Did we need scenarios?

[The Flavour Cat]

I prefer scenarios as single-player adventures that tell lore and story, not the group versions. That way we have more time to absorb the lore of the current expansion and give time for other characters/plots that are in need of development.
The other ones I also think were a great addition were the Troves and Pursuing the Black Harvest.

[Morthulo]

I guess that they are good for their stories, but I personally wouldn't miss them if they weren't there anymore. However, I don't believe that they should be removed or anything like that, just hope they offer better content than currently.

[Zaelsino]

Scenarios didn't really live up to the hype for me. BlizzCon suggested they'd be the perfect tool for revisiting the static old world (like Goldshire and the Undercity), yet we haven't really used them to that effect at all; 90% of them were just wacky Pandaria adventures.

They're a good idea though, and useful enough from a gameplay perspective. They just weren't as... interesting as I'd expected.

[DemoBytom]

I feel that scenarios as a group content are not really that great of an asset to the game. Current HC scenarios are quite "fun", in sense that you can very easily form a group and zerg through them for valor.. Otherwise they are pretty worthless.. There's hardly time to even read what's going on around you, explore a bit, look around. You just run (like 5 mans)..

On the other hand, as a story device - they are an awesome addition to quests, as a solo content for player. There, I think, they really work great. The Thunder Island scenarios expanding upon the lore around that place really gave depth to our conflict with Lei Shen's forces, for example.

Also Proving Grounds and Green Fire questline showed how you can utilize the feature to maximize it's potential.

Overall - as a technology - I think we needed scenarios.
As a group content - not so much.

[Deleted]

Solo challenges would have been more interesting. They could even have had different difficulties like:

Normal - standard, pretty easy
Heroic - more skill needed, but more valour
CM - items scaled down, quite hard to get through, but even more valour

I think there was a plan to create solo dungeons a while back (Wotlk maybe?) but it was dropped.

[Blithe]

Good for minor story-telling but other than that they were useless. Would much rather have had more dungeons, and leave the scenario's for main story arcs like how they have you at the start of Throne of Thunder, and during the in-between-patches scenario's.

[Shampro]

Good news is that they found their use in WoD by makeing them solo for important moments while leveling. And seemless, meaning no loading screen and no queuing.

But in Mists, they didn't work that well aside from the few here and there like Isle of Thunder ones and that one scenario in the Vale.

[Lochton]

Been a big fan of the scenarios as a story telling tool, not as loot farming as most treat it in Mists of Pandaria.

Loving the whole setup and build out, the ways it can connect in together with quests either. Like they are to do in Warlords.

I didn't find it nice that it was ending up to be a points/gear farm.

[Osmeric]

Scenarios could have been interesting with large groups, sort of like PvE battlegrounds.

[Lochton]

Scenarios could have been interesting with large groups, sort of like PvE battlegrounds.

Oh, that is how I thought for during the Isle of Thunder events. Would have loved to see a greater battle in the skies except just one person jumping about.

[The Kao]

What we needed was a way to farm VP without having to rely on scarce tanks and healers to make it possible for groups to form. And that scenarios did quite well, especially since the addition of heroic scenarios. For everything else they weren't really needed.

[chaddd]

Wow, I am surprised so may people are down on scenarios. I like the format of them (3 people) and think it's a nice alternative to the 5 man dungeons. Don't get me wrong, I like 5 mans better, but the change of pace is nice also.

[rhoark]

Scenarios were not an alternative to dungeons, they were a replacement for group quests. I preferred group quests, since they fostered communication and were not designed for a goldfish's attention span.

[Pennoyer]

WoW dungeons are also a shallow form of content. I'd rather there be no pretenses and just let the content be quick and easy to group for.

[turboether]

They would have more value as leveling content than endgame content. There is nothing inherently wrong with them having unique sequences and telling their own self-contained story. The ones that followed the ongoing story had more impact, certainly.

[Violetti]

other then shorter queue i see no difference in dungeons vs scenarios once i did them 10+ times, both boring and only reason to do them is valorcap

+1 for scenarios

[blackblade]

Looking back at scenarios after their addition in MoP, did they fulfill a niche that was needed?

Presumably the main reason they were made was so that 3 friends could run an instance together regardless of roles, and not need to find 2 extra strangers to join their group.

My argument is this: scenarios feel too much like instanced questing. Dungeons are good because they introduce you into working as part of a team, fulfilling your role, understanding basic boss mechanics to practice for raiding. Due to the lack of role structure in scenarios, they do not prepare you for raiding as well and therefore are little more than instances questing. Not only that, but scenario bosses cannot be as interesting/complex due to the possible lack of a tank or healer. Scenarios are great as solo quests (like Isle of Thunder, which was brilliant), but not as group content.

As resources will be spent making new scenarios instead of dungeons, we will likely get less dungeons than in previous expansions. Do people think scenarios were a good addition and a balance between them and dungeons is good? Or should they be scrapped and the focus be on more dungeons?

Not ripping into scenarios here, just a personal opinion on them and I'm interested to see what other's think.

Scenarios are a different beast. (and AFAIK, in wod, they're relegated to instanced questing) They had an awkward reward structure to start out, and they have a tendency to put you in the shoes of the opposite faction once in a while which some people didn't like.

IMO, from a rewards standpoint they're perfect for a pure DPS who wants something to do between dungeon queues. They're kind of punishing on healers and tanks simply because they're oriented around fast kills rather than traditional trinity gameplay; in fact most of the major damage going out is largely avoidable in virtually every scenario with a group of DPS.

I don't think having them hurt the game, but people put them on the same pedestal (and with no new dungeons this patch, I can't blame them) as LFD which is probably not fair. Scenarios/HScenarios are a suppliment to LFR/LFD and not a replacement.

[Stormspark]

As others have said, the solo ones were fine, sometimes great, the group ones really didn't improve the game in any way. Perhaps they could do a flex style going froward, from 1-3 players, and implement them for levelling? That way you have the option for slightly more interesting quests and also allow friends to level together.

I agree with this. The solo ones were interesting. The group ones were not, they were terrible.

[SL1200]

In my opinion they should just go away. They're trying so hard to make us like them, and at least for me it's not working one bit.

[Armourboy]

As many others have said, they were great for solo content, and that probably where they should be used the most. That said, the biggest mistake with them was in how they utilized them. They are great for telling extra story, but the replay value at max level is horrible. Had they added them as leveling content I think the reception they got would have been much better. For some reason though they were dead set on trying to make the part of the end game structure and it just didn't work.

Personally if I was running Blizzard I would do this.

- Keep solo scenarios, they are a great tool for that part of the game
- Move scenarios to the leveling structure of the game and add in quests to go along with it
- Keep the heroic versions at max level with questing as well, and have the rewards be some transmog gear ( recolors of old TBC gear? ) and gear along the lines of normal dungeons.