How friendly is the game now to players who struggle with grouping?

There are many different approaches to the game, and considering there is such a strong solo leveling experience by default, it seems reasonable that a lit of people will be accustomed to that and may prefer not to play directly with others. The truth is, as a person with adhd and autism, my approach to the game involves socialising in quite limited ways, such as light roleplay, observation, occasional public chat, etc.
For me, the idea of suddenly finding myself in a party where someone else or multiple someone elses are expecting me to go a certain way or do certain things, this is a lot of pressure and I can’t really deal with it. Don’t get me wrong, I find situations like Gnomeregan intensely enjoyable, but the main point I’m trying to make is with regards to the ability to play the story.

I tend to quit the game for long periods of time so i can solo the requisite dungeons and raids for the stories I was playing through, but this also brings with it various problems such as broken systems and quests, anachronistic events and world states (like why the hell is thrall and Jaina in Oribos? I certainly didn’t rescue them) .

I just hope that the developers of this game can have more consideration for people in my position or who simply prefer to just RP and do the dungeons on their own, that being said, how is the game in TWW? Is it possible to get a satisfactory experience of the story without being forced to go into a situation with strangers that is intensely stressful for me?
Also, yes boosts are still stressful, because i really do need to go at my own pace and i often spend long periods of time afk so it’s really not workable, and youtube videos don’t allow me to explore the environments either.

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You can do the vast majority of the games content solo these days, delves and open world content has really paved the way for solo endgame progression. There are still obvious limitations, dungeons and raids and the rewards that follow require groups, as does pvp, thats self explanatory. Normal difficulty dungeons is the exception here, you can do these solo as so-called follower dungons, with a group of npcs instead of real players. Other than that, the world is your oyster. You can even finish raid related campaign quests solo through story mode raids, however these give no loot, only quest credit.
Thanks to delves and the catalyst (gear converter) you can get a full heroic raid tier set without ever setting foot in a raid or grouping up with anyone.

TWW fully embraces solo players, playing solo has never been as inclusive and accessible as it is now.

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What’s your raiderIO score…

That’s wonderful, thanks for the breakdown. Those story mode and follower dungeons sounds perfect. I don’t need gear, I just want the story.
Upon reflection, I am going to try to put aside my frustration with legacy content and look forward to a good game experience.

I don’t want whatever that is thank you, it sounds terrifying.
my ilevel is around 450 I think.

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As a player who plays mostly alone, the game is now very solo friendly!
The only content I do in groups are Delves, which can be perfectly made solo (I just like doing them with people sometimes).
Have fun!

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Yess, as the others have pointed out, the current time is the best to run solo, more so then ever!

There is a story mode for all dungeons as well as even for the raid itself, though it is still fairly challenging ive heard if your unused to it. So dont worry if it wipes once or twice. :sweat_smile:

But you got this and if you ever need any info, me alongside with plenty of others are eager to share our love and knowledge of the game! :dracthyr_heart:

At the max level you are able to do dungeons with infinitely scaling difficulty, these are knows as m+ (mythic plus), the higher you go the more your rating goes up. This is RaiderIO, it tells people both your score and current rank among your class and realm in performance.

In simple words, it number, if high, means you good. Its a sweats metric.

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You answered your own question. There is a strong solo experience in the game already.

Such as Delves, Follower Dungeons, and Story Mode Raids…

There is plenty of solo stuff to do on your own, and you dont need to interact with anyone at all for years. There is no need to do the things you dont want to do.

I will say the following:

  • This game is built in a way where challanging content REQUIRES division of labour. You cant be a tank, healer, and DPS combined into 1. You need other people the moment the difficulty increases by just a bit.

Therefore, if you are looking for a Solo, AND chalanging experience you wont find it in WoW. Search for other games that are made with that in mind.

Full honesty and disclosure: I hope not. I really do.

Most people that play this game dont have Autism or Adhd or problems socializing. So I hope Blizzard makes a game for most people. Not for a very, very, very small minority.

But hey. If they do make a game for 0.1% of people with dissability, then I expect them to also make the game for the top 0.1% of hard-core players that enjoy challanging content. They are also a minority.

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Yes, please don’t misunderstand. I absolutely want there to be fun and challenging content for people who like to play in party and pvp, that’s what it’s designed for. I wasn’t requesting a change to the core experience, more like an optional training wheels or something. Which I have now learned they have done.
I haven’t played since shadowlands so I was unaware.

Way back in the day, I loved grouping up with RL friends and family, and had a lot of good times. None of us grouped with Randoms though, and these days I’m the only person from our circle that plays WoW now and again. I still never group with Randoms though. I’m just not interested in strangers.

And dont missunderstand me. I am personally not against accessibility.

But like I said. Adding training wheels to a game that is designed from the core to be cooperative (aka: Division of Labour)… you cant put training wheels on that with out major overhauls. Combat in WoW is literally created by the genre itself. Its not even Blizzard’s decision… it’s simply the natural way of playing this game.

Let me give you TWO examples of what I mean. One ingame, one in RL:

INGAME:

  • The 1-button macro could be considered accessibility for the dissabled. And I dont disagree with that. What I disagree with is with “non-dissabled” people using it in group content, becuase it fundamentally changes what combat is in this game, and it makes difficulty levels and rotations pointless and obsolete. For EVERYONE.

RL:

  • There exists dissabled parking spots. And I agree with them. However, you have to PROVE that you are dissabled, or you get fined. Because if that did not exist, everyone would be parking on the dissabled spots. They would loose their purpose.

Therefore…

If you want “training wheels” on something so fundamental, we cant do it like the 1-button macro. We have to do it like the parking spots for it to work properly. So start presenting your dissabled card in order to prove that you “deserve” those wheels.

Im certain that you dont want that. Life is unfair for all of us. Dissabled or otherwise. We all learn to deal with our own weaknesses. Ingame and in RL. Dissabled people are still people. And have to deal with the same issues.

as you pointed out, they already added the story mode for dungeons and raids, so I’m not sure what you’re objecting to.

Even tho socializing is quite a horror show often - Its all about finding the good eggs. Me personally; I know they are quite few, but I’ve managed to fill up my friends list.

Be sure to add every friendly person you come across to your friends list, Just try build up a buddy list long enough and you’ll eventually be able to do whatever content is out there together, eventually.

Then it’ll be for fun, no pressure, a teamwork and no one is there full of rage and hate.
You won’t feel the same negative cloud hanging over you while trying to play a game - for fun - if you do it with friends.

I, too, want more solo things; or make everything solo-optional.
I love how Delves etc are scalable, so I can bring 1 -2 - 3 - 4 - friends with me, depending on the time, day; or i can go alone.

I hope you find the good eggs. Best of luck out there <3 Many hugs

The conversation is longer than that 1 post you know?

  • OP started by asking about Solo play in WoW…

So I answered. And my conversation with OP was:

  • It started by me saying: There is a ton of stuff to do solo in this game. Including story mode raids and follower dungeons. No no probems about that.

HOWEVER. I posted a followup because OP was not clear about what exactly did he want to do solo. So I stated the following caviat regarding solo play in wow:

  • If what OP wants is difficulty, there is no such thing as a difficult “solo” mode.

OP replied with: I wish there were more accessibility “training wheels” to do difficult content Solo.

And I answered:

  • That is mechanically impossible to implement in wow. <— This is the post you quoted.

And the conversation ended amicably 2 days ago. So I guess we all agreed and went our ways peacefully. So I said everything I had to say on that subject.

That is the TLDR of the story. Hope it clarifies it.