Breakfast Topic: To solo or not to solo?

by Elizabeth Harper Dec 23rd 2008 at 8:00AM

Sure, getting together with 40 of your best friends and leading an epic raid on the alternate faction's capitol city can be fun, but I have to say that there's fun to be had doing things all by yourself, too. Some classes were soloing Onyxia at level 70 -- and it seems like just about everyone can solo her at or near level 80. (For those thinking of trying this yourself -- it's good fun and not a bad amount of gold for the effort.) Zul'Gurub and Ahn'Qiraj (the 20-man wing, at least) have both been cleared (mostly) by a lone player. Karazhan has been cleared with a group of 3 -- though in our post-Wrath world, I'd imagine that everything save Netherspite could be easily managed with less. (And at some point even Netherspite is bound to be overcome by brute force.)

To solo or not to solo, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Hunters (who sometimes seem to think they have a monopoly on soloing content) or to take arms against a sea of dragons (dragons, elementals, demons -- we're not picky), and by opposing, earn epic (albeit under-level) loot. So, tell us, what have you soloed lately?

Tags: onyxia, raid, raiding, solo, solo-instances, solo-onyxia, solo-raid, soloing

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast topics, Classes

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)

dtrmp4 Dec 23rd 2008 8:09AM

I could probably solo Onyxia, I 2 manned her with a holy pally (I'm an ele shaman).

I did solo regular underbog which isn't really even worth mentioning.

Beetbox Dec 23rd 2008 8:09AM

Woo, first!
I've been doing BC 5 mans, Underbog for Sporregar rep, stuff like that, you can skip the trash if you want, since none of it is in aggro range at 80 ;D

KenMo Dec 23rd 2008 8:57AM

http://graphjam.com/2008/10/28/song-chart-memes-first-in-the-comments/

Superthrust Dec 23rd 2008 9:07AM

wow, you really failed there, didn't you?

"LOL FIRST"

So stupid...idiot fan boys who think that its cool to post "first" are really retarded...they should not be allowed to post.

My question is, why doesn't anyone do something about it? Like, delete the posts, suspend them for posting, etc.?

Kia Dec 23rd 2008 11:24AM

They do, on Gawker Media blogs. Joystiq and its ilk are much more lenient on who doesn't get banned.

Curt Dec 23rd 2008 8:12AM

I have a level 67 warlock and I've solo'ed the entire way. In fact, I've never even been in a guild. I was trying to see if I could make it to level 70 without crossing the Dark Portal (an experiment) but recently decided to cross over to find trainers.

I think that solo-ing is a viable way of playing. While I would like to see higher level instances I just can't imagine having to "clock in" and be on a schedule to live up to the comment I made to a group of players. I have a busy life so I feel it would be unfair to others if I couldn't show up for a raid. But I have been able to go to lower level instances and solo there to be able to see the content.

I might be unusual in the fact that I am a purely solo player. But it is fun for me and I think everyone should play so they enjoy the game.

- Curt -

it-hobbit Dec 23rd 2008 8:49AM

Lvl 67 affliction lock, same here, I have soloed most content, I am in a guild, and they are really open to my "solo" progression path, I simply log in and talk to friends while I do it, a lot have offered help, but are usually busy doing end game stuff.
Sure I end up DE'ing most stuff, but I have a lot of fun trying to keep up the shards while instancing.

Lanth Dec 23rd 2008 8:56AM

It's been done before. The guy killed 60 mobs til about 65ish, then did lots of CoT: Old Hillsbrad til bout 68, then killed the 70 mobs outside Karazhan.

On topic, I've recently tried to solo Onyxia as a 'Lock. Voidy tanking doesn't work very well because of crappy voidwalker aggro, and I can't seem to keep myself up when tanking her myself.

Hergor Dec 23rd 2008 9:04AM

I'm right there with your opinions. I've got a lvl.73 human warrior with virtually no contact w/other players. Although I am in a guild, work schedules.personal commitments, and the inability to sit more than 2hrs. playing WoW limit my interactions. I don't mind helping others out when I have time but I find group raids to be restricting. Add the fact I find WoWspeak (cryptic abbreviations) a little difficult to understand at times. To each their own,I guess!

roachkilla Dec 23rd 2008 10:34AM

i just hit 68 last night and 99% of my gameplay is soloed. i have missed out on a lot of goodies in instances for my lvl. wearing mostly greenies through out the game and the only difficult parts have been pvp. of course i go back to solo all the instances i can for the achievements, but solo is a fun way to play.having my own guild with no one in it and having all the bank space i need is fun too.

Flint Dec 23rd 2008 10:17AM

You're not alone. My main is a level 80 hunter and he's been fully solo all the way through (outside a couple of grouped instances early on when my friends were on the same realm). Same with all my alts - all guildless and friends list mostly empty (and the names that are there either never play anymore or are some random names who never contact).

So basically I treat a MMO game like a singleplayer game, and I'm loving it.

As for soloing content, haven't tried any of the higher level things yet as I'm going through things in order - the next stop's Razorfen Downs so there's still some time before I try and knock down Onyxia & co or the Outland instances, but eventually I'll try out them as well.

Malkara Dec 23rd 2008 8:13AM

I've solo'd VC recently ;o

Mohrlock Dec 23rd 2008 8:16AM

I'm not going to be of those "first" commentors here, someone probably typed quick enough to beat me to that.

But I am one who does like to go back and at least "try" to solo things...

I'm a Prot Warrior, so it has a give-and-take possibility of the content I can viably solo. Pre-WotLK I solo'd my way through all the content to getting myself the BWL attunement... until I hit a brick wall in UBRS.

Just the other night I thought I'd give AQ20 a shot... but 300k HP bosses dealing at-best 600 DPS wasn't working... Bringing along my healer girlfriend (Holy Priest) and we were pretty fine through everything aside from Ayamiss (not possible) & Ossirian.

All my recent solo'd content has just been all the BC dungeons (standard so far) to re-gain achievements I really SHOULD have, of which I know I have done every single one.

In fact that is the main reason I am doing it; I know I've done all this and funnilly enough am enjoying reminiscing over the old loots I had, getting the loot I wanted so bad at one stage & most of all to have the achievements that I already should.

No it's nothing special, but neither is DPS as a Protection Warrior. Shockwave has helped immensely though for soloing :)

Mind you I don't mind taking on an "alternate faction's capitol city".... http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=8xr7mFywPJU

Jonny Dale Dec 23rd 2008 8:19AM

I was exploring places for the "World Explorer" achievement, and 1 place I had left was Alcaz Island. I went there and found it very weird, then found some minions that were as hard as level 80s for their level (63), it was a little harded than I thought fighting 8 off at a time.

Then I came across Doctor Weavil, I thought he was a strange little easter egg or something, so with half life and a demon nearly dead, I attacked him

Then I discovered he's not as easy as I thought, I started off with low health and mana, but finished him off in about... 8 minutes.

I felt proud of soloing him, then annoyed that there was NO loot, so I looked this guy up and discovered he was a 40 man level 60 boss for the Ahn'qiraj chain

Amaxe Dec 23rd 2008 8:21AM

I think Alcaz was intended to be the quest King Wrynn was supposed to be rescued from before they retconned the "Missing Diplomat" questline (WoW Wiki reports he used to be there). Maybe they will bring it up for a future use, or maybe it is as useless as Uldam

Hamma Dec 23rd 2008 8:29AM

I remember when the King was there back in the day. You could go down into one of the underground areas and there he was just standing there.. of course he was a shadow of his current self.. the current King I would hope could fight his way out of there.

It wasn't always protected by as many elites and random things as it is now.

vazhkatsi Dec 24th 2008 2:57AM

actually, i just finished that quest ghain, and now it actually ahs an ending other than the cliffhanger

Amaxe Dec 23rd 2008 8:19AM

My guild is casual, so most of the work is done soloing except when we organize an event (with the new calendar system we are getting better at it). I had help running certain instances getting to 60 [I had an account with a 70 Warrior, quit for a year then came back and had to catch up on a new account] but a lot of what I did from 1-80 was soloed, instances primarily being done for quest awards or item drops or (during the 70 plateau) social farming of Kara (we never did BT or the 25 QD instance or the similar ones)

Occasionally I will take part in a PUG to complete a quest I can't solo or to try something new (Bear raid, Archiverus 25)