Soloing in World of Warcraft
by David Nelson 
Oct 27th 2006 at 3:00AM
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Oakroot makes a very interesting point in this thread. What is that point you might ask? Well, for those of you too lazy to click the link or are caught behind a firewall at work, I shall tell you. Oakroot contends that he, as a primarily solo player, has limited options come endgame. The forums being what they are (and we all know what they are) the first few responses were what you'd expect, that being "this is a MMORPG, noob. Go play Oblivion". To be honest, that was my first gut reaction as well. If you want a rewarding solo experience, and don't enjoy grouping or the social aspects of WoW, perhaps Oblivion or Final Fantasy XII would be more to your liking. Then I started thinking...Blizzard made the game 1-60 entirely soloable. Not a lot of MMORPGs do that. In fact, I can't think of any beyond possibly City of Heroes or EVE. Group play is a requirement in nearly every game in the genre. But Blizzard decided to go for the more casual crowd, and created a good experience for them 1-60. Then at 60 they basically get told to group or reroll. Yes, they can gain some faction here and there, but if they dislike grouping, they are pretty much stuck.
So they get sucked into this solo friendly game with great lore, interesting quests and lots of areas to explore, then the door gets shut in their face. Now granted, no game can last forever, but maybe Blizzard could do something for the solo folks at end game. Throw them some sort of bone, as I imagine there are a bunch of guys out there like Oakroot. However, and I hate it when I can see the point of the forum trolls, this is a MMORPG. You are supposed to want to play nice with others. I really can appreciate both sides of the argument.
What do you guys think? Does Oakroot have unrealistic expectations? Or should Blizzard provide a little more for solo players?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
spicytuna Oct 27th 2006 3:17AM
They should! The enjoyment out of 1-60 comes accomplishing something with short bursts of play. An hour here, a couple hours there and you feel like you're making some sort of progress.
60 comes, and BOOM, raids, 4 hours per instance (not counting the 2 other hours spent putting together a raid).
Dinging to 60 you go from spending your free time to accomplish goals to commiting 8 hours of your life for little or no reward.
Krianna Oct 27th 2006 3:29AM
I rather agree-- I like grouping, sometimes, and I love being able to talk to people, but I don't want to be forced to find a buddy or four or 39 to do anything.
I'm in the Navy-- if we're not in homeport, I'm *already* required to get a buddy to do anything. Finding two other folks so you can go play WoW is more difficult than you might believe... and that's before you even load up the game.
Llyliwen Oct 27th 2006 3:34AM
They should definitely add more solo content to endgame! I am a casual player that happens to be lucky enough to belong to a casual raiding guild that never raids for more than 3 hours/raid. This is with my main character mind you. I have several alts which i get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from playing but they are almost all solo unguilded characters. So far none of them are to sixty yet (I sympathize with the "finding time for alts thread") but I noticed shortly after hitting sixty with my main (before the wonderful guild-go Blue Yak!) that there wasnt a whole lot to do if you didn't PvP or Raid. Now I personally enjoy raiding with my main but sometimes you just want to get away from it all. What will I do with those alts when they do reach the level cap? Will they be condemned to be farmers for my main? It would be nice to have some involved (read: longer and more complex) quest lines for solo players that gave valuable items. The kind of thing that raiders/PvP'ers may not have the attention span for but that would be perfect for the solo player (or the solo player and a friend or two). I think there is room for this kind of end game content to carve out a niche.
Devyniste Oct 27th 2006 3:47AM
I personally enjoy soloing, grouping, and raiding. Which I end up doing usually depends on how much time I have to spend that session.
I think soloers make up a HUGE portion of the MMORPG playerbase. Maybe not the majority, but a significant chunk.
Solo instances would probably see more playtime than Naxx, BWL, and MC combined. Of course, balancing them so that every class/talent-build could complete them, and handing out appropriate rewards would be pretty difficult.
Lori Oct 27th 2006 5:44AM
Yes, yes, definitely. I just recently got in a guild that can regularly get 40 ppl to raid MC and we are doing ZG/AQ20. However, I have been in raids 11 out of the last 13 nights (one raid of nearly 7 hours) and I am beginning to doubt that this what I really want to do. Yet I feel there is no choice for my lvl 6o if I still want to play WoW (which I do). And I feel it is necessary to go on all the raids to accumulate DKP so that I can get gear should it drop. Then it looks it will take forever to get 40 ppl equipped with the few drops there are from bosses. Is that like 50 MC runs assuming every drop fills a needed gear slot. Hahaha but it isn't funny. I truly believe that the goal of getting a complete armor set is unobtainable within most peopls attention span. And all the other usefull drops go to the guild bank so all I get from a run is a few stone chips and a repair bill. I would definitely skip the end game raiding if there were an alternative. Besides, I don't like the people all that much.
Michael Oct 27th 2006 6:08AM
Count me in for solo content at endgame.
I belong to a guild (The Three Kings, Horde, Skywall) and I love the camaraderie. We have Vent and chatting with my guildies is great, and it is especially fun when have the opportunity to hook up with a few for a dungeon crawl. However; I can not dedicate large portions of my life (4 to 8 hours at a chunk) consitently, to the current endgame. As I understand it the big rewards (major loot) come from the larger raid instances and as a person who work 5-6 days a week 8-10 hours a day this kind of dedication requirement really does mean-- "Hey! Thanks for playing... Now you are screwed, go away."
I am very excited about the 10 level cap increase that is coming and hopefully those 10 levels will also be soloable. Then I wont have to retire quite so soon and make the hard choice of rerolling and drudging through the first 10-15 levels of boredom before I can start to enjoy another character.
(Maybe by the time I hit 70 I will win the Lottery and be able to make WOW a career.) Hey, I can dream!
Gorath Oct 27th 2006 6:44AM
Yeah, soloing needs to have more long term rewards. with someone like me who has very limited time to play maybe once or twice a week for an hour at most; i like to think that i make the most of my time by pre-lining up quests or a grind area and getting there beforehand so during that hour its pure play, no standing around IF shouting "LFG". When time is limited like this for whatever reason, its hard, and most of the time not worth it, to find a group. I used to be able to raid, quest, and 5 man with people but now thats limited to once a month or so, they need more short burst opportunities for us.
Galipan Oct 27th 2006 6:50AM
I am completly on board with the whole solo info from 1-60, end game is good and all, but running MC A MILLION times becomes a tedious. A good friend of mine has made like 6 60s because whilest end game raids are fun, there is only so much you can raid before it becomes monotonous. I can't tell you how bored I am of running MC. Blizz should definently make more things like the outdoor PvP, because it gives 60s something to so when they're not raiding.
Mats Oct 27th 2006 6:57AM
Nonono, listen here.
Being 60 does not equal raid. There is Strat, Scholo, BRD, UBRS, LBRS and DM with all it's wings to do without being a "raider".
Then there is faction grindind, the Solo version of Raid Dungon grinding.
On top of that there is cross realms PVP, that lets you join in a battleground without any group.
There is so much non-raid 60 level content, im wondering where all the raid love is over at blizzard.
Stormgaard Oct 27th 2006 7:08AM
The only big flaw in this game is that there is no way to get epic sets by soloing. Even that would be enough to satisfy the casual gamer.
The best you can do is farm and buy stuff on the Auction House - which at best gets you a mismatched set of blues.
Mordiceius Oct 27th 2006 8:24AM
There is always the dungeon set upgrade quest for non-raiders. The point is I see a lot of casual soloers complaining about wanting gear that's high end purples. *shrug* I just do not see that as fair to the raiders. "Create solo instances" heh, not gonna happen. No way could you make an instance that either a dual wield fury warrior or a holy priest could go through. It would just be too different and too much work. If you want good loot, go faction grind. Cenarion Circle, Argent Dawn, the PVP factions. All of those will give you pretty decent gear. Then go do the tier .5 questline. More gear. I did that questline on my priest and the purples you get from it are on part and for the most part better than Molten Core gear. So in my opinion, we don't need anymore solo content. The amount they have is just right.
White Rabbit Oct 27th 2006 8:25AM
#9...
those are all true yes, but like 10 mentioned, the rewards from doing those things are very "meh"
I personally solo a lot because how rarely anybody actually answers when I LFG, and when somebody does, they're a pain to be with and you rather be alone then be around them.
For the expansion, me and 4 of my friends who live together are going to make blood elves and play them only when we're all on so we can basically quest entirely together, which I'm very looking forward to *we have our priest (healer), hunter (dps and pet for tank), mage (more dps), and possibly a paladin (MT)*
But until then, I have my Orc Hunter soloing most of the time
I've even tried going instancing with groups and find it a pain in the ass, with people "Leeroy Jenkins"ing and then logging, or find out you're being led by a "omg n00b doo thissss idiot lolz" person
CD Oct 27th 2006 8:31AM
I preferd solo.. it is onbe of several reasons I joined wow, but when my tank hit sixty is was like.. hell.. I could not explore high end stuff... with the nuisance of a pug.. the guilds I run with are just as nuts...I am sorry end loot is mainly for long time members.. reroll after spending hours playing..
then to be forced into a pug or guild or die situation.. it is screwy
Keth Oct 27th 2006 8:45AM
i think a strong high level solo element to the game will only strengthen the raiding experience. Raiding can become a touch dry once you've run the same instance over and over - the story fades away. True the multiplayer aspect is brought to the fore but it does so at the expense of the story. A strong, solo based, storyline that weaves in and out of the raid storyline would really help keep the raid story alive.
Buruko Oct 27th 2006 9:01AM
Endgame content is about time.
If a 40 man raid group runs MC 10 times, they *may* produce a full set of Tier 1 gear for someone, that's an approximate time investment of 40+ hours in most cases for a single player to get a full set of Tier 1.
Now that doesn't count the hours farming for money for Pots or items you need to do some of the boss fights, it doesn't include the scheudling and time invested to put together a 40 man raid group.
I could see them putting in perhaps a set at the half way marks (Tier 0.5, Tier 1.5, Tier 2.5, etc) that you could get perhaps through a long series of quests, time bound item creation and what-not so that the time invested came *somewhat* close to a raiding player then I might find that exceptable... maybe a series that all works off of upgrading in stages your Tier 0 gear cause even a solo player can manage an instance once in a while.
Geo Oct 27th 2006 9:14AM
My main just hit level 60, and I have yet to do a raid or a high level dungeon (I'm one of 4 casual 60's in my guild). Everything I've been hearing about raiding sounds like a full time job. Granted the purples are nice, but I already have a full time job, I play a game to unwind from that job.
I'm looking forward to the Burning Crusade, so I can start questing in the new areas.
David Oct 27th 2006 9:16AM
What about adding 2-man instances? As we've said creating a solo instance would be difficult to balance so every class-build has a chance to complete. With 2-man, in your weaknesses you can find someone with strengths, and in different ways. And maybe to re-enter the instance, unless you reset it, you have to go in with the same person.
A buddy system is much easier to set up than a 40-man raid or 5-man group.
ChrisM Oct 27th 2006 9:40AM
It seems like when you hit 60 the epic quest chains come to an end. They are 2 or 3 parters in various dungeons but they don't have that longevity that the LINK quest did. For the solo players the enjoyment comes from more of a story line and a good sense of completion. They should make some nice story line based quests that you can solo but can also expect to take at least a week to complete if not more.
Mordiceius Oct 27th 2006 9:47AM
ChrisM, solo is relative though.
For instance, our main tank in our guild can solo the bugs in the hives in Silithus. As a holy priest, I could not. As a holy-spec'd healing priest, for me to kill a level 60 non-elite, I'd have to expend my entire mana bar. So he could EASILY solo a quest in 1/10th the time it would take me. That is unbalanced. The only quest I would be able to solo is something like the Fordring quest in the plaguelands where you escort his son from the keep. If I had to sit there and heal him because he took significant damage and he AOE taunted and such, I would be fine, but our main tank would never be able to solo that.
Class differences make it impossible to have end-game solo quests that are difficult and time consuming.
Felnor Oct 27th 2006 10:25AM
This is not World of Solocraft. Blizzard may have designed it so you don't have to depend on others to level your character, but that doesn't mean they have to continue to hold your hand once you hit 60. Once you hit 60, out the house you go. Find some groups, do some BG's, Rock out in MC. This is not Final Fantasy. This is World of Warcraft. Just join a guild there are plenty out there. Let them do all the work to get raids setup. You don't have to be the one that sets them up. Just pay attention, kill the bosses, collect awsome items. It's that easy.
Felnor