That’s me during most of SL and I was pretty satisfied with what I could get from world content and LFR. Still had better gear than the golden era expansions where I had a lot less limitations.
Firstly, please acknowledge that not every person that plays as a solo player lacks the capability of performing well in a group play environment. Whatever reasons they may have (tired of the repetitive raid grind, loot drama, etc.; unable to commit the time to a regular raid group; without access to a computer with specifications sufficient to perform properly in mythic/raid environments; etc.), the result is the same.
The basic answer for your question is this: equivalent development time and consideration from the design team.
As a solo player, I want progressively challenging and rewarding solo play content to be just as varied, engaging, fulfilling, rewarding and awe-inspiring as that of the raid and mythic play style content.
I want there to be easy, casual content like world quests; challenging, ambitious content like the Legion Mage Tower; and a reasonable progression of various activities that bridge the gap between them.
Also, game play does not have to focus on content that grooms players to swiftly slaughter potent enemies with exquisite skill; although, I personally do hope that it won’t be absent of such challenges.
Updating the crafting game to be challenging, interesting and self-sufficient is a development I would appreciate seeing.
It would also be amazing to see plot-oriented content developed, where the players’ actions directly influence future game lore and development.
Finding a way to engage all those auction hall tycoons that compete for control of the flow of goods on their servers and bring that meta game into a more public arena would be amazing.
The best solo players should be just as revered and admired as the top mythic, arena & raid teams/guilds, for the same reasons. Their skill, discipline and effort brings them to reach a height of excellence that relegates the rest of us to the audience, unable to compete.
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They’ve done this, and the content got nerfed because people complained it was too hard. (looking at the casuals)
they do bridge the gap. It might not get you as high as “you think you deserve” but it is actually an ilvl increase.
This has never been a thing in WoW, you’re just grasping for features that never been a thing, without knowing the repercussions.
? Solo players put much less hours into the game than your average gamer because there is naturally less content for them to do since a majority of the game is based on group content now a days.
PS. I understand that there’s a lot of people who get hindred by IRL things which makes accessing the group content difficult, but please understand that it is literally impossible to reward solo players with cutting edge gear when the difficulty of the content will never be as hard as m+ or heroic+ raiding.
You want cutting edge gear for putting in 1/10 of the time as someone whos actively raiding trying to better themselves?
Lost for words.
How does that have to do anything with him calling names blaming devs slamming content he doesn’t do on top of blaming all the other players? If he had just said he can’t find the time to play and he’d like blizz to work on that wouldn’t be here.
I’m a little confused here. Where did I mention anything about solo players getting gear without making an equivalent commitment in time and effort?
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Actually, it wasn’t the casuals or solo players who complained that led to it being nerfed it was the elitists who were the biggest whiners that led to it being nerfed yeah maybe some casuals did whine but not as nearly as the elitists.
They whined and threw a fit because they didn’t want to feel “forced” to do something they thought was “beneath” them and so daddy Blizzard had to nerf it into the ground so the baby elitists wouldn’t cry anymore.
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But based off your post. You want people who DON’T have the time to game to be able to do open world content and get this gear, those people have little to no time (as was stated).
So you are indirectly saying it without saying it.
The amount of time and effort it takes to do m+/raids and then convert that into some sort of solo content makes no sense.
If they don’t have the time to access the gear and better themselves, then what makes you think introducing difficult content on par with m+ and raids is a better solution?
Or is this just a scenario where it just benefits you?
So what you’re saying is…there’s more elitists than casuals and solo players, and their outcry was so massive “daddy blizzard” catered to the most popular voice?
Ok.
Yup, kinda like big minecraft server groups, tons of people on, but odds are, most folks are doing their own thing and interact with each other when both parties desire it.
WoW feels like the helicopter parents that insist their teens socialize with play dates and won’t take no for an answer.
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It’s always been like this. The only expansions where WoW did not push group content on people was BFA because the gear we were getting from those boxes were OP AF.
Every other expansion has literally had the same notion of chasing the carrot into m+ and gearing up for raids…this philosophy of WoW has never changed.
The game has always been designed around group content.
In classic, from my experience anyway, you could progress and gear up without doing dungeons. And you actually felt like you were progressing and growing as you leveled and got new items.
Now it’s just ‘rush to the end, que que que, go go go’ for how the focus feels, and if you don’t do that, you don’t progress. The disparity between forced group content gear and gear you can get without other players is so large it’s, honestly, laughable. Korthia gear was a step in the right direction, and then they threw it away as soon as ZM hit, and then they decided to do the ‘fated experiment’ which resulted in an even larger disparity.
Don’t need raid gear, sure, that’s fine and dandy, but there should ALWAYS be a way to progress in power or other goals in a reasonable manner for the more solo players as well.
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Being unable to commit the time to a regular raid or mythic group doesn’t necessarily mean not having time to play, for one thing. Some professionals keep very irregular hours due to work needs and aren’t able to coordinate for group content on a routine basis. That does not mean that they have any less time to play than others.
Also, some parents have to deal with small (or not so small) children making frequent interruptions to their game time, and are not willing to inflict the disruptions on the team they used to run group content with. (Of course giving the kids baths, meals, bedtime stories, homework help, etc. will be a bit higher on the priority list than finally getting that new raid boss down this week…) That does not mean that they can’t play, just that they need to plan their play around the likelihood of disruptions.
Solo play activities are much more forgiving of such things.
I don’t really feel that these types of alternatives are a significant threat to the existence and wellbeing of group and raid content in WoW for two main reasons.
#1: Blizzard does group content -really- well. They do an awesome job at designing interesting and challenging content, and are pretty good about fixing the occasional game-breaking bugs that crop up.
#2: When possible, it usually is more fun to play the game together with friends. So unless we’re just needing alone time, or unable to coordinate, we tend to put in the effort to enjoy romping through content with company. Speaking from my own days of participation in mythic/raid content.
Giving people who do not wish to participate in group content engaging alternatives does not prevent them from participating in the group content. It prevents them from leaving the game altogether for another alternative that provides a game experience that more closely suits their preferences.
That said, it’s just not possible for one game to be all things for all players, so thanks to Blizzard for doing such a good job so far, and I await future developments with curiosity and hope.
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I fully agree solo players should have means to gear up up outside of group content.
I can get behind it.
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Listen I get it, life happens and there’s many people who can’t play consistently and are constantly interrupted so they opt for the solo play.
But to that i say.
Did you know theres 3 m+ dungeons that are 30 mins?
If you dont have 30 mins to spare then I’m not really sure what to say. I find it hard to believe that you guys are advocating for gear when you can’t even sit down for 30-40 mins for a single session.
It makes no sense.
Giving people who can barely sit at their computer gear will literally undermine other players putting in countless hours to gear up.
No, this isn’t gatekeeping or elitist mentality.
If you put 10 hours into something, and Bob puts in 1 hour, don’t you expect the person who put 10 hours to be much more ahead?
You guys want to skip certain grinds due to reasons that are outside blizzard’s control and also at the expense of active players.
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If Bob gets something from 10 hours of raiding, wouldn’t it be fair for Bill to also get something comparable after investing 10 hours of solo play of equivalent challenge?
Perhaps those 10 hours may be broken up into much smaller sessions across a couple weeks rather than just a couple days, but as long as the respective difficulty level is maintained, I do think that it is fair to expect an equivalent reward.
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KSM is 100% casual content.
No, time spent playing the game means absolutely nothing
Sure, equivalent reward for equivalent playtime.
Problem is there is no 10 hours of solo-play, WoW isn’t designed that way and it never has been.
This sorta system/feature has never been a thing.
This is an excuse. I have a 3 year old and still raid mythic.
This game is designed around group content. This isnt designed to be a solo player game.
Participating in group-oriented play isn’t effort, it’s just a choice. There should be solo content that’s as challenging as raids, for gear rewards that are as good as tier sets. Horrific Visions were actually pretty good for this, but they did become too easy as it went on.
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