Guild Wars 2

I know gw2 revolves around co-op. But my definition of fun is not standing around 100 players I don’t know lag killing a dragon. Fotm is an exception as I find it rewarding and enjoyable because of the difficulty and sense of teamwork.

My point is what do you guys do solo able for end game in terms of actually playing the game on your own. As a casual player I can’t really think of too many besides maybe spvp or crafting.

I feel like most of the events in the game that are high leveled are designed for group work and if you go to a part of the world like malchors leap theres… no… people. I know I could go to orr but isn’t this game designed so you can go any where and just ..play?

The only end game stuff you haven’t mentioned is achievement hunting. Many achievements can be gotten solo. Many, though, can not, like the dungeon achievements.

Though I’ve never really experienced an MMO that had solo end game content anyway, and Guild Wars 2 really is no different.

Why do you feel you have to solo? Why not find some like minded players and play with them?

This is funny, MMO is massive multiplayer online. If you look at SWTOR, people complains about the game is simply just Single Player and in the end there are nothing or some CO-OP events. Now here, people complain about too many players and requires teamplaying.

I mean really… “Save yourself”

I can’t think of any mmo that has intentionally solo stuff outside of pvp, you can go solo some champions/dungeons if you want.

Your never solo you just happens to not have names of your group on the side of the screen. That how these type of games work where every one gets there own loot and every one can attk mobs your never truly alone!

Due to the everyone gets their own loot system, there will never actually be rewarding solo play outside of activities such as jumping puzzles. With a normal tagging system it’s easy to make your own solo content since if you, for example, chose to solo a dungeon your time and effort would be rewarded with a groups worth of loot.

Because of the system GW2 uses however, soloing actually reduces your rewards and takes more time, which ends up actually rewarding you for not putting in the time or effort because of how it works. What I mean is, the more people you throw in, the larger the zerg, the easier it gets, the more mobs there are at increased levels which means the more potential loot you can obtain by effortlessly spamming AoEs like everyone else. In comparison, soloing the same thing will not only take longer, but due to the reduced mobs, you will end up with far less loot. Really, you’re punished for soloing.

The recent change of replacing groups of mobs with champions depending on how big the zerg is, is actually a small fix towards this problem, but nowhere close to a solution.

Someone once suggested making champions drop increased loot if you solo them, but the dev’s response was would it be considered griefing if someone else hit it and reduced your loot, then proceeded to lock the thread. The real question is, how is it not griefing to know the fact that when you solo a champion or event, anyone that runs in at the last minute or anyone that stopped by to tag the event and run away will receive the same rewards as you without any of the effort or time spent. When someone is soloing an event for example, it’s actually very easy to get a silver or even gold medal by simply AoEing a few mobs, because there are so few people with contribution. Running around Orr gathering and killing mobs in the way for example, I can usually end up with 3-5 gold medals without actually ever seeing or participating in an event. It’s the flaw. You’re rewarded when you exploit the effort of others.

The first truly rewarding solo content in the game will probably be the insane level difficulty on the new jumping puzzle, assuming they actually reward you for it. If not, they’re basically saying they don’t reward skilled and solo play, except for simple bonuses (not having to repair).

What soloing is rewarded with that zerging is not is knowledge. By soloing, you learn how to overcome the abilities of mobs, whereas someone who zerged all their life still doesn’t know what that mob does.

From a casual solo perspective, everything in the open world is your end game. That’s how the game was designed. You’re meant to form ad hoc groups with the people around you to complete events. You’re not actually solo, but you don’t have to be in a group, compared to the standard MMO where areas such as these made groups a requirement.

MMO does NOT mean grouping, guilding, or raiding with others. It NEVER HAS.

Massive/Massively – A catch all word for the vastness of the world, content made, and amount of players playing.

Multiplayer – Just as it seems. Many people playing at once in one world/server. Nothing else. Has never meant anything else until some people started saying otherwise. Say it as many times as you want, it will STILL only mean…people get together in one place/server/world/bathroom/football field/donut shop…whatever.

Online – Just that…online

MMO is a prefix for the game type. Not a game play style. The style is determined after the prefix (FPS, RPG, RTS…so on) You notice, however, that none of these have a “G” for “Grouping” or “Guilding”. Interacting with others in a game is as good as grouping. If I run around in the game helping the zone out and chatting, I am not being anti-social. I don’t “need” to group….until I “need” to. Has nothing to do with the prefix “MMO”.

So, to the OP, you get what you “play” for. I have grouped and soloed almost every area in the game except dungeons and such where you need to group. I don’t see what’s so hard about it. Any event that pops, I join in or don’t. Heck, my mom who is 65 or so soloed most of her two 80’s and this is only her second MMO.

I have been fighting with myself on this lack of PvE solo-ability problem for 6 months, I think I’m losing the battle though. While you are not forced to group up you do yourself no favours by being a loner. I could suggest join a PvE guild but then you usually have to conform to the group and people who like to solo play don’t wan’t this, hence their ‘solo-play’ preference.

I think it would be nice if they had a single player server but then ANet would have to have 2 versions of the game etc… Sadly I think it is us that have to change to fit the game, not the game change to fit us.