why is there no solo end-game content?

[RagiNagi.1802]

Hi,

 

Pretty much as the title says. I would like to play my toons and learn their mechanics, however, only place to reliably do so solo is golem 😄

It is a bit odd to me that all the end game content - Fracs, Raids, Strikes requires you to get the party of 5-10 people. And when you do, you mostly stack and don't even see your character and such.

Raids have a high entry barrier due to high skill floor and everyone wants experienced people. Way around this is getting a guild or friends that do this with  you, but that also requires time committent from everyone.

Fractals have high entry barrier in gear. If you want to play high tier fractals you need to have ascended gear with agonies. That costs money and time to acquire. How the heck should I decide whether I want to gear up my a new prof or not.

Open world is fine, but it is always so much zergining that it's doesn't feel like you need to express much skill as you can mostly afk with autoattacks.

 

Only thing which is pretty much plug and play is PvP. And that is cool, but rewards seem to be on the lower tier 😄

 

Is it only me who sees some opportunities here for new content. Or are you all fine with what end-game content you have available?

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Randulf.7614]

This isn’t meant to be facetious, but it’s built to be multiplayer online game. That’s the reason.
 

The solo player aspect is built around story, open world exploration and gearing your toon. The problem with making instanced solo content is that the skill level of single players varies by an amount which is so big, it’s apparently very hard for them to even find a sweet spot for story difficulty and finding a way to reward solo players to make it worth it and not undermine group content, would be tough.

Im not sure a multiplayer game like this could ever really cater to end game solo content beyond what we have, except maybe challenge modes for stories. Elite solo players seem to otherwise just go on and solo fractals and dungeons.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Dungeons (except a few paths), and T1 Fractals are perfectly soloable if you want to test yourself. Some have also soloed T2+ Fractals, and I've even seen someone solo a strike mission for the turtle.

 

Even the un-soloable stuff can be soloed if you know the skips.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[Mungo Zen.9364]

35 minutes ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:

 

Is it only me who sees some opportunities here for new content. Or are you all fine with what end-game content you have available?

The game does have some pretty good opportunity for solo content.
 

There are players who enjoy soloing Champ and Legendary bounties.  This can force you to learn a lot about your profession and build and could be some of the hardest solo content anyone can access. 
 

To a lesser degree you also have some HP and MP that spawn champs or are guarded by elites. You also have some spots where the challenge is to pull multiple Vets such as Temple of Atar in Crystal Oasis. And you can always try and solo events and event chains anywhere in open world. 
 

Now, the rewards are not stellar gold-wise but when you can solo many of the Champ bounties in the game you have probably mastered your profession, the different builds and nuances for each build to help you combat various types of enemies. 
 

After that I’d suggest you try support builds in OW zergs where the challenge is to keep noobs alive and more efficient in taking down whatever event you are doing. 

[Avatar.3568]

PvP has Very good Gold rewards and you can Gear Up your Charakter from exotic Up to legendary. 

For pve idk, you can Run arround and try to solo in maguma, that place seemed hard for many Players. 

Its Not directly solo content, but my friend and me tried to solo/Duo doungens aß far we we're able to (do to mechanics you can't do some doungens solo/duo) but you can do some of them solo and solo There are Not that easy.

 

[Sobx.1758]

1 hour ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:

Hi,

 

Pretty much as the title says. I would like to play my toons and learn their mechanics, however, only place to reliably do so solo is golem 😄

It is a bit odd to me that all the end game content - Fracs, Raids, Strikes requires you to get the party of 5-10 people. And when you do, you mostly stack and don't even see your character and such.

Raids have a high entry barrier due to high skill floor and everyone wants experienced people. Way around this is getting a guild or friends that do this with  you, but that also requires time committent from everyone.

Fractals have high entry barrier in gear. If you want to play high tier fractals you need to have ascended gear with agonies. That costs money and time to acquire. How the heck should I decide whether I want to gear up my a new prof or not.

Open world is fine, but it is always so much zergining that it's doesn't feel like you need to express much skill as you can mostly afk with autoattacks.

 

Only thing which is pretty much plug and play is PvP. And that is cool, but rewards seem to be on the lower tier 😄

 

Is it only me who sees some opportunities here for new content. Or are you all fine with what end-game content you have available?

 

Cheers.

Because it's an mmorpg. Although if you want harder solo content, you can probably find something for yourself between stuff like drms (meh), running dungeons solo, soloing lower tier fractals or going for solo bounties (in this case, with a chance of someone else appearing to help).

Edited September 25, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Beast Sos.1457]

57 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

This isn’t meant to be facetious, but it’s built to be multiplayer online game. That’s the reason.
 

The solo player aspect is built around story, open world exploration and gearing your toon. The problem with making instanced solo content is that the skill level of single players varies by an amount which is so big, it’s apparently very hard for them to even find a sweet spot for story difficulty and finding a way to reward solo players to make it worth it and not undermine group content, would be tough.

Im not sure a multiplayer game like this could ever really cater to end game solo content beyond what we have, except maybe challenge modes for stories. Elite solo players seem to otherwise just go on and solo fractals and dungeons.

Being a multiplayer game doesn't mean there shouldn't be single player content. The fact that it is multiplayer should also mean it appeals to a wide variety of players. Whether that be people who enjoy solo content and/or multiplayer. I am the player who enjoys both. I mainly enjoy difficult content as a solo player because I know that I'm my own limiting factor but in general I enjoy playing multiplayer. Huge epic pvp wars or a army of people fighting a massive boss are all enjoyable to me. I also enjoy fractals and raids. But having something like the tower in FF14, without the horrible system attached to it, would only be good for the game. Doing content designed for groups of 5+ solo is not fun mechanically imo. 

 

Doesn't that also apply to fractals as well? Thats why having a stage/level system allows everyone to still be able to do the content but then it will set a certain ceiling for some people based on their skill level. Not everyone is going to be doing CM or even t4 fractals, even with the proper gear/AR and thats fine. Same should apply for solo content. I don't think finding a reward system is as tough as you may think. I can already think of a few but thats another topic. 

 

 

[RadiantWolf.2058]

1 hour ago, Mariyuuna.6508 said:

Dungeons (except a few paths), and T1 Fractals are perfectly soloable if you want to test yourself. Some have also soloed T2+ Fractals, and I've even seen someone solo a strike mission for the turtle.

 

Even the un-soloable stuff can be soloed if you know the skips.

I don't know why this got a confused. It's true.

 

If you want to solo things you can gear out your character handle tough solo challenges like champions and legendary bounties, which are intended for groups. It's tricky to do but fun.

 

You will be gearing and speccing your character differently for this than if you were doing raids or fractals so it's not quite a way to train for those. Those assume you will have boons or be providing boons, you would be kitted for group play.

[Einsof.1457]

It's an MMORPG. 

[Khisanth.2948]

1 hour ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:

Fractals have high entry barrier in gear. If you want to play high tier fractals you need to have ascended gear with agonies. That costs money and time to acquire. How the heck should I decide whether I want to gear up my a new prof or not.

That is an extremely misleading way to frame things. T4 does require require ascended but entry to fractals does not start at t4. You being indecisive is not the game's problem.

 

1 hour ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Im not sure a multiplayer game like this could ever really cater to end game solo content beyond what we have, except maybe challenge modes for stories. Elite solo players seem to otherwise just go on and solo fractals and dungeons.

Allow selectable modifiers and make the base version easy enough that most people should be able to clear it.  Have some modifiers that can further reduce the difficulty in case that is still not easy enough. Modifiers should increase/decrease rewards in proportion to how they modify the difficulty.

[Einsof.1457]

32 minutes ago, Beast Sos.1457 said:

Being a multiplayer game doesn't mean there shouldn't be single player content. The fact that it is multiplayer should also mean it appeals to a wide variety of players. Whether that be people who enjoy solo content and/or multiplayer. I am the player who enjoys both. I mainly enjoy difficult content as a solo player because I know that I'm my own limiting factor but in general I enjoy playing multiplayer. Huge epic pvp wars or a army of people fighting a massive boss are all enjoyable to me. I also enjoy fractals and raids. But having something like the tower in FF14, without the horrible system attached to it, would only be good for the game. Doing content designed for groups of 5+ solo is not fun mechanically imo. 

 

Doesn't that also apply to fractals as well? Thats why having a stage/level system allows everyone to still be able to do the content but then it will set a certain ceiling for some people based on their skill level. Not everyone is going to be doing CM or even t4 fractals, even with the proper gear/AR and thats fine. Same should apply for solo content. I don't think finding a reward system is as tough as you may think. I can already think of a few but thats another topic. 

 

 

95% of achievements are soloable. What % do you want? It's an MMORPG. 

[gert.7698]

DRM (Dragon Response Missions) are perfect to solo. I do it sometimes, and you can put some challange on if you want to have extra challanges 

[DexterousGecko.6328]

52 minutes ago, Einsof.1457 said:

95% of achievements are soloable. What % do you want? It's an MMORPG. 

What do achievements have to do with end-game?

[Einsof.1457]

1 hour ago, DexterousGecko.6328 said:

What do achievements have to do with end-game?

What does endgame have to do with challenging soloable content? 

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Well, there is, and there is a TON of it. Revolving around achievements, collections, fashion wars, getting the Griffon and the SkyScale mounts and if you count it: All the level 80 open world content that needs multiple players but where you can just join and do whatever you want.

[Veprovina.4876]

DRMs are basically solo content at this point.

You can complete them in like half an hour or so depending on your build and how much you mess around.

[Ultramex.1506]

Ho boy.....a true solo in GW2 sound like delusion to me, and I'm a single player guy! GW2 was designed to be where everywhere you go you can team up with random or not, other people will alway be present. Unlike GW1 and even when its was new GW1 still can be play entirely solo. Two completely different design

I spent 7 years into this mmo as a single player guy, but will never understand this weird dream for solo

[RagiNagi.1802]

I think I might have missed the mark here with my post. I know its a MMO and I know most of the content is centred around parties. sure, but the content is not balanced around that. I don't particularly want the challenge to make it artificially harder. I would just like to train and learn the ropes of profession / mechanic on my own before joining parties.

 

I guess I am still having GW1 model in mind with Henchmen and Heroes. You can do most of the stuff (even end game content) there with NPC's, but with players everything is significantly quicker.

10 hours ago, Mariyuuna.6508 said:

Dungeons (except a few paths), and T1 Fractals are perfectly soloable if you want to test yourself. Some have also soloed T2+ Fractals, and I've even seen someone solo a strike mission for the turtle.

 

Even the un-soloable stuff can be soloed if you know the skips.

I see, but I am not so much looking for something artificially difficult.

 

 

8 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

That is an extremely misleading way to frame things. T4 does require require ascended but entry to fractals does not start at t4. You being indecisive is not the game's problem.

 

I stopped and thought about it, and you might be right on this one. You can ease the entry in fractals by doing lower tier stuff. But that doesn't do it with raids though. There you need to put in game hours to actually get to decent pugs, and you can only put those hours with a somewhat dedicated group (guild / friends). And 10 people can be an issue to find. That is why i want to learn new profs to fill in the roles for missing players.

 

Any who, thanks everyone for the replies, I will go and rethink how i view the game 😄 

[Asum.4960]

Fractals: I'd recommend Aetherblade, Mai Trin, Chaos, Molten Boss, Nightmare, Snowblind, Solid Ocean, Twilight Oasis, Uncategorized and Urban Battleground. Some other's can be solo'd too, but really rely on specialised knowledge and specific professions with tools to overcome some mechanics intended for multiple players. 

You can start with T1 for which you don't need any AR and which already provides a good solo challenge for most players.

Mai Trin, Twilight Oasis, Chaos, Molten Boss, Uncategorized, Snowblind and Urban Battleground scale pretty well into higher Tiers for solo play, without much mechanical obstructions or massive time wasters on mechanics intended for multiple players. 

 

PoF Bounties can be pretty decent solo fun, although a fairly mixed bag of RNG with pretty poor rewards. 

 

Additionally, DRM CM's aren't actually half bad (solo) content, the problem with the format is just the incredibly repetitive pre-events. 

 

There is a lot more that can be solo'ed ofc, even some Raid bosses, but at that point you are really getting into the realm of pushing novelty solo challenges which you are probably not going to want to tackle more than once - compared to something like the listed Fractals, which can genuinely be good solo fun to repeat, with decent rewards.

 

But yes, ultimately it's an MMO, even if the leveling, Story and lack of active grouping in Open World might suggest otherwise at times, the strength and goal of such a game is to play together with other players.

[CrashTestAuto.9108]

4 hours ago, Ultramex.1506 said:

Ho boy.....a true solo in GW2 sound like delusion to me, and I'm a single player guy! GW2 was designed to be where everywhere you go you can team up with random or not, other people will alway be present. Unlike GW1 and even when its was new GW1 still can be play entirely solo. Two completely different design

I spent 7 years into this mmo as a single player guy, but will never understand this weird dream for solo

As someone who would love solo end game content (my ideal would be introduce solo modes for Strikes in normal and challenge mode, as most of that design work I think is already done), I  can give my reasoning.

 

Yes, GW2 is an MMO, and I play it for that reason (obviously there are single player alternatives available).  However, I also like the game and want to earn rewards in it.  For this reason while I do enjoy it as a multiplayer experience, if I am not in a multiplayer mood (or simply logging in at a time when people I want to play with aren't available), I'd like GW2 to provide me options there as well.  Of course I can go and just play another game, but given I don't want to - and I assume ANet would also prefer their players stay engaged, this seems like a mutually beneficial solution.

 

The problem with things like "Go solo fractals and dungeons (and CRMs)" is that this gets fairly dull quite quickly because the health pools aren't designed for it.  It's like in a single player game when the hard mode just turns enemies into bullet sponges.  Moreover, because gold per hour is a thing, you have the nagging feeling that you're wasting your time as you slowly chip down enemy health that isn't designed for one player.

[The Boz.2038]

DRMs.

[Astralporing.1957]

The whole game is the endgame, and most parts of the game can be comfortably done solo. What you're asking about is not solo endgame, but solo high-end content. Unlike in many progression-based MMORPGs, in GW2 those terms do not mean the same thing.

Personally i see no problem with introducing such a content, i'm just not sure about its potential popularity - somehow i doubt it would be very high. I might be mistaken, though.

[Andy.5981]

I'm sure Lord Hizen would disagree with the OP.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpBh4KskobjRShM5_I02FsoM9_EP5_AKU

[Mungrul.9358]

I'd love it if GW2 stole the Underground from The Division.

 

The Underground DLC was end game procedural dungeon content that scaled depending on how many people played it, and could be made more difficult yet rewarding through modifiers the player(s) chose at the start.

It also had a cool Souls-like feature where a run could be "invaded" by high-level, extra-dangerous NPCs without warning.

[Ashen.2907]

Except that there is.