Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
I really enjoyed GW1 but not so sure about GW2
SwampRob
Member UncommonPosts: 1,003
in Guild Wars 2
I had a lot of fun playing GW1, in particular their expansions. Yesterday, I was reading a bunch of the features of GW2 and I was impressed until I read that there will be no mercs in GW2. Is it safe to conclude from this that grouping will now be required for much of the content? I grouped from time to time in GW1, but I adored the fact that I could fill out my party with mercs, gear them to my choosing, and then see pretty much all the content with them.
If GW2 is going to require me to team up with others, I'll probably pass on it.
Comments
Will Guild Wars 2 be solo-able?
Yes. You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group if you so desire. Most content will be designed in a solo-friendly way, though often with mechanisms for scaling up in difficulty when more players are involved. This will give players the option to experience the game whichever way they prefer.
At the same time, it is important for an MMO community to join together to overcome challenges. There will also be some areas in the game that require a coordinated group effort.
http://eu.guildwars.com/support/article/faq_gw2/
Aside from your personal storyline, which you'll be able to solo, quests have been replaced with dynamic events that scale to the amount of people involved, instead of waiting on a group to form you just join in with the event as its happening, everyone that takes part will receive a reward so no need to worry about losing exp or loot. There will be no need for grouping except for dungeon content which for the first time around is part of your storyline and will involve NPC allies after that if you want the dungeon gear yes you will need to group.
Actually, I find quite the opposite to be prevalent. You will be "teaming up" with others, but you'll be teaming up with them solo.
In other words, you will be soloing most of the PvE content, if there are other players in the area, they will also be soloing the content, but you would be teamed in that same event, and upon completion will both get rewards.
If for some reason people aren't around, the events will scale for just you being there.
Supposedly some dungeons will not scale and require a group.... but I don't really know what to expect there yet....
I see event balancing to be a very large problem in GW2, but I'll wait on fully judging that until I can see it.
Yes, it is highly likely that you will have to team up with others in order to complete some of the content (most specifically dungeons). However, depending on your reasons for not grouping, this is not that big of a deal. With no tanks and no healers, you should be able to just get any 5 people together and complete whatever you would like. Personally, while I thought the mercs were cool in GW1 I believe it made groups harder to get in newer content because people just ran with their heroes. Personally, I prefer any competent player over a merc any day.
Steam: Neph
GW2 seems to put a lot of emphasis on skill/tactics that combined with the fact that all classes seem to be able to perform every roll (altho switching between them during battle can only be done so often) i think you will be fine soloing but the thing is you wont have to wait for a group for the dynamic events because if you need more than one person chances are the 20 other people within range will want to join in on said difficult task (plus scaling and all)
now if its personal story and dungeons ur talking about i dont think you have to worry everything they have said leads me to believe they can be solod albeit with more difficulty than having multiple team mates to combine your powers with (I.E. elementalist puts up firewall and a ranger or warrior shoots arrows through it having them catch on fire and do extra damage)
now if its wanting hero's and henchmen to controll in your party you will be sadly disapointed as they have said there will be none in GW2. i do believe GW2 will be tougher than GW1 in most PVE when it comes to solo but not impossible.
I'm fairly certain that you'll be able to hit max level without choosing to group with others. It will be laid out more like WoW leveling where you can solo the questing and play with and around others in the dynamic events without having to worry about formally grouping with them.
As far as dungeon content is concerned it's looking like you'll need to form up a group unless there's some mechanic in place where it will all scale to the amount of people that go there. This is assuming there is instanced dungeons. Lots of unknowns still.
Honestly if you care more about making sure you can solo in an MMO then any other feature you might want to give SWTOR a look. Or you know, play a single player RPG.
You should definitely be able to hit max level without grouping with others, you will miss out on some of the content though. We know for sure already at least one or more dungeons will be instanced and there will be at least 1 dungeon for every 10 levels at launch. Finally we also know that dungeons will NOT scale to the number of people at least at this point in time. (The devs describe entering a dungeon and defeating it with 3 of them, but the difficulty still having remained the same as if it was 5 people, they were just good players. In a Q+A they mentioned that while dynamic content will scale based on the # of people, dungeons will not).
Steam: Neph
No heroes and henchmen is the MAIN reason I will playing and thoroughly enjoying GW2. They were such a pain in the arse!
Yup, heroes do monumentally suck. If i could actually run with a load of random people i'd prefer it. the only problem in gw1 is that there is a definite checklist that needs to be ticked off with regards to classes, much like any other mmo at the moment.
Gw2 will be awesome just because that checklist gets set on fire and thrown away. If you and your 4 friends are all rangers, then you sure as hell can still do that dungeon. You may need to play around with skill combos ect. but it's more than possible.
Henchies, imho, dont work in persistent zones . Imagine you and your four friends running around in the country side while each has 7 henchmen. Thats 40 units in just one group lol. Even worse. Imagine how would a raid group with 15-20 people look with all those NPCs around them.
Anet replaced henchman by giving every proffession a capable healing ability.
As everyone else has said: It's do-able solo:
1. FAQ states it's solo-friendly to level up and see all the game this way. Caveat is dungeons and probably a few "super" end-destinations to some major DE's eg Shatterer where many players will naturally converge (not forced).
2. As said, in your Personal Story, this instance will be completely your own or you can invite ppl to it or go to theirs.
3. As for the Global Story eg DE's, you can do these solo as they scale, but there will be people in the vicinity who will be drawn to these events, coincidentally. So it will feel like solo in groups anyway.
4. Henchmen are gone but you can choose a Ranger + pet for a companion that you can slot with skills and +12 pets and ++ varieties to choose from.
5. Every profession can heal-self, damage, control etc so any challenge can be tackled solo without need for delegation of team roles.
6. WvW PvP you can also level up competely here and there is solo, squad, platoon, company size BOs here too.
7. Scaled-down when you visit a previous area, so at end-game all the world opens up for your avatar (apparently).
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem