Image source: Guild Wars 2 Wiki

At some point, every MMO turns into a battle zone of prideful players claiming which game was either the first or the best to come around. Most of the time, the criteria for a title to land atop the best list would be based unfairly on its raid boss scene or how difficult and enjoyable its endgame content is. For the sake of fanning the flames on the age-old arguments, we ve rounded up of the finest endgame raid boss experiences of the past two decades.

It should be noted that due to the nature of these game s ever-expanding content, most, if not all of these bosses can no longer be experienced in their original way. This list serves merely as a way to chronicle the time members of the community often cited as a high-point in their game s lifespan.

Image source: zoequeenofthecastle.wordpress.com

Living Liquid also nicknamed Pepsiman by keen-eyed 90s kids was the first real blockade in Final Fantasy XIV's first expansion. The penultimate encounter of the top-level raid scenario earned the title of Raid Breaker much like a certain other boss we ll detail next.

Taking on many forms as a shapeshifting fluid, Living Liquid severely punished players unable to quickly communicate with their team. With the need to juggle a ton of mechanics (and blobs) at the same time while still expected to push crazy damage numbers, teams had to find ways to ease the pressure on their more powerful members a tactic luck wouldn t always permit.Nearly every little mistake against this shimmering muscleman punished teams with death. By the end of its first month of availability, only 212 individuals managed to beat the puddle (around 36 teams) of a 4-million-strong player base. Countless groups threw in the towel here.

See the fight in action here.

Image source: WoW DB

Algalon was a secret, optional boss featured beyond a great door in Ulduar arguably one of the best raid scenarios of World of Warcraft's long history. Only accessible for a one-hour period each week after clearing the structure's 'final' boss, Algalon the Observer was a spiritual return to punishing raid bosses of yore. Nicknamed Raid Destroyer' by a Blizzard employee before release, Algalon ignited community discussion that he might hearken back to the Burning Crusade days of brutally difficult encounters. They were right.

It took almost 2 months for players to stop this killswitch of the gods, and another month for the game's finest to do so without a single death. The skies of Dalaran would even show the stars whenever the apparition s judgement was thwarted, announcing through a town crier that their server s finest had saved their skin.

See the fight in action here.

Image source: Guild Wars 2 Wiki

As one of Guild Wars 2's timed world events, Tequatl required strict coordination between over 50 members, forcing multiple parties to form up and take on specific roles. A small team of six would be encouraged to man siege cannons with another 20 typically employed to split up and protect them leaving 30 to 40 players tasked with going toe-to-claw with the wyrm itself.

Finding 50 to 60 competent players willing to communicate over voice comms was the least of their worries. With ArenaNet's server congestion methods seemingly working against the idea of the encounter, players often found themselves in the 'Overflow' world after being ejected by a server struggling to handle the influx of bloodthirsty heroes a metaboss, if you will.

See the fight in action here.

Image source: Retrosensei.net

When Square Enix set this boss free on Vana Diel in Final Fantasy XI, nobody quite knew how to deal with it and they never would. Absolute Virtue cycled through each class powerful two-hour cooldown skills every 45 to 90 seconds while gradually regaining health, increasing its damage resistance, and dishing out more pain as the fight went on.

Due to its sheer amount of abilities and variables, players wouldn't beat Absolute Virtue for a long time even after an infamous 18-hour brawl with party members succumbing to physical fatigue before the night was up. With Square Enix combating bad press of the incident by patching in a two-hour despawn timer, the beast is said to have never been defeated in its originally intended manner. It eventually took the abuse of a team full of classes capable of rotating 'Perfect Defense a powerful skill introduced long after the encounter to take Virtue down.

Each method of exploiting Absolute Virtue was subsequently patched, with forum threads sometimes reaching close to 100 pages packed with attempted strategies and the encouragement of curious onlookers. Nothing came close to this level of OP absurdity ever again.

See the fight in action here.

Welcome back, King Caterpillar! The Hard Mode version of the Wonderholme raid divided opinions just as much as its original difficulty. Players would often cite overlooked bugs (not a pun) and optimization issues as reasons why most couldn t reliably clear the encounter, but most would recall the overall experience as a step above what came after.

Due in part to TERA s fresh take on MMO combat, its raid bosses or lack of these days were not all too different to some of the larger single-player monsters seen in the field. The Bandersnatch, on the other hand, was a unique creature that showed just how easy it was for a giant angry grub with a cube floating above a skewered, sentient hand to slaughter an experienced group in no time.

See the fight in action here.

Image source: Jeux Online

Mythical and mysterious, Behemoth was seen as the sasquatch of The Dark Age of Camelot. Hiding around the bottom of Darkness Falls and only accessible through a random teleportation during another raid encounter, players would flock to forums for years, swapping tall tales about his true size, power, and the likeliness he d ever see the pointy end of their sword.

Forums were sparse with information about how to take the Behemoth down. Some continued to cry of his undefeatable state after watching groups 60 people get torn up like tissue paper, while others claimed his death through exploits or not only yielded a sack of coins. Either way, it seemed Behemoth was truly intended as adding an insult to injury for those unfortunate enough to be whisked away to his lair during the Legion battle beforehand.

See the fight in action here.

Wildstar may not have lived up to its many years of hype, but that didn t stop Carbine Studios from delivering one of the most punishingly long-winded World First races in MMO history. Shortly before the Datascape was scheduled to half the designed encounter size, a 40-man team, Enigma, shot down Avatus after a seven-month feud.

While the lengthy race came and went with no worthwhile weapon drops, the Wildstar subreddit spent the night congratulating everyone involved and wishing their best to the other famous guilds who didn t quite reach the finish line. Numerous members of the studio staff even logged in to praise them for their efforts.

See the fight in action here.

Another strictly timed encounter ready and willing to sow chaos with strangers, Neverwinter's Temple of Tiamat opens for five minutes every hour, sending players, whether in a party or not, into a randomly assigned group of 25 adventurers. 20 minutes is all you get with a massive hydra, and heading in unprepared can easily dash any hopes of a clean win. If you re not able to adapt to a team of strangers, this one likely isn t for you.

See the fight in action here.

Sega may still be dodging their promise to bring this one to a Western audience, but that hasn t stopped thousands of eager players from jumping into the game through a fan-translation project.

Dark Falz turned the area into a Bullet Hell Shooter with 12 people all trying to roll around with gigantic swords, energy balls, and black magic while aiming to blast through a clock mechanism on a titan that looked like it crawled out of a demon s early morning nightmare.

See the fight in action here.

Image source: everquest.allakhazam.com

Sure, it might be acid to the eyes close to two decades later, but the original EverQuest still holds a place in the hearts of many ongoing MMORPG fans, even if it tested their patience. But waiting on a random spawn timer for Killer Croc here was a trip many casters would have to subject themselves to at one point or another.

The encounter often required up to 40 players and hinged on a 3-day respawn clock for a single epic-tier weapon. Keep in mind, this was before loot sharing became popular. One weapon is one weapon. Weak links in the group's synergy could frequently cause Venril to regain a fraction of his health with a simple bad reposition. Pair that with a large group in a small room and you had a pretty high chance of unleashing the salt.

See the fight in action here.

MMOs are massive in so many ways. Across hundreds of games, they bring in 10 billion dollars a year and have audiences that expand well into the tens of millions. In just World of Warcraft, players have collectively logged more time than our species has spent evolving on this planet—over 6 million years. But beneath those hours is the beautiful ideal that anyone from anywhere can become anything within the confines of these virtual worlds (and grind out some epic loot in the process).

We've come a long way from the text-based multi-user dungeons of yesteryear. So to celebrate that awesome lineage, we've rounded up the best MMOs that you can still play today. Whether you want to kick ass as some sort of human-cat hybrid or conquer the galaxy as a ruthless dictator, the MMOs on this list represent the best the genre has to offer. To make things easy, we've broken this list down into categories that really get at the heart of what makes each of these games exemplary.

Table of contents

The best "theme park" MMOs: Online games all about killing bosses and grinding gear.

The best sandbox MMOs: MMOs that, above all else, embrace freedom and consequence.

The best story-focused MMOs: Worlds that have tales worth telling.

The best PVP-focused MMOs: For when you'd rather kill another player than another monster.

 The best "theme park" MMOs

In the world of MMOs, "theme parks" are that movie you like to put on in the background the one you've seen a thousand times but still love. They don't push you into deep waters like most sandbox MMOs do, instead wrapping you up in a comforting and familiar blanket. They are games that, just like their name implies, are all about having fun as you tour from one attraction to the next. Though they might rely on a time-worn formula, they can still conceal a surprise or two. These are often the most popular MMOs, and they've earned their reputations with every dungeon, every level, and every quest.

 World of Warcraft 

Release Date: November 23, 2004Developer: BlizzardPayment Model: Subscription with DLC

No other MMO has had a greater impact on the genre and the entirety of videogames as a whole quite like World of Warcraft. For that reason, putting it anywhere but first on this list just doesn't feel right. Though it might be getting on in years, World of Warcraft continues to surprise with expansions. Legion, its latest, liberally borrows ideas from Blizzard's other games like with the new Diablo 3-esque 'Mythic+' dungeons. Goodbye to grinding the same dungeon for the umpteenth time, as Mythic+ adds a weekly dose of chaos by giving monsters deadly new abilities as you race to beat the clock for extra rewards.

Whether you love dungeons, raiding, player-versus-player battles, or just exploring a wonderfully charming world, World of Warcraft has you covered. In Legion, Blizzard really drives this home with weekly activities like PVP Brawls with whacky rulesets like no gravity, Timewalking events that let you revisit old expansion dungeons for cool loot, and World Quests that help you accomplish something meaningful even if you only have 20 minutes to play. 

World of Warcraft's problem has always been that people just want more and more of it—and Legion comes pretty close to adding too much to do. The design of its endgame content is superb, featuring bosses and dungeons that always prove why Blizzard is the king of what it does. The path to its throne is littered with the bones of would-be usurpers, but World of Warcraft's unparalleled zeal for bringing the world of Azeroth to life is a force to be reckoned with.

 Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn 

Release Date: August 27, 2013Developer: Square EnixPayment Model: Subscription with DLC

Final Fantasy 14's journey has been a long road full of disappointment. Launching in 2010 to an overwhelmingly negative response, Square Enix refused to give up and rebuilt the whole game with a new team. The second iteration, A Realm Reborn, has done a better job of rekindling the love fans had for Final Fantasy better than any recent game in the series. It's at once unflinchingly dedicated to following in World of Warcraft's footsteps while also introducing a host of refreshing ideas—the best being the innovative class system.

Gone are the days of needing a new character for each class: Final Fantasy 14 let's you swap between them whenever you please and there's even room to borrow abilities between classes, just like in the classic Final Fantasy Job system. But Final Fantasy 14 isn't just about combat, either. Its story starts slow but builds into a grand epic spanning continents in both the Heavensward and Stormblood expansions, easily rivaling any of the classics like Final Fantasy 7 or 10. It's a journey worth taking, if you have the time, but one thing to keep in mind is that 14's endgame, while offering challenging and memorable boss fights, is scarce. Updates come at a steady pace, but you'll run the same dungeons and raids dozens of times.

Tera

Release Date: January 25, 2011Developer: Bluehole StudioPayment Model: Free-to-play

Where some MMOs cast wide nets to catch as many players as possible, Tera's vicious combat has always been its driving force. The overall structure of progression sticks close to the template that World of Warcraft popularized—that is until you step out into the field and try and take down one of Tera's "Big-ass Monsters." These brutes pack a serious punch, and the desperate dance as you dodge and attack set a new standard for action-based combat in MMOs. Even to this day, despite many that have tried to do it better, Tera is still king of the hill when it comes to killing stuff. 

Transitioning to free-to-play wasn't always a smooth journey, but Tera's insistence on delivering great action gives it a singular focus that kept it moving forward when so many of its peers were floundering. It's microtransactions aren't egregious and you can buy most premium items with in-game currency if you have a nose for grinding, which is a welcome change. You might have to put up with playing a weird little girl with bunny ears, but those who can look past it will find one of the best—and most challenging—theme park MMOs.

The best sandbox MMOs

While theme parks can be great, not everyone wants to be led by the hand everywhere they go. Some of us like to take our time and smell the roses, while others want to trample those roses as they build an empire with thousands of real players and become a space dictator. If you're the type of person who likes building a sand castle just to kick it down, sandbox MMOs are where it's at. The freedom and consequence they offer will turn away those looking for a more relaxing experience, but if you truly want to embrace the potential of what an online world can offer, there's never been another choice.

EVE Online

Release Date: May 6, 2003Developer: CCP GamesPayment Model: Free-to-play with a premium subscription

When you think of modern sandbox MMOs, there's only one place to turn: EVE Online. The 14 years that EVE has been around could fill the pages of a textbook (actually, it kind of has)—but only if you're studying How to Lose Faith in Humanity 101. Its reputation for being a callous, uncaring universe was forged over a decade of war, betrayal, and scandal. But that same spartan culture has also given birth to the kind of camaraderie you'll never find anywhere else.

EVE Online is obtuse and complex as hell, and there will be times where you'll stare at the screen, clueless of what to do. CCP Games gone to great lengths to make EVE easier to understand, but your best teacher will always be the sting of failure. The good news is that last year EVE Online started offering a free-to-play option, letting you dive into its sandbox with a limited set of ships and skills to use. They've since expanded the program, giving free players even more choices of what ships to fly.

Those who persevere will find a whole galaxy of possibilities at their fingertips—and really, that's always been EVE's greatest accomplishment. It's truly a living world where those with the will to rise to the top can find a way—even if that means using all those daggers in the back of the people who trusted them as a foothold.

Runescape

Release Date: January 4, 2001Developer: JagexPayment Model: Free-to-play

As the oldest MMO on this list, Runescape should be like a crotchety old man, and yet here it is looking young and appealing as ever. That's because being original never gets old and, despite the rise and fall of popular MMOs, Runescape has never stopped being original. Despite the fancy graphics and new additions, Runescape still values freedom above all else. You're dropped into the world with little more than a few items and a general sense of direction. Where to go is for you to decide. That emphasis on choice gave birth to one of the more varied skill systems in the genre, as players can pursue anything from professional monster slaying to just being a lumberjack. That spirit of freedom is even extended to which version you want to play, giving players the choice between the current version or the "old school" Runescape so many love.

Runescape has also come a long way from its early days of 2D sprites in 3D environments, but that "ugly duckling syndrome" led to a focus on having a great personality over all the fanciest bells and whistles and it doesn't hurt that just about anyone and their grandmother could play it through a browser. Over a decade later, that pursuit of substance over style makes Runescape one of the most endearing and unique MMOs available.

Black Desert Online

Release Date: March 3, 2016Developer: Pearl AbyssPayment Model: Buy-to-play

Korean MMOs are often negatively viewed as brutal grindfests, and while Black Desert Online doesn't break that stereotype it does offer one of the most expansive crafting systems ever seen in the genre. While the active, combo-based combat is great fun, there's dozens of career paths to take your character down in this dynamic sandbox MMO. You can be a merchant, a fisherman, or invest all your time into building a massive production empire of beer.

This is all thanks to Black Desert Online's complex node system. Each region is divided up into nodes that provide various resources, while properties in cities can be purchased and converted into blacksmiths, fisheries, or storage depots. Instead of doing all the hard work yourself, you can hire automated workers who level up and have their own innate skills to do the heavy lifting. It's an intimidating system to learn when you're just starting out, but the freedom it provides is unparalleled. It can be just as rewarding to spend an evening tweaking your farms and leveling up your workers as it is taking down one of Black Desert Online's brutal world bosses. And if that doesn't suit your fancy, the node system is also the foundation for weekly guild wars, where guilds race to conquer various nodes for special bonuses—making BDO a great choice if you're into PVP as well.

 The best story-focused MMOs 

With such an emphasis on huge worlds and freedom, telling a coherent story in an MMO isn't an easy thing. All those pages of pointless quest dialogue are, more often than not, tossed to the side in favor of just getting the job done and moving on to the next task. So when an MMO manages to build a world and tell a story worth listening to, it's a rare thing indeed. Listed below are the best MMOs to play if you just want to immerse yourself in a rich story instead of getting all wrapped up in the vain pursuit of grinding for new gear or leveling up.

 The Secret World 

Release Date: June 19, 2012Developer: FuncomPayment Model: Free-to-play with DLC

When it comes to telling a great story in an MMO, the entire genre has something to learn from The Secret World. Not only does it abandon the generic fantasy aesthetic for a gritty contemporary one, it also ties so many different themes together—from the illuminati to vampires—that it shouldn’t make any damn sense, but miraculously it does. Not too many MMOs can say they've borrowed from the pages of Lovecraft and The Matrix and made it work. And like Lovecraft's best, The Secret World is a bizarre page-turner that will have you digging deep to unravel all of its mysteries.

That love of a tale well told is best demonstrated in The Secret World's investigation missions, which require donning your detective hat to search the internet for clues to decipher puzzles. You'll pour over Wikipedia pages and through backwater websites hunting for that one piece that will make the whole picture come together. Earlier this year, The Secret World relaunched as The Secret World: Legends, revamping a lot of the game's weakest systems like combat. The overhaul doesn't necessarily fix everything, but it does go a long way to making The Secret World more enjoyable for newcomers.

 Star Wars: The Old Republic 

Release Date: December 20, 2011Developer: BiowarePayment Model: Free-to-play with DLC

Early in its life, The Old Republic had a kind of identity crisis that initially turned many away from playing. It wanted to be both a followup to the cherished Knights of the Old Republic while also giving World of Warcraft a run for its money and, at the time, did neither very well. But just like its setting, those days are long in the past and the Old Republic of today is far more enjoyable thanks to a refined focus on what it's always done best: telling a great story.

Where most MMOs offer only a single overarching narrative, The Old Republic has eight different class stories to experience in the main game, and all of them are exciting and fun. Whether you want to sex your way across the galaxy as a seductive imperial agent or just murder everyone as a Sith warrior, The Old Republic has some of the best storytelling ever seen in an MMO. Bioware spent a lot of money making sure that the voice acting was top-notch and it really paid off. The Old Republic's presentation is unparalleled.

In recent years, The Old Republic has expanded on that foundation with a series of expansion packs. The latest, Knights of the Eternal Throne, packs in a KOTOR-worthy cast of characters and a dramatic story that stands tall among the best tales ever told in an MMO.

Final Fantasy XI 

Release Date: May 16, 2002Developer: Square EnixPayment Model: Subscription with DLC

Early in its life, Final Fantasy XI was criticized for not being branded a spin-off when many assumed that the MMO wouldn't have a proper story—a core focus of every Final Fantasy game. Well, those people were wrong, Final Fantasy XI's story is actually one of the best that Square Enix has ever done. It uses the expansive framework of an MMO to tell tales that are massive in scope yet, at times, painfully intimate. Appreciating those stories, however, will require putting up with some poorly-aging graphics and a rather tedious menu system.

While Final Fantasy 14 is undoubtedly the better MMO overall, FFXI's old school sensibilities and its epic story is still worth experiencing. Each of its several expansions is a self-contained tale that demonstrates the kind of heart-felt and sweeping storytelling that Final Fantasy is famous for, but none more so than Chains of Promathia, which on its own feels like the best of Final Fantasy wrapped up into one episode. Recent updates have made progression much easier and more enjoyable whether you play alone or as a group, so experiencing Final Fantasy XI's nostalgic approach to storytelling is easier than ever—really, just ask anyone who tried leveling (and wound up de-leveling on death) when the game first game out.

Lord of the Rings Online 

Release Date: April 24, 2007Developer: TurbinePayment Model: Free-to-play with DLC

Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online is often overshadowed by more popular MMOs, but writing it off as a mere clone of World of Warcraft would be a mistake. Though they share similar combat and questing, The Lord of the Rings Online uses both as foundations to explore Tolkien's Middle-Earth more intimately than any video game before or after. As you follow in the fellowship's footsteps, the world of Middle-Earth comes to life in wonderful clarity, adding a kind of depth to Tolkien's work while still respecting what makes it so honored to begin with.

Even if you just enjoy the movies, The Lord of the Rings Online is practically a must. Each realm that Turbine brings to life is done with a careful understanding of its history and place within the greater world. That kind of love for the source material just isn't found in MMOs based on other media. If you've ever read any of the books and felt that ache to exist in Middle-Earth, The Lord of the Rings Online is a journey worth taking.

The best PvP MMOs 

Questing and raiding are fun, but there's nothing quite like defeating another player in a contest of pure skill. PvP in MMOs is a time-honored tradition that remains a pursuit for those with the iron will to master the mechanics of a game. These MMOs honor that devotion by employing awesome combat systems that go above and beyond the basics, offering competitive-minded players a rewarding place to test their mettle. Whether you're planning sieges on enemy fortifications or looking to spar in a one-on-one duel, these MMOs will satisfy that bloodlust. RIP, Warhammer Online.

Guild Wars 2 

Release Date: August 28. 2012Developer: ArenaNetPayment Model: Buy-to-play with DLC

When it comes to player-versus-player combat, few MMOs can ever aspire to do it better than Guild Wars 2. For those wanting a more traditional experience, structured PvP lets you fight in team deathmatch and objective-based modes in that focus on skill and coordination. And then there's the world versus world mode, where different servers come together to wage war across sprawling maps with hundreds of players at once. Participating in sieges and large-scale battles is the kind of fantastical fulfillment you dreamed of as a kid, and you won't need to grind for a hundred hours before you can participate either.

The heart of what makes Guild Wars 2 fun to play is all in its action combat, which emphasizes dodging and movement instead of memorizing complex skill rotations. You'll weave in and out of range of your opponents while unleashing flashy abilities—of which there are many to choose from. Each class is quite flexible in how you want to play, giving theorycrafters enough material to chisel away at their perfect build. With the launch of the new expansion, Path of Fire, there's no denying that PvP took a hit from various balancing problems, but ArenaNet is already making adjustments that will hopefully continue to keep Guild Wars 2 at the top of the dogpile.

Planetside 2 

Release Date: November 20, 2012Developer: Daybreak Game CompanyPayment Model: Free-to-play

That Planetside 2 is the only game on this list that involves shooting is telling of what a unique premise it is. It's also the only one where the entire focus is around killing other players and prizing territory from their cold, dead hands. War in Planetside 2 is an unending struggle between three nations each seeking to control four distinct continents. If you're not keen on all the distractions of your average MMO, Planetside 2's purity of war is refreshing. You'll spend an evening conquering a whole planet and log in the next day to find you're now on the defensive. And as the cycle repeats anew, small but memorable moments begin to form in your mind; personal Alamos where you held the line against an overwhelming invasion, or the thrill of flanking and devastating an enemy force.

Moments like these are frequent in Planetside 2, and you'll soon have dozens of personalized stories as you spend each day in the purgatory of constant war. While recent updates introduced the ability to build bases, which have had a dramatic shift on where battles are fought and how they unfold while adding a new sense of attachment to your hard-won progress, Planetside 2 is definitely beginning to stagnate and lose its players. It's still a great MMOFPS, but its golden years are likely in the past.

The Elder Scrolls Online 

Release Date: April 4, 2014Developer: Zenimax Online StudiosPayment Model: Buy-to-play with DLC

It took The Elder Scrolls Online over a year to finally find its legs, but now that it has it's quickly become one of the best MMOs on the market. That's in part thanks to the awesome PvP system: the three factions battle to control the continent of Cyrodiil and the fabled Elder Scrolls. It's hard to grasp the sensation of watching hundreds of players storm through the broken gap of a castle wall while flaming boulders crash down from overhead, but The Elder Scrolls Online's PvP leads to these kind of epic moments frequently.

PvP in The Elder Scrolls Online is so fun and engaging because Cyrodiil is more than just a catalyst for endless back-and-forth warfare. The continent has quests and dungeons to complete, which become even more intense with the always looming threat that an army could come marching over the next horizon. At the center is the Imperial City, where PvP and PvE content is mashed together into a frenzy with its own objectives and rewards to pursue. In the end, The Elder Scrolls Online's take on PvP is just as original as it is fun, and its objective-based focus will certainly be the inspiration for MMOs decades from now.

With an emphasis on gorgeous flourishes and frantic dodging, combat has always been Tera's greatest strength, and on May 17th, the free-to-play MMO will be letting loose its deadliest class yet: the ninja. I went hands on with Tera's new Secrets and Shadows update this weekend, taking the ninja for a spin through a new dungeon after taking to the skies on the flying mounts that will change how players get around. And while downloading massive MMO clients is always a chore, the ninja was enough fun that I will gladly spare the extra hard drive space if it means spending some more time with it when the update goes live next week.Ninjas have always been a staple class in MMOs, but few interpretations have managed to capture the graceful-yet-deadly style that the concept inspires. Fortunately, Tera's highly action-based combat is a perfect fit, and I really enjoyed dancing around my opponents while unleashing hell with my oversized shuriken weapon. The only turnoff is that ninjas can only be played by Tera's Elin race, which is a disappointment for those who don't fancy their characters looking like slightly underdressed children with bunny ears.

If being forced to play as an Elin doesn't bother you, Tera's take on the ninja is a great deal of fun. There's no emphasis on stealth, so fans of rogues or other sneaky classes might be left disappointed. Instead, ninjas focus on dishing out painful critical hits and bursts of high damage, making them an excellent choice if you like seeing really big numbers jump up on screen. While big numbers are great and all, I do wonder if ninjas aren't as distinguished from other damage dealing classes in Tera as they could be especially without unique mechanics like stealth. Just about every DPS class in Tera focuses on hitting stuff in the face, and ninjas are no different. That said, ninjas do have some unique qualities that I enjoy, and really, hitting stuff in Tera is always a good time.In Tera, combat focuses heavily on movement. Enemies telegraph the range of their special attacks using cones and circles displayed on the ground. While hits from many monsters can be easily soaked up, fighting more powerful ones (like special "Big-Ass Monsters" or "BAMs") requires gracefully sidestepping many of their attacks. The ninjas main dodge ability, Shadow Jump, allows them to dodge twice over a three second period, affording a good deal of extra mobility to get out of or into sticky situations. In order to stay in action longer, their main attack also lowers the cooldowns for several of their more powerful abilities, encouraging you to always be on the offensive something that becomes a real challenge during boss fights especially considering that ninjas can only wear cloth armor. They hit hard, but they have the defense of a wet napkin.

While I didn't get much of a chance to play around with it, one of my favorite abilities was Clone Jutsu, which let me to disguise myself as any other player close by. There's no real combat advantage since attacking causes the disguise to disappear, but I love the potential it could have in PVP for clever players to disguise themselves as an entirely different class to mess with their enemies. I just wish more MMOs included skills that didn't revolve solely around the act of killing something.But at the end of the day, killing is still what the ninja does best, and I got a chance to see that in action while running through one of Tera's two new dungeons. Acting as a the next chapter in an ongoing story, the Shadow Sanguinary is the not-so-secret base of Dakuryon, who has been serving as the main villain for some time. The Shadow Sanguinary is designed for groups of 5 players at level 65, making it one of the toughest dungeons in Tera there's even a hard mode for those with the gear and will to tackle it. The dungeon was pretty conventional, with the same standard assortment of monster groups punctuated by boss battles, but it did show me what Tera's combat is like at the highest tier. And I like what I saw.

The two battles against Dakuryon were easily the best part of the dungeon. His skill rotation involves somewhat rhythmic area-of-effect attacks that we had to dodge while still keeping pressure on him. It's not the most original concept ever to be used in a dungeon, but it never fails to be challenging and fun. One of his abilities, which the developers jokingly called the "Wheel of Fortune," rapidly highlights a series of pie-shaped partitions in the circular arena that you have to carefully watch. When one of the partitions flashes blue, you need to stand on it or instantly be killed. Later, when we fought Dakuryon for a second time, that same concept was applied in a much more frantic pattern that had the party dancing in and out of rapidly changing safe spots.During these attacks is where the mobility of the ninja's Shadow Jump really shined. When I wasn't screwing up the pattern and pissing off our party's priest, I was desperately dodging attacks before darting back to unleash a furious combo against Dakuryon. While I'm sure that, like most MMO dungeons, the whole process will eventually become routine as players run it again and again to grind loot drops, the Shadow Sanguinary is really well built even if the mechanics of each fight were all things I'd seen before.

Players will also have a new method of travelling to these new dungeons with the addition of flying mounts introduced in the update. My time with them was too brief to say for certain, but I do have some concerns about what impact they might have on Tera's world. In World of Warcraft, flying mounts trivialized travel by diminishing the scale of the world. But Tera's developers, En Masse, seem to be making some smart restrictions to make sure they don't usher in the same fate. For one, mounts can only remain airborne for so long before needing to touch down to recharge. I really like the idea of treating flight like a limited resource because it forced me to be a bit more intentional about travelling rather than just toggling autorun and leaving to make a snack.It's promising to see that the transition to free-to-play isn't the deathknell for MMOs that it's often treated as. With the new ninja class, two new dungeons, and the addition of flying mounts, Tera is alive and well that's great news if you're already playing. But the core of Tera hasn't changed much either, which means if you're already tired of that same old MMO grind, I'm not sure Secrets and Shadows is going to offer much to renew your interest as over half of its content is aimed directly at max level players. That said, the ninja is still an excellent reason to create a new character and explore Tera's awesome combat if you haven't yet done so. Of all the additions introduced in Secrets and Shadows, it's really the one secret worth talking about.

Fate of Arun, the first major expansion to the En Masse MMO Tera, is now live. The free update increases the character level cap to 65, adds new class skills, zones, and dungeons, and "quality of life" improvements that simplify and streamline gameplay.

The less-poetically-named "Patch 29.03.02" notes serve up a detailed look at the changes in the expansion, but the highlight has to be the addition of a new continent, Val Oriyn, described as "a land of savage jungles, colossal ruins, and the undiscovered homeland of the barakas," that's been cut off from the rest of Arun for hundreds of years. It offers four new zones for players level 60-65, the new baraka city of Highwatch, the Vanguard Initiative reputation faction, and new story quests for each zone and the city.

The Coliseum Battleground sounds interesting as well: It's a competitive PvE environment in which two teams race to be the first to defeat waves of enemies. There are also a number of new dungeons and crafting recipes, the enchanting system has been simplified, unused crystals can now be fused into more powerful crystals, and players can now teleport directly to dungeon entrances and turn in quests from any location.

Speaking of Tera, Associate Producer Tina Zhang-Powell recently took some time to show us her rig, and her cat, both of which are pretty cool. You can check them out right here.

Tina Zhang-Powell, Associate Producer for  Tera at En Masse Entertainment, has a beautifully lit and open room for her rig. Sporting two monitors, to match her two cats, and enough space to host game jams and game nights alike. She also rocks a Razer mouse and keyboard that she claims the cats don't jump on, but I'm not so sure a well behaved cat can actually exist. They are probably just biding their time. Tina was kind enough to take some time and tell us about her PC, her rescue cats, and why she loves MMORPGs.

What is in your PC?

Home Desktop:

• i7 4770 @ 3.4GHz
• 16 GB memory
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
• 256 GB SSD
• 1 TB HDD

Surface Pro 2:

• i5 4th Gen Intel Core
• 8 GB memory
• 256 GB SSD

What is the most interesting/unique part of your setup?

Some folks may frown upon putting a desktop PC in a cabinet. However, I removed the back panel and front door of the cabinet to allow for more air flow and haven t had a problem with temperature yet. This gives me more space on my desk area for dual monitors and my Surface Pro 2 laptop, with room to spare. I also don t like wearing my glasses, so having my desk area set up in the corner lets me to keep my monitors at a good distance while letting me enjoy a nice view of the neighborhood through the nearby window.

My husband and I have a nice big room for our PCs. It s great for when we play games together, but the extra space is especially helpful when we do game jams with friends. Having that extra space is absolutely necessary when we ve got five friends over with their own workstations. I crocheted the little creature in the photo for our game jam group. During our game jams, we put this little guy on the desk of the person who needs the most help!

What s always within arm s reach on your desk?

I always have lots of sketch pads and note pads nearby. I ve found that sometimes sketching out ideas and notes on paper works better for me than typing them up on the computer. Having white boards nearby also helps me organize ideas and information I want to share with co-workers later. 

I also have two cats, both rescued from local shelters. Atlas, the orange cat, loves to hangout whenever I m at my computer chair. He s a fan of napping and often sleeps at my feet or on my lap. Somehow, we ve managed to train our cats not to jump on our desks or sit on the keyboards. But we still have to be careful where we sit. Our cats are quick to occupy seats whenever someone gets up from their chair and yes, I have sat on Atlas quite a few times! I will probably sit on Atlas again soon. I guess neither of us have learned to watch out for each other yet. 

What are you playing right now?

I play a lot of indie games and puzzle games on Steam. My recent favorite is  Everyday Genius: SquareLogic (yes, it s an old game I know). Call me weird, but I find doing puzzles, especially the ones that involve matching, calming and relaxing.

Working on the launch of  TERA: Fate of Arun is taking up a lot of time lately. To give my mind something different to think about, I ve also been playing more board games. I personally prefer co-op board games to competitive board games. Sentinels of the Multiverse along with all of its expansions, is the current favorite amongst our group and we ve been playing it on almost a weekly basis. Dungeons & Dragons board games also make frequent game night appearances. I recently picked up Pathfinder Adventure Card games and have heard good things, but haven t got to actually try them out yet.

What s your favorite game and why?

My favorite game of all time is Final Fantasy XI, which I have played for many years since launch. I do miss those old days in that game, where monsters never stopped chasing you down until you zoned to the next area. Even searching for a raise 3 from a high level healer after you died, so you would not de-level, makes me a bit nostalgic. You also have no idea who you might meet while playing an MMO. I met my husband in-game in FFXI and we ve been together for over ten years now! 

We met while doing woodworking in the game and the rest is history. A lot of things happened during those ten years including moving across the country to start a new life together. We still reminisce about the days when I had to use my Bard to help his Dragoon get a leveling group and farming BCNM 40. It is hard to beat the game that brought two strangers from completely different backgrounds together. That s just another great thing about playing MMORPGs.

So-called "action" combat is the norm in the latest crop of MMORPGs, but just two years ago it was largely TERA that showed us how well it could work for the genre. En Masse Entertainment hopes to recover some of that magic in its upcoming TERA: Fate of Arun expansion, which bumps the level cap up to 65 and whisks the game's often scantily clad denizens off to the continent of Northern Arun to fight a "soul-sucking bloodmage army."

Speaking to PC Gamer exclusively, En Masse tells us we'll get to see Highwatch, the home city of the Barakan race. I'm excited about the new location; I've always had a soft spot from the rocky folk. Players will also spend their time freeing the native Khirians and (if the teaser images En Masse provided serve as any indication) fighting some Galactus-sized tough guy who wears a crown resembling the logo from Magic 2013.

TERA's been one of the better looking MMOs since it released, and the two screenshots we received show that TERA's Korean developer Bluehole Studio plans to maintain this legacy. Highwatch itself stars in one, nestled next to towering mountains and looking all the world like it'd be right at home in the place of a Dwemer ruin in Skyrim. The other showcases a Guwangi village in Savage Reach— a lush tropical zone seemingly crammed with the kind of dense vegetation MMO developers tend to avoid.

But Fate of Arun isn't just about good looks and a new story with associated quests; En Masse also tells us that we'll see new zones, skills, dungeons, gear, and a new PvP battleground. Notably absent from this account is any mention of new classes or playable races, although I'll maintain hope that En Masse includes these in its promise of "vast systematic improvements to the gameplay experience." Considering that the new Reaper class already appeared earlier this year, that seems unlikely.

"It s been an incredible two years since TERA first launched in North America, said En Masse Entertainment Producer Patrick "Treeshark" Sun in the accompanying press release. "Fate of Arun will be, without a doubt, the biggest addition to the world of TERA new and returning players have ever seen—and we re excited to reveal more details in the upcoming weeks."

TERA went free-to-play in February of last year following nine months in the North American market, after which it rebranded itself as TERA: Rising. It boasts one of the more agreeable MMO free-to-play models around, as you can hack and slash your way through most of its signature BAMs (big ass monsters) without spending a penny. No release date has been set for the expansion, which is TERA's first since its launch in 2012.