I'd rather be lonely
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
May 7th 2007 at 1:43PM
My little blood elf tankadin has just hit 50, and I've got to admit that I'm having more fun with WoW than I have in a long time. I'm exploring a new class and new roles, looking forward to quest rewards and leveled skills, and not dealing with raid schedules, raid invites, instanced rep grinding and all the other hassles of endgame. My 70 troll rogue sits alone in Shattrath City, probably wondering if I've ditched her for a younger, skinnier toon. And while I'm looking forward to walking my pally through the Dark Portal, part of me dreads getting her to 70.
Maybe I'm just not very good at this whole MMO concept, but I wish there were more things to do at max level in solo PVE. Questing is my second favorite part of the game, after professions, and it sucks that after 70 soloable levels, nearly all character progression is in groups. Yeah, yeah, I know, this is an MMO and I do like instances and raids, but I also like being able to log on for half an hour and accomplish something while kind of paying attention instead of having to devote a set amount of time and brainpower to an instance. Especially since on my pally, I can alt-tab and read forums or write between Holy Shields.
I'm looking forward to patch 2.1 because there looks like there will be a lot more reputation quests that can be done solo to get nice rewards. Maybe then I'll dust off my old rogue and start working on some new quests -- or at least have something to look forward to on my paladin.
Do you like soloing or not? What other options would you like to see for character advancement at 70?
Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Quests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
d503 May 7th 2007 1:55PM
Sadly, you better get used to solo content...as a lvl70 Tankadin, I've had people get in groups with me, and the minute something goes wrong, BANG, sudden "internet outages"...even if it wasn't anyone's fault, people immediately assume that Paladin tanks just suck, and pass us up all the time.
Fortunately for us, we can solo many of the elites that don't hit terribly hard (nope, couldn't duo Durn with a feral druid :(((), but you'll spend alot of your time trying to prove to people that, yes, you CAN tank an instance just as good as a warrior...either that or you can spec healing until you get all the tanking gear that you want (see you in a month).
Otherwise, I would never give up my 70 BE Pally Ezmodya. She's so much more fun than the 70 Shaman that I've had since open beta...
Rock on, Paladin!
Aurendar May 7th 2007 1:56PM
I LOVE soloing and if I had my way, I'd solo all the way to Illidan himself. Unfortunately the game isn't geared to us 'loners' in the land of Azeroth. Sure you can solo all the way to 70 but that's about it. No cool Blue items or Tier# gear and endgame content? Forget it. Cmon' Blues! Give us more solo content!
Jeff May 7th 2007 1:59PM
More Faction Grindin's on the way :)
Bloodwind May 7th 2007 2:00PM
I'm with you! I've only been playing WOW for a month or so but I’m having great fun with my lvl 35 warlock. Being a 36 year old RPG fan, I always discounted online games because of the "kiddies" they attract and the gameplay difference of dealing with human players instead of AI.
I have however, managed it this far (halfway) by myself and hope I can make it to the eng game and beyond playing solo.
Why play then? Because WOW is still one of the best rpg's I've ever played and adding the occasional "real" human interaction just makes it that much more so, but I will stay solo for as long as possible.
Brad May 7th 2007 2:07PM
Leveling up is by far the best part of WoW for me. The constant feeling of advancement and rewards is what keeps me going.
That probably explains why I've been playing WoW since November 04, and yet I only got my first lvl 60 a month or two before the expansion.
folas May 7th 2007 2:16PM
@5
I am in the same place you are I love leveling. I have one level 70 and have been playing since open beta. I started a draenei and I am back to loving WoW again. The end game is not for me. I enjoy the instances, but rarely have 1 + hour to devote to a dungeon crawl. BC is nice with the shorter instances, but I wish less instances were linear and more let you pick which hall you go down to fight a specific boss.
Maeghane May 7th 2007 2:20PM
I have solo'ed most of the game with my Mage. I grouped up for DM and Stockades, then skipped the rest of the instances till my guild asked me help with Strath. I for the first time fell in love with group content and was torn between to lovers. I love to solo and love to do group content. So I guess I am in between both, I am a solo grouper, a casual hardcore player, the bi equivalant of MMORGS.
nubular May 7th 2007 2:20PM
Same here, I love soloing my way through the content. The main reason being finding a group for instances can be such a pain in the ass, especially for the least popular ones. I log on, queue up with the LFG tool, decide to kill some time grinding or farming and by the time someone sends me an invite or a tell it's 45 min later and I've completely lost interest in doing the instance.
Matt May 7th 2007 2:30PM
@5
I totally agree. That is why I play WOW as well. It's a great RPG. That is always the "raider" arguement. If you don't like to group, go play "insert single player RFG...". I don't want to play those games. I LOVE WOW. I just wish there was a way I could see the inside of BWL or the other raid instances. Even give me watered down loot, but let me see the content and assemble 'some' cool loot.
Grouping is filled with wasted time and bad experiences. I understand that it "can" be fun and I've certainly had fun while running the 5-mans. However, I wish I were not forced to group to see the best parts of the game.
DoctaDJones May 7th 2007 2:40PM
Any content that can be soloed on a casual pace (ie Factions), can and will be easily completed by hardcore guild players.
And therefore any rewards from that content will never seem as valuable, because all the hardcore players will have it.
Maybe they could incorporate the rested bonus into better drop percentages or something...but that probably wouldn't work either.
Preebs May 7th 2007 2:40PM
@9
I totally agree. I have never played a better, more balanced RPG than WOW. I can't stand to group. My fiancee plays as well, but with conflicting time schedules it's hard for us to play together. We do occasionally but most times I just play solo. My only complaint is what everyone else seems to be saying as well. I know I'll never get any of the tier gear because I won't go into those instances.
My plan is I'll just stick to working on getting the high end PVP gear when I hit 70. I'm at level 53 now. If only I woulda planned better, I wouldn't have chosen a warrior as my class.
amasen May 7th 2007 2:46PM
Sadly It's this kind of solo mentality that raiders complain about. This is an MMO, and you should be forced to group to do anything important. However I just wish there were more options for being in small groups vs. large groups.
Just remember this is an MMO and the way the different classes in the game are designed to complement each other to become extremely powerful in comparison to the solo player.
That being said I love playing my differnt characters solo (Mage/Priest/Warrior). It's great to see what each of them are capable solo. On my Mage I have been able to solo Borelgore, Duskwing, scarlet Messenger and adds, Strath live to Timmy, all the lieutenants in AV, 34 mobs at once during the Undead invasion, and many more... And doing all that was some of the funnest moments I've had in wow however none of them felt really epic compared to doing anything I've done that's required a group...
Pingmeister May 7th 2007 3:00PM
A diehard soloer here who agrees that solo content would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.
I understand this is a "Massively Multplayer" game but I won't torture myself with pick-up groups.
I solo and then interact with folks in towns, with tradeskills and the occasional group for Quest mobs. I am one of those annoying people chatting in General chat while I hunt. That is the extent of my "Multiplayer" portion of this game.
But I also aware that I am the exception. Most folks are playing to group and I can accept that the majority of the new content will be geared to them.
Theserene May 7th 2007 3:12PM
I adore the solo content, and also the small group stuff.
Frankly, quite often I do not have the time to find a pick-up group that doesn't bite tauren buttocks before it's time for me to go to bed so I can make my morning train (5:00am starts suck), but if I've got a couple of solo quests I'll happily get on with those.
What keeps me coming back to WoW is the fact that I can do a lot of it by myself. If it was a game that mandated groups to get anywhere then I would likely not play it at all.
Thallid May 7th 2007 3:09PM
@3.
Unfortunately, some of those faction grinds are not friendly for solo players. For example, the Lower City faction grind, which has a spell damage mace that I really want, is mostly based on dungeon runs, and lacks an item where you can turn it in to get to exalted. (The Arakkoa feathers you can turn in only give rep until honored.) The Sha'tar faction, which has a nice healing mace, is based on running TK and like Lower City, lacks a turn-in feature.
And at the same time, the factions that aren't based on grouping and dungeoning (Kurenai/Mag'Har, and to an extent The Consortium) don't have any rewards I'm after, with the exception of a nice tabard that says "I survived this rep grind". (However, this will change for me as [hopefully] they'll add Elemental Blasting Powder as a new Consortium reward at Revered.)
Like many people say, perhaps they should add more random world BOE equips so soloers can at least have a chance at blues, and perhaps make some blacksmithing equips easier to make (less mats required) so we can actually afford to pay someone to make those.
And as for thr grouping, I don't recall a full dungeon run since BC where we (as a group) didn't wipe at least once. (I also find it hard as to who was to blame for the wipes.)
Jeff May 7th 2007 3:14PM
@14 ... Well that's looking bad then... I was hoping to farm 9999 piece of "the new something" to maybe get a solo epic lol :)
What about the new ogres faction, it seems to have a nice epic crossbow from what I've seen ?
Robert May 7th 2007 3:31PM
What all the people clamoring for more soloable content don't realize is the majority of the game exists for them; with the exception of a handful of quests and dungeons, leveling 1-70 is balanced around soloing. Even a two party group trivalizes everything you'd run into, and questing in a group is very boring especially when you have to wait for everyone else to get a dropped item.
The multiplayer aspect of the game doesn't take flight until the level cap. Relatively speaking it's a very small fraction of the entire game, but for a very large portion of the player base, the 'MMO' aspect is the -sole- reason we play this game.
So here's how it is; if you want to play WoW like a single player game, expect it to have an ending like single player games do. That ending is reaching the level cap. After that you can start over or play another game, just like any other single player game in the world.
Maybe the issue is the lack of a definitive 'ending' for the questing game. A capstone quest chain, heavily tied into the game's story, would be pretty cool and at the end of it you could say: Well, I've completed the game. Maybe in future expansions Blizzard should add one.
But if you really think they're going to provide constant additions of soloable quests and content, you're SORELY deluded about the type of game you're playing. The fact that you can continue to progress at the endgame solo by a combination of honor PvP, crafting, and BoE items is really more of an accident than a deliberate intent at a soloable endgame; after all, what exactly are you gearing up -for-?
Swiftlydead May 7th 2007 3:58PM
Playing games against artificial intelligence if SO 1990's. Get with the damn program and play w/ a TEAM or AGAINST SOMEONE ELSE. Remember, humans are the deadliest prey any hunter could ever pursue.
oshin May 7th 2007 4:01PM
I have raided and I have soloed 5 toons to 60, I enjoyed both, but now im cutting back and its going to be pretty tough to get anything done with groups after a certain point, people need 3 hours to do a heroic and I simply dont want to put that time in. I dont want to have to kill 5000 demons on my own for half an hour every evening for an item either though. Hopefully this new small group content might have an answer.
monkeyhouse May 7th 2007 4:13PM
i love the game as a solo/pair game! me and my wife just hit 60 last week and had a great time getting there. we teamed up when we wanted to or to help out if we could - it was fun and we played the way we wanted and others played the way they wanted.
but now what? TBC is appealing but more of the same. We have 2 lvl 36 alts that we are going to take to 60 as well (different races / classes / professions).
as with a lot of the posters here we skipped most of the instances - could never get enough people together (a 20/40 man raid that takes 3-5 hours? sorry people i could not commit to that - family, work, life - i know i am just a casual player).
also a lot of the people were too serious going into an instance and that was just not our style. they expected us to be kitted out to the max and to know everything. it was just too serious for us.
but we would love to try it. in our own way.
even if it is just because i know i am paying for an aspect of the game that i have not yet fully experienced!
maybe i will try to setup something on my realm (Moonrunner) to find other casual players that would like to try their hand at an instance and don't know how to start.
but i must agree with some of the people here - the one thing about WoW is that you can play it your own way and it allows you to change and grow your style as you play. and that is why i play.