GAMERS DECIDE - Age of Wushu

[Top 10] Age of Wushu Best Builds

Filip A. — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 23:34:45 +0000

Are you eager to challenge your opponent to a skillful duel like a true martial artist would? Well, make sure you’re properly suited for the task first. Dueling in Age of Wushu is quite complex and without the right tools, you’ll be nothing more than a practice dummy.

Or perhaps you keep dying over and over in mass PVP fights. I know I did when I first started playing. Though the fighting may seem random, there’s a method to the madness.

If you wish to learn how to best build your character in Age of Wushu, you’ve come to the right place. As your Shifu, I’ve prepared this enlightenment scroll for any disciples willing to learn from my experiences.

10. The Ultimate PVE Build

A player deals massive amounts of damage to her enemy.

If you were anything like me, you plunged into the world of Wushu to experience its thrilling PVP combat. However, the reality is very different. Since the server is incredibly old, most players will outmatch you. You’ll have to cut through hours and hours of PVE content to come close to their level.

Instead of riveting duels, most of your early experience will be soulless grinding. Fortunately, this build will help you breeze through every PVE instance. It specializes in damage amplification and life steal. Since mobs don’t have any defense, these two stats will carry you through.

As far as the best inner for this build is concerned, nothing beats Against the Worldly Evil (commonly referred to as AWE). This inner grants you a stackable bonus to your damage. Additionally, it has one of the highest stats in the game.

The best set for PVE is the Perish Blade. This Twin Dagger set adds life-steal and even more stackable damage to your arsenal. The whole server uses this set and so should you.

When it comes to your gear, you’ll need Yin equipment. Focus on upgrading your Spirit stat as high as possible. Then, use Brawn/Spirit internal alchemy to swap the values. You can easily hit over 1,000 Brawn this way.

For meridians, focus on those that increase your Spirit and add external critical hit damage and chance.

With all these aspects combined, the dungeons will resemble farming vegetables rather than fighting enemies. And if you don’t like sharing your loot, then you’ll love this build – it allows you to solo almost any boss!

What the Ultimate PVE Build Excels in:

Effective against mobs and bosses alike
Can clear dungeons within an hour
Can solo most of the PVE content in the game
Boosts survivability thanks to life-steal
Insane DPS

9. The Ultimate PVE Support Build

You stand before a menacing dungeon, wondering if your team's ready to claim its treasures.

Once you reach a certain point in the game, you’ll realize that even Perish Blade has its shortcoming. To clear high-level Forbidden Instances, you’ll need a team. These include Cloud Villa and Hidden Valley. Even the strongest players in the game can’t solo them. And because raw DPS isn’t enough to cut through, you’ll need support players.

In Age of Wushu, you can support your team in several ways. You can amplify their damage, heal them, and shield them. You may also restore their IP or revive fallen allies. And because many players dislike this kind of playstyle, you’ll become a valuable asset. Everyone will want you on their team!

Firstly, you’ll need the Shen Family internal skill. Not only does it heal you when you’re not taking damage, but it also heals your team when you die. And trust me, these bosses pack quite the punch. Your team will also gain bonus damage for a small duration.

When it comes to choosing the best set, your options are quite open. Do you like shielding? Go for Emei’s Golden Diamond Soft Palm. The rage move is cheap to cast and soaks up huge amounts of damage for your team. The set is ranged, so it’s easy to farm rage for the shield.

Many players also use Heart Buddha Palm, which grants rage to nearby teammates so this skill is especially easy to cast.

The Shen family set is also a great choice. Instead of shielding, the rage is a potent AOE heal. Additionally, it allows you to revive a dead ally, something no other set can do.

Finally, you can use the Boundless Sword. This set restores your teammates' IP and adds extra damage to their attack. However, you should go for it only when you already have healers and shielders on your team. The bonus damage won’t mean anything if everyone’s dead.

This build will allow you to keep your allies alive during even the toughest boss fights. It can even make up for their mistakes. That’s extremely useful since clueless teammates can be incredibly frustrating. Been there, done that.

What the Ultimate PVE Support Build Excels In:

Carries your team in dungeons (even if they’re not the best)
Makes joining a raid much easier due to the high demand
Allows you to stay in safety since all these sets are ranged
Has an incredible comeback potential
Easy to use (you mostly just spam one or two abilities)

8. The Ultimate Dodge Build

A Rootless Clan member attacks his enemy only to miss.

I’ve had my butt kicked by one too many Dodge-Build players. No matter how hard I tried, my attacks simply wouldn’t land. Such is the pain of dealing with the member of the Palace of Shifting Flowers.

This builds is perfect for dueling. Since it’s ranged, you can whittle down your opponents from afar. And thanks to your inner stats, you’ll dodge almost every counterattack. To make your enemy even more frustrated, you recover HP whenever you dodge an attack successfully.

To make this build work, you have to be a female player since males can’t join the Palace of Shifting Flowers. Even though they can become Flower Princes, this only gives them the set.

So if you’re a female player, make their inner your main one. It boosts your damage while increasing your dodge rate. With the right build, it’s one of the best inners in the game.

For sets, you want to use Seven Techniques of the Flower Goddess. This set is exclusive to the Palace. It allows you to attack your opponent from a great ranged, making the battle even more difficult for them. It also has a stun that’s a great set-up for your rage move. One of the moves also makes you ignore the enemy’s defenses.

As far as gear goes, you’ll want Yin gear with maxed-out Breath, Spirit, and Dexterity. Dexterity further increases your dodge rate as well as the rage-quit rate of your opponent.

The same principle applies to meridians. The Tangmen and Emei meridians should be your primary focus since they both increase dodge rate.

What the Ultimate Dodge Build Excels in:

It’s incredibly OP
Deals massive damage with minimal risk on your part
Has an in-built defense thanks to the high dodge rate and HP recovery
Frustrates your opponent
One of the most fun builds in the game

7. The Ultimate Tank Build

This player survives a devasting combo thanks to her OP tank build.

Sometimes, defense is the best offense. If you bide your time patiently, you can wear your opponent out until defeat. In Age of Wushu, people call this strategy turtling. While it is boring for your enemy to fight you, you’re going to relish frustrating your competition.

The Ultimate Tank Build focuses on maxing out defensive stats and Stamina while relying on sets with in-built shields. With these two aspects combined, you’ll become even more invincible than the halls of the Pentagon.

Firstly, you’ll need to choose your preferred inner. Either Shaolin or Wudang 6th internal skill will do. The Shaolin inner boosts your defenses while allowing you to heal. This inner has the Yang attribute. On the other hand, Wudang has the Taichi attribute and it absorbs and reflects small portions of damage randomly while you fight. Joining either one of these schools will do.

One advantage Wudang has over Shaolin is the Taichi Fist skillset. Since it is different from its more powerful Ancient Taichi Fist version, it allows for some creative plays. For instance, you use two Stroking the Peacock’s Plume moves consecutively! These skills make your enemies’ attacks heal you.

Additionally, both sets have another weaker shield that removes debuffs. But what makes this combo that much deadlier is chaining the rage moves (Open Taichi). As long as you have enough rage points, you can keep your enemy stunned while dealing massive damage to them. Watch them as they flail about helplessly like ragdolls!

Alternatively, you can use the Demon Fist with either one of these inners. The rage grants you a shield that reflects all damage back to the attacker while reducing your own damage taken. Although it still hurts you a little, your insanely OP inners will recover your health almost immediately.

When it comes to gear and meridians, just focus on every stat that boosts your defense. Stamina is also important since it increases your HP recovery.

Even though this set might not work against the strongest players on the server, it’s a lot of fun to use. Sometimes I return to the game after AFKing for a bit, only to see an opponent trying to kill me. But they never succeed. This, it’s also a great way to discourage your enemies from attacking you.

What the Ultimate Tank Build Excels In:

Makes you nearly invincible
Prevents other players from picking fights with you
Incredibly fun to use
Doesn’t rely on any pay-to-win items
Frustrates your opponents till they surrender

6. The Best Mass PVP Support Build

The player has enough support to take out the enemy guild's leader.

Most people flock to Age of Wushu for its innovative combat system. However, the PVP isn’t constrained to just duel. The game abounds with many guilds which are constantly waging wars with one another. But this conflict adds extra spice to Wushu. When members of rival guilds spot each other, they will attack immediately. They both usually ask their guild chat to help, until the duel turns into an unhinged skirmish.

But before you become one of the best martial artists in Jianghu, you’ll likely die in two hits. Especially in these skirmishes. That doesn’t mean you’re useless. With the right build, you can still turn the tide of the battle in your guild’s favor.

Since random spells will rampage throughout the battlefield, you’ll need an inner that increases your uptime. Wudang, Shaolin, Shifting Flower Palace, and Emei are all great choices. While you’ll want to stay out of the heat of the battle, you might get picked off. When this happens, a right inner will allow you to escape and reposition.

Although the game has innumerable support builds, nothing complements team combat better than Heart Buddha Palm. You just need to know how to use it properly. Instead of attacking enemies, you should be helping your strongest guild members. Buddha Palm allows you to grant Yellow Armor to your teammates which immediately cancels most forms of CC.

Additionally, your parry buff grants everyone around you CC immunity too. Since stuns are the only thing that can thwart your allies, a well-used Buddha Palm can affect the outcome of the fight.

While this build might not be the most fun one out there, it helps you get into your guild member’s good graces. That means rewards!

What the Best Mass PVP Support Build Excels in:

Allows you to contribute to fights where you’d be gutted otherwise
Disables most forms of crowd control from your team
Extremely safe to use
Can alter the course of the battle
Makes your guild members love you

5. The Ultimate Mass PVP Build

In Mass PVP, ranged and AOE attacks are key to victory.

Once you progress far enough into the game, you can transition to the DPS role in your team fights. While having support players is always great, that kind of playstyle doesn’t suit everyone. While I’ve always liked buffing my allies, I have an in-game friend who absolutely loathes playing that way.

Despite a large number of AOE sets in the games, creating a perfect mass PVP builds requires a bit of effort. This is because you need to survive in the middle of the battlefield all the while dishing out insane amounts of damage. The Ultimate Mass PVP build covers this perfectly.

Firstly, you’ll have to join Tangmen. Right now, they have the best mass PVP set in the game – the King of Hell’s Invitation. Apart from the great DPS, it also disables flying skills. This effectively locks your enemies in place. Combined with the damage-amplifying darts, this set is unstoppable.

Luckily, you can rely solely on Tangmen to carry this build. Their 6th inner complements the set well – it adds even more damage and crit chance to your arsenal. What’s more, it increases your dodge rate.

In terms of gear, grab the best Jade Yin equipment you can find on the market and max out all of your offensive stats. While it might sound counterintuitive, the set is so busted that your enemies will turn into a pile of dead bodies before they can even hit you.

What the Ultimate Mass PVP Build Excels in:

Absolutely dominates the battlefield
It has a great range
You can move around while casting the OP rage move
Has in-built soft CC that helps you zone enemies
Shreds even the toughest of enemies

4. The Best Ranged Dueling Build

A player uses a gap-closing move in an attempt to hit the ranged set user.

Duels are easily the most engaging part of Age of Wushu. With so many builds and sets possible, they represent fine blend of reflexes and mental calculations. However, some builds perform better than others. And right now, one set in particular stands above all the rest.

The main advantage of this build is the fact that it’s ranged. This means you can dish out damage from a comfortable distance while avoiding any counterattack. Additionally, it’s incredibly tough to beat this build. Unless your opponent has it too, you’ve pretty much won already.

The bread and butter of the Best Ranged Dueling Build is the Heart Buddha Palm. It’s remained one of the strongest PVP sets in the game ever since its release. With this build, you can stun your opponent from a great distance and then follow up with a deadly series of attacks.

It also features a move that recovers your HP. What makes this set so versatile is the utility it provides. Not only does your parry buff amplify your damage but it also grants you CC immunity for a short duration.

Although the set is compatible with many internal skills, nothing beats its synergy with Tangmen’s 6th inner. With the added damage, you’ll shred your enemies before they can react. Buddha Palm has HP recovery anyway so you don’t need any extra insurance.

When it comes to the gear, grab a full Yin equipment with a focus on Brawn and Dexterity. Then, get the Dexterity/Spirit swap skill. Since the base Dexterity is so high, you’ll get a lot of internal critical chance when you convert it to Spirit. Finally, activate all your standard internal meridians.

Make sure you get 30 % damage boost bracers for each skill too. Veteran players swap their bracers before using each skill to maximize their damage output.

What the Best Ranged Dueling Build Excels in:

It’s been meta for years
Very accessible
Incredibly versatile
Doesn’t require much skill to use
Has very few counters

3. The Best Male Dueling Build

A player finishes his cultivation, eager to try out his new skills in a duel.

Though the Shifting Flower Palace allows you to create one of the best builds in the game, only female characters can join it. Fortunately, males have a decent alternative. If you prefer melee combat, then you’ll love this build.

I speak of the Rootless Clan, of course. Their Avert Evil Swordplay is one of the fast sets in the game. It allows you to close gaps to your opponents quickly while simultaneously stunning them. This makes it one of the best sets to counter Heart Buddha Palm.

The rage move is particularly strong. If maxed, one rage can delete your opponent’s HP bar.

They have a powerful internal skill too. Deviant Vampire adds extra damage to your attack while healing you. Even though it was nerfed in recent patches, it still holds its own against most other free-to-play inners.

However, joining the Rootless Clan has one downside – your character must undergo castration. No, I’m not making it up. You’ll literally have to give up your manhood to both obtain AND use this build.

While this doesn’t have any major downside, it’s paradoxically expensive to complete the castration quest.

What the Best Male Dueling Build Excels in:

Has very low cooldowns
Allows you to dash to your enemy
The rage move is practically a death sentence
It’s one of the best free-to-play PVP builds
Offers both DPS and survivability

2. The Ultimate Free-to-play Dueling Build

Two players engage in a closely-matched duel.

Although Heart Buddha Palm can be considered free-to-play, you’ll have to grind for months to finally obtain it. But what if you want to scratch your dueling itch during that time?

Fortunately, the game offers plenty of decent sets that don’t require much grinding. Even though they won’t beat the pay-to-win players, you can use them when you duel your friends and other casual players.

Since this build is designed for casual use, I’ve made it compatible with most of the sets in the game. To achieve this, you’ll need an inner with the Taichi attribute. Taichi attribute is compatible with every set, whether it’s Taichi, Yin, or Yang.

Currently, the best free-to-play Taichi inner in the game is the 5 Immortal Sect inner. This inner buffs you while debuffing your enemies. If you reach maximum stacks, it’ll also heal you.

Because the inner is Taichi and internal-based, you can use it with virtually any internal-based skill set in the game. My suggested sets are Guxi Daggers, Jade Maiden Sword, Western Fencing, and Stranger. These sets offer a great combination of CC and damage. Which one you use comes down to your preference.

Obviously, you’re going to need Taichi gear with capped Breath and Brawn. You should consider using internal alchemy to switch Brawn for Spirit for even more damage.

What the Ultimate Free-to-play Dueling Build Excels in:

Allows you to duel competitively even if you’re new
Doesn’t require any cash shop set
Relies on a free-to-play inner
Deals decent amounts of damage
Compatible with many sets

1.The Best PVP Build

Thanks to her overpowered build, this girl defeats every opponent she meets.

Before I delve into the details of the best PVP build in the game, I’d like to clarify one thing. This build is extremely expensive to obtain. With grinding alone, it could take you years to get it. And that’s if you play 24/7. Most people opt to buy characters instead to skip years of soulless farming.

However, the characters themselves are quite expensive – the best ones cost over $10,000. Whether or not this is worth is entirely up to you. But in my opinion, I don’t think the game is great enough to justify this expensive spending.

Nevertheless, this build is the strongest one in the game for a reason. It buffs you with countless offensive and defensive stats. It allows you to stun multiple enemies for 4 whole seconds. It ignores external defense. Do I need to go on?

The best internal skill in the game is Taoist Divination. This inner reduces critical damage you take while you're not attacking and increases your damage while you are attacking. Even though its base stats are low, the passives are so busted they more than make up for it. This inner has a Yang attribute and does require Yang gear. However, Taoist Divination is one of the most expensive inners in the game and it takes ages to farm to the max level.

The set that best complements this broken inner is Joined Finger. This set negates most of your opponent’s defenses. It also has powerful stuns and knock-ups. And if you land your rage move, you’ve pretty much won the duel. But much like Taoist Divination, Joined Finger fragments are incredibly rare and take a lot of time to farm.

What the Best PVP Build Excels in:

Grants you OP stats
Defeats practically any free-to-play player
Deals large amounts of damage
Has the longest CC in the game
Makes you an indestructible killing machine

Age of Wushu Best Class- What's The Best Class To Play?

Filip A. — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:35:55 +0000

Have you ever wished to become a martial artist? Well, no wonder you chose to play Age of Wushu. Not many MMORPGs offer such immersive gameplay. However, the game doesn’t offer much information on how to play it. Worse yet, the forums are not even functional.

Before you start to enjoy this masterpiece among games, expect to read through countless fan-made guides on how to build your character. One of the first things you’ll need to choose is your school.

As opposed to factions and subsects, schools are unique in several ways. For one, you may only be in one at a time and when you choose to betray it, you lose all progress related to that school. Since you will eventually disguise and travel to every faction and subsect, you must choose the right school at the beginning.

But how can you determine which one is the best? In this list, I’ve ranked all schools based on the general benefits they offer. Both internal skills and skillsets were considered when building the list.

As always, I believe the most important thing in any game is for you to have fun. If you enjoy a specific playstyle, then go for it, even if it might not be the strongest. I’ve outlined what kind of playstyle each school promotes to help you in your decision-making.

10. Beggar’s Sect

The disciples of the Beggar’s sect like to dress in common tattered rags.

The last school on this list is Beggar’s Sec. It is easily the worst school you can join in the current meta. It doesn’t have a single strong point. The sets are completely useless. The two decent ones, Dog Beating Staff and Dragon-Subduing Palm are available in stronger forms for players who aren’t in Beggar’s Sect.

The 6th inner is just horrible. Perhaps in future patches, it might receive a buff but in its current state, I’d advise you to stay away from it. Joining it will only make you weak.

9. Ming Cult

A girl from the Ming Cult readies her arrows for a fierce shot.

Ming Cult came before Tianshan as the ninth available school. However, it was a major letdown. Neither the sets nor the inner are good enough for you to consider this school. Ming Cult’s only saving grace might be its 4th set. While this spear set may be alright for PVP, it pales in comparison to Tianshan. Much like with the Beggar’s Sect, I’d recommend against joining this school.

8. Wanderer’s Valley

A member of the Wanderer’s Valley stands in front of his sect’s fire pit.

Lots of people choose Wanderer’s Valley as their go-to school before they go on a disguise trip to other subsects and factions. Whether you’re free-to-play or pay-to-win, Wanderer’s Valley offers the best PVE set in the entire game – the Perish Blade.

Thanks to its damage-stacking mechanics, it has one has the highest DPS potential in the game. Furthermore, the rage move allows you to heal for the percentage of the damage you deal.

Why it does great:

The vampiric effect of Perish Blade makes it the best option for most of Age of Wushu’s PVE content. It even allows you to run most of the dungeons completely alone which means you won’t have to roll for the loot – it will be all yours.

However, the set has its drawbacks. Newer bosses reduce your healing, rendering it useless. In Forbidden Instances such as the Cloud Valley, you’ll want to use ranged sets instead. Additionally, you need CC-heavy sets in for some solo PVE mini-bosses such as the Lingxiao heroes.

Unfortunately, Perish Blade lacks in this department. It has no form of reliable CC. The rage even works against you, since it pushes mobs away from your main AOE attack.

You might be wondering why Wanderer’s Valley is so low on this list despite having one of the best sets in the game. The answer is simple – you can obtain low-level Perish Blade chapters via the Script Stealing Event which happens six times a week.

While the damage output will be slightly lower, it’s good enough. Most people play Age of Wushu for its innovative PVP mechanics – they couldn’t care less about grinding dungeons. Thus, it might not be worth going there just for a single skill set.

And unfortunately, this school’s other sets are quite underperforming. While Wind-chasing Blades might be viable for mass PVP after the rework, you can choose plenty of better sets. The Lethal 13 Sword set was once great but now it’s outdated – anyone with a decent cash shop set will beat it. The other sets are not even worth mentioning as no one uses them.

As far as the inners are concerned, Wanderer’s Valley leaves things to be desired. Its 6th inner is mediocre at best so most people choose either a subsect or Jianghu inner. However, their 4th inner is decent in PVE – it boosts your critical attack damage and adds extra healing. This makes it excellent for tanking bosses. But once again, most people don’t care much for PVE.

Wanderer’s Valley Excels In:

Soloing most of the game’s PVE content
Tanking bosses
Keeping you alive during fights

Choose Wanderer’s Valley If:

You love grinding Forbidden Instances
You're a casual player who likes PVE
You wish t to farm rare items without having to split the loot among the team

7. Tianshan Sect

Two Tianshan Sect members are engaged in a bone-chilling fight with each other.

Tianshan is the newest school to arrive in Age of Wushu. When it first came out, many players quit their current ones to go to Tianshan. Was their decision justified or was it a major blunder?

Why it does great

Tianshan’s main and perhaps only strength is its powerful 4th set – Tianshan Sword Skill. It features so many moves with knock-up and stun effects that fighting it can quite painful. Even overpowered cash shop sets will have a tough time beating this set. Although it may be the only Tianshan set that’s worth anything, it’s just so good that it justified joining this school.

Unfortunately, Tianshan’s inner is quite bad. It’s practically a worse version of Wudang’s inner.

What Tianshan Excels In:

Has the best free-to-play PVP set in the game
Features lots of crowd control
Has a high damage output

Choose Tianshan If:

If you love dueling
You don’t want to rely on your ping to win
You want to make your opponent cry after you wreck them

6. Shaolin

The monks of Shaolin practice their martial arts at the break of dawn.

Shaolin is a school exclusive to male characters. Though it may not be the best school in the game, it offers a powerful inner and a tough 1v1 PVP set. If you decide to join Shaolin, you should bear a few things in mind.

For instance, your character can’t drink alcohol while in this school or you will gain a lot of disciplinary points. Additionally, getting married will require you to buy an expensive item to bypass the restriction.

Why it does great

Following the rework patch, Long-Style Boxing became a formidable PVP set. It has a stun that ignores Yellow Armor and its parry break is a charge move. This means it will guarantee that you break your opponent’s parry.

The other sets are not nearly as strong. They are too situational for you to use them often.

In terms of inners, Shaolin has one of the tankiest ones in the game. Their 6th inner boosts your damage output and defenses. At the same time, you have a chance to recover your HP upon being hit.

At higher levels, you’ll also gain a third effect – whenever you are attacked, you have a chance to break free from CC. Of course, these effects shine the most when you duel other players.

What Shaolin Excels In:

Offers some of the best defensive stats in the game
Great HP regeneration
Plenty of crowd control

Choose Shaolin If:

You like a tanky playstyle
Prefer a PVP-oriented inner
Don’t mind the several restrictions this school imposes on you
You like PVP

5. Wudang

A Wudang disciples practices the Wyvern leaves the sea movement from Taiji Fist.

Although not quite what it used to be during the 5th inner era, Wudang still remains one of the best schools you can choose. Its internal skills and skillsets focus on tanking damage.

But unlike the Wanderer’s Valley, it works reliably enough in both PVE and PVP. Although it doesn’t have the highest DPS out there, turtling your way to victory works surprisingly well.

Why it does great:

All schools give the player 5 unique sets. However, usually only one of them is good. This is not the case with Wudang – four of its sets are great in different scenarios.

The first one is the famous Breeze Sword. Once you get your rework, you will be using it quite a lot. In PVE, it offers a mechanic unique to only a few sets – air-tanking. This means staying in the air so that the AI doesn’t target you while you whittle down the boss. The best thing? It has a pretty high DPS output too when compared to other air-tanking sets.

Since you’re untouchable, it’s a great alternative to the more common Perish Blade. It’s also ranged and features an AOE knockdown. This makes it excellent for mass PVP too.

Another formidable set is the Taiji Sword. Or rather, two of its skills. These are Pegasus Flying in the Sky (commonly referred to as Steed) and Circle the Moon Three times. Steed swaps your HP and IP bars. This enable you to escape sticky situations both in PVP and PVE.

Circle the Moon restores your IP so you should use it right after Steed. Although these skills have a high cooldown, they can alter the flow of your fights. Other moves in this set are not that special though the rage is great for clearing mobs.

However, you can get Steed and Circle the Moon through script stealing too which may devaluate going to this school a bit.

You’ll also gain access to the Taiji Fist. Naturally, it’s not as strong as its Ancient version but it can be a valuable asset. Stroking the Peacock’s Plume makes you invincible to damage for a short duration. It even converts the damage you receive to HP.

The rage is an AOE stun with high damage output. But more importantly, its animation lasts longer than the 7 seconds it takes before you can swap to another set. This is the reason people use this set in PVP.

With the arrival of Penglai Island, all schools received their 5th set. In Wudang’s case, the Pliant Sword. You should only use this set in 1v1 PVP combat. Since it is quick and reactive, you will need a decent ping to use it effectively. But if your ms is low, you’ll be able to decimate your opponents within seconds.

Wudang’s 6th inner is decent. It’s not great but it’s not bad either. It revolves around tanking – each time you take damage, there is a small chance you will absorb it and reflect it onto the attacker.

While it sounds good on paper, it relies too much on luck. According to rumors, it will be buffed significantly in the upcoming patches. However, it may be years before that happens.

What Wudang Excels In:

Tanking damage
Prolonging your fights
AOE damage
Air-tanking

Choose Wudang If:

You prefer slower combat
You like to negate all of your opponent’s damage
You like to run solo Instances

4. Royal Guards

The Royal Guard disciples brandish their sabers, eager to spill the blood of their enemies.

Royal Guards is the best school for Yang-based players. Since Shaolin and Beggar’s Sect are so underperforming, it makes sense why it is so. While their inner is pretty lackluster, they have some great PVP sets.

Why it does great

Most people flock to Royal Guards for the Blood Killing Knife Skill, their powerful 4th set. It uses a single blade together with a flying claw. With the Blood Killing Knife Skill, you can quickly dash to your enemy to wreak havoc on them.

The set features a lot of DoT moves that will drain your opponent’s HP. Additionally, the parry buff and rage move have leeching properties. Sustain can be very valuable in PVP. The only downside of this set is that it relies on ping.

Although ping-based as well, the Soul-Chasing Claw is another great PVP set. While it may be external, this flying claw set counters most ranged sets in the game. With it, you can stun your enemies and pull them toward you. During its heyday, every single Tangmen player despised this set.

The other sets are not worth mentioning – they are essentially useless.

The same goes for Royal Guards’ internal skills. I suggest going to the Blood Blade Clan, their subsect, to get a good inner if you’re a Yang player. Most players do so.

What Royal Guards Excels In:

Disables most ranged sets
Offers a mixture of damage and sustain
Good damage over time

Choose Royal Guards If:

If you are a Yang player
You love PVP
Want to counter many meta sets

3. Tangmen

A Tangmen disciple who’s an expert in both poisons and ranged attacks.

Veteran players have been flocking to Tangmen ever since the 6th inner came out. Their inner is one of the best offensive inners in the game, allowing you to boost your critical damage and rate significantly.

But the true reason Tangmen is so popular is the 4th set, the King of Hell’s Invitation. This is arguably the strongest AOE set in the game right now.

Why it does great

Although Tangmen has only one powerful set, it’s one of the best ones in the game. The King of Hell’s Invitation is a ranged dart set that deals insane damage to everyone around you. The great range and high damage already make it a formidable set.

However, there’s one more reason why it’s so broken – there are special weapons that cause your ranged moves to deal triple your base damage. If you equip it with this set, you’ll dominate in every mass PVP fight.

That’s more or less it as far as sets are concerned. The 5th one is decent for 1v1 but it gets outshined by cash shop sets. So can one set, however amazing, justify this going to this school?

The answer is yes because Tangmen also has one of the best free-to-play inners in the game. It ramps up not only your critical damage over time but also your critical rate and overall damage. These effects are great for both PVE and PVP.

Thanks to internal alchemy skills, you can swap your stats and run this inner with internal sets too. Many people use it together with Buddha Palm for some great damage potential.

Tangmen’s 2nd inner is great for PVE. At max level, it applies a stackable debuff to your enemies. Each debuff stack makes them take additional damage from every source. This makes it very popular for boss fights and can cut your clearing speed in half.

The only downside to Tangmen is its lack of defensive moves. You could compare their playstyle to the assassin archetype in many other games – a fast and powerful glass cannon.

But with such a great variety of sets in the game, you’ll likely be able to offset this. Another problem might be that you’re just getting two benefits from the school. A great inner and one good set. The other four sets are just not that strong.

What Tangmen Excels In:

The best ranged set in the game
Incredibly powerful free-to-play inner
Great AOE damage

Choose Tangmen If:

You like an offensive playstyle
You want to deal massive damage to your foes
Prefer ranged combat

2. Emei

An Emei disciple practices her Yue Maiden sword techniques.

Emei is an extremely overpowered school. I would place it on top of this list were it not for one downside – only female characters can join it. It features a great Yin inner as well as two extremely powerful sets. Emei offers both offensive and support capabilities.

Why it does great

Emei’s first set is called Golden Diamond Soft Palm. Ever since its release, it has been an invaluable support set in both PVE and mas PVP. The rage gives nearby teammates and you a durable shield that can absorb a lot of damage.

As a member of Emei, you can get it to the max level, making it that much better. The set is ranged which means it’s very safe for you to use. Then the rework came and Golden Diamond Soft Palm became even better. The parry break is now ranged which allows you to use it in 1v1 scenarios and completely annihilate your opponents.

The second valuable set is Departing Sting. In terms of DPS output, it’s very close to Perish Blade. While it lacks the leeching effect, it buffs your defensive stats significantly. It is one of the most popular sets people use in PVE.

However, it has applications in PVP too. Its stun ignores Yellow Armor and allows you to chain your moves in a decimating combo. If your opponent allows you to ramp up your defensive stats and damage, you’ve already won the duel.

The third set is Rosy Cloud Stab. This one has a very niche use and is nowhere near as valuable as the other ones. Nevertheless, the AOE heal can be useful in Forbidden Instances, especially when paired with the AOE shield of Golden Diamond Soft Palm.

Emei’s 4th set is also decent. It’s a strictly 1v1 PVP set. Even though it’s not as strong as it used to be, it’s very decent for a school set.

This school has an Emei-zing inner too. When it comes to Yin inners, it might even be the best one. While you remain in combat, you gain stacks periodically. At six stacks, you will take 30 % less damage and deal 30 % extra soft damage with your attacks. The buff lasts until you attack or are attacked three times.

This buff provides you with an excellent mixture of offense and defense, making it one of the best inner effects in the game.

But it also has a secondary effect. When you would take otherwise lethal damage, it restores 15 % of your maximum HP and knocks nearby enemies away.

What Emei Excels In:

A fine blend of offensive and defensive capabilities
Great DPS output
Good support sets
Excellent in both PVE and PVP

Choose Emei If:

You want the most versatile sets in the game
Like both PVP and PVE equally
Prefer a well-rounded combat style

1. Scholars

A Scholar disciple engages in a fierce battle with a Beggar’s Clan member.

No school will provide you with as many benefits as Scholars. It made it to the top spot on my list thanks to its incredible inner and formidable sets. Much like Emei, it offers both offensive and supportive moves.

To this day, Scholars has the most powerful PVP school set in the game. It’s open to anyone who bothered to learn a cultural life skill. So before you attempt to join, make sure you choose either the painter, scholar, weiqi player, or musician profession.

Why it does great

As I stated above, Scholars has one of the best 1v1 PVP sets a school can offer – the Leisure Kick. This internal set has a rage move that can whittle down most of your opponent’s HP in a matter of seconds.

With the proper setup, unleashing this move effectively ends the fight. Just keep in mind the set is very ping-reliant. If you’re not American, you might have a tough time getting it to work.

Scholars also have the Boundless Sword, a great twin swords support set. It adds extra Soft damage to your team’s attacks. The rage restores IP to your whole team and adds even more extra damage. This makes it an excellent set to take into Forbidden Instances.

But the most sought move in this set is the parry buff – the Turn Weapon Around move. This will make you recover % IP whenever an enemy strikes your parry. Unless you have the expensive Sun and Moon Demon King’s Pen book, you will need this move in every PVE instance.

Unlike most schools, the rework didn’t make Scholars’ first set all that strong. The Falling Flower Sword is only useful in PVE thanks to its AOE damage. The other two sets are not worth mentioning at all. Most people just don’t use them because they’re atrocious.

Scholars’ 6th inner, Moonlit Garden, is one of the best free-to-play ones in the game. Similar to Emei, it boosts your attack damage and reduces the damage you take by up to 50 %. Additionally, it makes you ignore some percentage of your opponent’s parry.

Whether you like PVP or PVE, these effects are excellent for both. The only downside is the RNG involves in triggering these effects.

Their 2nd inner is also coveted by all players. While useless in combat, it’s great for moving across the world. At the maximum level, it boosts your movement speed by 33 %. Combined with a Windrider, you’ll be zooming across the world. You can sell higher-level pages to other players and make money this way.

What Scholars Excels In:

Has one of the best free-to-play PVP set
Formidable inner
Great for supporting your teammates
Very versatile

Choose Scholars If:

You love PVP
Prefer an offensive inner
Want the best parry buff in the game
Want to support your team in Forbidden Instances

Age of Wushu Guide [25 Useful Tips Every Player Should Know]

Filip A. — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 11:10:46 +0000

As you dive into the world of Age of Wushu, you think nothing can stand in the way of you becoming the greatest martial artist in Jianghu. But your excitement is short-lived. Where you expected an immersive experience, confusion and chaos reign.

How should you build your character? Which events should you join?

Believe me, it’s a laundry list of questions. When I first started playing, I had no clue what to do. It doesn’t help that the game doesn’t explain the actual gameplay to you. Even worse, the official forums and guides are all down.

Well, although I can’t fit all the essential knowledge into one article, I’ve prepared this list of tips that will help you on your journey through Jianghu.

25. Consider buying a character instead of grinding

The first thing most veterans will tell you when you log in is to just buy an account. While this might be off-putting to some new players, it is a valid argument. In its current state, Age of Wushu doesn’t allow for effective catching-up. The older players will simply be much more ahead in terms of Meridian levels.

Buying an account is actually cheaper than spending money on building your own character from the scratch.

It saves a lot of time too. Even if you played this game 24/7, it would take you years to catch up.

However, it depends on how seriously you want to take this game. If you are a no-life gamer living only to outperform the rest of the player base, then sure, go for it. But if you just want a nice casual MMORPG where you can chill, you can build your own character.

24. Get VIP as soon as possible

Whether you take the game seriously or not, you MUST get VIP. Playing without it will severely slow down your progress. Jianghu VIP is similar to subscriptions in other games. It costs 30 gold which is about 10 dollars a month.

While subscription can certainly be more expensive in other games, it’s still a lot of money.

Fortunately, you can buy VIP from other players for in-game currency (Silver Taels). Right now, its price ranges from 500 to 750 Liangs. Making Taels as a non-VIP player can take ages. I recommend buying your first VIP yourself. Once you unlock the rest of the content, you’ll be able to make all the money you need for your subsequent VIPs.

But what exactly are the perks of being a Jianghu VIP? Well, without it, Wushu might feel like one of those obnoxious ‘farming’ games where you just wait forever until your buildings are complete. It’s even worse than that. Without VIP, you’ll level up so slowly that you won’t ever catch up to other players.

You also need it for most Life-skill profession. I will get into those later. For now, I’ll just say that without VIP, you can’t gather necessary materials to craft useful items in the game.

Lastly, VIP unlocks tons of new content for you. By participating in these unlocked activities, you’ll earn way more Taels and progress the game much faster.

Seriously, don’t bother playing this game without VIP. It’s just too frustrating.

23. Choose your school wisely

After you complete the tutorial, you’re next step will be choosing the right school. Unfortunately, the game provides you with no information about which school is the best. This makes a lot of new players join schools that are bad. While you can betray a school and join another it, it is a waste of your time.

So how do you know which school is the best one? Well, it depends on the attribute you choose.

For Taichi player, I suggest going to Wudang as it’s the best option right now. Yang players will benefit most from Royal Guards, though Shaolin is also a decent choice. As for Yin players, they have the most schools they can choose from. Scholars, Tangmen and Emei are all great schools that will benefit you a lot.

I suggest researching each school a bit to see if it fits your playstyle before deciding. Remember – betraying a school is a huge waste of time.

22. Get Perish Blade as soon as possible

I cannot stress this point enough. Perish Blade is the strongest PVE set in the game and almost everyone uses it to run instances.

Whether you plan to run solo or team content, the value this set brings to the table is immense. With its life and steal and damage stacks, you will shred through everything that comes your way, be it mobs or bosses.

One way to obtain this OP set is by joining the Wanderer’s Valley school. Although this allows you to upgrade the set all the way up to level 13, it’s really not worth. Wanderer’s Valley offers nothing else besides this set. You’re good to just buy it off the market.

Compared to most items in the game, it’s relatively cheap. And even though you can get it only up to level 5 (4 for some skills), it’s all you need.

Alternatively, you can participate in the script raiding event which takes place from Monday to Saturday at 7 PM server time. If the raided school is Wanderer’s Valley, you’ll be able to farm the whole set yourself.

Just keep in mind it will take you a lot more time to do it this way. But even if you do have the set, you should still join the event. Selling the pages is a good way to earn money.

However, getting the set is not the end of the journey. You will then need to purchase Twin Daggers, ideally of Jade quality. This will maximize your damage output. Additionally, you should farm weapon manuals to make this set even stronger.

21. Focus on meridians instead of inners

The common playstyle trap for beginner players is to level up your main inner up to the highest power level, Keep Your Own Counsel. While you do want to get there, the stats you get from unlocking meridian levels are far stronger. Thus, you should first level inner every schools’ first, second, and third inners to levels 25, 20, and 20 respectively.

You can unlock these inners easily by getting an alt. If you’re too lazy to do the hard work, you can buy them from other players. Getting the breakthrough pages is then easy – just farm Heroes daily and you’ll get there eventually.

The Hero event also gives you Wulin books. These can be exchanged at an NPC in Suzhou for cultivation pills for every school inner up to Tier 3. I strongly recommend using only these pills to level up these ‘trash’ inners. It’s more efficient in the long run since it allows you to focus on other skills.

Once you do that, level up your school’s fourth and fifth inner up to level 30. As for the sixth inner, you want to max it out. This will give you one full meridian which (usually) complements your school’s playstyle.

After this, things get a bit trickier. While there are many ways to get the other meridians, the most cost-efficient one is to use 5 Aggregates and Demon Subduing Items. For the sake of being as concise as possible, I will call them 5-Aggs throughout the rest of the article.

These item allow you to unlock almost any meridian in the game. However, it will cost quite a lot of cultivation points. So make sure you have enough of those before you attempt to unlock them!

As for Reverse Meridians, these are easy. Once you start travelling to subsect, you will get them one by one. I suggest focusing on those you plan on using first.

20. Learn how the gear system works

In most MMORPGs, the gear system is quite intuitive. However, Wushu throws reason into the wind with most of its features, including gear. To a new player, the entire system can be overwhelming.

But not to worry, it only takes a bit of knowledge (which the game doesn’t provide you, unfortunately).

Firstly, each gear piece can have one of the following qualities: Wood, Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, and Jade. You’ll only ever want to buy Jade gear (Gold works too in PVE, if you don’t have money). The gear pieces also have a Class, the highest one being 7. I don’t recommend buying gear lower than C4.

To upgrade the class, you’ll always need a Black Jade Power (which costs roughly 150 Liangs) and a Binging Agent (which always costs 250 Liangs). To get your gear piece from C6 to C7, you’ll need 3 Black Jade Powers instead. As you can see, this makes upgrading it quite expensive.

Still, getting good equipment should be your primary goal. Save all money you get and use it to get C7 gear. Make sure the gear matches the attribute of your internal skills. Otherwise, you won’t get the additional stats.

As for the stats themselves, you should focus on those which are most useful to your build. External players will want Brawn while internal ones should go for Breath and Spirit. You can reroll these for free with Reset Tokens.

19. Focus on sets compatible with your inner

Apart from gear, your chosen attribute will affect which sets you’re going to use. Taichi users will get a 20% damage bonus when using Taichi skillsets and a 16% damage bonus if they use either Yin or Yang skillsets.

Yin or Yang users will get a 20% bonus when using sets of their respective attribute and a 16% bonus when using Taichi sets. If they use a set of their opposing attribute, they don’t gain any damage increase.

Thus, you should never use a set which has an attribute opposite to yours. The lack of 20% damage bonus will really show, whether in PVP or PVE.

This can be especially problematic if you are a Yang player. Perish Blade is a Yin set. I suggest you use Blood Blade Clan’s second set instead. It’s easy to get and has some healing in its kit.

As for PVP, people use mostly cash sets these days. All cash sets are Taichi unless you change their attribute. However, you don’t even need to do that. The 4% damage difference is minimal unless you are one of the top PVP players on the server.

18. Focus on only two weapon manuals at the beginning

Weapon Manuals are a great way to increase your damage output. You do these via Roaming the World interface. In the past, you had to play Taels to get bounties which give weapon manuals. Now, you get free tokens every day.

However, be prepared for a long grind. Even if you do all 7 runs (including the bonus run), it takes roughly 3 months to get to the max level.

But the huge grind-fest is just one of the reasons you should focus on only two weapons in the beginning. Another problem is cultivation points. After the breakthrough, each manual you use will consume cultivation points. To reach the max level, expect to waste a lot of them.

This can be problematic, since you need cultivation points to level your other internal skills and skillsets.

Since Perish Blade is such a strong set, the Twin Daggers manual should be your primary focus. The other one depends on which school you join. A Scholars player might go for either the Sword or Bare-Handed Manual while a Royal Guards player will want to invest in the Single Blade one.

17. Start collecting Jianghu inners as soon as you can

Jianghu inners are the strongest inners in the game. For PVP, almost everyone uses the Taoist Divination Skill. Thanks to its damage reduction and damage buffs, it beats every other inner in the game.

For PVE, I suggest using the Against Wordly Evil Skill. With its stackable damage bonus, it works exceptionally well with Perish Blade.

However, other Jianghu inners also have their uses. Sunset skill, for example, allows you to recover from CC. And every single one of them adds bonus stats to your Jianghu meridians. To be as strong as possible, you should collect them all.

Apart from buying them from other players, you can get them form the Tornado Event. This occurs either at 12 PM or 17 PM server time. Sadly, it’s RNG-based so it make take a while for you to get enough pages. Still, it’s the most reliable way you can get them for free.

16. Select your main inner early on and cultivate it to the maximum level

Once you get the hang of the basic mechanics, it’s time to choose your main inner. Sometimes, this will be your school’s 6th inner. Wudang, Tangmen, Emei, Shaolin, and Scholars all have great inners that you can main. If you chose any of those schools, focus on their respective inners.

However, other schools’ internal skills leave things to be desired. So how do you cope with that?

Well, that’s where subsects come in. Each school has its subsect which offers two inners and two skillsets. Their inners are often better than those from the original school.

If you joined Wanderer’s Valley, then you should definitely grab the 5 Immortal Sect’s internal skill. It’s easily the best free-to-play Taichi inner in the game. For Yang players, I recommend going to the Blood Blade Clan. Their inner is OP in both PVP and PVE. And finally, Yin players should consider the Ancient Tomb Sect. Their inner offers both offensive and defensive qualities.

15. Choose the right effects for your weapons and gear

As you upgrade the class of your equipment, you’ll notice that every piece of equipment has its special effect. In total, you can get up to three special effects. The gear is separated into three groups.

The first one consists of rings and your weapon. If they all have the same effect, it will activate. I suggest going with the one that adds extra damage. It’s reliable and it works in most scenarios.

The second group is just the chest piece. It activates by itself, so you don’t need to pair its special effect with any other equipment. The best choice here (at class 7) is the Treasure Cloak Protection, which absorbs 90% of damage for as long as it’s active.

Every remaining piece of your equipment affects the final effect. If you have at least 6 pieces with the same one, it will active. You should go for the Larva Cloak one for even more durability –as long as it is active, you won’t take damage.

14. Get the Buddha Heart Palm set

Buddha Heart Palm is a must-have Cash Shop set. It’s arguably the most used PVP set in the game. It’s ranged and deals stackable damage. Additionally, it has powerful support skills as well.

This includes CC immunity, Rage gathering, and HP recovery buffs. In the current state of the game, you practically can’t PVP without owning this set.

However, it’s no longer available in the Cash Shop. The only way you can get that is by becoming an S-VIP which is extremely expensive. Thousands-of-dollars level expensive. Fortunately, you can buy it from other players for 10 Dings. Alternatively, you can just buy a character that already owns it if you’re looking for cost-efficiency.

Once you get this set, your next focus will be getting 3 Bracers, each one having a 30% damage increase for one of the three offensive skills in this set. Getting them is very expensive since it involves a lot of RNG. But once you get there, you’ll win many more duels.

13. Consider getting useful inners from other schools

Getting available inners from other schools is always a good idea. Not only do they unlock new meridians for you but they also boost the stats of your Jianghu meridians. Some even have useful benefits when active.

The first and most important one is Mingyu Skill, the second inner from the Scholars. This inner boosts your movement speed by a whopping 33% at level 36. Movement speed is valuable for getting your dailies done as fast as possible and every player should invest into this inner as soon as possible.

Another strong internal skill is the Six Directions Canon, the second inner of Tangmen. Keep in mind that it’s useless below level 36. But once you do max it, you’ll be able to clear PVE content twice as fast. This is because of the debuff it adds on most mobs and bosses – they take additional damage from all sources. However, it doesn’t work on some of the new content.

Finally, consider getting the Flying String Feather Script. This is Emei’s third inner. It allows you to dash forward not just once, but up to 4 times consecutively. Paired with Mingyu skill, you’ll be able to dash across the map in a matter of seconds.

12. Get a house as soon as possible

Getting a house is important for one primary reason – the bonus 100,000 cultivation conversion you get every day. While your friends might invite you to theirs, it might not align with your schedule. Having your own house allows you to get a massive cultivation boost whenever you please.

Farming the tokens for it isn’t hard either. Just run a lot of low-tier instances and you can likely get one in two weeks.

In a recent update, you can also farm Black Jade Powders if you own the house. Simply unlock the Exploration building and try your luck every day. Though it’s not the fastest way to get this valuable material, it’s at least free!

A house also allows you to Teleport to the scene where it’s located. This can be useful for spying.

11. Buy Windrider with Wander points

It’s no secret that the grind in Wushu can be intense. One reason while daily/weekly activities take so long is because they are scattered across a huge map. To speed up this process, most people either buy mounts or Windrider.

While mounts are useful in some scenarios, they are quite expensive. Furthermore, you can’t use them in certain restricted areas. On the other hand, you can use Windrider wherever you please. Once you use it, you will run much faster.

If you have High-level flying skills, then you can jump over terrain and reach your destination even faster. Its only drawback is that you can’t use it in combat. Still, it’s far superior to mounts which can be very buggy sometimes.

So, how do you get a Windrider? Well, you can buy it in the Cash Shop for 45 gold. Other players tend to sell it for about 500 Liangs. In my opinion, this is a huge waste of money. You can get a 3-day Windrider for only 300 Wander points. You get 45 of these whenever you finish the Mind Demon daily event, for up to twice a day.

The Windrider package includes other useful items too, such as cultivation points and 5-Aggs. It amazes me how many veteran players don’t know about this option!

10. Collect 5 Aggregates and Demon Subduing Items

When you first enter the game, you'll be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of items you keep receiving every day. While some of them are useless, you'll want to farm other ones. 5 Aggregates and Demon Subduing Items are one such example.

Commonly referred to as 5-aggs, these allow you to unlock meridian levels without the need to level internal skills. Since your decision to join a school should be final, they are the best option for unlocking meridians from other schools.

But even if you already have them all unlocked, these items are still extremely useful – they allow you to unlock a Jianghu inner called Six Realms Lingxiao Supremacy. Although this powerful inner has the Yin attribute, it adds extra stats to your Jianghu meridians. This makes it a must-have for every player interested in the PVP.

Farming it is no small feat – it takes about 20,000 5-Aggs just to get it to the KYOC level. To go beyond that, it takes even more. It’s one of the hardest inners to obtain in the game but it’s very rewarding.

9. Collect Blood Plum Daggers

Blood Plum Daggers are incredibly important items and you should start collecting them as soon as possible. They allow you to unlock most Jianghu inners up to level 49. This means you don’t need to waste fragments on these lower levels.

You’ll also need for very high levels. And even if you don’t, they are always in demand. Thus, you can make a lot of money off them.

But how can you get your hands on these coveted items? Well, the most reliable instance to farm them would be the Uncontested Secret Area. Just keep in mind that this instance is tough to solo. But if you can do it, the spoils are all your own.

Desert Ghost Town is faster since you can do it in a team and still get your own Daggers. However, the drop rate is quite miserable.

8. Choose the right profession

Shortly into the game, you’ll be able to pick up multiple professions. Some of them can even add extra money to your pockets. Unfortunately, certain ones are just worthless.

They are split into four categories – Gathering, Manufacture, Culture, and Marketplace.

Let’s start with the Marketplace professions. While you don’t lose anything for taking them up, they are useless.

The Beggar profession allows you to beg from other players but most won’t give you anything. And even if they do, you only get a small portion of the money. The other one is Divinator. Just to level up, you’ll need a lot of Taels. This makes it useless.

Let’s move on to Gathering. These professions include Fishing, Mining, Woodcutting, Hunting, and Farming. Here, you can grab all of them without repercussions.

As for Culture professions, Weiqi Player and Musician are both splendid options. Weiqi players empower your arrays with buffs such as 25% more crit chance which is always useful. On the other hand, Musician is more defensive – it restores HP and IP for your teammates. Just keep in mind you can’t fight while you play music. Its passive nature might not be for everyone.

The other two, Scholar and Painter, have next to no use, so I won’t get into them.

And finally, we’ve reached the Manufacture professions. These are the most important ones in the game. At first, you can choose just one. Once you get it to level 9, you can add a second one. Since you can only get two out of the six options, you’d better choose wisely!

The first one is Chef. As you may expect, this allows you to cook meals. Basic meals will just restore your Nutrition value. However, more advanced dishes will give you powerful buffs. It’s all-around a great profession, although you won’t make that much money out of it. You can also enhance weapons.

The next one is Poison Maker. This allows you to create poisons and enhance equipment. However, the poisons have a very niche use and are generally not very useful – even though they buff you, they also apply a debuff. Worse still, they last for less than a minute. I wouldn’t recommend choosing this profession unless you plan to pair it with Tailor.

The Herbalist profession allows you to craft pills (essentially potions in other MMORPGs). Some restore HP while others boost your stats for an hour. As Herbalist, you can also enhance jewelry pieces. While some pills are always in demand, it’s not the most lucrative career choice in the game. Still, it beats Poison Maker.

The last three professions allow you to craft gear pieces. As a Tailor, you can make Headgear, Clothes, Pants, Bracers, Leggins, and Shoes). Craftsman allows you to create Rings, Earrings, and Necklaces. And Blacksmiths, as the name implies, allow you to make weapons.

Since new players always need gear, these professions are the most lucrative ones in the game. However, expect to deal with a lot of RNG. Most people won’t buy anything under Class 4. But to make Class 4 equipment, you need rare materials that drop in difficult instances. Then, you’ll need a worktable that has even poorer drop-rate.

Now, you might think it’s best to just buy all these items. Unfortunately, you can’t escape the clutches of RNG even then – it’s random whether you get Jade-quality gear or not! Despite this, I recommend choosing at least one of these professions.

7. Save your Monthly Sign-In Gift for cultivation points

As its name suggests, you receive a Monthly Sign-In Gift once every month. Most people use it to unlock new meridians early in the game. But once they unlock all the relevant ones, they forget all about this item.

Well, it has another use. You can exchange it for 3 million cultivation points at an NPC in Suzhou once a month. You always need cultivation points. Once they drop to zero, you won’t be able to level until you replenish them. This is one of the best ways to gain them for free.

6. Make sure you do all the important weekly events

A lot of players skip important weekly tasks. By doing so, they make their progression even slower than it would normally be.

For instance, you should run the 4-Family quests every single week. They give you a lot of family tokens which you can exchange into 5-Aggs. Once you hit 1,000 Tokens, buy any C6 Raw Jade and disenchant it into 5-Aggs. The weekly events are done in a team of six and they will never take longer than one hour (assuming you have good teammates).

Another important thing to do is to run at least 7 instances a week. While you can run more if you have disciples, the seven free ones are already a handful. The best instance to run is the Uncontested Secret Area.

Not only does it drop valuable Blood Plum Darts, but also expensive materials which you’ll have no trouble selling. However, it’s quite difficult to solo.

If you’re looking for a team run, consider Desert Ghost Town. It can drop rare items, although you’ll have to roll for them.

If you don’t have much time, then you can always just solo Qingyao Palace. This Forbiddance Instance drops Desolate Beast Stones and Demon Gate Tokens, both of which you need for every high-tier inners and skillsets. Each run should only take you 10 minutes.

Lastly, you should hit 1,000 Activity Points every week. The package boxes contain cultivation pills that will speed your leveling tremendously. If you do daily and weekly quests regularly, you shouldn’t have trouble hitting the last milestone.

5. Start a Mandragora flower garden

The Mandragora flower garden is a very obscure event. However, it gives amazing rewards, especially given how little effort you need to put into it. All you need to begin is 100 Family tokens which are quite easy to obtain. Then, you farm flowers until you unlock all 8 plots. Once you do, you just have to buy the 270-flower package to get 30 5-Aggs.

The package also gives some cultivation points and Travelling Tokens. These allow you to reset your teleportation cooldown whenever you want. The best part? They have no expiration date – you can hoard as many of them as you want.

4. Don’t kill too many other players at one time

As you grow in power, you may be tempted to try out PVP. I suggest trying friendly duels first. Though you can attack and potentially kill any player you encounter, doing so will increase your infamy. Once it reaches 2,000 points, your name will turn red.

If you die in this state – by any means – the game will automatically send you to jail. Bailing yourself out is very expensive and you’ll likely have to sit through it for as long as an entire day, depending on how much infamy you gained.

Sadly, the value reduces only while you are logged in. In other words, you’ll have to stare at your character until your jail-time’s over.

3. Join a guild

Every MMORPG has the option to join a guild. Wushu is no different. Even if you are not a social person, it provides you with many free benefits. For one, it will increase your maximum vigor value. Vigor is necessary to perform any lifeskill action. The higher the value, the more time you can spend gathering and crafting.

But the main appeal is the Guild Escort event. This will give cultivation pills and activity points. At certain milestones, you gain even more rewards.

You can also participate in Guild Task for even more rewards. However, you have to be VIP to reap these benefits. Some guilds also host their own events. For example, if you contribute to the guild in some way, the leaders will give you free items such as mounts.

In the beginning, you’ll want to join a PVE guild. PVP guilds in this game take their rivalry very seriously. If members of an enemy guild see you, they will attack you immediately.

2. Create alts

Alts are additional characters you can make besides your main account. In most MMORPGs, you usually don’t have a reason to do so. But in Wushu, having an alt or two can make life a lot easier for you.

For one, you can use alts to farm every other school’s inners up to the third. It takes two weeks of spying to get all three per school. While it may be time-consuming, it’s the most cost-efficient way to obtain them.

Additionally, alt can expand your storage space. Even with the best Bags in the game and the bank fully expanded, you’ll still have way too many items on your hands.

Well, alts can help you carry that burden – literally. Just dump every unbound item onto another account. It will truly feel as if a great weight’s been lifted off your shoulders.

Alts can also help you keep an Online Stall whenever you play. Just keep the other window running in the background at the lowest settings.

Lastly, Untapped Potential alts are a great way for you to farm Mind Demons – the boss will be so weak then you can solo it. This works even better if you make them into your disciples – you’ll get even more free stuff!

1. Have fun

Although it might seem cliché of me to place this tip on top of the list, allow me to explain. While you likely play every game to have fun, Wushu can become very taxing over time. Especially if you fall into the mindless grind-fest.

I’m not lying when I say that it has so many activities that you’ll never run out of stuff to do. Even if you play 24/7, you simply can’t get everything done. This can be very frustrating. I used to no-life this game for a while but I don’t recommend following (too closely) in my footsteps.

The sad truth is that most people spend thousands of dollars on this game just to build stronger characters. No amount of grinding will ever allow you to catch up to them.

The PVP aspect can also be frustrating for the same reason. You’re very likely to lose to players who spent this much money on the game. Thus, my advice is to approach the game casually. Just level up, do the dailies you like, and socialize with your guild. It’s a much healthier approach than trying to reach an impossible goal. Too many people take games way too seriously for their own good.

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Two enemies spotted each and chose to fight to the death. But do they have what it takes to prevail?

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The 17 Best Free RPG Games Ever Made

Damien_S — Tue, 23 May 2017 03:01:36 +0000

What’s better than an RPG? A free RPG

17. Neverwinter

Neverwinter Gameplay

Neverwinter will sound familiar to many gamers, and for good reason. While it is not technically part of the Neverwinter Nights series, it is set in the eponymous city of Neverwinter. While Neverwinter does suffer from many of the problems of MMO’s, there are a lot of things it does do very well. While a lot of MMO’s focus very heavily on the PVP angle, Neverwinter tries to be more story oriented and consequently more worthy of its Dungeons and Dragons brand.

You’ll start your journey as your ship is sunk, leaving you unconscious on the shore. You will make your way to Neverwinter, which has plunged into chaos following the disappearance of the last Lord of Neverwinter. As one would expect, a great many villains and problems raise their heads, and it falls to you to become the hero that Neverwinter so badly needs.

It has most everything you’d expect form an MMO, but with a well done Dungeons and Dragons vibe.

Gameplay is pretty much what you’d expect from a game in this genre, you choose a race for your character, choose a class for your character, and set out on your adventure. Basically if you enjoyed all those Dungeons & Dragons PC games, like Baldur’s Gate, and Neverwinter Nights, you’ll probably get some fun out of Neverwinter.

Between it being free to play, having some decent DLC, and being currently on consoles as well; there’s essentially no reason for any RPG or D&D fan not to give this one a shot.

Download Nevewinter Here

I do like RPGs that allow you to actually look and feel like a badass, Neverwinter does this well

Doing dungeons with friends is definitely a major strength Neverwinter has over similar single player D&D games

16.Vindictus

Vindictus Gameplay

Vindictus has a special place in my heart. There are hands-down almost no MMO’s on the market currently with a better combat system. When you are slicing through enemies in Vindictus, it really feels like you are playing a single-player action RPG. It just flows that beautifully.

In Vindictus, you don’t pick a class in the traditional MMO sense; instead you choose a character. Characters are class and gender locked. There are currently ten options. Each character has an entirely different combat style allowing for you to approach the game in multiple different gameplay styles.

The storyline is broken up into different “seasons”, which will be familiar to players of Mabinogi. In fact a great many things about this game will likely be familiar to Mabinogi players, as it is set in the same universe (several hundred years before Mabinogi though).

So if you like fast paced action RPGs and you like free things, definitely go and download this one.

Download Vindictus Here

Extreme Tug of War

Any RPG that doesn’t have dragons in it barely counts as an RPG

15.Rift

Rift Gameplay

In Rift you enter the world of Telara, a world under siege. Telara is the focal point of the various elemental planes (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, and Death), each of which is governed by a dragon personification of their element.

These Dragon gods have turned their eyes towards Telara, and have begun an assault upon the world.

With the world in the balance, it falls to you as one of the “Ascended”, long dead super-human warriors resurrected to face this threat. There are six races split between two factions; the Guardians, and the Defiant. The Guardians are religious and spiritual, and players in this faction will be resurrected after dying in battle against the evil that is attacking the world, and sent back to the beginning of the rift. The Defiant, on the other hand place their faith in science and go against the religion of the Guardians. Players in the Defiant faction will be brought back to life with advanced science as the world nears destruction, and are sent back in time to the beginning of the rift.

It has been called one of the best MMOs in years, and has raised over a $100 million in revenue. If you are interested in a more traditional MMO adventure, with a very solid player base then this one is certainly worth checking out.

Download Rift here

All else aside, you should play this game because it has shark mounts with legs!

“Welcome to Innsmouth little man.”

14.Mabinogi

Mabinogi Gameplay

Ah, Mabinogi … Mabi is one of those games that I play for a few hundred hours, delete, and then after a few months re-download and play for another few hundred hours. I never truly get bored of it, and they are constantly improving it with new content so every time I come back the game is just different enough to really grab my attention.

Earlier I said that Vindictus was without a doubt the best MMO action rpg on the market today, well Mabinogi is also the best at something. Made by the same team, and taking place in the same universe, Mabi is one of the most wide-open and free MMOs out there. You really can do just about anything you want in Mabi. Do you want to be a gallant hero and save the world? Go for it. Do you want to be a tailor and sew amazing outfits that you can then sell to other players? Great! Do you want to make powerful weapons worthy of legend and sell them to those gallant heroes? We’ve got you covered.

There is a storyline in Mabi, divided into seasons and chapters just like Vindictus, but you can (as I imagine many players do) completely ignore this and go out to do your own thing. Add to that that there are no class restrictions to speak of (I made a jack of all trades character that was strong with a sword and magic, but also a tailor and a shape shifter) so long as you invest the time and effort your character can learn just about any mixture of skills that appeal to your vision for your character.

I keep coming back to Mabi and I suspect that will remain a fact for a long time to come. However no MMO is online forever, and missing out on this one would be a true loss. So don’t miss out, go check it out and see if it’s for you.

Download Mabinogi Here

Style is a big part of Mabi for a lot of players

There are so many mounts to get too, though the flying ones are by far the best

13.Age of Wushu

Age of Wushu is not your typical MMO RPG. It’s a martial arts MMORPG.

There’s a description I never thought I’d have occasion to use.

In Age of Wushu, you pick a faction to join (Shaolin, Wudang, Emei, Beggar’s Sect, Tang Clan, Scholars academy, Royal Guard, or Blissful Valley) and set out on your adventure. Factions take the place of more traditional classes, though the only skills that are specific to each faction is their internal skill. This lack of traditional classes also comes with the added bonus that there are no level caps either.

There are three types of skill that can be utilized in combat, and there is a rock, paper, scissors-like system in place.

The plotline is set in the early Ming Dynasty, as the Emperor has died and created a massive power vacuum. The perfect place for an adventurer to get his start!

Download Age of Wushu here

You do not know the power, of the dark side

You don’t really get much in the way of martial arts games in general.

12. Lord of the Rings Online

Lord of the Rings Online Gameplay

Alright so this one is exactly what it sounds like, and that is very far from a bad thing.

In LotR Online you start off on your journey at the same time as Frodo leaves the Shire. You can play one of five races (Dwarf, Elf, Human, Beorning, or Hobbit) and play as either gender in all races other than Dwarf for whom no gender option is provided. There is seven classes in the base game with more added via expansion packs.

There’s too much great about this game to cover easily here, so I’ll just cover some of the things that really make it unique.

For starters there’s music. Music is a big part of the LotR universe and LotR Online doesn’t disappoint in this regard. Starting at level 5 you can play instruments, of which there are many throughout the game. This allows you to play actual music written or transcribed by the community, as the instruments are fully playable (not just useful for playing scripted songs like in most RPGs). This gives way to music concerts and festivals in-game organized by players and makes the world feel that much more real.

Then there is the notable lack of magic. There are skills that work in a similar fashion to magic, and items that are enchanted; but there’s no option to be a mage/wizard in this game. In keeping with the lore, there are only five wizards in middle-earth and none of them are your character.

The storyline is broken up into chapters, with more being added via free updates and DLC. There are five DLC packs for LotR Online at present.

For a time this was the third most played mmo on the internet. Whilst not as strong as it once was, it’s still every bit the amazing game that it was. So if you like epic fantasy, or are just a LotR nut like I am; then you simply have to go out and download this one.

Download Lord of the Rings Online Here

Riders of Rohan vs Uruks of Isengard

“Smooooke on the waaaater …”

11.Dungeons and Dragons Online

Dungeons and Dragons Online Gameplay

Alright, so I talked about Neverwinter a little while ago and how if you liked those older PC RPGs you’d probably like it. This is firmly in that category too, in fact I would definitely say it’s a much stronger entry. Dungeons and Dragons Online is the undisputed king of online D&D. Much like Neverwinter, your adventures will be primarily centered around one city. Instead of the city of Neverwinter, you will be focusing your efforts of protecting the city of Stormreach.

The dangers you will save the city from are varied and legion, with more being added with every additional story update.

Unlike typical D&D, DDO uses real-time combat instead of turn-based combat, helping keep the flow and pacing of combat a lot more lively.

There are 9 playable races, and 14 classes open to all races. Also, as anyone familiar with D&D will likely expect, you can multi-class your character with no penalty or restrictions (other than your characters alignment) on what multi-class combination you choose to go with.

This is a very pure D&D experience and if that sounds at all interesting to you, then this one should bring you a great deal of fun. It certainly did for me.

Download Dungeons and Dragons Online here

And yes guys, there are in fact dungeons and dragons to be found here

You know what they say, *snicker* beauty is in the eye of the … yeah okay, I’ll just see myself out

10. DC Universe Online

Now, full disclosure; I am not a huge DC fan. I’m a Marvel fan through and through … so it’s worth keeping that in mind when I tell you that this game is very close to being exactly the kind of superhero game I always wanted to play. It’s not perfect, it has its faults but it is a very strong entry on this list.

DC Universe Online takes place as Brainiac is preparing to invade earth. In the future he manages this by causing the majority of the heroes and villains to wipe each other out, whilst slowly downloading their powers so that when they are all gone he can create an army of meta-humans that will do his bidding. After his successful conquest of earth, Lex Luther (one of the only survivors of the fighting) manages to steal these downloaded powers and load them into tiny robots that can bond with human beings, called “Exobytes”. Lex then travels back in time before the invasion and releases the Exobytes into the atmosphere so that they will bond with people and create hundreds of new meta-humans that can then be trained to repel Brainiac’s incoming invasion. You are one of these new meta-humans.

You have a huge amount of freedom creating your character with a great many different powers to choose form, different methods of movement (Super speed, agility, flight) and costume options (which you get more of through the game) to name a few things. Then of course you get the biggest choice of the game, to be a hero or a villain. Which you choose will decide the entire storyline for you as well as your starting point in the game world.

Some of the missions are very hard, and after you beat the main storyline the game does a massive difficulty jump … but it’s a very fun romp through the DC universe, and probably far more so if you are solidly into that universe. I just hope Marvel does something similar someday.

Download DC Universe Online here

I don’t often have my own screenshots kicking around, but in this rare occasion I shall share with you guys what my villain looked like.

Also can someone get Trigon some pants?

9.Star Trek Online:

Star Trek Online Gameplay

MMO’s generally cover all the big fandoms. You’ve got Marvel, DC, Lord of the Rings, and of course; Star Trek.

Star Trek Online is … well … big. Instead of being stuck one island or world, you have a ship and can explore space. Because Star Trek wouldn’t really Star Trek if you weren’t … well, Treking through space.

The game takes place thirty years after Star Trek: Nemesis. Relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire have fallen apart and war has broken out between the two factions. The Dominion is rebuilding, the Borg have returned and the Romulans are trying to come to terms with the loss of their planet twenty years prior.

Into this war torn universe, you start your journey. You can choose to join the Federation, Klingons, or Romulans; and from there your story begins. You will get a ship (and there is plenty of room to improve and replace that ship) and from there you are free to forge your own adventure through the galaxy.

Like most of the other entries on this list, there are DLC and frequent updates that add more and more content to this game, and there likely will be for years still to come.

Download Star Trek Online here

There aren’t that many games that really manage to blend space combat/exploration and ground combat/exploration; but Star Trek Online does it well

You of course have a great deal of freedom in what your character looks like as well, on top of ship customization and such

8.Star Wars: The Old Republic Online

The Old Republic Online Gameplay

Alright, so it’s only fair that I mention ahead of time that Star Wars is one of my favourite things out there. I have at this point, I think played nearly every Star Wars game out there on any platform. So it’s from that position that I say that this is one of the best out there.

The Old Republic takes place in the same era as the Knights of the Old Republic games, though it is set a few hundred years after Knights of the Old Republic 2. The galaxy is divided between the Republic and the Sith Empire, who are at an uneasy peace after a ceasefire was signed between the two powers. With war an inevitability, it is just a question of which side will shoot first.

You have multiple races to choose from, and eight classes (four for each side). Each class has its own multiple chapter storyline, which (along with all other interactions in the game) is fully voiced with dialogue options and a morality system just like the Knights of the Old Republic games that spawned it; you even have companion characters that you can build relationships with and even romance, in a few cases.

There have been very few MMORPGs that have come even close to the level of depth that The Old Republic manages. While there are still the occasional fetch and carry sort of missions you tend to expect from an MMO, it usually does a very good job of keeping things interesting and varied.

Downoad The Old Republic Online here

If you like dark side characters, there’s a lot of options to play with in that regard. Say hello to Darth Highgate, the wrath of the Emperor.

Also, if you are a fan of Knights of the Old Republic you might be excited that there is a DLC in which Revan returns

7.Wildstar

Wildstar Gameplay

If you’re looking for something a little bit more bright and colourful, then this one is the one for you.

Long ago, an advanced alien race called the Eldan created what they hoped was a perfect being. However as is so often the case with these sorts of stories, their creation was not as perfect as they had hoped. It developed a malicious secondary personality that the Eldan tried to eradicate. However all they managed to do was anger this personality, and it used its great power to wipe out every Eldan on the planet. It’s more benevolent half was horrified by this and sealed them both away.

In Wildstar you take on the role of a member of one of two factions; The Exiles, and the Dominion. The Dominion is a powerful human empire that encapsulates multiple galaxies. Their empire was built with the help of the Eldan, and when their benefactors vanished they slowly elevated to god-status in the Dominion. The Exiles, on the other hand, rejected this notion and left Dominion space; slowly making friends with all those that the Dominion had rubbed the wrong way.

Now at long last, the homeworld of the Eldan, Nexus, has been re-discovered. The Exiles want it to finally give their people a home, and the Dominion sees it as a holy site that they must claim and protect. As the two sides fight over Nexus, little do they know that the “perfect” last creation of the Eldan is still imprisoned on Nexus, just waiting to be let lose upon the galaxy.

Wildstar has an open world that the player is free to explore, taking on quests and doing dungeons as one would tend to expect from an MMO.

With an art style similar to that of Overwatch or Borderlands, and an interesting and unique plot line; this one is definitely worth a look-see.

Download Wildstar here

…Hellboy?

With a name like Wildstar, you knew there had to be at least something remotely cowboy-ish, let’s be honest

6.Blade and Soul

Blade and Soul Gameplay

Blade and Soul is another game with very strong combat. It uses a real time combat system that relies heavily on your ability to string attacks together into combos, much like you would do in any single player combat game. Combat in Blade and Soul is a mixture of martial arts and acrobatics.

In Blade and Soul you can choose between four races to play, each based upon on of the “four benevolent animals” of Chinese folklore (Dragon, Turtle, Phoenix, Kirin), and then between nine classes.

The game is designed to be very fast paced with fluid combat that feels very much like a single player game. It achieves this quiet well, making for one of the better combat experiences out there at the moment.

So, begin your journey of vengeance today with Blade and Soul, this is one title you’re not going to want to miss out on.

Download Blade and Soul here

PVP action in this game really feels like a duel rather than your typical running around button mashing action you get in most PVP

Phoenixes, Turtles, and Chimera-things are cool and all, but Dragons are where it’s at

5.Marvel Heroes

Marvel Heroes Gameplay

Marvel Heroes is one game I’m sort of eternally on the fence about. It’s Marvel, which I love and it has a huge amount of characters that I love in it available to unlock and play (I have Loki and Ghost Rider on my one account) … but then it has an isometric camera and is focused more on combat than story.

Marvel Heroes can basically be summed up by saying, if Diablo and Marvel Ultimate Alliance had a baby, it would be this game.

You will quickly get at least one character you really want, and begin your quest to save the world by fighting your way through hordes of enemies. One catastrophe after another will raise its ugly head to threaten the world, but it wouldn’t really be a Marvel game if that wasn’t the case.

The game has around 60 playable characters at the moment, but more are being added all the time. With the game having just made the transition to being on consoles as well, we can only expect more updates.

Download Marvel Heroes here

Of course, when movies come out they tend to release skins for characters to make them look like their cinematic counter-parts, so that can be nice if you really like the movies

The Isometric camera really lets you negotiate large scale fights more easily

4.Wakfu

Wafku Gameplay

Wakfu is an odd one. I hadn’t heard much about it before starting on this article, but it’s really an interesting game that’s pretty unique.

The game is a tactical turn-based rpg, where you explore a massive world doing … well more or less what you want to do. The possibilities are near endless here. Though the game boasts that it has no standard classes, it’s still interesting that what it does offer allows you to make a playstyle that suits you. Do you want to focus on combat? Perhaps you’d like to go into politics?

I know what you’re thinking, “Politics? What does he mean?” Well, one of the really cool things about Wakfu is that you can go into politics and be elected as Governor, or a minister to the Governor and actually shape how politics work in the world for a time. You can also actually shape a part of the world via guild’s haven worlds. There’s even an ecosystem that can be impacted if you kill to much of one thing.

This game is just so intricate and alive, I’m really rather sad that it doesn’t get anywhere near the publicity it deserves. Hopefully this list helps a little with that though, because this game really deserves some love.

So if you want to try something in a class all of its own, or maybe are just looking for something to sink a few hours into; check this one out. Not only is it free, but it’s download size is tiny (a real rare thing in MMOs) so you can probably download it and have it installed in less than ten minutes with a reasonable internet connection.

It also has a very upbeat art style that’s kind of infectiously positive

Just look at that colour pallet

3.Aion

Aion Gameplay

In Aion you fight to reclaim what remains of a world that has literally split in two. The Balaur, the descendants of dragons that were created as guardians by the god Aion, broke the world. Now it’s up to you, as a member of either the Asmodian or Elyos faction, to reclaim what is left of the world and vanquish the Balaur once and for all.

Aion has a unique focus on flight in its gameplay. At level ten you become a Daeva, a powerful demi-god devoted to the protection of the realm. This comes with a fair few perks but arguably the coolest of them is that you get a set of wings out of it. It’s not uncommon for MMO’s to allow you to fly on a mount or in a vehicle, but it’s a special kind of feeling flying on your own wings. To start you won’t be able to fly that long, and you can only fly in specific areas … but gliding is something you can nearly always do and that is essential to getting around.

This is a particularly beautiful game, so it’s definitely one to try especially if you have a relatively powerful gaming set up.

Download Aion here

Did I mention that they weren’t just wings, but pretty impressive wings?

Flight really is the best way to see a world

2.Archeage

Archeage Gameplay

Archeage is set in a zoneless open-world sandbox that can be played from the first or third-person perspective.

The plot line is pretty uninspiring but don’t let that turn you off of this, because the sheer wealth of things to do more than makes up for it.

For starters, you can build buildings just about anywhere, which can be really nice if you see a place that just screams “this is where you want to live”. Branching off of that, you are able to plant gardens that you can then farm. There’s also an intricate trading system complete with trade routes if you’d prefer just to take goods from city to another for profit.

Mounts are handled a little differently in Archeage as well, as you get them as a baby and have to raise and train them. This is an interesting mechanic and it serves to make you feel a lot more connected to that starter horse or pet.

Another interesting system at work here, is the criminal justice system that runs on player-run courts. Players are served jury summons and if they agree to be a juror they will help decide the sentencing of players that have committed theft or murder. The guilty party is then expected to either work off their bounty, or potentially try and escape by tunnelling out.

Basically you can just ignore the plotline and delve into the world and you will likely not be bored for quite some time.

Another thing you can do is build yourself a ship and become a pirate!

Or instead of building yourself a house, you could also build yourself a castle

1.TERA

TERA Gameplay

TERA is a very well loved game, and that is for good reason. It manages to be both everything you’d usually expect from an MMO, but doing it all so well that you don’t care how much of a stereotype it is.

All the details are there, the hot bar for attacks, the questing and crafting systems, raids; it is every inch a typical MMO in what it has on offer, but while many of the games on this list went in a different direction from MMORPGs of the past, TERA instead goes back and does those well-worn concepts better and polishes them up into something that really shines.

With Seven races to choose from, each with its own racial skills, it really satisfies my need for a decent character creation system. From there, you have a further 12 classes to choose from as well.

This game is beautiful too, it might well be the best looking game on this entire list. The characters are beautiful, the environments are breathtaking and the world design really just feels like a living, breathing fantasy world. If you’ve enjoyed other MMO’s like WoW, then this one you are absolutely sure to love.

I mean look how pretty this character is

The city design makes me think of Minas Tirith, but that’s not a bad thing

There is an amazing amount of really good free games out there right now. With so many subscription games making their way over to free to play, it’s a great time to be playing MMOs if you’d rather spend your money on things that matter … like cosmetic items inside the games that you are no longer paying to play.

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Come at me bro...