The Soloable expansion?

[mvaliz]

I'm not overly fond of examining nomenclature to read things into names that may or not be there. I would guess that the point of selecting types of followers would be so that when you send them on a quest, they'll have a better chance of success. I may be off base about this but I heard what I heard and they didn't even come close to mentioning that you would be grouped up with them to do anything, much less everything. More details as they come out I guess. It's think it's true that the words 'offline progression' were mentioned. I may have misheard.

Oh, offline progression was most DEFINETLY said - you're right about that. I just am saying I don't think that's the only point of them, that it's more of a side-benefit.

And yeah, I think you're right about the rest too. I re-watched that. it sounds as if you send out your followers on missions, and that you can even see them do things and run into them on the map... but perhaps they don't actually have the ability to "follow" you around.

They did also mention they can do dungeons and raids... but it might just be by themselves in their own compu-calculated non-interactive version. Hence, as you said, that is where their abilities come into play.

So, you can send a party of 5 into a dungeon, to get best results - pair a tank, healer and 3 DPS kinda deal. :P

EDIT: It's kinda a shame, but I could see why. I was hoping that the Firelands daily quests on the ridge and those mini-bosses was an early attempt at creating actual party "followers" for you. :P

Not to mention that "followers" in other MMORPGs actually do follow you around and help you in dungeons and what-not. :P

[MoanaLisa]

Oh, offline progression was most DEFINETLY said - you're right about that. I just am saying I don't think that's the only point of them, that it's more of a side-benefit.

And yeah, I think you're right about the rest too. I re-watched that. it sounds as if you send out your followers on missions, and that you can even see them do things and run into them on the map... but perhaps they don't actually have the ability to "follow" you around.

They did also mention they can do dungeons and raids... but it might just be by themselves in their own compu-calculated non-interactive version. Hence, as you said, that is where their abilities come into play.

So, you can send a party of 5 into a dungeon, to get best results - pair a tank, healer and 3 DPS kinda deal. :P

Note that I'm not really against the idea and yes I remember the Cataclysm dailies where you were grouped up with NPC's. It was one of my favorite quests to do back then. But if they do it at all it will likely be for a special quest instead of something you do all the time. I think some people were trying to imagine running five-mans with your followers and I don't think that's in the cards at all.

[Isilbêth]

In fact, with their Garrison system, Blizzard found some very original and interesting way to make chinese gold farmers less interesting, because some NPC characters will do off line what your actual characters take a lot of time to do (farm, find new recipes, etc).

[eschatological]

I think it'll be more of a mini-game for gathering stuff, including some gear and gold. Recruit, train, specialize people in the right things to maximize success (both in completion and bonus objectives"). Need ore from that dungeon/mine loaded with fire elementals? Better have a tank/healer/3 dps with mining and +dmg against fire creatures (I think I saw an attribute like that at some point).

Could be interesting.

I don't think they can make it as lucrative or, yanno, high yield as actually farming mats yourself, but hopefully it's just enough to pop your daily CDs and get your raid mats in line every week.