Make Solo Dungeons Viable

[Saltysquidoon]

Then maby they should just design it so that group stuff is enjoyable.. so that people don't want a solo option?

Soloing has a lower barrier to entry (because you don't have to form a group or engage in peer curation) and is resultantly more efficient. WoW trains players to play efficiently, if solo dungeons offered the same level of reward as group dungeons most people would just run solos. If they don't offer the same reward what purpose would they serve since normal and heroic lfd exists?

[bloodykiller86]

Introduce bots with which we can run dungeons like in FF14 already Blizzard!

got an easy one for you....no. FF14 is a different game, fuck that

[mysticx]

I would like solo dungeons too, but not for gearing, but for the quests that lead into them, a lot more story can be told (and comprehended) when players aren’t running through the place like a pack of rabid dogs.

I soloed part of waycrest manor on my warlock to do the “tools of the trade”-quest (Got stuck on that trio of witches with the MC-ability), and was amazed at the detail in everything, i never noticed any of that in the several runs i did on my other characters, it’s a shame that so much work goes unnoticed because “gogogo”...

[Rexosaurus]

I'd be more into it if they just made dungeons and raids scale for 1-30 people or w/e. Since raid finder is a shitfest anyways, they could just give LFR ilvl gear to any group that doesn't meet the 10-man threshold. That would be an easy fix to preserve the need for grouping for better gear/higher raid difficulties.

I know I'd start playing the game more often again if I could do raids on my own or just with my close friends. Maybe if Torghast goes well then they'll consider it, or at least continue to implement features like that.

[oldgeezer]

By that logic Diablo 3 was (is? I donno if it's AH still exists or not) an MMO, and it absolutely was/is not. An AH does not make an MMO.

And equally a necessity to group with others doesn't define an MMO either. It simply means there are other players in the game who you can interact with if you wish.

[Darththeo]

I would be okay with Limited Solo run dungeons ... what I mean is something like you must run the dungeon for a quest, you can do it solo to finish the quest, but it drops less than normal. But allowing it all the time, nah ... like with SW:tOR that added that to some story dungeons, I don't ever feel a reason to group for them which is boring since I miss the randomness you could get in a group.

What they SHOULD do is that Normal Dungeons are roleless (meaning don't need Tank or Healer) and you can just queue and do.

[Bethanie]

I'd be more into it if they just made dungeons and raids scale for 1-30 people or w/e. Since raid finder is a shitfest anyways, they could just give LFR ilvl gear to any group that doesn't meet the 10-man threshold. I know I'd start playing the game more often again if I could do raids on my own or just with my close friends.

Maybe if Torghast goes well then they'll consider it, or at least continue to implement features like that.

I like the idea of scaling dungeons, Blizz proved they could do this with the way that Horrific visions scale. They would need to design the dungeons to not require tanks or healers though, but outside of raids the trinity doesn't need to exist anyway.

That said all current dungeons up to Mythic 0 are soloable by most classes without needing to be uber geared. Just do some world quests and 8.3 stuff and you will have all the gear you need to be able to solo stuff.

[Schattenlied]

And equally a necessity to group with others doesn't define an MMO either. It simply means there are other players in the game who you can interact with if you wish.

No other players are in your game in Diablo unless you explicitly give them permission to be, not an MMO.

The AH has nothing to do with it, it's an MMO if you share the same overworld (read, non-instanced areas) as all other players on your server. So, yes, WoW would still be an MMO without forced grouping with other players for instances... However, I don't feel an MMO should reward players for anti-social behavior, not with the same gear it rewards players who play cooperatively. MMOs are social games, they should be designed to incentivize social behavior.

[OpieOP]

got an easy one for you....no. FF14 is a different game, fuck that

You're absolutely right, and everything blizzard ever copied from FF14 was absolute hot garbage. Not that the stuff they copied itself were garbage, but their reiteration most certainly is.

[Nite92]

Your post kinda explains it itself? why would people avoid grouping if they had the option to.. if it was not a pain in the arse?

Maybe they just don't like to group, like some people don't like apples?

[Reyuna]

If I could play the entire game solo, I absolutely would.

[ohiostate124]

Reminds me of those NPCs in Guild Wars. Could be an interesting idea and I think it would be welcomed on low pop realms.

[oldgeezer]

No other players are in your game in Diablo unless you explicitly give them permission to be, not an MMO.

The AH has nothing to do with it, it's an MMO if you share the same overworld (read, non-instanced areas) as all other players on your server. So, yes, WoW would still be an MMO without forced grouping with other players for instances... However, I don't feel an MMO should reward players for anti-social behavior, not with the same gear it rewards players who play cooperatively. MMOs are social games, they should be designed to incentivize social behavior.

MMOs do incentivise social behaviour; that's why we have guilds (mine's used for roleplaying and general social chitchat). And I'm not saying that solo players should get the best gear, that'd be absurd. Personally i'm happy enough just grinding away at WQs and levelling alts. Group/Mythic content has its place in-game, even though it's of no interest to me.

[Maxilian]

I think they tried something along those lines with Scenarios, and it wasn't that popular, but we didn't had bots, i guess the Isles tech for the enemy group could be used here.

And for solo dungeons without NPC, isn't that what Torghast is?

- - - Updated - - -

I would like solo dungeons too, but not for gearing, but for the quests that lead into them, a lot more story can be told (and comprehended) when players aren’t running through the place like a pack of rabid dogs.

I soloed part of waycrest manor on my warlock to do the “tools of the trade”-quest (Got stuck on that trio of witches with the MC-ability), and was amazed at the detail in everything, i never noticed any of that in the several runs i did on my other characters, it’s a shame that so much work goes unnoticed because “gogogo”...

I agree with this idea, just dump the gear you get from it to be lower IL than normal, like if it were a "LFR" version of the Dungeons.

[grandgato]

Why play an MMO then?

Because the game changes, and grows. The time you invest in your character is carried over from expansion to expansion.

I really can't think of any other Single Player game that does that.

[chiddie]

If I could play the entire game solo, I absolutely would.

You can apart from raids and some achievements.

Problem is that you’ll end about 20-25 ilvl less than max.

If the idea is running up to +15 alone with 4 bots and always make it 100% in time, I don’t think will ever happen for obvious reasons. And soloing m+ up to around M+7 is basically useless because you can find that ilvl gear soloing somewhere else.

[llo]

*Dungeons and Raids Solo with bots

- Run them for story solo with bots for less iLVl gear than LFR

- Afterwards queue with people for gear, but you got to experience the story at your own pace.

- You still have the same incentive to gear up after you experienced the story - absolutely same as it is today.

Algorithm of instanced content: run solo with bots for story -> then run LFR to gear up -> run normal, then heroic -> work your way up to mythic/+ endgame -> do pvp until new content becomes available

WIN - WIN

[glowpipe]

Im all for this. Why force people to spend time with the majority of the toxicity that wow brings ?
And people claiming gear should be harder to get. Why should it ? why should you doing the work with bots be harder to get gear than joining a raid and die on litteraly the first mechanic and the raid kills the boss and you still get loot or pay for someone to boost you ?

[A Chozo]

I don't feel an MMO should reward players for anti-social behavior, not with the same gear it rewards players who play cooperatively.

Oddly enough, mmorpgs were way less popular in the ages when you needed a group to do stuff like basic leveling. Meanwhile WoW and it's similars reduced the biggest barriers (forced cooperation and gigantic grinds).

The option to cooperate in a multiplayer game is better than forced cooperation imo, which is something WoW already does to an extend.

[Very Tired]

This argument is always funny seeing how it never fails to bring out the same talking points that have been refuted a million times.

-There's the "if you don't like it, you can geeeetttt out!" argument saying WoW should ignore everything else that's working in other games and seal themselves in their own bubble.
-The "you think you want solo content, but you actually don't" argument, again assuming players aren't actually capable of knowing what they themselves find fun.
-There's the "solo content doesn't belong in MMO's" except you know... it does. In literally all of them.
-And of course there's the logical consistency of "I don't want solo content in WoW but I am so looking forward to Torghast next expansion!"