The Best Action Combat MMORPG Of The Decade As Of 2020
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.
Conqueror’s Blade
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.
Crowfall
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.
Closers
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.
Kritika Online
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.
Revelation Online
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.
Gloria Victis
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.
Black Desert Online
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.
Blade and Soul
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.
Elder Scrolls Online
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.
RaiderZ
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.
Dragon Nest
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.
Vindictus
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.
Dragon Nest action combat was the bomb.
DN is spamfest
Not adding TERA in the list of Best action combat MMOs, no matter if you like it or not , shows how heavily opinionated , not objective and disingenuous your sites and your lists are.
I was a guy visiting your side to find exciting MMOs that fit my needs once.
Slowly but steadily I realized how disingenuous you are. Obviously TERA is one of the MANY reasons I’m calling you out. I caouldn’t care less about tera otherwise.
So agree. No Tera in the list is ludicrous.
Tera isn’t better than any of the mmo’s on this list
Tera may be a shitty shadow of what it used to be, but it still has by far the best combat of any mmo to date, BDO and things get close, but the actual combat, having to time skills, manage resources and the ‘Trifecta’ (Tank, DPS, Healer) make it engaging, newer games are getting away from these things despite the outcry of the players.
You’re exactly right. I’ve yet to this day found an mmo as good as tera’s combat system. I used to play for years and that was a long time ago, and yet i still find myself playing every blue moon just for the combat system. I was 100% expecting tera on this list as of some others as well and that definitely shows me to take this list with a grain of salt. Some other mmo’s have a close combat system, but totally miss the point of the importance of roles like that trifecta tera had that you mentioned, the tank, healer, and damage dealer. Why can’t a company just make a new game with those two factors?
um dragons nest is for sure worse
I agree, TERA is by far the best action combat MMORPG that has an open world theme and if in hub based it’s hands down PSO2. He even started on Bless Online as his first best like clearly this guy doesn’t know what’s the meaning of BEST.
Bruh BDO has the best combat hands down. Show me comparison between tera and bdo combat mechanics. I’ve also played tera and it was decent but there’s no way tera is better than bdo when it comes to action combat.
BDO does not have the emphasis on the roles with classes. Bdo feels like it doesn’t matter what class you pick, they are all just basically made to kill. One of the reasons i think tera has a better combat system is for how important the role you pick is, and it feels meaningful. I stopped playing bdo within a month because it lacked that feeling. Sadly tera is but a shadow of what it used to be now, but i don’t think there’s been an mmo as good as tera in it’s prime as of yet.
You’re seriously leaving TERA out of this??? It’s literally the GodFather of Action Combat. WTF!?
The fact, that ESO is on this list for “best action in a mmo”, tells me imo the list is BS.. (unlike real TES games action, ESO combat is dull and simple AF)
and 2xBS that FFXIV isn’t even mentioned (deepest action-“rotations” probably of any mmo out there atm)