Official statement about "Solo only mode"

General Discussion
64

Exponential math? 5 GRs means twice as much dmg (still). 5 GRs propel you from rank 12 to rank 1 on monk leaderboard EU. Not a big deal?

But nvm the very top, because nobody in this thread was talking about top 10. Lets look at rank 700 on the same leaderboard, it’s GR 111. 5 more GR would place you on rank 279, so 421 ranks higher. Still not a big deal?

Even 2 GRs would bring you to rank 545. So, has your brain turned potato from all that mindnumbing D3 grind or are you finally realising it makes a big difference? Despite this leaderboard being utterly trash due to the nature of the GR “competition”.

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65

Also, never mind the top because no one in this thread is anywhere close to being capable of getting there…

That’s not how that works. Your example is irrelevant. No one is magically gaining 5 GRs worth of stats.

The mechanical differences between elite solo v elite MP, as exaggerated as they are in this example, can at most account for 5 levels. But in practice, there are much larger spreads on the leaderboard. The hypothetical mechanical differences in performance can’t explain the practical differences demonstrated by LB ranks.

The point is that the supposedly insurmountable differences in stats is much smaller than the differences between some nub’s PB and the bottom of the LB. It’s smaller than the ranked spread seen between people with similar stats.

The stats every nub is QQing about aren’t actually the explanation of why those nubs aren’t placing on the LB.

You’ve actually already agreed with me on this much:

66

You’re the one estimating it to 5 GR, while claiming it’s not a lot due to the “spread”. I wasn’t arguing that raw numbers translate into 5 GRs higher clear on the leaderboard, I was arguing that 5 GRs is a lot.
Obviously there are other factors that are far more important in this garbage competitive mode, various forms of RNG being the main one, but obviously player performance aswell.

EDIT. And active playerbase, there are barely a thousand players taking the GRs seriously.

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67

Ok…

First of all, thanks for the participation in this thread.
It somehow turned into a weird and wrong direction for my taste.

No one is forced to play in this restricted area.

So there are 0 losses for EVERYONE that wants to play in group anyway.
There is 0 damage to the group playing community.
Nothing will change for these persons, same game.

On the other hand, SSF player could finally get an even playing field.
Everyone has the same base, the same potentil chance and effort is rewarded accordingly.

In the end of the season everything will be transfered to your normal pool, hc or sc.

Where does this greatly appreciated feature hurt anybody that isn’t interested in it anyway?

Let them have it and continue your way.

There is waaaaaay too much wrong input in here.
It is an additional offer, a feature, that the community can use, or not use.
That’s it.

Peace!

Thoughts on this Nev/Devs?

4 Likes
68

As a 98% Solo Demon Hunter player, I am disheartened by the current state of the Leaderboards. When I originally wrote this post, I decided to check the Season 11 Leaderboard to see where I might fit in, and I was astounded to see that the number one spot was a GR102 at a little less than 15 minutes, and the player was at P2941! I was even more astounded that the Season 10 #1 DH was GR104 at 11:11, and the player was P3083! I would have had to do a GR87 at less than 14:13 just to get on the board at #1000.

At Season 16, the number one Demon Hunter was at GR128 at 14:29, and the player was at P4799! I would have to do a GR115 at better than 13:12 just to get on the board at #1000.

Today the normal nonseasonal Demon Hunter is at GR134 at 13:32 at P9155. I would have to do a GR117 at a little under 13:17 in order to get on the board at #1000. The Seasonal Hard-core Demon Hunter is at GR120 at 14:11 at P1730. Now, P1730 wouldn’t be all that remarkable, except that the season has only been going for exactly 3 weeks. What is remarkable is that this player has a Bane of the Stricken at rank 120, a Bane of the Trapped at rank 126, and a Legacy of Dreams at rank 99 (the max).

It’s fairly obvious that this player and many, many others at the upper end of the completely laughable “solo” leaderboards developed their characters 100% in group play. There is nothing about any of the player characters at the top of the leaderboard that suggests anything about “Solo” achievement.

The situation brings up two issues: the need for a dedicated Solo only mode, and the need for Leaderboard divisions.

Solo Only Mode
Solo only would require a selection box on character creation, which would limit the character’s interaction with other characters in the same way that normal Seasonal characters cannot play with Hardcore non-Seasonal characters, and Seasonal Hardcore characters cannot play with normal Seasonal characters, etc… The Solo character wouldn’t be able to play with anyone else, ever.

If we have a dedicated Solo character, then there must be a Solo Leaderboard where these characters can rank against each other, and not against “Solo” characters who have been developed in a four-man meta-group with Paragon levels in the thousands, and Legendary gem ranks in the hundreds. Solo characters would be compared only to other Solo characters, so players could get an idea of how their characters are actually performing. Non-Solo characters would never be able to place on the Solo Only Leaderboard, even if they play solo and achieve a higher clear than the top Solo Only player.

Leaderboard Divisions
As the game progresses, and more and more players are reaching into the 1000-5000 Paragon range, new and casual players simply have no chance of ever seeing their names in the top 1000.

The solution is the creation of 9 more Leaderboards (for a total of ten), each with 1000 places, and their separation by Paragon level. For example:

0-500
501-750
751-1000
1001-1250
1251-1500
1501-2250
2251-2500
2501-2750
2751-3000
3001 and up

Each player earning a place on the Leaderboard would keep that place, even after moving up to the next Division, until they are bumped off the end of the list by upcoming players.

The beauty of this system is that a player cannot play the game without earning experience points, and thus earning Paragon levels. There is no way any player could artificially dominate a Leaderboard in any Division, because once they moved past that Division, there would be no way they could go back and compete in lower Divisions.

It is conceivable that a single player could appear on all ten Leaderboards, and it is possible that the number one spot would never be replaced if no other player could achieve that level of performance at that particular Paragon level. But everybody playing in that Division would have a chance to.

Conclusion
There is only one way to satisfy the original concept and implementation of Leaderboards; there must be a Solo only mode of play, and there must be Leaderboard Divisions in which players of similar level and power can compete against each other.

Good Hunting!

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69

I am one of those “very few,” I guess. I only play solo. I have gotten to Conquerer level twice, which is what I want to achieve, and I do hope to do it again.

The game is a considerably bigger pain in the booty if you’re doing every single thing alone.

I think it’s a challenge, and I’m willing to accept it. What I don’t like is that I’m not rewarded for that. Doing SP means less exp, loot, and gold, even though MP is easier and faster.

Again, I’m not saying the game needs a single player mode. But I do think that if people are going to accept the “considerably bigger pain in the booty (of) doing every single thing alone,” there should be some reward or bonus or something for that.

I can only speak for myself, but I do have fun playing the game and I don’t care about ranking.

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70

True. SSF mode is the main competitive one in the most competitive aRPG, namely Path of Exile, which will have a racing event with prizes at their gaming convention in November this year. PoE is ready to embrace the e-Sport scene with their next big expansion coming in late 2020.

Why then SSF is no big deal for D3?

It would have, if it was released before paragon and botting went out of control, somewhere around S3. Right now no one takes this game seriously any more at the competitive level. And this won’t change as long as massive changes in D3 aren’t introduced in the direction a time-based competition to be created in order to negate botting and account sharing advantage at the top of the ladder. Then SSF would be the logical step as long as there is solo vs. multi disparity.

The above already exists in the PoE race events at 10 times the skill factor of D3, because PoE itemization is a lot more advanced than D3’s requiring very deep understanding and knowledge of the game. Right now PoE allows for the best aRPG efficiency competitions if a player is after that type of game. They could literally make an e-Sport tomorrow, if the game was more popular among the casual players. And it will be a very high skill capped e-Sport.

D3 is simply not the right type of game for efficiency competitions. It has very simple itemization and while this makes it fun to play, because the players can learn it fast, this also makes the game not so interesting from a competitive pov.

However, D3 has its edge too.

It’s the highest skill capped aRPG when we take in question only the execution during combat or the so called pushing phase. That is the only direction D3 development could take in order to create a competitive game out of D3. The Challenge Rifts mode, if build upon properly, could raise D3 to the e-Sport level.

But at this point, with D4 knocking at the door, I doubt there will be done much. Challenge Rifts simply will remain a missed opportunity for what is the aRPG with the best combat out there.

71

Then according to you those players that have made videos saying that it is faster and more efficient to group up to get better gear, paragon, gem levels, are lying. You are saying that the difference is so minuscule that it has no meaning. So the boost that players get from multiplayer are meaningless. The Strength in numbers buff is probably less than one percent buff according to you.

According to you player A and B spend 200 hours. Player A spends 99.99% teaming and doing the meta Rat Runs or whatever the four player meta is these days. Player A does split bounties for mats. Player B does it all alone. You are saying that both will have the same quality of gear, the same paragon, legendary gems levels, augments, etc…

If that is indeed the case then the strength in numbers buff is truly less than a percent in difference.

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72

Right… That is exactly what I am saying.

You are already describing two players that won’t ever be in contention for the portion of the leaderboard where mechanical differences actually result in ranked differences. You are describing non-elite levels of play.

Of course not. Don’t be a turd. I have never claimed that they were exactly the same. I have said that low information players overestimate the differences the mechanics of the game introduce.

More so that for most of the players claiming it’s actually about ethics in competition , no mechanical advantage could ever get them on the LBs.

They could meaningfully compete now in SSO, Solo Self Owned. They could make ranks on the PB right now. But they lack the prerequisite skills to do so.

They weren’t ever going to be competitive. That better players might have an advantage or disadvantage in LB ranking is something they can only speculate about.

Those advantages don’t account for the lack of competition from these players.

Have you done the true math on that?

73

Players are not looking at this by means of how many GRs the difference is. Oh btw a 5 GR level difference is an 85% difference. That is huge to a lot of players. So still the difference at the end of the day is huge. You just don’t want to see it that way. If it wasn’t the case then there would be way more players playing solo if the difference isn’t all that huge.

I’ll tell you something why not gimp your characters by 85% and see how huge of a difference it makes.

They just want to compete with others that are the same as they are without resulting to joining a clan and competing with clan mates. No, instead they want to compete with everyone that is going it solo. Instead of having both team players and solo players on the leader boards.

Why should I when you are the one that said it is minuscule, virtually none existent.

74

Very happy to see this happen, mostly play non-seasonal.

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75

Please say it ain’t so.

76

You don’t need to do any of that to join public bounty games and vault runs and it still makes that content ridiculously more efficient to do than soloing it.

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77

I do not know what the difference is between playing solo now. Leaderboards are pointless as they are overrun with BOTS. I dont even bother with Leaderboards after the first week of a season.

78

Those are just some of the reasons why I solo. I just love playing solo for more reasons than I can list. So doing public groups even for bounties is out. Even doing it for vault runs or any other thing in a group is out.

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81

Some of us were here at the beginning and back then there was no LB, for that matter when RoS released there was no LB then either back then people actually played the game and not turn up 6 years later and think all there is, is LB
And some think that the LB are uber useless s h I t

82

this should have been the subject line:

is there an Official statement about “Solo only mode” ?

-the result would have been ALOT less readers.

83

Doubt it, the thread would’ve still had people talking about whether or not a solo mode should be added.

84

Honestly if you folks really wanna compare your results with the other 14 of you who play like that, you can organize your own leaderboards. That’s something I learned from the Magic the Gathering community: they are always creating their own leagues and formats, instead of just waiting for WoTC to cater to all of them.

For example, there’s this league called penny dreadful in mtgo that’s basically a super budget league, and they have their own leaderboards, rules, and banlists. All organized by the community.

If you are really passionate about that playstyle and you think more people are too, don’t wait for Blizzard, make it yourself.

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85

Look you are pulling that low ball number from you know where. There are no doubt more players that would love a solo only leader boards. Where the players know that the ones on those boards are players that have done it all on their own like they have. The leader board isn’t just with one clan. It is with all players of all clans and communities that love soloing.