after checking some more, it seems mcMMO isnt able to interact with modded items, not seeing modded swords as swords and leveling etc. or not seeing doors as doors and the "you ready your fists." popup shows up.
i have no idea if this is out of the scope of mcmmo or if i should report it elsewhere, but i hope there's some way to make compatibility work. does anyone have any idea whats going on for why it isn't?
i am using arclight neoforge+bukkit/spigot