Developer Request for solo exp buff

General Discussion
1

Hello,

Currently I believe you get 5% increased exp for each person in your party. A 4 person party gets 20% increased exp over a solo player. Myself and others on the forums agree that this is quite harmful to many solo players.

There are 3 benefits to being a party.
-Ability to speed through GR’s for increased exp efficiency.
-Ability to clear higher level GR’s to level up gems higher than you would be able to do as a solo player.
-Increased exp for a full party.

While this does promote group play, it demotes solo play by quite a large margin. More people don’t play the game, or quit very soon after a season starts because grinding paragon post P1000 is such a pain to do solo.

Part of it is also knowing that people playing in a group are flying past you so easily. Not only is this disheartening, but it discourages players to keep playing because they know they are playing with a handicap.

At this stage in D3, the player base isn’t as high as when the group buff was implemented. Speed meta’s are very much a thing, and if you don’t want to play wiz or necro you will mostly be playing solo. Besides speed meta’s, many players are in an established group already which further pushes others towards solo play.

I’m requesting/suggesting to increase solo exp by 25%. It’s not enough to encourage solo play over group play, because as listed above there are other benefits to being in a party besides just the exp. However, it is enough for solo players to not have such a handicap against group players.

I’d prefer a solo exp buff over a SSF mode because it still leaves the option to group up with friends and others when you want to, but doesn’t make it mandatory like it is now.

There is a downside to this unfortunately. If buffed, playing solo may be better than playing with just one other person. It may turn out that you’d rather play solo for more exp than with one other person. Ultimately, I’d say that no matter the party size you should end up with 20-25% increased exp.

While playing in a 3 and 4 person party gives the most potential to clear higher levels GR’s. It may be better to have those parties set at 20% increased exp.
Solo and 2 person parties would cap at 25% increased exp since the high gr potential isn’t as high.

That or just set every party to 20% increased exp, so no matter the party size, everyone is on equal ground.

12 Likes
2

I believe it’s 30%. Each additional player gives you 10% more bonus so 3 additional players to round up a party of four means each player gets 30%. Also they can not buff the experience gain at solo play due to botters may exploit it very well way before any legit player can enjoy it.

They can give a boost to general buffs like Follower abilities or Nephalem Glory but that’s it. Don’t expect to see any further changes to solo when botting always will be a problem for this game. They won’t buff solo at the risk of boosting bots. While they tried for promoting group play all these years, they yearned for an edge to players who push higher GR content as a group. Bots lack the decision making in high GRs and you can not blame designers for exploiting it.

3

Basically, a multi billion dollar corporation can’t balance solo players because of their inability to ban a few hundred bots?
sigh…

8 Likes
4

why not just increase the amount reflection pool gives:

4 players-stays at 25%
3 players- 50%
2 players- 75%
solo -100%

1 Like
5

This is a double-edged sword …
It’s good for solo players, but even better for botters … As long as bot exists, it won’t be good to increase XP solo.

2 Likes
6

It seems like the main problem with my idea is botters.
I don’t know how bots work in this game, are they able to click on reflection pools? If not, this is a great idea.

7

They take pools and make GR even more efficient than some players, unfortunately.

1 Like
8

What’s to stop a group of botters from partying up and starting their bot script/program. w/e they do. Can’t they do it in groups? If so, why not nerf groups?
Hey while we’re at it. Since botters exist, why not just delete the game?

I’m not a rank 1 player. I was in the top 50 for sader the first few weeks of S17, but just stopped grinding because the people that were in a party were blowing past me in paragon.

I don’t care if there are botters and according to what others on the forums say, neither does blizzard.
Just balance the game the way it should be and don’t base decisions around 5% of the player base that hack.

1 Like
9

I am a former solo player myself, but I rather suggest you try joining a clan and playing in groups regularly, it’s a lot of fun, especially at the start of a season :slight_smile:

1 Like
11

Forced to join a clan and play with others you mean? A lot of my builds run unity and in a party I lose a lot of damage reduction.
I’d rather not base my play time around the schedule of others…

12

Nobody is forcing you, that was just a friendly advice. But this requires some social skills, so I guess some people are better on their own…

1 Like
13

The bots shouldn’t matter. If they don’t ban people playing 23/hrs a day now it on’t change with 10% more paragon. Solo play deserves some love. If they increased the xp on strictly a SSF mode that might be the one way I could get behind SSF in D3.

4 Likes
14

There is no legitimate reason not buff solo play. Botters are going to bot regardless. Might as well make it more enjoyable for the legit players.
Botters aren’t playing the game, they could care less what happens to it. Most of us actually sit at our computer and try to enjoy the game.

I was the top paragon in my clan with sader because I was working diligently. Someone created a wizard and joined speed meta groups, past me in paragon in 4 days after joining the season 2 weeks late.
Wow… how fun that was.

3 Likes
15

Man can’t be bothered to change 1 piece of gear to gain other improvements…name checks out.

1 Like
16

What piece of gear? Was that targeted at me?

17

unity and yes
/20char

18

Clearly I swapped out for another ring, but most builds that run unity don’t have another ring option for damage reduction. Kind of the whole point of unity… Sader is not a group player. We all know this.

1 Like
19

I understand it may not be optimal but the extra xp is worth the trade off. I’m woth you on this as a primarily solo player I would love a buff to xp.
I strongly considered botting a few years back before anyone got banned for it but now I just play my pace and don’t worry about the cheaters (though the thought of free paragon and mats still seems inviting at times).

20

At some solo build specs that ring is incomparable at the terms of damage mitigation.

21

In all honestly. I can’t play the class I want (barb) because of how weak it is. The top barb build gameplay is bashing your head against the wall, which isn’t very enticing and I can’t play solo because group play is just so much better.
I guess it’s time to see what POE has going on again.

2 Likes