Blizzard is on the edge of making World of Warcraft truly amazing for endgame solo players for the first time in 20 years — but balance has been an ongoing nightmare

This "15-20 minute" experience actually took me roughly 45-60 minutes to get through. And that wasn't because I died. I only died once on the final boss during this run. The issue was that the monsters simply took that long to kill as a healing specced player.

If Delves are truly designed around the solo player, then in essence, I should be able to complete them efficiently with any class. I have Brann Bronzebeard, the NPC companion players get to partner up with for these "solo" dungeons at level 20. I had him in his damage dealer mode, and still it took an exorbitant amount of time to slowly burn monsters down with the tools I had available to me. This wasn't the "casual" experience I feel Blizzard sold to me during the initial press run. I'm using the item level recommended to me here, with Brann Bronzebeard in his damage dealing role to compensate my lack of damage. Other players are hitting the same frustrating walls, depending on their class choices.

Many classes don't have access to short cooldown interrupts, for example. These interrupts have been typically the realm of melee-based classes, and it seems that some bosses (particularly the tier-13 challenge boss) are designed around having access to interrupts. In some cases, players have found that it's optimal to play these dungeons in a more traditional way, in 5-man groups with a tank, healer, and three damage dealer roles assigned. In other cases, players have found that certain classes have a brutally difficult uphill struggle while other have a total breeze, based on the tools their classes have.

Indeed, my discipline priest does not have access to an interrupt at all, which meant the final boss of this particular dungeon was able to deal massive amounts of damage to me unimpeded using a curse spell, that I also lacked the tools to remove. I was able to heal through the damage just about, but I couldn't help but feel like as the tiers climb higher, it's going to just become ever-increasingly choring to get through them on this particular class.

My warlock by comparison has a far easier time. A personal tank, several fears and interrupt options, self-heals, high sustained direct and area damage, teleports, stuns, and much more, designed to help me in solo play. Warlocks and other classes have long held the mantle of being great for solo play, but with Delves, Blizzard may have to reconsider how it approaches class balance and design if it wants this to be its flagship solo content.

Can World of Warcraft get solo Delves right?

I want to emphasize that I do love a challenge in WoW. Getting the fel fire cosmetic challenge unlocked on my warlock back in Mists of Pandaria is one of the most fun and rewarding things I've been able to achieve as a solo player in WoW. Things like the Mage Tower and Brawler's Guild have fleetingly offered solo players ways to enjoy and challenge themselves beyond the typical group-based content. I've also been concerned that Delves could be toorewarding, to the point where highly organized group-based content could become obsolete. Indeed, the highest item level in my weekly reward vault is as a result of the Delves I did this week, rather than any of the raiding or mythic+ 5-man dungeons I did.

Brann Bronzebeard and other seasonal NPC party members for these Delve dungeons should be the complimenting factor to any of an individual class's shortcomings. Brann has interrupts, but they're painfully random, and often interrupt the "wrong" thing. His damage often feels middling and difficult to quantify, and the fact he can't really tank or taunt directly seems like a total mis-fire for players trying to play solo as healers or even more vulnerable cloth characters. As a shadow priest for example, I still found myself far too squishy to actually run the Delve, with Brann unable to take attention away from monsters who wanted to murder me.

I want every run to feel as fun and rewarding as it did when I played through with my brother. It was a solid challenge, still required to navigate the dungeon's various hazards and be sharp with interrupts and stuns. We completed it in a reasonable timeframe too, about 20-30 minutes as previously advertised. We got insane rewards for it as well (for me, a ring, whose enchants and sockets nearly bankrupted me to upgrade). But by comparison, playing through the same Delves on my healer priest solo was an utterly miserable, slog of an experience.

If Blizzard can make Delves a fun experience for any spec, that would be the true holy grail solo players of WoW have been waiting decades for. But it goes beyond simply giving Brann more damage, some classes simply don't have the tools needed to overcome certain challenges. I think it's important that classes remain powerful in their respective niches, but Blizzard needs to rethink Brann and how much control we have over his abilities, like his interrupts, if Delves are really going to land more keenly.

You don't want Delves to be too easy, because it'll trivialize group content and social play. You don't want them to be too rewarding either, because again, players will find it's more efficient to eschew guilds. You also don't want them to be too hard, because they're designed around a shorter gameplay loop many casual players absolutely need in order to justify the subscription. You also don't want to exclude any class or spec from it, because that defines what "solo" play is all about. But you also don't want them to punish players who do want to play with friends in small groups.

Delves have the opportunity to be "everything" content, without the same types of restrictions of other World of Warcraft endgame activities. If Blizzard can nail the balance, they could be truly huge for the game in a variety of ways. Whether it's attracting new players, opportunities to experiment with new mechanics, inject world building lore into small spaces, or even just showcase a cool moment that didn't fit into other types of content.

I don't envy the challenge Blizzard has given themselves here, but the rewards for what Delves could bring World of Warcraft from a game health perspective could be immense. Delves are tantalizing glimpse into what could be one of World of Warcraft's most important, pivotal features, as it enters its 20th year.

World of Warcraft: The War Within

World of Warcraft's latest expansion is fantastic, with some of the best story delivery the franchise has ever seen. A bigger emphasis on solo play has made the game more interesting than ever, and its future remains incredibly bright.

See at:Battle.net