9.1 Brings almost nothing for the solo players

Community General Discussion
102

Sorry to hear all that, but I disagree that any of it is intentionally different than present day.

I am unsure why anyone would play this game with no interest in playing with others, but I think the healthiest way to understand what is or isn’t present is as follows.

All of those things were added as segues into proper group content.
They game has NEVER intentionally had a progression path directed for solo play, and it never will.
Because that is not the type of game this is.

You finding those things that were formerly present engaging while solo was merely a conicidence.

I can help you understand that with an example from modern day for myself.

Right now, one of the most fun things I have ever done is level characters with no specialization through Chromie Time then through Shadowlands and take them in Torghast.

To level a character with no specialization you just never have to choose a spec after you start.
Its simple, but the game clearly does not support it.
Many core things like Covenant progression, Legion Artifacts, Talents, Legendaries, and many other things simply do not function or can not function.

Doing torghast at all is only possible because they made entry into the portal account wide at some point.
Originally, the portal was locked behind the second quest in the covenant campaign, which I can not access, as the first quest can not be done without dedicating to a spec. (selecting the soulbind just fizzles as the spell is modified by spec and role, and I have none.)

Even the Anima powers don’t work, as many try to award me talents that I do not have access to, or modify spells I do not have.

The entire thing is not directly created for me to have fun, but I still have an extreme amount of fun with it.
Part of the fun is fiddling around with half-broken stuff just to see the extent at which I can take it.

Some day, this may not exist any more.
But while it does, I enjoy and when it doesn’t I have no regrets.

That is this game in a nutshell, and I hope this anecdote helps you understand your own situation better.

There are literally countless ways to explore this game.
Many of which are just byproducts of other design or systems that act as a stepping stone.

If you can not find anything at all that excites you, then I would take this as a sign that the game is no longer for you, and attempt to find something that does excite you elsewhere.

103

I feel that this is where the daily system has an edge over world quest system. Daily system was a hub and unlocked the story or narrative of the patch which did appeal to solo players.

These days most of the story is not even in game and the rest is in raids and dungeons.

I do agree Torghast is a lost opportunity to keep solo players interested.

:surfing_woman: :surfing_man:

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104

I don’t see how a patch that adds a zone, a raid, and a dungeon is smaller than a patch that added a few new items/followers to the Garrison and no new content.

If you enjoyed playing WoD more than you’re enjoying SL, sure, no one can argue with personal taste obviously. I enjoyed WoD raids more than I’m enjoying CN myself. But 9.1 has way more content than 6.1 and it’s not close.

Anyway I’m not sure what the great reason to level alts in WoD was, there wasn’t anything for them to do at max level besides raid.

SL has fewer campaigns than Legion for sure but it at least it has the different covenant campaigns for alts.

107

I know I am crazy but Archaeology is one thing I kind of miss. Though I am in the minority I am sure.

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108

I like playing with others, but others I know. The player base is profoundly rude, rushy, and toxic toward healers. I was doing group content with people I knew, but there is no moderation in place to dissuade people from being A-holes, so I don’t do stuff with strangers.

I don’t care about a progression path for solo players in the sense that you’re implying. I don’t want to just build my gear up by myself, that’s what my raid was for. I just want something valuable to do outside of the group content, by myself.

Professions could be this. And I don’t mean crafting high ilvl gear all the time. Look at MoP’s Isle of Thunder crafting system, or WoD’s crafting systems. Those were great! They took time, they took effort, they were content. Look at how FFXIV does crafting. Absolutely no game out there does crafting better IMO.

Listen. I do group content when I’m invested in this game. I’ve done M+ (I don’t like rushing though), I’ve raided mostly (All AOTCs since that achievement started in 2009, with the exception of Firelands and, now, Castle).

But when I’m playing this game, I’m not paying a subscription to just log in, raid, and log out. I don’t PVP. I DO NOT LIKE M+, but I will do them if the right people are on. Where’s the rest of the game to do?

And don’t even bring up Torghast. Who TF puts content into a game like this without any sort of reward structure to go after?

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109
  1. Untimed dungeons that dropped relevant end game gear.
  2. Craftable items like pets and good gear that were accessible to solo players.
  3. A set of daily quests with a finite goal – something you can work towards, rather than an endless grind with no clear end in sight

World Quests, honestly, are horrible. The dailies in Cataclysm and MoP were great because once the rep grind and achievements were done, they were done. You actually had a goal to work towards, so the sense of despair just wasn’t there.

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111

Many people are slamming the solo players for wanting a path that is resonable to get gear but blizzard has decided to cap it and leave players behind.

Those of you who say get good, get in a guild, it’s not that simple many of us have had our share of drama and abuse and why would anyone put up with it. Some of the pugs have I done have been total 100% pure dumpsterfires. It’s not pretty or fun anymore.

For those of you who remember it use to be you could do the following

Do dungeons to level up
Do PvP to level up
Do quest to level up.

Many have seem to have forgotten that the company has taken player choices away and that is not a sign of a good game model. When you start forcing people into 1 pipeline many will give up and walk away. And by forceing people to complete things they may not like will make them log off that much faster.

You can only level up so far now YOU are REQUIRED to do the quests lines
you can no longer level up with PvP
Loot is restricted
Raids are primary focus
M+ is another primary focus
PvP is now required to get better gear.

these things have become manditory and are no longer optional. Yes your going to have people turn the game off and many will walk away. The fact many make fun of these players that are leaving when they are told to post why they are leaving. show how out of touch players have become and how the Develpers have all but disconnected from the player base.

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113

A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG, or more commonly, MMO) is an online game with large numbers of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server.[1] MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although some games differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including the personal computer, video game console, or smartphones and other mobile devices.

MMOs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many [video game genres](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_genre).

Bolded the stuff that actually describes an MMO since you don’t seem to really understand what they are. Last one is key, they include a variety of gameplay types. That doesn’t MEAN YOU must group, it means it includes a variety of PLAY STYLES.

/#Stay Safe, Stay Healthy.

27 Likes
114

Makes you think about all the times the casual crowd said timegates were bad and if the hardcore’s burn through their content too fast, that’s their fault and they shouldn’t complain about having anything to do.

115

Right, that’s the issue. Torghast DOES have a reward structure.
The reason it has no gear is because the same community complaining about it now, complained about it when it was going to have gear on the beta, demanding that it be a no-entry-fee style content.

Once you do that, you waive the possibility of gear.

I wouldn’t mind seeing this change, but still, I myself spend a LOT of time with professions, alts, and many types of content that could be done alone.

Its just important to remember all of that is there to supplement the main group-mandated content, so if you are not approaching it that way, you will be disappointed.

116

Except the covenant stuff was literally two quests a week and a timegate. How can you help but burn through that fast?

117

Every gearing path has an end. The solo one in 9.0 ended around 200 ilevel, at which point solo players are stronger than anything in the open world. That’s not too shabby for doing nothing but the easiest stuff in the game.

118

Does nobody understand that this isn’t a single player game?

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119

In recent years, I could hardly tell :confused:

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120

Somebody clearly didn’t do Vanilla class quests like the hunter one where you would get insta-one shot if ANYONE tried to help in anyway.

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121

That you will have with the mega dungeon in 9.1. Typically drops near or above normal raid ilvl loot.

I do not remember a time when crafting strong gear would ever have been accessible to solo players. It has always been tied to raids or dungeons, or materials from those places.
Right now though, I spend a LOT of time with professions.
Getting all rank 4s of my legendaries is a major goal for me, but I might give up on it depending what their plans are for 9.1 and legendaries there.

This is everywhere in Shadowlands, because it was a common complaint about BFA.
BFA and Legion had many infinite progression systems, which many players loved, and many hated.
They went away from that, so now you should be perfectly aware of what you are getting out of world content and you should feel comfortable stopping when you no longer want any of the rewards.

That still exists in Shadowlands.
If your goal is achieving exalted with the reputations, then you can pursue that and stop there.
For those who want more, there are also paragon caches to be obtained for chances at rare mounts and stuff too.

122

if you took 2 seconds to read some of the posts prior to your lazy comment, you’d realize you’re completely missing the OP’s point.

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123

Think of all the things they can be grinding anima for!

But really it was more a comment on the complaining. I know I was darn happy to be able to get my alts that don’t really do anything but professions into their max.

124

Sorry bud, I dispute that. The only ones complaining about it were Elitists because they had to deal with the un-washed masses in Mythic + dungeon groups.

The rest of us were happily just plugging away to increase our Ilevels so we could be at least decent when going into Mythic Plus dungeons and happily increasing our neck pieces during BFA.

Can’t wait to see Q1 results, maybe you will all understand that deliberately irritating upset customers doesn’t help retain paying customers.

We KNOW you won’t miss us; but I bet Blizzard will.

/#Stay Safe, Stay Healthy.

34 Likes
125

Minds a little fuzzy…but you wouldn’t be talking about the class quest that required you to go into a raid and win a roll would you?