I’ve been playing a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic lately and it’s made me think back to my “MMO Career”.  Of course thinking back to that many hours of my life makes me wonder why I spent so much time in front of a computer, but that’s a story for another post (What can I say, I got my Chocobo licence in one night on Final Fantasy XI).  No, this post is about the ability to solo group content in MMORPG’s.

Let me specify what I mean by soloing group content.  I don’t mean being max level and going back to a low or mid level area to solo the content, I mean actually being able to solo quests or mobs that are usually done in groups at your current level.  One of my most memorable example of this is from Final Fantasy XI and the Avatar fights.  The object of these was to get a group together and “Tank & Spank” them down.  There were a lot of people who could solo them, however, mostly Red Mages if I remember right considering they could tank, DPS, and heal.

So anyway, I’m realizing I’m not good as a solo playing in MMO’s.  I could never do those types of things.  Heck, even the level 20 summoner quests in Final Fantasy XI I could never do, as they required split second timing and a strategy that was unlike any other MMO.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that without practice I couldn’t do these things, I’m sure I could, but I like the small group dynamic and I tend to pick roles that fit into them,a healer, crowd control, specialized DPS, etc.  My spec’s are usually not solo-friendly, even though I often do solo a lot of content in leveling.

I love to heal.  My Jedi in Star Wars: The Old Republic is a healer and I like the fact that I can beat a Jedi Warrior in a 1 on 1 fight because I can heal myself and my companion while throwing out a few DoT’s and instants on them.  That’s why I picked this character to be part of a Duo/Trio leveling party, but my Smuggler on the other hand I have soloed everything so far.

Of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic makes it a little easier than other games due to giving you a Companion, but they’re only about half as effective as actually having another player with you.  Also, my Smuggler is not a healer and I have no way to heal my Companion.  I’m currently stuck on a Class Quest, which I believe they intended to make them all soloable, and reading online that “it’s easy with this very specified strategy”, which brings me to the whole point of writing this post.  I love the idea of seeing my character solo things that should not be normally soloed.  I love that these MMO’s have added strategic fights that really make you have to manage your cool downs, instants, Companions, and DPS closely, but I never seem to be able to be that one in the group that can actually solo them.

And then I think back to the days of Genesis and SNES, or before that to the Master System and NES.  I was good.  I could platform with the best of them and hold my own in a tournament of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter.  Maybe it’s not that I am not skilled enough to master this type of content, because I know with enough practice I could, but maybe it’s that video games just don’t have the same level of challenging (sometimes frustratingly so) as they used to.

Star Wars The Old Republic has added some interesting content in the way of Class Quests and finding Datacrons (lots of jumping) and also with the use of Companions they gave players the ability to Duo a Heroic 4 or solo a Heroic 2.  I’m looking forward to feeling that frustration more often of getting a boss down to 2% and then dying and it being my own fault because I clicked the wrong move at the wrong time.

Anyone have any stories of soloing content that may not have been made to solo?