Before anyone cries “But it’s an MMO”, hear me out.
The point of an MMO is to have a large world with a lot of other people in it all engaging in activities at the same time. Things like Pet battles and soloing old raid content and the like all encourage players who might not be interested in top tier raid content or mythic+ or pvp to get involved in that large world… and the game is better for their presence. But right now those players - especially ones who might be interested in a personal challenge that still allows them to be able to chat with other people in that world - don’t really have anything they can engage in long term to feel any sense of accomplishment, for the most part.
It’s an interesting debate, but one thing to remember is that some people are social but not cooperative/competitive. They may wish to have something they can push themselves against and get progressively stronger, but not want anyone - except maybe a close friend, spouse, or the like - involved because they want to do things at their own pace.
That doesn’t mean they don’t want to be chatting with guildmates while doing it, or having a bunch of whispers going at once to friends or even chatting in general. It just means that they aren’t interested in grouping with a lot of people - especially strangers. This has been proven to be especially important this past year, as people were forced to spend time inside and flocked to online games just for the sole purpose of having other people around - whether they actually played directly with them or not.
And the game should support them. I’m not going to offer too many specifics on HOW to do this - the ideas are out there, from improving torghast to implementing some sort of a solo system for dungeons(similar to FFXIV’s system) to tiered world quests to skirmishes and so on.
But I do think that players should be more open to the idea of adding an alternate progression path that operates similar to M+ and raiding where a person puts in the hours, gets gear, then uses that gear to increase the difficulty of the content they engage in and gradually acquire better gear… just either alone or with one or two friends in stead of in groups of 5 or 20.
I honestly agree - I wish they’d done that with Torghast. It was even something I mentioned in a torghast thread I posted a while back: Torghast - The Good, the Bad, and the Awkward
Either way though, whether through Torghast or something else, I really feel like this is something that people should welcome… and something Blizzard should strongly consider doing.
I would agree to this actually. Twisiting corridors can be fairly challenging as a solo player in layers 7 and 8. I would easily award a weekly 210 piece for solo players clearing layer 8.
I couldn’t even go higher than layer 6 on hunter. Very difficult. On DK it was fine soloing the whole thing. I think a 210 item for TC 8 once a week would’ve been a good and balanced reward.
I think most people misinterpret the suggestions that are out there. Most of the time people who post ideas for this AREN’T necessarily asking for handouts. When they say they want WQ to award better gear, they’re thinking of something that allows world quests to get harder at the same time. Or they’re thinking of a system where you can unlock challenge WQs that award better gear. Or things like that.
The heart of these suggestions is usually ‘I want a way to be able to play solo or just with a friend and still feel like I’m working towards something’ - which is what I’m trying to encourage people be more open to.
You must be a better hunter than me then. I couldn’t keep my pet alive for bosses in higher TC. It’s irrelevant now though, since there’s no more reason to do it.
They should actually say that, instead of “we did WQs every day we should be able to upgrade to the best stuff too even if it takes a little longer”
I think I’d question the desire for increased difficulty too. When you say that more difficult content should give better rewards to the Solo crowd, the reply is almost always “time is effort just the same”
I believe so, yes. Night Fae’s equivalent is probably the conservatory, which is just ‘plant seeds, get items’…
I am not going to say anyone’s idea is fundamentally untenable. There are ways around things like that. The important part for me here is just to get more people thinking of solo progression not as handouts but as ‘hey I want something to work towards too’.
I mean, I didn’t even use my pet except for the bosses. I’m MM. The goal for solo hunters it to max out your tar trap so the bosses can’t move really. Also bloodgorged leech will rez your pet automatically with a small bit of health but if it gets it to soak a cast, then that’s 1 less cast you are hit with.
That has not been my experience. In most of the threads I’ve had conversations with people who want solo progression, they’ve generally tended to agree with the idea that progression should be a cycle. I can’t necessarily speak for everyone. I’m sure there are people who do just want handouts… but MOST people I’ve engaged with on this topic have just been not great at expressing what they want… because it’s hard for them to envision how it could look since it’s not something Blizzard has really done before much.
This is the crux of the issue. Most players do not want real solo progression.
The game could work with difficult progression oriented content that only required 1 player, for sure.
But it doesn’t matter, because it wouldn’t be consumed by the players who are the most vocal about it.
It would just be another system people would call made for elitists and streamers.
The problem at hand is about mentality, not group size.
I fundamentally disagree with this(to the extent that this almost seems downright insulting to most people I’ve talked to, but I don’t think that’s your intent). I have engaged with a LOT of people on the forums, in game, on twitter, etc. on this type of topic. They often initially think in terms of ‘why can’t I get gear?’ but if you ask the right questions and really engage with them… the crux of it really is that they feel like there’s no path for them to engage with the game to get better.
Weakest argument ever against solo progression. ‘Massive multiplayer online’ does not mean “group play or bust”. It literally just means persistent world.
