[Dungeons] Please make the Story Mode soloable

[Ashantara.8731]

Hello dear devs,

it is a pain in the behind to find people with whom to do the story mode in dungeons. Everyone is out for rewards, naturally. I have 13 characters and in all the years only managed to get one and a half through all story instances. I would like to unlock the dungeons for all to enter, but no, you decided against it. That might have been a good idea years ago, when there were no fractals or raids and people were eager to play dungeons (plus they had better rewards then, too), but now it makes zero sense.

Since the dungeons' story is connected to the campaign's story, they should be accessable for solo play like the rest of the story missions.

Please make dungeon story mode soloable. Thank you.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

There are a few exploration-paths which require to be in a party with 2-5 people. CoF 1 has this one room where you need to be five people. But that is it.

For the majority of dungeons, as well as story-modes you do not really need a 5-member-party. I've been doing runs with 2 or 3 people to test survivability and practicability of certain builds, both exploration and storymode. It is a good training to test reflexes and develop own rotations and combos. Depending on your motivation and dedication, you can solo them as well. But this takes a lot longer. Months ago I did a CoF story run in ~ 2h. For a first try, ok. But nothing to pose on mapchat or youtube XD. Still it was satisfying to get through alone.

I would also like to mention, that Arah story was adjusted to be solo-able on purpose. It still takes longer than with a group, but you do not need to be very skilled to survive it.

[Ashantara.8731]

@"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:There are a few exploration-paths which require to be in a party with 2-5 people.

I am talking about story mode only. And no, I do not find 2 hours acceptable for a "solo challenge". I want the story modes to be soloable just like the story missions, not some advanced hard mode challenge. 2-3 people still does not equal 1.

[Dawdler.8521]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:There are a few exploration-paths which require to be in a party with 2-5 people.

I am talking about story mode only. And no, I do not find 2 hours acceptable for a "solo challenge". I want the story modes to be soloable just like the story missions, not some advanced hard mode challenge. 2-3 people still does not equal 1.But the story mode dungeons

are

soloable so I fail to see the point. Its not easy - you're gonna want a raid build if you are good or a cheese build (like say a minion master healer scourge or soulbeast exploiting the immortal pet, etc) and its probably gonna kill you a couple times (or ten) but its not that complicated.

Some of the explorable paths are soloable as well.

[voltaicbore.8012]

All story mode dungeons are currently soloable, and within reasonable time. For instance, my core ranger can solo AC story in well under 30 mins (likely within the 15-20 minute range). I've never clocked it officially, but it's over so fast I've never had to. I've soloed every story mode except for Arah, and that's just because dislike Orr/Arah aesthetically. EDIT: just did an AC story mode solo run, came in just over 17 minutes.

It all comes down to knowing your class, and knowing each encounter (including what the "trash" mobs are capable of, and which elite mobs require priority). I find the best builds for dungeon solos are not meta builds, as the meta builds assume you're part of a properly diverse group of players, with each doing their part. You'll find that your need for survival and stunbreak will be much higher when you're on your own in a dungeon.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

It's unlikely to change for two reasons. First:

@voltaicbore.8012 said:All story mode dungeons are currently soloable, and within reasonable time.

And second: the current road map for ANet leaves no time at all for any changes to dungeons, because it's not the best use of their resources (compared to all the other things we want). If they did some work on dungeons, it seems more likely they'd work on fixing some of the remaining exploits and/or major bugs.

@"Ashantara.8731" said:it is a pain in the behind to find people with whom to do the story mode in dungeons.I've never had a shortage of people joining when offering room in LFG (usually newbies). What time are you posting your party formation requests?

---

Where I think ANet might be willing to do some work is on the unlock requirements: Currently, your account unlocks dungeon reward tracks (both PvP/WvW) if any character completes story mode. However, players have to repeat story mode on each character so that each toon can open explorable mode on their own. It might be an easy change for them to adjust it so that it becomes an account-wide unlock for PvE, as it is already for PvP/WvW.(Or it could be one of those complicated "don't mess with the character data" situations, where small changes cause a ripple of bigger consequences.)

[Leo G.4501]

Thinking back to City of Heroes, it was an amazing time when they introduced the ability to scale the instanced content. With this feature you had nearly full control of the enemies you'd face: you could make the enemies +/- your current level up to, I want to say -3 and upwards to +5(?), you could scale the spawn sizes from 1-person team spawns (the smallest) to max-team size (would spawn a certain amount of mobs per team member), you could make it so Lieutenants or Bosses spawned or not (I'd equate them to Vets and Elites from GW2) and if you wanted to downscale final Archvillains/Heroes (rather than max HP/regen and mez resistance, you could limit them to downgraded AV/Hero which were more suceptible to mez or in some cases, downgrade them to bosses).

One thing I'm not fond of in the story missions are all the achievements that require you to do really specific tasks that might require many resets. Not saying all of them are bad, just the ones that specifically require you to replay things over and over. But what if some of those repetative achievements were exchanged for running the mission scaled to a higher team size/difficulty? You know, give a bit more weight to them as team content? On the other hand, open up scaling so you can downgrade certain mobs/mechanics to make them easier to traverse for newer players?

It's all about accessibility and variety. Of course, scaling those other instanced story content would require more than just swapping in Elites or some such. Scaling them to add more party aspects to them would be required.

[Cyto.9401]

i suspect that IF they every do any major work on dungeons ever again (major meaning anything besides bug fixing) they will turn them into fractals.. i understand the lack of players to play them with is frustrating, i can only suggest you look for a guild that is prepared to help you out

[Orpheal.8263]

All it needs anet to do would be the implementation of a Companion System, which allows to use your own Account Characters as Party Members and command them like herooes either, or switch play between them and yiur current played Main Character that is the Party Leader which that you logged in and whose story progression the game is following for the moment you are playing.

That way would become most of all dungeon paths easily soloable, without that anet has to do really much about them.A feature, which would at the same time improve also the roleplay aspects of the game, if you could play this way for example together with related to each other characters, like for example a brother which travels around with his sister character, if you have two characters on your account with the same family names ...for exampleI know myself, I'd be making somethign like that, giving my main character another family member at her side, if I could play them both that way with a Compansion System at the same time, switching based on the situation between them both, while the Ai takes over in the moment the control of the character from that i am switching away to the other Character whose control I take over at the moment from the AI... that would be truly interactive and inoovative gameplay, that doesn#t exist yet in this way in any mmmorpg ive ever seen or know ... and it would be a clear imprvement over the basic hero system from GW1, which just barely allowed you only to command cheaply your heros and affect their builds, when when it woudl have been necessary, you couldnt just switcch between characters and take over the control self, when you'd know, in situation x would you handle it with character Y of your party self better, than lettign the AI do it and fail and what it should do, due to the situation and task beign too difficult and complex for the Ai to grasp and know, what it should do best in that moment, where a real player wouldnt be overwhelmed with, but easily able to handle the situation due to havign the required natural intelligent to know what do do, where a siomple stupid Ai does not have that and follows just only after its 0s and 1s and decides plainly after soem kind of algorythms which can simulate the most important thing that is required in having success - personal experience!!

The situation that dungeons get more and more abandoned by players won't change and surely won#t ever become better, when ANet even self completely has abandonded that part of their own game and doesnt give it any form of support anymore to improve this content...So it is clearly understandable why people want this content to become soloable..

But for this does not need to be the difficulty of the content to get dumbed down, or rewards to be increased.All that is needed is only an improved form of the Heroes under a new Companion System..

Originally Anet even hat plans to give the game a Companion System.. under ANets earlier plans for this feature it was planned originalyl that players in PvE should all have 1 NPC Companion. But ANets plans on a Companion System beign part of GW2 got scratched and never found its way into the game.However, now are 6 years later after release. Alot has changed in this time, the games community is by far not so much active anymore in PvE, especialyl the older content, than 6 years ago when that content was fresh and new for everybody, so its just normal, that old content needs to become over time also soloable, so that it stay DOABLE, for when simply the time comes that you find no other players for the old content anymore, or searchign for other players becomes an ABSURD CHORE OF WAITING...

Thats in fact the exact same reason, why there exists in GW1 Henchmen, so that people had at least the option to create a NPC Party for these kinds of situations where you want to do something, but just simply find not enough people at the time you want to do the content, so that you were able to fill up the empty slots at least with a NPC helper, -which is just a suboptimal help, but still better, than nothing, until ANet improved that system with the implementation of Heroes, which became quickly superior to henchmen, due to players beign able to let them use their own synergized builds to create optimal team setups to overcome this way aloen the power differences in PvE content, which were used to be there to force peopel to make up partys.However, the problem with Heroes in GW1 was, that Naet allowed there usage for everywhere in the game, which resulted naturally that players, who found out the most optimal synergy party build with that they were able to do from then on everythign alone, never saw a reason again to play together with other people, leadign to the point that GW1 formed itself more and more into a MMOSG for practicalyl Massive Multiplayer Online Solo Game, which is so ironical, that it is funny.

That is why , despite GW2 needing absolutely the implementation of a Companion System as improved version of Heroes, Anet should learn this tiem from their mistakes they did with such a system in GW1 and don#t repeast the same mistakes with a Companion System here again by simply making directly from the start sure, that Companions this time won't be useable just everywhere, and if everywhere, then only in a very limitated way.

Companions in GW2 should be only useable in instanced content and in general persistent PvE Maps, this means:

• Normal PvE Map Exploration
• Dungeons
• Personal Story
• Fractals
• Raids

In regard of Raids they should be only useable as Fill Ups of maximum 3 that only the Party Leader can add, so that a Raid Squad still needs at least 7 real players to begin the instance, making it this way a bit easier to get a full party together, than having to wait for gettting 10 real people together.In Regard of Fractals that amount of Companions is reduced from 3 to maximum 1, that the Party Leader can add, so there youd also still need to have at least 4 people.

In Dungeons and Personal Story you could add up to 4 Companions, so that you can play the Content completely alone.

Having Access to Companions would get unlocked via gaining Levels.Level 10 = Unlock 1st Companion SlotLevel 25 = Unlock 2nd Companion SlotLevel 40 = Unlock 3rd Companion SlotLevel 60 = Unlock last Companion Slot

Companions would be not useable naturally in

• PvP
• WvW

and they be automaticalyl replaced the very moment a real player joins the party/squad to literally replace them...So if you are going for doing a Lvl 70 Dungeon for example, you have made your Party up and put in 4 Companions into your party and created then a LFG for your Dungeon Run and somebody joins on that LFG Search then your party, the first added Companion of your party will get instantly replaced by that real player, the next time someone joins again, it will be the second added Companion that wil lget replaced by that real palyer and so on in this order, which will go on this way, until you start the Dungeon instance or you naturally remove your LFG Search first so that others have no chance of joining your party that way anymore, unless you invite somebody to your party by yourself, which will then also replace automatucally a Companion of your Party, unless the party is at that moment not full.

Adding a Companion System is not really a huge effort, because its not adding any new content, like it woudl be the case of addign henchmen, which need to be created by Anet - as companions we are already using our self made characters, so no effort for Anet.

The effort in such a system is basicalyl only the UI works that is required to make it possibly to add our own characters that are linked to our account into our Party. That connection between our account and our characters needs to be transformed into a system mechanic, that lets the game recognize our account characters as added Party Members that are then taken by the AI under control like heroes, until we give them naually commands or switch over to them from our Main Characters we play at the moment of the Character Switch.

And the only effort would be adding the unlock mechanic for Companion Slots, but that shouldn't be really difficult to make and add to the game.

PS: here the original stuff about Anets Companion Planshttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Companion

By rereading that Article I remember even, that ANets plans were originally having Companions even not count as Party members to fill up slots, but work as some kind of extension similar to how pets work for Rangers.But under my personal concept of this, I don't see them as extensions, they definetely should count as equal party members that take up their own slot, so that we don't need to get debuffed for usign them, but their usage needs limitations. They are not extensions under my concept, but rather you can see them as NPC Allies that you can just simply command like a true Commander should have his loyal legion of soldiers on his side towhom he/she gives commands. allies and frieds to whom you have full trust. Persons who would die for you literally and which are with you bonded in a strong way, that you can perform with them things, which are possible only with them (Character Switching/ Switch Combo Skills for example).

[Zaklex.6308]

Don't need companions, don't even need to do the Story mode dungeons unless you feel that your play through is incomplete without them...I've done a grand total of...1, besides Arah which has now been changed specifically to solo. That tells me they never did and don't now consider the story mode dungeons essential to completing your story campaign in core Tyria.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Orpheal.8263" said:All it needs anet to do would be the implementation of a Companion System,That "all it needs" is a completely new & complicated mechanic which would affect PvE balance in all sorts of ways. It would require even more effort to do well than adjusting dungeons.

This original plan was a discarded attempt to make it possible for sub-L80 characters to play with L80; it was replaced with downscaling/upscaling, which ultimately turns out to be more useful (since typically, once a game ages, there are more L80s wanting to play in sub-L80 content than the other way around).

[Devildoc.6721]

They did it for Arah Storymode which is a godsend as it can be like screaming into a vacuum to try and find groups for story modes, even in guilds often times they'll just tell you that it's possible to solo the ones the way they are now if you "git gud", because they can't be bothered to help if you need the story mode for some reason. The story mode dungeons are frankly old content, with very poor rewards that don't warrant people grouping up to do, but for average players, probably not soloable.

[Orpheal.8263]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Orpheal.8263" said:All it needs anet to do would be the implementation of a Companion System,That "all it needs" is a completely new & complicated mechanic which would affect PvE balance in all sorts of ways. It would require even more effort to do well than adjusting dungeons.

This original plan was a discarded attempt to make it possible for sub-L80 characters to play with L80; it was replaced with downscaling/upscaling, which ultimately turns out to be more useful (since typically, once a game ages, there are more L80s wanting to play in sub-L80 content than the other way around).

New... yes.Complicated? Absolutely not at allRequires it effort? Yes, like said, some UI Mechanics naturally need to be made, but it absolutely requires not to make new content, cause the characters that woudl act as companions woudl be already self made characters from the players, nothing that was made by Anet.

You make those things look more complicated, than they really are.PvE needs no "balance" PvE is there to make just only fun. PvP and WvW, thats whwere this poor games combat system actually really needs balance, but that part of the game would stay completely unaffected by Companions, because these modes would stay 100% real players in parties only, because Ai helpers naturally have nothign to search in player based competitive game moves where only players are battling against other players.

Yes, the Scaling System basically replaced the original Companion Concept, simply because it was an easier system that doesn't require any extra npcs to be made by Anet and is compared to that a map based mechanic that is 100% uninfluenceable by players and just works automaticalyl in the background of the game adapting the situations just only based on the amount of players being at a location at the time of when events happen or are about to start, so that it is abgle to adjust the values and stats of spawning enemies, so that they aren't too easily killed, to draw the time it takes for events to end long enough into the lenth, so that all participating people and those which may join the event later have enough time to deal enough damage to the foes, so that their participation counts towards gaining at event end at least bronze event rewards. But thats not the topic now..If the Scaling System would be part of the topic or even be usede as a solution of the topic now, then this woudl mean that the Scalign System would need to get changed in such a way, that the game scales down just simply enemies in Dungeosn so much ,that the content becomes soloable over time as much as player participation over time becomes less and lesser in regard of dungeons , making the situation for players only harder to find enough players...and its simpyl absurd of needign to search for hours for other party members, just so that you are able to do Dungeons in this game in a normal time that is appropriate for casual players - meaning that the content including waitign time for other players should not exceed the cap of maximum say 30-45 minutes.

Everything that is above this cap is a strong signal to anet, that the game content has become so deserted,that changes are a must and players need to receive ways, with that they can speed up again the time it takes to make as casual players the dungeon content in an appropriate time span of up to maximum 45 minutes successfully.When you have to wait and search for several hours first, until you get enough players to play the content, how the content was designed by anet to be played, then this doesn't feel right to me.

Nobody should be feeling forced in a game to have to wait and search for so long for other players to join your group, just so that you are able to do some game content in an acceptable time.It was already back in GW1 an absiolute absurd and unacceptable sitation, when you had to wait there for fours, until you had enough people to start a Mission there, or had enough peopel to start a PvP Map like in Factions, where were times, where is simpyl became impossible to do due to the inactivity of the people to do alot of the games content at certain times, where beign able to use heroes/henchmen for missions felt like a godsend, so that you became able to do these thigns at least alone, when absolutely nobody else is there and you have at that tiem also no friends on or guildies to help you out as well ...

Your logic is flawed within GW2.. the more the game ages, it won't happen here that more people play also Sub 80 content, thats a dream bubble which absolutely doesn't reflect back the sad reality of GW2, cause so more people progressin the game, so older the game becomes, so lmore deserted becomes the old content in this game, because playing on the old content is by far not at all so much rewarding, than to play on the newer maps, the old maps offer absolutely no replay value at all.. once you are done with them, your done, you never have a reason to actualyl return to them, unless eventually for killing the world bosses on them.

Would your logic be fittign, then would be the beginner maps constantly same as and actively played, aslike for example the much more rewarding HoT maps or Silver Wastes and PoF maps would be still so actively full, like on day 1 of release of the expansions, but thats by far not the case anymore.. you see absolutely NOBODY in pof or LW4 maps by now doing any story content anymore... all you see people doign in those maps only is farming the meta events or bounty hunt circle run farming... nobody cares for the story ciontent anymore, cause mostly all have done it already and those who are done with it espect now basicalyl from everybody else to do that content now solo, unless you find some friends or guildies to help you out... but pugs via using the LFG for spcific story stuff??? forget it ...unless you are very lucky maybe searching at the right time at the right location for somethign yoiu eventually find 1 person.. but findign via lfg a complete group together, feels already like getting a sixth in the lottery!!

But that are by now only my own experiences on my server, naturally other people on other servers are still making perhaps completely different and more positive experiences still, so it iss something, that can't be naturally overgeneralized and pigeonholed here now ;)

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Orpheal.8263 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Orpheal.8263 said:All it needs anet to do would be the implementation of a Companion System,That "all it needs" is a completely new & complicated mechanic which would affect PvE balance in all sorts of ways. It would require even more effort to do well than adjusting dungeons.

This original plan was a discarded attempt to make it possible for sub-L80 characters to play with L80; it was replaced with downscaling/upscaling, which ultimately turns out to be more useful (since typically, once a game ages, there are more L80s wanting to play in sub-L80 content than the other way around).

New... yes.Complicated? Absolutely not at allI think I'll trust ANet's word that it's complicated and that there are also balance issues involved.

Of course populations are smaller: like any aging game, fewer people play now than at launch. Unlike many MMOs, we can all play every map with any max-level toon, so people tend to gravitate towards those maps that most easily reward us (whether financially or otherwise). That dilutes populations even further and eventually, ANet is going to have to reconsider whether to keep adding new maps, to start retiring older maps, or other sorts of changes. However, that's "eventually" and probably not any time soon.

Further, even if Anet agrees that there's a problem with map populations, then there are dozens of other ways to address it. The surest way to kill the "massively multiplayer" aspect of an MMO is to remove the need to team up with others.

However, this thread isn't about map populations, it's about dungeon story mode, which (a) only allows for 5 people max, (b) can be soloed already, and © it's generally not as difficult to find more people as the OP suggests.

[Linken.6345]

@Orpheal.8263 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Orpheal.8263 said:All it needs anet to do would be the implementation of a Companion System,That "all it needs" is a completely new & complicated mechanic which would affect PvE balance in all sorts of ways. It would require even more effort to do well than adjusting dungeons.

This original plan was a discarded attempt to make it possible for sub-L80 characters to play with L80; it was replaced with downscaling/upscaling, which ultimately turns out to be more useful (since typically, once a game ages, there are more L80s wanting to play in sub-L80 content than the other way around).

New... yes.Complicated? Absolutely not at allRequires it effort? Yes, like said, some UI Mechanics naturally need to be made, but it absolutely requires not to make new content, cause the characters that woudl act as companions woudl be already self made characters from the players, nothing that was made by Anet.

You make those things look more complicated, than they really are.PvE needs no "balance" PvE is there to make just only fun. PvP and WvW, thats whwere this poor games combat system actually really needs balance, but that part of the game would stay completely unaffected by Companions, because these modes would stay 100% real players in parties only, because Ai helpers naturally have nothign to search in player based competitive game moves where only players are battling against other players.

Yes, the Scaling System basically replaced the original Companion Concept, simply because it was an easier system that doesn't require any extra npcs to be made by Anet and is compared to that a map based mechanic that is 100% uninfluenceable by players and just works automaticalyl in the background of the game adapting the situations just only based on the amount of players being at a location at the time of when events happen or are about to start, so that it is abgle to adjust the values and stats of spawning enemies, so that they aren't too easily killed, to draw the time it takes for events to end long enough into the lenth, so that all participating people and those which may join the event later have enough time to deal enough damage to the foes, so that their participation counts towards gaining at event end at least bronze event rewards. But thats not the topic now..If the Scaling System would be part of the topic or even be usede as a solution of the topic now, then this woudl mean that the Scalign System would need to get changed in such a way, that the game scales down just simply enemies in Dungeosn so much ,that the content becomes soloable over time as much as player participation over time becomes less and lesser in regard of dungeons , making the situation for players only harder to find enough players...and its simpyl absurd of needign to search for hours for other party members, just so that you are able to do Dungeons in this game in a normal time that is appropriate for casual players - meaning that the content including waitign time for other players should not exceed the cap of maximum say 30-45 minutes.

Everything that is above this cap is a strong signal to anet, that the game content has become so deserted,that changes are a must and players need to receive ways, with that they can speed up again the time it takes to make as casual players the dungeon content in an appropriate time span of up to maximum 45 minutes successfully.When you have to wait and search for several hours first, until you get enough players to play the content, how the content was designed by anet to be played, then this doesn't feel right to me.

Nobody should be feeling forced in a game to have to wait and search for so long for other players to join your group, just so that you are able to do some game content in an acceptable time.It was already back in GW1 an absiolute absurd and unacceptable sitation, when you had to wait there for fours, until you had enough people to start a Mission there, or had enough peopel to start a PvP Map like in Factions, where were times, where is simpyl became impossible to do due to the inactivity of the people to do alot of the games content at certain times, where beign able to use heroes/henchmen for missions felt like a godsend, so that you became able to do these thigns at least alone, when absolutely nobody else is there and you have at that tiem also no friends on or guildies to help you out as well ...

Your logic is flawed within GW2.. the more the game ages, it won't happen here that more people play also Sub 80 content, thats a dream bubble which absolutely doesn't reflect back the sad reality of GW2, cause so more people progressin the game, so older the game becomes, so lmore deserted becomes the old content in this game, because playing on the old content is by far not at all so much rewarding, than to play on the newer maps, the old maps offer absolutely no replay value at all.. once you are done with them, your done, you never have a reason to actualyl return to them, unless eventually for killing the world bosses on them.

Would your logic be fittign, then would be the beginner maps constantly same as and actively played, aslike for example the much more rewarding HoT maps or Silver Wastes and PoF maps would be still so actively full, like on day 1 of release of the expansions, but thats by far not the case anymore.. you see absolutely NOBODY in pof or LW4 maps by now doing any story content anymore... all you see people doign in those maps only is farming the meta events or bounty hunt circle run farming... nobody cares for the story ciontent anymore, cause mostly all have done it already and those who are done with it espect now basicalyl from everybody else to do that content now solo, unless you find some friends or guildies to help you out... but pugs via using the LFG for spcific story stuff??? forget it ...unless you are very lucky maybe searching at the right time at the right location for somethign yoiu eventually find 1 person.. but findign via lfg a complete group together, feels already like getting a sixth in the lottery!!

But that are by now only my own experiences on my server, naturally other people on other servers are still making perhaps completely different and more positive experiences still, so it iss something, that can't be naturally overgeneralized and pigeonholed here now ;)

You can start clearing most dungeons with 2-3 people tho.the ones you need more people on are CoE due to buttons cof p1 and p3 due to torches/braziers to get doors unlocked, aetherblade due to oozes.All others you can do with 2-3 ppl or even solo.

[Orpheal.8263]

@Linken.6345

Yes, you can do that, for the expense of requiring alot more time to do them... alot more time, which casual players don't have.That the content has become doable by now also 2-3 people or solo is only the case due to the massively added powercreep the game has received over the last years... Without all this powercreep it would take even much longer time, than like 2 hours which have been mentioned here earlier before by someone else and doubt it would be soloable without all the powercreep of now

Thats my point that I take into consideration why I do support making dungeon content easier, by adding basically a Companion System, so that peopel dont have anymore to waste alot of time findign first the neccessary amount of people, becoming again able - also as casual players - to do dungeon content in like maximum 30-45 minutes, which is not somethign you can do, when you need solo for the content to do successfully like already 2 hours, or if you have to wait like 2 hours, until you have found the peopel for a complete party or the 1 to 2 others to do it at least with 2-3 people, when the LFG for the specific dungeon you want to do is completely empty for like half the day and more, and most likely always at the times when you can go on to play GW2...

GW2 used to be with its dungeons a game, which was extremely casual player friendly, beign able to do the dungeon paths all within like 30-45 minutes all.This is not the case anymore now, due to the dungeons having become more and more deserted and thats why i support the point, that Anet shoudl do somethign against this. A companion system woudl be in my opinino the best choice here.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781"

Where in the description of MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game do you read in the meaning of "requiring the NEED of having to play together with other other players". There is no "need" to have to play always together with others, only because we play a MMOG.

The MMO in this term basicalyl means nothing else, not more, nor less, than just only that alot of players are playing simultanously the same game.the term absolutely doesn't mean, that all these players must be always forced to play "together" ...A MMOG als also a MMOG, if you have alot of players at the same time online in the same game, while they all woudl be doing their own solo player content, like if everybody would play at the same tiem alone basically their personal Story .. we still have a MMOG.. bot nobody is forced to play their personal story with others. You can do everythign of it alone, if you want..However, this is not the case with dungeons. Dungeons are designed by anet as multiplayer content, which should be played together with other players tother, as thats the way of what anets expects us to do there...That there are now also skilled people which can do them solo too is something totally different here, because that are basically only either those people, which search for their personal challenge, or those people, which must die hard proof others, that they are more skilled players and can do things others, which other players can do only in a party (epeen-complex - the typical and always to be findable in MMOGs "I'm better than you-players, which than start bragging about their skills and how good they are compared to others in chats to get attention - and most likely also lots of block list entries xD...)

Aside of this:

I think I'll trust ANet's word that it's complicated

A link please to proof this statement ??Can you show me the post, where a Dev officially gives the statement, that adding a Companion System, which would require basically mostly only work on the UI and the commands, is in fact under their view "complicated"...Anet has said this already so often, that adding things is complicated, and then they surprise us suddenly with adding these thigns, which have been so complicated - chairs - cough.Just saying, only because something is complicated, doesn't mean automatically, that it is impossible ... when it goes after game developers, everything new sounds always first "complicated", so that they don't have to make any "promises", or cause hype for something, only because eventually it has been said to something, that its in fact eventually even "easy" to add, cause the player's minds are as easy to read as like a book.. the moment a game developer says, something is easy to make - players expect from devs, thats its done for the game... so it is in case of being a deverloper better to say in general first to everything - its complicated to do - so that you don't put fuel instasntly to the hopes of your playerbase for something, which you most likely don't intent to work on now. (if ever at all).It is all a matter of semantics and the way of speech and expression how you tell people something to get a message over and in regard of this game, devs naturally need always to be very cautious about what and how they say something to us, I know this should be nothing new to you and in general all of us by now after 6 years ;)However, this doesn't change my interest now on seeing a link to that dev statement onto which you put so much trust ^^

[Randulf.7614]

A companion system is unnecessary and not needed for this at all. Far easier in comparison is the op suggestion to have a solo scaled version if each story instance like Arah has.

Whether that is worth the investment is Anets call, but a hero/henchie system isnt really the right answer for this problem in this game.

[Ashen.2907]

I am not sure that we are likely to see much development, if any, for a game mode that the devs have abandoned.

[Orpheal.8263]

Sure, a scaling solution is the much easier, less costing surely and faster solution.. but a companion system therefore the far much more fun bringing, unique and interesting solution that would make playing dungeons alot nicer and adds as well to the game a little niche aspect for RP's enabling it players to play then multiple characters at the same time that are somehow related to each other either by blood or marriage or friend/partnerships. That all would not be possible with just a simple scaling system solution. A scalign system solution would basicalöly just only dumb down the difficulty of dungeons to solo player niveau and thats I find absolutely not the right way..A game should never be dumbed down , just so it becomes soloable... lets not give this game another injection of dumb downing like it got from Anets new player experience disaster which literally destroyed the whole starter segment experience of this game in one patch beyond the possiblity of any repairability, just because they thoiught, the game needs to receive this treatment, due to us players being in their view too incompetent to handle the game mechanics and the whole leveling process and character progression, how they were originally...while in fact absolutely nobody has had ever any issues with the original design and nobody EVER demanded here in the forums, that Anet should change something about it...

A great way to make GW2 in itself more special compared to the other games out there and a companion system doesnt mean now so extremely much more effort, than tweaking and overworking the Scaling System of GW2.It is just a matter of UI work that needs to be connected to our account character data, so that we become able to choose them out and add to our created parties, like how it was done basically in GW1 with Henchies/Heroes, where the game also needed to know, which of them we have access to and the actual Command System to control the Companions, or to switch to them directly, like I'd love to see it working for the most interactive gameplay you could possibly have with such a feature to become able to eventually even perform this way unique Switch Combo Moves between the two characters from which you switch to from one to another to control the character self directly. (Kind of a bit inspired from SAO I admit, but thats just an anime, no real MMORPG that exists).

In the end it is just only a matter of money.. how much willing Anet is to invest into a solution and the cheapest solution basically wins, unless the higher costing solution can convince ANet better with its pros it has, over its con of costing Anet more money to make the more expensive solution happen

[mindcircus.1506]

@"Ashantara.8731" said:Hello dear devs,Please make dungeon story mode soloable. Thank you.

They are.38 minutes on a level appropriate toon. No exotics, just a couple rares.

[preacher.9370]

out of boredom I did try and successfully soloed AC and CM story modes, both with thief, which i'm not horrible at but isn't my best class.

[Devildoc.6721]

@"Ashen.2907" said:I am not sure that we are likely to see much development, if any, for a game mode that the devs have abandoned.

It might be an "abandoned" game mode but some things still use the dungeon currencies like legendary weapons, and you need to unlock explorable mode or the wvw/pvp reward tracks to get those normally (I wouldn't really count the tyrian vouchers as a reliable means), and that requires running through story mode.

[Ashen.2907]

@Devildoc.6721 said:

@"Ashen.2907" said:I am not sure that we are likely to see much development, if any, for a game mode that the devs have abandoned.

It might be an "abandoned" game mode but some things still use the dungeon currencies like legendary weapons, and you need to unlock explorable mode or the wvw/pvp reward tracks to get those normally (I wouldn't really count the tyrian vouchers as a reliable means), and that requires running through story mode.

I dont disagree. I like small group instanced content and would love to see further development of dungeons...but Anet has decided otherwise.

[Linken.6345]

Well the problem that lfg is empty is becouse people are afraid to put up their own lfg to find people for some reason.

[Cregath.7628]

@"Linken.6345" said:Well the problem that lfg is empty is becouse people are afraid to put up their own lfg to find people for some reason.

Exactly this. When I randomly decide to do X dungeon (even in story mode, because why not), my party fills up within 5 minutes. I don't even care who comes as long as they have the WP and are at least high enough level to enter.

If waiting for 5 minutes is a "pain in the backside", then you probably have different problems. If you want ANet to let you do Explorable if you cleared Story at least on one char (since they are not even noted in your Personal Story tab as far as I know) that might actually be a reasonable request.