Summary

MMORPGs are a great way to socialize and make lifelong connections with other people, and the most successful ones often allow you to participate in taking out nigh-impervious bosses on a weekly basis in order to quickly farm gear and experience. Collaborating with a group of allies and taking out large-scale enemies can be a deeply satisfying experience.

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Good raids often include complex combat mechanics and require preparation, and a deep understanding of how your chosen class works can help you better than any over-leveled gear can. Some games excel at keeping the raids feeling fresh and offer you enough incentives to earn your time after you wind up “ending” the game.

7Star Wars: The Old Republic

Despite being a relatively oldsci-fi RPG adventure,Star Wars: The Old Republicretains quite a large audience and offers players the chance to team up to carry out large-scale operations. The mobs in the game aren’t too hard to farm and with a good chunk of players, a raid in this game can be considered manageable.

Although group tasks like operations hide behind a paywall, they can be challenging and engaging depending on the size of your team. The game even features story-based operations for your team to carry out and some spectacular sound design that keeps the battles engaging.

Promos For SWTOR Co-op & Operations

Not only that, in order to even take part in any operation you’d need a level 70 top-tier character and adequate combat skill in order to co-operate successfully with a group of 8–16 players. The fights are very challenging and unique, you also get tons of cool gear.

6Elder Scrolls Online

Creating your own character and gearing up for large-scale group challenges sounds fun, butElder Scrolls Onlineretains its notorious reputation for being a tough game by making sure you face up against some rather tanky enemies who come with their own team of murderous henchmen.

One wrong move can potentially cost you and your team the entire raid. These high stakes also come with huge rewards, so prepping for the battle and enduring a ton of punishment is actually worthwhile even though some of the harder trial bosses can take about three hours to put down and their moves wildly vary.

Players in Elder Scrolls Online fighting a trial boss together

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Even getting ready to start a hardcore trial will take a ton of commitment on your end and considering how hard and demanding each raid boss can be, you’re most likely going to be waiting around till you’re at least level 170 and capable of reinforcing your best armor sets or monster set using a transmuter.

5EVE Online

Awe-inspiring battles in space between an assortment of ships and thousands of players sound like a Star Wars fan’s dream come true until the veil of corporate hierarchy and war politics is lifted.EVE Onlinefeatures captivating and well-detailed battleships that cost a lot of in-game currency to acquire and your friendly neighborhood megacorp will finance your kamikaze in exchange for space glory.

The game gives you the option to join factions or coalitions with hundreds of other players. The raids you can perform with your coalition can include a full-on head-to-head war between the main capital fleets that harbor doomsday weapons capable of wide-scale destruction or a role on the sidelines where you give out the strategic orders. EVE is a very realistic experience despite the premise of the game.

Eve Online Faction Warfare

4Albion Online

Albion Online is an MMORPG sandbox experience that features different zones where players can interact with each other. There are many ways one can choose to interact with the world which includes PVP or PVE playstyles. The Avalonian Dungeons feature some rather tanky bosses that require a team of skilled players to make sure everyone survives.

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Although Albion’s main raid bosses aren’t revolutionary, they’re still fairly complex and yet forgiving enough to have you enjoy the experience regardless. The economy and trading system in this game are high-stakes since you lose everything if you die in certain zones, and actually mimic the vibe of a real-world system. The game’s rather popular and offers cross-platform play as well, hence there are thousands of players online ready to join you on your epic quests.

3Final Fantasy 14

FF14has a complicated raid boss difficulty system with risks and rewards that differ based on the difficulty of your task. Failure can often result in your death and there’s no going back once you’ve been wiped out. A slip-up can even cost the entire group. To join one, you’re able to either look for a party or start your own “static” group that plays or attempts a raid every week.

Ultimate tier battles with raid bosses require months of prep time and often yield the best rewards for successful end-game players who are willing to put up with complicated rules that serve to legitimize their run.

a sky view of an Albion Online Battle

These raids aren’t meant for casual PVE players who aren’t looking forward to memorizing their roles and duties for each phase of the boss. Hardcore groups can often dedicate 12 hours of their day to commit to grinding and farming in-game.

2Guild Wars 2

For a game that’s unconventional in certain ways,Guild Wars 2is exceptionally beginner-friendly when it comes to the kinds of raids it offers, and the rewards you can get actually encourage you to participate in them and customize your gear. Despite how old certain raid challenges are, the drops you get are still very good and that helps with the replayability.

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Not only that, the game also offers more experienced players a challenge with other raid bosses that have far more complex combat mechanics and demand an extra level of attention and knowledge from you.

1World Of Warcraft

World of Warcraftisn’t just one of the oldest MMORPGs out there, but it’s also one of the most popular ones. The game excels at providing you with a social experience and boasts a large community of players from around the globe. Not only that, it alsofeatures a huge mapfor you to roam around and grind in all sorts of ways.

Find the right guild, learn the ropes with them, and start conquering dungeons as soon as you’re ready. WoW players tend to build up their characters in specific ways in order to contribute to their allies’ initiative. There are all kinds of raid bosses that feature different kinds of attacks and weaknesses.

Party Finder menu in FF14

You might need to challenge a few dungeons to get the right gear for your raid. Since there’s a large player base, it’s easier to find players near your skill level too.

World of Warcraft - a raiding team facing a large blue dragon