I could be mistaken, but my understanding is that you only unlock cosmetics for your dragon from group content. I think you get all functional upgrades just by participating in outdoor content, collecting the “dragon glyphs” that are hidden in interesting spots around the isles (someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).
Dragonriding seems to mostly be a game of momentum management. In terms of how progress is made - you collect glyphs from hard-to-reach places around the isles, which give you points that are spent on upgrades to vigor/new abilities to spend that vigor on while on your mount, and that enables you to last longer in the sky, flying faster and further, collecting glyphs that were unreachable before and thus unlocking points for new upgrades. Some might not find that to be an engaging form of progress, but I do. As a solo player, I care more about engaging with the lore, environment, and my character rather than competitive aspects of the game, so dragonriding seems like it will exactly hit that goal for me. But it won’t scratch that itch for everyone, and I can acknowledge that dragonriding in itself is not evergreen, and can only form a part of the “solo pillar” of the game - and for a limited time, at that.
But that’s why I also mentioned islands and Torghast. Like you said, they haven’t been carried forward into other expansions, but they easily could be, just with a different coat of paint. “Torghast” with a Bronze Dragonflight travel-through-different-time-periods theme could be a way to retain a previous expansion feature, for example. By themselves, none of these things is quite enough to form a “solo pillar” of the game, but taken together - and iterated on throughout expansions, rather than scrapped at the end each time - they may collectively achieve that.
(Sorry for the long reply lol; just trying to answer in a well rounded way)
Thats awesome if true, maybe I am confusing the profession revamp with DR. The profession system sounded really appealing until they announced all the high end gear mats are still raid/m+ gated.
Cool, so at some prior to launch icy veins/wowhead or better yet handynotes, will have “the guide” saying go to this zone get 1 2 3 4 5 then this zone get 6 7 8 then back to first zone get previously unreachable 9 10 then to next zone for 11-15 then next zone 16-20 and back to second zone for 21 blah blah"
For the above to be fun, there has to be a challenge element to the execution. I like knowing what the challenge or skill check is and the execution being tricky (like mage towers)… I don’t really like sandboxes too much where I don’t understand what I am supposed to do (like most treasures where you have to go find an obscure key or pick a fruit like in bastion).
Races do sound fun though… there better be a reference to Falcor from the never ending story!!!
My understanding is they are not easy to implement which is why they scraped them… I mean these kinds of bonus content all started with Garrisons (which I thought were amazing, absolutely GREAT)… look at how early Garrisons, artefacts, class halls, island expos, covenants etc were annouced… I am pretty sure they have already said they are not doing any of that kind of content its pure dungeon/raid with maybe a mage tower like thing later on (that will be tuned for top level raid gear) but nothing planned yet.
We have people at war for our country and other real life issues going on and, people wanna fight people about something as trivial as a video game and how they play it.
Not sure I understand your logic here… you want to come on a video game forum and remind people that wars/conflict exist and some how in your mind align them on the same axis to demonstrate how different they are?
Completely agreed. Falcor reference or we riot (the wilderling mounts from Ardenweald actually gave me MAJOR Falcor vibes).
I mean, I get you, and I do agree - people absolutely do get too vitriolic and aggressive over the game. However, we’re all on these forums in the first place because we care enough about a game that not only do we want to spend our free time playing it, but talking about it, too. That means that even the most even-keeled of us on here are bound to get impassioned sometimes. (There’s a difference between caring about something and being an abrasive jerk, of course, but I mean… come on m8, we’re on a video game forum )
A valid question. I can only speak for myself, but:
It’s nice to have the option for group play. Even though 90% of my played time is blissfully spent on solo play, I do have the rare weekend when me and my RL buddies are all able to log in at the same time. And it’s great. And I’m always ready to be back on my own when it’s over. But I like having the option for that group time.
As of right now, WoW is the only way for me to personally explore the Warcraft universe. There is no truly single player Warcraft game, but I want to be immersed in Azeroth regardless. If an Elden Ring or Elder Scrolls-style single player game game out in the Warcraft universe, with the same level of customization/race options and a truly open world, I would be very tempted to play it. But that game doesn’t exist, so I’ve used the WoW mmo to fulfill that purpose. Which brings me to -
Despite being an MMO, there is still a lot in WoW that appeals to solo players. It’s one of the most immersive, lore-filled video games I’ve experienced. Combat is smooth and fun. The story, while hit or miss, usually always has at least some good moments in an expansion. Even though I don’t like playing with people, I do like seeing people running around in cities and the world, doing their thing. It makes the world feel alive, even though I don’t care to do much content with those people I see. While endgame content is currently catered to group play, there’s a lot that solo players can enjoy in it. It’s fair to criticize solo players for having a solo mindset in an MMO, but with how many WoW players care about solo play, is it such a bad idea to invest some resources in content for them as well?
(I get your point, it’s a good point, but those are my thoughts as a solo player)
This is actually a really great question and worth exploring.
As the poster above said, for the franchise it is really the only immersive experience available and even if you engage in your own objectives there is a certain ambience and quality to having more people populated in your world (sort of like how ARPGs like POE have populated town hubs to make them feel “fuller” or populated).
For me it comes down is my gameplay improved or hindered by engaging in group content?
In wows current design, being inclusive or involving lower skilled players hinders your progress. Its a very toxic design… it works well at the highest ~1% or for mythic gameplay or for “90’s era epeen players” but it takes a game from 10M subs down to ~2M very quickly (cata proved that).
Any time in wows history I have raided or done group content and been able to carry to success it has been enjoyable because my success was not impeded by being in a group.
Modern wow is very success/fail orientated and when you have much shorter time to spend to achieve success (non-recurring aka casual gameplay hours), its tedious and frustrating rather than an enjoyable pass time.
I am so tired of the people whose lives seem to only be about world of Warcraft and their worth is in the game. How sad. Come back to reality. I love this game and am passionate too but there is a difference if it’s your whole world or not.
There are real issues going on and ppl want to argue if a lame mount that was going to potentially be given to everyone should be in LFR or not.
Edit: I am waking up and thought I was responding to another freak out about slime cat not being in LFR. Rip 🫠
I’m saying to fight someone with suggesting another Pilar in WoW is so asinine to me. There is more important things to worry about and there should be content for all. Let’s all have content and move on to do what we want in a game we love.
ZM was better than the previous expansions in that regard, but it all ended too soon, iLVL wise, and it suffered the same major issue as previous expansions, in that the daily content was repeating the same handful of daily and world quests, over and over and over.
This is a videogame forum. If people talking about what they want in the game bothers you, maybe hit up a forum about important issues.
Do you really not understand that us discussing something that’s important to people in game is in no way indicative of what someone understands to be important IRL?
Some people sure make it feel like it’s not sometimes.
My whole point is, I can’t imagine fighting someone(s) about there being pillars for everyone in WoW from casual to hardcore. I don’t get it. There should be content for everyone.
Lotro (I mention this a lot) has this interesting way of sort of doing this! Like Endgame quests (From Older Content I’ve witnessed thus far!) which require instances done or you to clear through a rough elite zone, usually give a “Inspiration” Buff which makes you quite powerful, and the equivalent to a team! Though it does not do this for bigger instances and dungeons!
I to, struggle with Multiplayer content ever since my Dungeon Team went on break, and would like a way to experience Endgame without the focus of Getting a Better Item Level, or topping the DPS Charts! That Competitive Atmosphere was rough on me my early wow days, and seems to have halted me utterly now! Sure an MMO’s purpose is to bring people together, but I’d still like an alternative!
Because WOW is so good! I wish there was an RPG version! Imagine! It could be expanded, do a AI Follower Team system for dungeons! More expansive stories to explore perhaps!
Sorry, my fantasies get the better of me sometimes!
The problem is that fourth pillar takes away dev time from the other pillars. I would much rather see multiple new dungeons each patch and not have a final raid tier that is so clearly 1 and a half combined than to try to make wow into a single player game when much better single player options exist.
Now a single player story focused wow game with better combat could be interesting but it’s a huge undertaking
I am not trying to be condescending and I do agree with you but I think you need to relax a bit… think about the Obi Wan line from a new hope, “whose the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who follows it”. If you know people take wow too seriously and don’t think rationally, is the rational response to lash out or just move on?
I think you are rational but you are letting them get to you (which is why I took the time to post this).
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