Best MMOs/MMORPGs You Should Be Playing In 2017!!

Today, I’ll be going over the best MMO’s currently playable right now as of 2017. Do note I will not be listing these MMOs in any specific numbered order and therefore the last MMO listed, is by no means the best of them all.

Hearthstone is literally Blizzard’s largest MMO to date surpassing both Overwatch and World of Warcraft in sheer magnitude. Which is insane, considering the kind of MMO Hearthstone is: A free-to-play online collectible card game. Yes, a card game. That’s it.

The MMO that has literally taken the entire world by storm is in fact.. a card game. I know, I’m still attempting to wrap my head around it as well strangely enough. It’s not even that I don’t like the game – that’s not the problem at all. Hearthstone is actually decently entertaining. But, for an MMO of this size, this popularity, you’d expect it to be groundbreaking. So what exactly is Hearthstone? As stated, it’s a card game where two players battle against each other using summoned minions, spells, and other actions along with utilizing their hero’s unique power. The main goal of the game is to simply get the HP of the enemy player down to 0. Funny enough, every character in Hearthstone is a character used in the official World of Warcraft game. Hearthstone features multiple different modes of play:

Standard Play – the normal mode most players use to vs each other or other AI opponents in casual matches, or against players specifically in ranked matches. Solo Adventures – a mode that allows you to complete specific challenges against AI opponents only, often with unique conditions, cards, or powers, to earn cards. Arena Mode – this mode gives players the ability to draft your own deck from scratch choosing from 3 random cards each hand until you reach 30 total cards. Tavern Brawls – Tavern Brawls are challenges that are offered weekly to players, rewarding players with unique heroes, cards, rules or limits on actual deck construction.

Now, why is Hearthstone here?! Because.. I think it’s worthy of being listed. It’s a new kind of MMO that is actually well executed. Kudos to Blizzard for making such a good MMO.

So League of Legends was released in 2009, and uses the same format as DOTA2, with two teams filled with champions fighting against each other, to destroy the enemy teams base. Whilst killing any champions in the way of course. League of Legends, or as the majority of players/user-base call it “LoL”. LoL has become one the most played MMOs in the NA and the EU. Having around 67 million players, playing it within each month, and around 27 million per day, and 7 million players concurrently during it’s peak hours.

These were the statistic for LoL way back in 2014, it’s only grown even more popular since then. Now the matches as I did state earlier are similar to DOTA2, but of course this goes for the majority of MOBA’s as the follow along the same formula, just like a large majority of MMORPG are similar.

LoL although similar, does things quite different, as there are “game modes”. To start of you’ve got your classic maps, Fields of Justice and Summoner’s Rift, which are both 3 laned maps. Then you’ve got twisted treeline as the smaller map, with only 2 lanes, and instead of 5v5, it’s a 3v3 match.

Then you’ve got other game modes like, Ascension. Legend of the Poro King, Nexus Seige, and many, MANY more. So it’s safe to say, it definitely deserves to be here, on this list. As it’s a very popular, active MMO.

Another Blizzard made MMO, however unlike Overwatch it is an MMORPG, which you probably already know, since it’s been around since 2004, and is one of the most talked about.. loved and complained about MMORPGs. World of Warcraft, or as everyone calls it, WOW. WoW has had a lot of changes since its initial release date which makes sense as, an MMORPG that doesn’t change with the times, ends up dying. However it changing is generally where a lot of negativity regarding WoW actually stems from, because change can potentially ruin your favorite classes, completely mess up PvP content with unbalanced classes, like one class being overpowers (*DK*), and another being underpowered (*Warlock*). This is the same for PvE content as well. With your favorite class being nerfed, making you perform sub-par in PvE related content and therefore not required for Mythic Raids.

Now this isn’t really an issue with WoW itself as it is with the raid leaders or players. As Blizzard is constantly buffing and nerfing classes, it’s too hard to keep track of what’s good or what’s bad each month, so you can pretty much play whatever class you enjoy, and have fun watching flavor of the month players struggle.

In WoW, the max level is 110, which I know is a lot of levels, and to be honest it can be difficult for a new player, one who hasn’t played this before to be intimidated, or generally find early levels boring. As, well.. It can be! As early level content is outdated in comparison to Legion content. But if you can sit through some boring levels then WoW is a fantastic MMORPG. It has a massive world to explore, filled with content, it has a huge selection of dungeons for most levels, and raids as you get through more content. World Flying, 5 whole continents, Which are Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Pandaria, Northrend, and Broken Isles, That’s not including the planet of Draenor, and the Outlands.

Now I briefly mentioned the general complains regarding WoW, and they are valid as it can be annoying getting your character nerfed, however generally WoW is considered by a large majority of people as having a toxic community and to answer this, being a long time WoW player myself I can say, that yes, it can be depending on your server or in what setting were talking about. As I’ve found the players in WoW are more Toxic in regards to PvP. Whereas I’ve seen more friendlier players enjoying PvE content. However it’s not as toxic as publicized. Or at least not in my experience and that of the people I know. Take that as you will.

Now World of Warcraft has 12 classes, some of which are race locked, however both factions can be all the classes. I don’t feel like I need to go into much detail regarding classes as I feel most people generally know what they are. So I’ll leave this section simple.

As most MMORPGs, WoW has dungeons, which can be set on a varied difficulty, and the same goes for Raids, for instance, Naxxramas 10M Normal, or Naxxramas 25M Heroic. Or for later raids, even a Mythic difficulty. difficulty isn’t the only thing that changes however, as the general mechanics of said raid can change, AKA a boss uses different skills or more skills. These dificultys also give you better rewards however.

Generally, The reason WoW is still such a popular, MMORPG that’s still going after all these years, and after all these changes from its original state, is because it’s just a pretty fantastic MMORPG. It definityly has flaws, so many. However The negative does not out way the positives. And this is why you’ll find WoW in so many top lists, just like this one.

So, as you can do doubt tell from the video footage it is in fact a FPS MOBA. In Overwatch you pick between 25 differing heroes.

Granted there were originally at the release, only 22 heroes. Said Heroes fall under specific categories, for instance there are DPS heroes, Defense heroes, tanks, and support heroes.

the game functions as follows. Once a match starts, whether we’re talking quick play, or other modes. You choose your Hero, however Only 1 person per team can be said Hero, so there won’t be 3 Mercy’s flying around. Once everyone chosen there Hero, you must complete the games objective. Which can be the following, Escorting a vehicle to the end of the map, while the enemy team tries to stop you. Or capture a specific location objective. Then of course there’s a capture the flag mission, which by it’s name explains it, you are required to capture the enemy teams flag and return it to your base. And then there’s 6v6 Elimination, 3v3 Elimination and 1v1 Elimination. Mystery Hero matches, which after your first death, will randomly choose any hero from the roster of heroes, and make you play said character until your next death.

So As I stated earlier the heroes fall under said categories like “DPS” heroes function to harass, or just generally attacking and kill the enemy players. With Ultimate abilities designed for large damage on the enemy team. There are in total 8 DPS type heroes. As DoomFist, was just newly added to the roster of heroes.

Then we’ve got your A typical tanking heroes, which you can probably already guess, has high HP pools and, well tanks for the team. Although they are by no means weak. There are in total 6 Tank heroes.

Then of course we’ve got “defense” heroes, which have skills and Ultimate abilities, that help out the team. For instance Hanzo has a skill that allows you to see enemy players through walls. Torbjörn can place down strategically placed turrets and armor items for his team members. They each have something that helps the team, whilst also being able to help attack. There are 6 Defense heroes.

And lastly in turns of Hero types we’ve got support, which is again, is pretty self explanatory. They’re generally the healers of the game. Some of them being more annoying than others, like Symetra. There are 5 support heroes.

Overwatch it constantly being updated patched, a lot of care goes into this MMO. As there have been at least 4 new Heroes added since its initial release With new modes, varied costumes for heroes and even a whole new map was added.

Overwatch is a very popular and very fun MMO and thus the reason it’s on this list. As It definitely deserves to be here.

This and League of legends were the first MOBA’s, and basically started to whole genre, which all started from a group of people made a mod for Warcraft III. Called Defense of the Ancients, AKA DOTA.

Of course DOTA 2 is no mere mod. It is it’s own game, and very successful one at that. The matches consist of 2 teams of 5 players, vsing each other. With the objective to destroy the other teams main base however before you do that, you’ll need to destroy the towers along the way, and or any enemy hero characters in the way. Each and every Hero has there own unique abilities and playstyles and as you continue to playthrough of your match your hero levels up, which allows you to upgrade your skills, which is very important, as the lower level you are, they weaker you are, which I guess is an obvious statement. You can also gathers items during the match that can also benefit you. Do note, for those of you completely new to the MOBA genera, the levels you gain during the matches do not continue to the next match.

So there are 113 playable characters in DOTA2, or as the majority of people call them Heroes. These heroes are categorized into specific types or “roles” if you will. There are 9 types of Heroes, and 5 less offical types. The official hero roles Are Disabler’s, Initiator, Jungler’s, Support, Durable, Nuker’s, Pushers, Escape heroes, and carry heroes. These Hero roles are based around the actual stats of said heroes, and what there abilities can do. Granted no Hero is locked to a specific type, as you can buy items/spec into different skills. However some Heroes fit into specific roles easier than others.

Now, no doubt the majority of people already know all of this as, it’s one of the most active and populated MMOs ever. Now, DOTA 2 isn’t what you might call a casual friendly MMO. As a lot of people take it very seriously. And the players are very competitive, for good reason because if you’re good enough you can enter there tournaments, which can have prizes up to millions of dollars for winning. So I understand the competitive mindset of said DOTA 2 players. However this is why it’s often intimidating for new players to get into DOTA 2.

Generally DOTA 2 Is a complicated MOBA, it’s not just a simple PvP game, where you run down the lanes waving you hands around screaming and just expecting players to die. DOTA takes practice, and dedication. Because of this, it’s highly enjoyable and addictive once you actually get into it. Which is why it’s just so popular. And the reason it’s on this list.