I have looked for the same thing for years OP, but GW1&2 is the only mmo with purely skill-based pvp, without any gear or level differences.
Some games come close:
Tera has gear normalized battlegrounds (but you can wear different jewellery for stat boosts and have to pve for some special skills, at least last time I played)
Dragon's Nest I played when it was in beta and it had a gear/level equalized BG, was tons of fun, but the BGs were all just death match.
Rift used to be OK until level cap when it was released, but these days there are lots of insanely OP twinks in lower level BGs and of course once you hit level cap the gear grind is just insane.
Neverwinter was a bit of fun until level cap, except games are often full of botters and people tend to just "surf" games until they find one they can win since there is no penalty for leaving and you can requeue straight away (they may have changed this, not sure). Again at level cap the grind is terrible, I just reroll when I get to cap.
I have tried various other games, but the pvp is usually pretty bad, or plagued with terrible lag, huge gear grinds etc.
The best GW2 alternative I have found is Smite, which is a Moba but the third person camera makes it more fun. There might be some similar games like Nosgoth and the upcoming Gigantic, and I think Bethesda are making something similar (third person battleground-type game).
Just wondering if there are any other MMO's out there aside from Guild Wars that have truly "fair" PvP, meaning that it doesn't take hundreds of hours or hundreds of dollars to have the *same* (emphasis here) relevant gear/stat options as other players. Note that needing to pay some money is fine, or invest some time.
Doesn't matter if f2p/b2p/p2p, old or new, AAA or indie, just seeing if anyone knows of one I missed. I couldn't find any other than GW myself after extensive looking. Only similar-ish games would be MOBA-style games like SMITE, but no MMO's I found.
Thanks if anyone knows of others!
Most MOBA's have exactly what you are asking for.
Most MMO's, where character progression is a long term project, will not have what you are asking for.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
Comments
I have looked for the same thing for years OP, but GW1&2 is the only mmo with purely skill-based pvp, without any gear or level differences.
Some games come close:
Tera has gear normalized battlegrounds (but you can wear different jewellery for stat boosts and have to pve for some special skills, at least last time I played)
Dragon's Nest I played when it was in beta and it had a gear/level equalized BG, was tons of fun, but the BGs were all just death match.
Rift used to be OK until level cap when it was released, but these days there are lots of insanely OP twinks in lower level BGs and of course once you hit level cap the gear grind is just insane.
Neverwinter was a bit of fun until level cap, except games are often full of botters and people tend to just "surf" games until they find one they can win since there is no penalty for leaving and you can requeue straight away (they may have changed this, not sure). Again at level cap the grind is terrible, I just reroll when I get to cap.
I have tried various other games, but the pvp is usually pretty bad, or plagued with terrible lag, huge gear grinds etc.
The best GW2 alternative I have found is Smite, which is a Moba but the third person camera makes it more fun. There might be some similar games like Nosgoth and the upcoming Gigantic, and I think Bethesda are making something similar (third person battleground-type game).
Most MOBA's have exactly what you are asking for.
Most MMO's, where character progression is a long term project, will not have what you are asking for.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin