Allow us to use Warbands characters for follower dungeons

[Flintston]

Great idea, I would replace that annoying Captain Garrick in a second.

[Ereb]

Why would the login screen bother me at all?

Why would follower dungeons with your toons bother you and not the login screen to see all of your toons hanging out together and existing at the same time? It's literally the same complaint from you supposedly lol

[reemi]

First off, this is not my idea. I've just read a comment suggesting this in the new Blizzard's Warbands video. I strongly believe it's a marvellous idea. Going through a follower dungeon with your alts helping you out sounds quite appealing.

What do you think, guys?

This is something i want since 2004.

To play with all my alts, and solo dungeons with 4 AI (my alts). And get items for all my alts.

[Ayk07]

would be amazing

[WowIsDead64]

Yeah, I agree. It's the biggest TWW's lost opportunity. Blizzard tell us, that they listen to feedback. Why can't they realize, that Horde players hate Dwarf follower then? Being unable to pick who would be my friend by myself - is terrible design.

[Nork]

I think the only problem with this idea is it sort of leads down a path of other changes that would naturally follow, and those would all take a very long time to implement.

Do your alts bring their own gear and specs, or are they just model swaps for the NPCs?
Do your alts get gear or experience from these runs?
Can your alts complete dungeon quests as NPCs?
Could we get the ability to switch which character we're controlling mid-run?

I'm sure Blizzard could just skin the NPCs to match your characters without too much difficulty, but that might seem sort of shallow compared to a full-on party of five that you control from gear to movement.

I think you've conveyed a magnificent idea. You can use your alts within follower dungeons to level up and equip them. Or it could remain just as a cosmetic thing. Both options sound pretty good to me, actually. I think many people would love to play next to their other alts.

[Magistrate]

This is a cool idea but probably not worth the work.

The overwhelming majority of our play time will not be in follower dungeons. They'll be in the dust almost immediately.

[Nize]

This is a cool idea but probably not worth the work.

The overwhelming majority of our play time will not be in follower dungeons. They'll be in the dust almost immediately.

I think with tech that could draw up a warband's character spec and look would be worth learning for other aspects outside of follower dungeons, with follower dungeons being one of many other features that could utilize. Warband characters present in hubs is an example of that utilization.

[LanToaster]

This is a cool idea but probably not worth the work.

The overwhelming majority of our play time will not be in follower dungeons. They'll be in the dust almost immediately.

I´m not entirely certain it would take that much work, to assign the NPC Class/Spec and Transmog from your Other Toons, and these little things are always nice.

- - - Updated - - -

Warband characters present in hubs is an example of that utilization.

Absolutely Useless and Mundane, but I really like the Idea that your Warband Characters hang out in the Inn of the Zone that you logged out.

[hulkgor]

I dislike this idea. Rather we have prominent NPCs with cool abilities that match their 'persona', instead of random alts of ours where spells and abilities would have to be generic or what not to fit them all.

Hard pass.

[LauraHydra1]

Slightly spinning off from this, but I'd love a system where you can call on your warband characters for assistance when levelling alts. Either have them follow you around like companion characters in a BioWare game, or as an ability with a couple minutes cooldown to call in powerful support when you're getting overwhelmed. If they're permanent followers, their abilities would have to be weaker so levelling doesn't become too easy / boring, if they're just a temporary support, they can be more powerful.

[Nathanyel]

I dislike this idea. Rather we have prominent NPCs with cool abilities that match their 'persona', instead of random alts of ours where spells and abilities would have to be generic or what not to fit them all.

Hard pass.

Well, it will most likely be optional, so you can just not enable it.

[Eurhetemec]

I think the only problem with this idea is it sort of leads down a path of other changes that would naturally follow, and those would all take a very long time to implement.

Do your alts bring their own gear and specs, or are they just model swaps for the NPCs?
Do your alts get gear or experience from these runs?
Can your alts complete dungeon quests as NPCs?
Could we get the ability to switch which character we're controlling mid-run?

I'm sure Blizzard could just skin the NPCs to match your characters without too much difficulty, but that might seem sort of shallow compared to a full-on party of five that you control from gear to movement.

This illustrates the huge problem with the idea, that people are avoiding considering.

If Blizzard let you use your alts for dungeons, people would never, ever be satisfied, and would ask for more, more, more, more.

First they'd just want their own specs, rather than generic specs.

Then they'd want their own gear, rather than generic power values.

Then they'd want alts to get XP.

Then they'd start throwing a shitfit tantrum because alts didn't get loot.

Then they'd get extremely upset about dungeon quests.

Then they'd want to swap between characters (something which would be insanely challenging, technologically, given how WoW works)

Then they'd want to be able to give individual orders to characters, and maybe even set up elaborate FFXII-style gambits so characters are "smarter" than default.

Then they'd start getting mad about not being able to do Heroics with their own group.

Then they'd start getting mad about not being able to do Mythic+ with their own group.

And so on, forever. Whatever Blizzard did, it wouldn't be good enough, and people would just moan and moan and moan about "lazy Blizz" not implementing 100% micromanaged super-control giving them 5x loot, 5x gold, 5x tokens and so on. It wouldn't be long before someone was like "I have 10 max-level alts, why can't I do a raid?".

Now this isn't all bad - if WoW wants to turn into the ORIGINAL Guild Wars, this would kind of rock. But I don't think WoW does want that. I think if want the original Guild Wars, where you could eventually control an entire party and so on, we probably should either play the original Guild Wars, or hope Guild Wars 3 is like that.

[Nathanyel]

Do your alts bring their own gear and specs, or are they just model swaps for the NPCs?

Just the latter, everything else would be too much work for next to no gain and/or be abuseable for minmaxers.
Instead of one of the supported tank specs, it'll pull one of your characters who is currently in that spec. But it'll still use very specific talents (and hero talents) that the bot knows, not the ones chosen on the character.
At best you can choose which tank-capable character to prefer, even if they're not currently in tank spec etc.

Do your alts get gear or experience from these runs?

No. Even a miniscule but worthwhile amount could get turned into some "optimal" way to level for minmaxers.

Can your alts complete dungeon quests as NPCs?

N... maybe, actually. Since it's basically just some time saved, running a dungeon once instead of five times, it would be ok to allow that, but it would also mean some significant development effort.
Since this would only affect normal dungeons (and dungeons added later in the expansion would be at least Heroic) it'd likely require some setup, getting 5 characters to the point where they have the same dungeon quest, if not available right away. Again, more something for minmaxers (can you see where I'm going with this?)

Could we get the ability to switch which character we're controlling mid-run?

No. Why? You can always log over, but then you'd also have to start the dungeon over. Well, I guess not if another player "holds" the group - can you invite players to an ongoing Follower Dungeon?
Anyway, you gotta stop thinking of this as "my actual alts are coming along". It's a cosmetic gameplay thing.

I'm sure Blizzard could just skin the NPCs to match your characters without too much difficulty, but that might seem sort of shallow compared to a full-on party of five that you control from gear to movement.

You're thinking of a singleplayer or small-scale co-op RPG. In an MMO, each other party member is ideally another human person. Follower Dungeons are a small step in that direction, but again, actually minmaxing the followers is not something that the system aims to do.

Follower Dungeons are aimed at casual players.

[Eurhetemec]

Follower Dungeons are aimed at casual players.

Explicitly so, yes. Blizzard specific wanted them so players could take their time in dungeons and have a look around and so on, without causing an issue, and to learn the dungeons in different roles and so on.

That some players want them to be something else entirely really demonstrates how players misinterpret the design of systems.

[Taen]

Anyway, you gotta stop thinking of this as "my actual alts are coming along". It's a cosmetic gameplay thing.

As you can tell from the first sentence of my post, the questions I asked were rhetorical, specifically entertaining the idea of this system moving beyond just "a cosmetic gameplay thing."