SOLO PLAYER PENALTY -- Avg Gear Score Capped @ iLvl 198

First attempted to create a new topic within the Shadowlands PTR forum – but new topics currently not allowed there; not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this topic.

For clarity, “solo” in this post doesn’t mean anti-social; rather, a player without a team membership; i.e. a player who logs in at random times to participate in random activities - who typically queues into content alone, e.g. random/epic battle grounds & open-world “war mode” pvp.

What incentive does a solo player have to continue to play in war mode for open-world PvP, or in random/epic battlegrounds?

As a solo player, I can no longer compete against players with their higher gear scores – as they can gain upgrades through Mythic+ and guild raiding.

Now that I’ve upgraded my non-rated PvP gear & covenant campaign gear to maximum item level, discovered gear upgrades for solo players are penalized – with gear capped at 197 (from PvP honor & covenant campaign sources) plus four items at 200 (from covenant exalted reputation). Solo players have no path for further gear upgrades – averaging to an effective character iLvl of 198.

As a solo player in BFA, I was able to progressively improve gear through non-rated PvP activities via the Conquest currency – from upgrades sold by PvP vendor and from the weekly rewards chest, funded by war mode supply crates & participation in random/epic battlegrounds. But now, Shadowlands has given the conquest upgrade path (above iLvl 200) exclusively to rated PvP players.

When I started Shadowlands, I was hoping Torghast would offer a Diablo-like progression path (similar to how greater rifts are progressively more difficult & offer increasingly better chances for gear upgrades). But Torghast offers only a single (wearable) legendary item through soul ash, and a few other non-gear rewards from Twisting Corridors. Absent from Torghast are any non-legendary gear upgrades that could help a solo player stay competitive with those non-solo players who have the bandwidth for team activities such as Mythic+ and raiding.

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Did you not pay attention to anything about the expansion?

That’s usually how it goes. If you have a guild you can do higher tier things and get higher tier gear.

To gank noobs? Because it’s fun?

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If it makes you feel any better there’s kind of a brick wall at 200/210 for everyone on the PvE side and it’s mostly a matter of luck and the vault to inch you forward.

Gearing is in a weird state. In a way it’s kind of strange they just fling 197 covenant gear at everyone… and then they provide very little to work on thereafter that doesn’t require extraordinary effort and luck.

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Wheres the word “solo” in mmorpg?

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It’s pretty sad that you can gain up to 198 solo now with barely any effort.

I remember when reaching 184 was a feat.

Catch-up in a first patch is dumb.

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well Op us casuals and the like better get use to it since 9.1 wont be out till may… bfa and legion had more to offer then this lol…alost feels like blizzard has given up

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What did patch 7.0 and 8.0 offer more than this gear wise for soloing ?

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Solo players should never come even remotely close to the ilvl of players doing group content in an MMO.

The fact of the matter is that this isn’t a single-player game.

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200ilvl is a brick wall as others have said. You need to start getting heroic level gear on a consistent basis or I believe rival level gear in PVP to move forward.

“Wheres” the word “group” in mmorpg?

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If you are a Solo player, then what are you hoping to do that you need the higher iLvl for?

I am a solo player (I mean, my husband and I both play but we don’t do M+ or Raids), and at iLvl 198 I can do any and all of the content I want. I even do Random BGs just fine. Why do you need it to be higher?

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the fact you even have to ask that jsut implies you wrent here forthe start of them lol… we had way more then what we got now… at least as a casual i felt like i always had something to do and always had a way to get gear even if i had to work a little bit for it… but in this current state its a joke… and if blizz thinks people will stay subbed till may waiting for a patch they are crazy… also this breaks the 3/4 month patch cycles…( almost)

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so you’re upset that you can’t progress in a game designed around playing with friends (as much as the wow community will claim it’s not)?

also, by definition you shouldn’t ever be interacting with other players as a “solo player”, so what exactly do you need better gear to compete with them in? if you’re saying doing pvp is fine, then surely queuing up for a M+ or a raid is perfectly fine as well.

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90% of the content is single player in WoW you dolt.

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And? That 90% is accessible to literally everybody.

Content that requires a group should always be more rewarding than content that doesn’t. Otherwise, why would anyone do it?

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In Massively Multiplayer.

Multiplayer.

Multi - more than one; many, especially variegated

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Idk if you’re aware but an MMO is NOT a solo player game.

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I never understood making this type of argument, we all should have ways of meaningfully upgrading our characters gear and power as the weeks/months roll on. Maybe they want to just do dailies in the Maw without fear of getting killed if they make a little mistake lol

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You right, 235 should come from WQs.

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Massively Multiplayer does not mean group.

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