FFXIV is great and free to play until level 60

WoW (Private Servers)

GW2 (Personal fave out of these)

FFXIV

ESO

I also hear New World has vastly improved since launch but I've not played it since beta so I can't really say.

not so much a drought as people getting burnt out on cash shop and gamble box shenanigans

out of the top tier, it’s been pretty much status quo for awhile now

• thanks to Blizzard, World of Warcraft really shouldn’t be an option
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Guild Wars 2
• Elder Scrolls Online
• Lord of the Rings Online

I’m personally looking to get into “Palia”, it’s going into open beta in on the 10th. I’ve seen reviews that say it’s “the love child of WOW and animal crossing” so going to get my family in on some cozy gaming.

FFXIV now (next patch) offers over half of the entire Main Story for free.

You can't go wrong and the community is the best around.

GW2 seems to be the answer. I played it briefly when I had more time and it was fun af.

Can't believe no one has suggested BDO ( Black Desert Online) it's f2p now and not only is it probably still one of the better looking MMOs out there, the depth it has is insane. It's got basically everything you are asking for.

If you like houses and decoration Elderscrolls Online is pretty awesome for that. Combat is pretty fun and there's tons of variety between the classes.

Star Trek Online
Second Life RPG groups

Have you ever checked out Ark? Not quite a true MMO, but it's the closest I've ever gotten to feeling that "brand new to EverQuest" feeling. The worlds are massive, full of a massive amount of different dinosaurs, and the base-building is robust. Highly, highly recommend.

If you also like online TCGs, try Wizard101

If you'd like a bullet hell combat system, try Spiral Knights (now F2P)

If you want something on the EQ2 end of the spectrum give Horizon XI a try. It is a private server for FFXI, square's first mmo. The amount of work put into it is incredible for a private server. Lots of devs and is very polished.

Final Fantasy seems the one for you to be honest.

The player base is quite chill and overall enjoy playing casually, doing RP, decorating the house, etc. Crafting is actually interesting instead of just seeing a bar fill up!

I would not recommend ESO as it's very very very choke full of microtransactions and you actually will have a bad experience playing without ESO Plus (restricted space in bags, most content locked).

The same can be said for GW2 really and on top of that, it's way less polished than FF.

Just try FF, I couldn't stomach the classic oriental style cinematic and the quests until lvl 60 can get really frustrating (fetch quests) but overall it has the better potential considering your taste IMHO.