As a World Content Level player, the system looks fair to me.
I might be the only player not infected with BUT - IWANTZMYEPICZ variant 9
But it’s my 75 something bucks every 6 months for lolz, so.
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What I noticed about this topic is that there seems to be a double standard. Blizzard actively develops the game to avoid forcing raiders to do anything they don’t want to do. PvP arena players and Mythic plus players also receive the same luxury of minimal barriers to reach their preferred method of play. These play styles are perceived as popular though I would like to see a metric of players that spend the majority of their time running old content and world quests/events. My feeling is this would show a large portion of the overall population spends considerable time in these pursuits likely more than the big three combined (Note: I consider all PUG/group finder related content as solo content including non-rated BG’s).
I find it interesting that crafters in WoW may be forced to also raid… Crafting as I understand it is going to be extremely time consuming in DF and take considerable resources and effort to level. On top of that they are potentially expected to raid at moderate to high levels so they can benefit from their own preferred method of play? Seems a bit like a double standard.
Concerning Solo gear progression… Blizzard seems to avoid difficulty scaling in solo content which would justify high Ilvl rewards. Theoretically extremely difficult solo content should allow solo players to acquire comparable gear without ridicule from the other play preferences if the “big 3” players could not complete the solo content themselves without considerable preparation and effort to do so.
My theory about why Blizzard has not attempted this seriously is the same reason they will not embrace 1v1 arena … It would force them into a position to balance classes for this type of content.
If you have ever played a Hunter you know they can solo elites with little to no effort well before most other classes where a Rogue will get stomped attempting the same mob way quicker than most other classes…
All this aside I think when WoW hits another major population decline they will likely start working on solo players preferences. In the past people absolutely swore that many things would never happen and that they “earned” rewards that others can never have…blah, blah, blah and then population fell massively and the mage tower came back 
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This seems to be the recent WoW design philosophy. Raiders used to have to grind reputations, professions, or world buffs in order to maximize their character’s power for raids. This was simply part of the MMORPG genre to keep players busy outside of raid nights. But ever since 9.2, WoW developers have catered to raidloggers’ every whim in effort to remove any friction that they may experience.
Meanwhile, the same developers try to create as much friction for solo players as possible, even denying them of power progression outright in a subscription-based MMORPG.
I don’t think that anyone should have to do content that they don’t want to do, but as you pointed out, the issue is the huge double standard. Developers say they are listening, but clearly they are listening only to a minority demographic.
We don’t have the exact numbers, but it is an industry-established fact that more people do the easier, queue-able, soloable activities than the more difficult content that requires coordinated, premade groups. For all activities, it is going to look like a pyramid with LFR (for example) at the bottom, and Mythic raiding (for example) at the top.
This goes beyond double standard—it is a downright insult to solo players. The work order system for DF was devised entirely so that crafters could not benefit from their own professions, but group content players could benefit from everyone’s professions.
As a result, group content players will not only experience a high level of power progression through direct rewards from their content, but they will also have the option to craft powerful gear as bad luck protection for unlucky slots.
Solo players will only be able to craft much less powerful gear for themselves—and instead of crafting being simply an option—the nerf to open world gear means that crafted gear will be a requirement for all solo players who care about character power.
I suspect that Blizzard is actively avoiding solo power progression through instanced content because they know that it would blow the three pillars out of the water in terms of player engagement.
If Torghast were enjoyable and provided gear progression, for example, many solo-oriented players would only do Torghast and never feel that they have to PuG raids or M+ keys.
Even the Solo Shuffle that has already been introduced may prove to be incredibly popular and may kill participation in other rated PvP, especially RBGs (which are incredibly hard to find the right teams for at times beyond YOLO groups).
Yes, Blizzard is not only trying to protect metrics for group content. If challenging PvP or even PvE content is introduced exclusively for single players, then the “meta” specs will be become quite clear and it will be hard to balance specs, given how complex combat is designed to be in WoW.
Yes, this became quite apparent in Torghast. Hunters could even make themselves immune permanently. More defensive powers were added to Torghast later, but I still think that solo Rogues had it the worst when trying to kill multiple elites at once for score bonuses.
Dragonflight may be WoW developers’ last-ditch effort to see if they can make the gear-gatekeeping model of Shadowlands’ three pillars work.
If subscriber numbers continue to plummet in Dragonflight after the initial launch hype, hopefully developers will start to realize that the story and “required” open world grinds were not the only issues in Shadowlands.
Like it or not, no modern MMORPG can grow without offering solo players meaningful progression. Solo players are going to quit at level 70 if Dragonflight doesn’t offer them acceptable avenues for gear upgrades through enjoyable content.
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I’m hopeful that they will make crafting a true 4th pillar and free it from Raiding and M+ entirely. I don’t mind if the occasional rare reagent drops in a raid but acquiring these rare reagents should be primarily a part of investing time and effort into gathering skills.
I mean…Sure a big scary monster might have a horde of items including some reagents but where did they come from? Someone that knew how to find and harvest them…thats how.
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you mean 5th pillar, right?
Okay, tldr
What is yalls issues?
Gear ilevel not good enough or what?
Because if it is. As a casual, semi-hardcore raider
We work our butts off downing bosses and deserve our loot. This has been the case for almost 18 years.
Casuals in open world do not and never will deserve equivalant item level gear or not even close.
Example:
310 ilevel gear drops in normal 335 ilevel drops in heroic.
Open world, best yall deserve is 252 260 ilevel max.
I wish yall would stop… yall want blizzard to cater to yall.
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Lack of interesting content for solo/world players and a lack of a sense of progression is the main one.
The gear level is likely fine where it is, there is just a lack of things to do with it to get better or test ourselves with it
As if the same can’t be said for those doing grinds for reps or mats?
Sorry, I find the world content runners more deserving of gear then those that buy runs, so if the best open world only deserve is:
What do those that buy runs deserve?
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Please fix this so I am not forced to play with any of these raging insecure nerd losers to have decent gear.
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An active engaging world that draws players in would be the best thing for the game.
Solo players being able to push and test themselves. Professions being valuable and worthwhile. Raiders and M+ having their group content. PvPers being able to pvp without worrying about anything else.
All this is good for the game. Especially if it brings more people to the game. Gives more money to be able to design more content so everyone wins. More people playing means a much wider talent pool to draw from as well.
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Solo players have consistently show that when this content is introduced, they don’t want to do it.
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You make a fair point. Not a lot to do outside of raiding/mythic +
Would you give an example of what content you are talking about?
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Then I don’t believe throwing it out is the answer. But working out how to make it fun and engaging and not feel like a chore.
Players ultimately want to have fun. Giving them more options to have fun can never hurt.
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I’m posting after years of inactivity to say - I agree with the OP 100%
A few things they could do to make solo questing more… abundant?.. is to update older content like the garrisons, etc, any older content that involves a “war table”. Right now all of that content, while totally suited for solo play, seems worthless now.
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Sure!
Jailers Gauntlet
Both Versions of the Mage Tower
Horrific Visions
Proving Grounds
All solo content that exists entirely to challenge the player, and it was all largely ignored by the casual solo playerbase, OR it was complained about endlessly on these forums due to difficulty.
What it seems to me the average casual solo player wants, is content they can put little effort into and steamroll, and be rewarded greatly for.
WAR! WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME…ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING!
Oh I’m sorry. You actually believe this nonsense
I think something you’re going to struggle with a bit here is what the definition of fun actually is. Fun means very different things to different people. Where my version of fun is progression raiding, another might find doing the sanctum minigames enjoyable.
Blizzard spent a ton of time and effort over the course of Shadowlands creating hundreds of hours of solo content that people can engage with, and I think it’s fair to assume given their approach in DF, that it didn’t really pay off. That the content they spent all this time making really just didn’t get played.
Now you could argue that the content wasn’t “fun.” But I know quite a few folks with Veilstrider who, until they realized there was a deadline for the achievement, quite enjoyed the solo content offered.
I would never tell Blizzard to stop developing solo content, I enjoy quite a bit of it from time to time; however, what is counterproductive in my view, is to keep asking for more and more solo content every patch, when it largely gets ignored.
I think dev time is much better spent on all other facets of the game, that actually see player engagement.
Only one of those actually awarded gear. Where’s the challenging solo content that awards gear?
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No, its an MMO, meaning massive MULTIPLAYER online. Dont like it go play another game.
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They do the same stuff with solo PVP. It’s part of the design. Kinda like a pyramid or ponzi scheme.
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