Runes of Magic US / AU

It can be completely free; but time=money and vice versa. iow, money can speed up your progress. If you are patient then you can be ftp, if not well, this game can be the most expensive game out there.

I would recommend choosing several different races and classes to start with, playing them to level 20, which should take little time just to see what each can do, and see which you favor. Everybody has different play styles, so it is hard to recommend one over another. You should scope out the forum section on classes to see what people who play those classes are saying, might help.

WoW? what is that, some other MMO game? No, this is not WoW.

Yes this game is practically like wow and its free to play.

We have an in game currency called Diamonds which purchases things like mounts and potions and upgrades for gear that you can purchase using cash. (which can be costly)

Runes of magic has "Death Debt" if you die, you will have a decreased experience and talent point increase until the debt is paid off. (this is not an issue until you are much higher level).

In this game you are also given 3 classes on one character (that means you have to level up your character 3 different times). So you can be a Warrior/Priest if you want to be. The third class is an alternative that you could swap to if need be. A warrior/priest could tank, and heal themselves to a degree but do very little to heal the party. (your secondary class combination gives you special talents which makes your play more unique) The most painful dps currently hands down is a priest/scout which can chop someone down in 2 hits in under 2 seconds.

Unlike wow, you can build your toon as big as you want here depending on how much cash you put into the game. Expect to be a one shot in pvp until you build your toon.

I can not recommend a race because I believe some people were meant for dps, some are crazy enough to tank and others are patient enough to heal them.

Some advice, choose your server wisely (some servers are underpopulated), Rom does not offer name swaps/server swaps/ and it costs diamonds to change your characters features.

Game is similar to WoW, but on positive side it has no monthly fee.

On negative side, as Auros said, it can end up being more expensive then subscription game if you don't put good time to it, or don't have patience this game requires.

As for class, there are couple of combos that atm are easier then others to start with,but your endgame will strongly depend on classes you select for main character.

Some good ones to try R/S, M/P, Wd/D, Wd/S, W/K, P/K. Start from what you like to do, if is DPS, then R/S, for solo then anything with healer, great damage from far mage or warden, tank, then Wd/W or K/W... etc. It is free and you can tray as many combos as you like. (you are allowed to open 5 accounts, and each account can have up to 8 characters per server)

What server are you planning to join? PvE or PvP?

I believe with low server population on PVP server (from what we hear), it might not be problem, or you might end up like Will Smith in I am Legend movie, running and trying to save your self from those monsters, I mean end gamers.

You can experience PvP on PvE server, where you can enable and agree to do it (like WoW apparently, don't know as I never played it ), but for over a year I never did so. Then you have 1 hour of PvP in SW every night, once you get into guild.

Honnestly Grimdal (PvP) is quite regrowing a bit, saw a lot of newbies. You won't be attacked constantly, since there is a rep system. When you kill too many lowbies for no reason, you turn yellow, then orange then red, if you are in this state, your gear can drop, so there isnt a lot of Pkers. If you get attacked once, you shouldnt get attacked twice. And end-gamers dont hang in low places

Quoted from "Gor2k;573291"

Well thanks a lot guys, I will be joining a pve server (not sure which one yet I'm at work so can't dl the game.) and I will be starting off as a warrior or mage.

Nooo, don't do warrior....rage mechanics add additional complications...or at least try something warrior like such as Warden which is more straightforward. Warriors are for masochists. :p But, saying that, a W/M or M/W are both viable characters.

M/W is good for endgame damage, but I wouldn't recommend it for leveling, unless you really want to do W/M. It's the slowest of the mages at grinding o.o. If M/W is a long-term goal, take a third class that will give your mage side access to more instant casts.

Check out runesdatabase.com for lists of elite skills of various mage or warrior combos. I'd agree that warrior isn't very newbie-friendly, but the learning curve isn't really that bad. Keep in mind that with each combo, you also gain access to the General tab skills of your secondary class, as well as all skills of your current primary.