Something has been bugging me lately and I wish I could blame Mythic and/or GOA for it, but I don’t think it would be fair.
Tending to my Altritis I rolled a fresh Bright Wizard over the weekend. Playing my Rune Priest I had noticed how powerful they can be if they have a decent healer hanging around them and they become even stronger when the group gets a tank, preferably a Knight of the Blazing Sun. Because these guys can aoe tank like the best of them (as Regis shows us here) and while he has agro on around 20 mobs the Bright Wizard can blow them up with his Scorched Earth, for great justice!
So I was looking forward to that and was happily surprised when I got my aoe spell at level 4 already. I started looking out for groups and when I saw a healer struggling on his own, or a tank killing things solo, I would invite them.
Most of the times the group invites would just get declined. I figured this was because people might consider it rude that I didn’t pm them before the invite so for the next couple of guys I tried that, still no luck. Some people don’t bother replying and some others explained to me that they would rather solo, as then they are not stuck to the quests the other guy has to do etc.
WTF, is WAR, with it’s PQ’s and Open groups, already turning into World of Solocraft? What is this obsession people have with playing on their own. Sure I have my moments where I would rather solo as well but as soon as I get in invite I’ll happily group up with someone and 9 times out of 10 I’ll be happy I did.
I really think a lot of people don’t quite realize how much better an MMO becomes if it is played with other people!
Skar wrote an interesting article on the importance of guilds to his enjoyment of the game and the following bit explains it a bit I guess.
Yes I do play mainly solo, but within the guild it’s not a solo experience, there are always people around to share the pain, the pleasure and the knowledge.
So I hope all of those people I met over the weekend that did not want to group were in guilds and on vent with their guildies and just wanted some alone time. because the alternative, an entire Tier full of soloers, makes sad Dwarf sad.
Ah well, Rank 8 BW lfg.
WAR of Alts 
From a personal point of view I tend to solo a lot, since I am rarely on for more than an hour. So getting into a group, tends to be counter productive, when I have such a limited time window. I have a goal of clearing down my rested xp from the last x hours.
But yes I am on vent a lot 😉
Hey Skar! 😉
Your playstyle is your playstyle ofc, no offence meant to that. It’s just that I seem to remember there was always a mix of people who like to group with people who prefer to solo. All the solo’ers rolled Azgal this weekend I guess 😉
No offence taken. I merely wished to expand alittle bit on one set of circumstances where a person may choose not to group.
PS – Love the the Dwarf graphic.
It’s probably because there is no NEED to group in the game currently. As things stand, every class I have played has been completely able to solo in the leveling process through about 95% of all quests. That other 5% of quests are the stray epic, or group quests you’ll find to get a piece of stalker’s gear or what-have-you. Grouping up for anythign other than an AoE farm group is counter productive to your leveling time, and that’s what people focus on.