Group play - does it affect mob number/types?

[jimavet]

Hello. I have not yet joined a public group, as I generally prefer to solo. My question though is whether the game internally adjusts to compensate for having more than one person in a group. For example, if I was playing solo and encountered a pack of two elites, would I have encountered (eg) five elites if I was grouped with two or three people? Similarly, if a boss might have 10,000 health when I solo him, would that smae boss have (eg) 30,000 health if I was grouped with two or three people?

I'm trying to debate the pros and cons of forming a public group. I like the idea of relying on my own skills (and subtly not having to rely on the play style of others for my own success, or failure) - but if the game does not increase the difficulty/health/etc of the mobs you face when you join a public group, then it would seem that joining a public group would make it that much easier. Thanks in advance for all constructive replies.

[Pullo]

Enemy health scales with the number of players you have in the game and which difficulty you are on.

On normal each new player adds an additional 75% enemy health
On inferno each new player adds an additional 110% enemy health

I'm not certain about the percent increases on nightmare or hell but it's between those two.

I've also heard that enemy damage scales with players but I have not read anything that confirms that.

[Darsithis]

The damage does scale but you're looking at more abilities to deal with it, so it's not really a noticeable thing

[Generationwhy]

I wouldn't form a public group for the first Act of Hell or Inferno. Chances are greater more players are average/below average...you'll be carrying the dead weight. In later acts the players I've seen in most public games are fairly decent, probably partly because better gear at that point and because it would indicate they can play well enough to get through the first acts.

Overall I would say solo is much easier in general though. In the 4 player public games I've been in there's inevitably 1 or 2 players who takes vitality/magic find/gold find/etc. stacking to the extreme and are obviously putting out amazingly bad dps. So while mob health is going up....average dps is going down.

If mobs are tuned with xxxx gear, the chances of people being undergeared are higher probably right now than anyone "overgearing" it. Even if everyone is geared/specced correctly...most of them are pretty undergeared this early in the game, and more undergeared players = even bigger difference between the expected gear/tuning vs. what you have.

The exception is maybe bosses...since you can die and not have it be a wipe.

[jimavet]

Awesome. Great replies, so my thanks.
Sounds like I will simply continue to keep soloing content then - seems "safer" to me. Especially since in hardcore mode dying inside of a boss fight is still counted as a permanent death situation, even if the rest of your public group is alive?