Blade & Soulis set to patch in a new update titled Shroud of the Assassin that will add a third class specialization to the Assassin class on February 19th. Level 55 and higher players who have completed the Legacy of the Hongmoon Class Awakening quest will be able to opt for the Way of the Phantom specialization. You can use new “phantasmal energy with the new Phantom skill or surprise your opponents with an attack of Shadow Stalkers as you display your newfound expertise with the Twilight Slash ability”.
NCSoft has announced that a new ranged class is coming to the action-packed martial arts MMORPG Blade & Soul. On September 18th, the new Zen Archer class will arrive along with the Storm of Arrows update. The Zen Archer is a primary DPS class thatspecializes in fast-paced single target and AoE DPS.
NCSoft has announced the upcoming arrival of a large content update to the martial arts themed action MMORPG Blade & Soul titled Empyrean Shadows. This update will have players working together with New Masters in the Empyrean Citadel to thwart Mushin’s evil plans in Act 10 of the game’s epic story.
NCSoft has announced that the number of Blade & Soul servers will be reduced from five to two on April 24th. North America & Europe will have one server each. After the weekly maintenance on April 10th, the character transfer service will be disabled for all servers.
Blade & Soul is well on its way to a major overhaul in South Korea. The game’s graphics are being upgraded from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4, as shown in the first half of 2018. In a recent interview with the game’s development team, new information about the game’s next class were revealed. NCSoft has not revealed the name, looks or any video footage of the new class yet – only a short description.
Thee mobile rendition of the PvP-heavy action-combat MMORPG Blade & Soul named Blade & Soul: Revolution has finally launched in South Korea. It ranked as the top grossing free-to-play game on iOS within 24 hours of its launch on December 6th. It’s currently still sitting as the top grossing app in South Korea ahead of Lineage 2: Revolution and Black Desert Mobile.
Blade & Soul: Revolution aims to give a mobile experience that is as close to the PC version as possible. This means that the combat is action-mode and players fight for glory in PvP tournaments and massive 500 vs 500 battles.
Action combat is a type of combat mode that allows players to manually utilize complex movements like dodging, evading and pointing to hit to their advantage in combat scenarios. As opposed to tab-target combat, action combat generally requires a players to trigger their skills within an opponent’s hit-box in order for attacks, buffs or heals to successfully land. It is also common for enemies to have advanced movements like flying, dashing, grabbing and jumping. Here is a list of the top MMORPGs with impressive action combat.
We are listing these games based on release dates in descending order. This is an on-going list that will be updated when a new impressive action combat MMORPG reveals itself.
European Beta: Live – March 2, 2018 Developer: Booming Games
Publisher: Netease Games Model:Free-to-play
PvP: Controlled Army Warfare, Castle sieges
Conqueror’s Blade is a sandbox MMO warfare game that combines action combat and tactical movements. Players control single commanders and give commands to their personal armies. The gameplay includes controllable medieval teams where players command dozens of powerful and varying troops in large-scale siege-like scenarios.
Western Release: Pre-alpha – January 24, 2018
Developer: ArtCraft
Publisher: ArtCraft Model:Buy-to-play
Crowfall is deemed as a “throne war” MMORPG with an open world setting played across campaigns where players fight in a large open-world arena for resources and bases. Skills are leveled over time, so players can create the builds they prefer without worry. Players can play any of the available characters at any time, which adds uniqueness to the exciting non-target action combat.
Western Release: Live – November 7, 2017
Developer: Naddic Games Publisher: En Masse Entertainment Model:Free-to-play
Closers is a side-scroll MMORPG where players battle interdimensional monsters as kinetically-powered teens known as “Closers”. Movement is done within 2.5D environments, dungeons and player hubs. Left and right are the main points of direction.
Western Release: Live – September 28, 2017
Developer: ALL-M Publisher: En Masse Entertainment Model:Free-to-play
Kritika Online is a dungeon crawler MMORPG with an extremely fast paced action combat. The game offers small scale PvP such as 1v1, 3v3 and other tiers for various arena modes. Each of its six starter class is vastly different from the others in terms of combat and even more so when they upgrade to one of over twenty different advanced classes. The wide variety of very different play-styles for each class and the speed of the combat make PvP encounters unique.
Release: Open Beta – March 6, 2017 Developer: NetEase
Publisher: My.com Model:Free-to-play
Revelation Online is a Wuxia-themed MMORPG set in a seamless open-world with flying beasts and dragons. The action combat features extend and make use of the game’s flight system. The open-world is open to punishable player killing, which from my experience may be too punishing. The battlegrounds and arena PvP are mostly objective based where teamwork is greatly rewarded.
Western Release: Live – June 8, 2016
Developer: Black Eye Games
Publisher: Black Eye Games Model:Buy-to-play
Gloria Victis is set in a medieval fantasy world where players fight for realistic goals like territory and resources. That means the PvP takes place in real-time in the open-world with no instances whatsoever. Players fight in lifelike scenarios with non-target combat, sandbox crafting and a player-driven economy.
Western Release: Live – March 3, 2016
Developer: Pearl Abyss
Publisher: Kakao Games Model:Buy-to-play
Black Desert Online is a sandbox MMORPG with a flashy and fast-paced action combat. To progress and level up, players must grind by defeating creatures in the seamless open-world. Perfecting one’s combat style allows players to be one step ahead of others in PvP and PvE progression.
Western Release: Live – January 19, 2016
Developer: Team Bloodlust (NCsoft Developer Division)
Publisher: NCSoft Model:Free-to-play
Blade and Soul offers a skill-based action combat system using the player’s ability to properly time attacks and adapt to situations with the use of limited dodges and blocks. Small-scale arenas, especially 1v1s, test the player’s skills and judgement with invulnerability frames and critically timed abilities.
Western Release: Live – April 4, 2014
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Model:Buy-to-play
Elder Scrolls Online is a fantasy MMORPG based on the Elder Scrolls series. The game offers an extensive action combat system, public dungeons, player factions, various fields of PvP and more.
Western Release: Live – September 2011 Developer: Eyedentity Games Publisher: Previously Nexon, currently Eyedentity Games Model:Free-to-play
RaiderZ offers a complex and impressive combat system that was ahead of its time. Characters have the ability to dodge, aim, and make decisive combat movements while enemies have advanced skills like dashing, jumping, biting and flying around.
Western Release: Live – September 2011 Developer: Eyedentity Games Publisher: Previously Nexon, currently Eyedentity Games Model:Free-to-play
Dragon Nest incorporates a non-target action combat system and highly customizable skill sets to provide fast-paced battles. Player vs. player combat is skill based in nature. Player interactions are tailored for balancing purposes, with different cooldowns and rules for skills in PvP and PvE. Dragon Nest is a fantasy MMORPG set in the beautiful world of Alteia, created by the goddess Altea. The game’s story incorporates the history of Alteia and the dragon slayer heroes.
Western Release: Live – October 2010 Developer: devCAT Publisher: Nexon, Tian City, Garena Model:Free-to-play
Vindictus is a prequel to the popular MMORPG Mabinogi and is referred to as Mabinogi Heroes in Asia. Vindictus takes place several hundred years prior to Mabinogi in a time of great hatred and war. The world consists of instanced zones with some open areas.
The next major content update for Blade & Soul called Warden’s Fury will arrive on September 12th. Warden’s Fury will include the new playable class called Warden, the continuation of the epic story arc (Act 9: Cruel Reunion) and the ancient slimy pirate dungeon called The Shadowmoor.
Players with registered accounts before today will each be given a Wandering Swordsman Pack when the class arrives next month. The pack include items to help in the leveling process such as XP Charm, Weapon Chest and cosmetics. For more information, visit the official Blade & Soul site.
