Balancing Solo vs Group Play in Diablo 4

Diablo IV Posted 2024/07/05 at 1:12 PM by silec

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Blizzard

We are really open to feedback on now. We are a little bit torn on how we feel about it. On the one end, it's really cool to play with other people support your friends. I shout and all my friends and everyone around me gets strong. There is a really good feeling about that.

On the other side, we know that a lot of people like going through Diablo as kind of that solo experience powering through on your own. The more that we make these group things a thing that exists in the game, the more we kind of tell people the optimal way to play is to play in a group because your Shout is more effective when you have more people around.

When we make something good, it suddenly becomes mandatory if it's best. Finding that line between a fun bonus and "this is the best thing to do, you must do this now", is a really thin line a lot of the times.

Current State in Diablo 4War CryRallying CryRaid LeaderCyclone ArmorAspect of Cyclonic ForceBoss RotationsThe Pit Group RewardsObduciteIngolithNeathironStygian StoneHow Can the Balance Be Improved?

In the case of The Pit, every participating party member would contribute 3 Artificer's Stones each.

Summoning a boss from the boss ladder would require each party member to pay the materials needed to summon a boss.

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Blizzard

The team is very aware of it. We've heard "it's not great to feel like I'm getting only 50% of the rewards in a group within The Pit when I'm not the party leader specifically". We will have an update for players before Season 5 and it will be live, whatever change we have, in Season 5.

Comment by RellyneIts more talking about how to improve even more group play because of the pit than talking about solo vs group play.

Because Diablo 4 was (and still is) always about group play for an easier gaming session and extra rewards (from XP to drops). The pit was the first time that grouping could be considered a "disadvantage" more because you don't have to really farm the currency to enter the pit (unlike summonable bosses, so you could just spam it yourself).

The Pit could also be viewed as how solo vs group should be. Harder/Takes longer = More rewards, Easier/Faster = Less rewards.Comment by silecIts more talking about how to improve even more group play because of the pit than talking about solo vs group play.

Because Diablo 4 was (and still is) always about group play for an easier gaming session and extra rewards (from XP to drops). The pit was the first time that grouping could be considered a "disadvantage" more because you don't have to really farm the currency to enter the pit (unlike summonable bosses, so you could just spam it yourself).

The Pit could also be viewed as how solo vs group should be. Harder/Takes longer = More rewards, Easier/Faster = Less rewards.Comment by arandananother non-issue turned into a hot topic by inept d4 'developers'.
This 'problem' has been solved eons ago.
Boss rotas - price of entry needs to be equal to the number of participants, it is not really a very hard to concept to grasp if you have basic reasoning skills intact.
Everything else - create solo/group ladders that measure performance based on the number of players partaking in the activity.Comment by NnycoShould just require everyone to have item to spawn boss, start pit etc.Comment by Spekzodo the same as GGG did with path of exile, make add a SSF mode balance the game around that and let the group players just have fun they play a completely separate game anyhow its not comparable at all, its the best option its not possible to ever balance both.Comment by DemonaeSSF mode please and ty.Comment by AlustrielI don't see any issues, group or solo, work hard as a soloist and you get the rewards, grind, grind, grind... Returning after many months absence and pushing the Pit to Masterwork 12/12 on all my gear, the normal bosses are all easy, same with Helltide champions, Helltide assassin, world bosses, legion events and nightmare Tier 100 dungeons. I have done up to Tier 73 in the Pit, don't see any reason to go more as the big issue is not team work, but drop rates of decent gear, 1 out of 500 are okay, the rest sold or salvaged.

If you have a socialization personality trait in a video gaming environment, then by all means, play together with others and have your fun. I would really not be happy to see Blizzard start turning Diablo into Warcraft where 'current expansion" large scale events (raids & dungeons) become impossible without others playing with you as a group. My solution on Warcraft has always been to wait 2-3 expansions and you can solo anything. Diablo began as a solo experience and a great deal of players still enjoy that aspect of it. There will always be two different types of people playing online, the soloists and the groupees. Neither will win if the software company caters to one of them, making separate states (which kick in when you group up as a party) is the easiest way to have both enjoy their game progression and have their appropriate interaction with the gaming envrionment.

It is simple, whenever players form a group/party, then certain conditions become enforced, like your cost to enter the Pit or doing uber bosses, the summoning reagents are all taken from each player, if you don't have enough, then the alter or monument tell you and you can't enter the Pit party or Boss encounter until you farm more mats. When in solo mode, nothing needs to be done as it is already setup for that play style as it should be.Comment by SPECTRALTIGER03We need matchmaking and an auction house system.
Then we're on par with Diablo 3's features that were available on launch.Comment by AlustrielIn an overnight thought here, with respect to group play (which isn't my choice in playing Diablo) I came up with a great idea for group players...

In Warcraft, you have the regular PvE skills every class chooses for their favorite build and play style. Each Toon also has a set of 3 PvP choices to use if they elect to play in War Mode. That can be offered in a similar way to help synergize Diablo 4 sociable groups who like banding together for boss encounters or just playing together in whatever they are doing. These special "Group only" skills (like the Warcraft PvP only skills) can offer something along these lines:

Everyone needs defense (through armor bolstering or magical shields becoming mass use rather than individual only), example, any sorcerer in the party who casts ice armor or flame shield, everyone gets it's effects because your in the party. This helps in teamwork because now the caster is watching out for their friends as well as themselves.

Health rehabilitation of some type (either from a vampiric "group only" attribute/skill, that draws essence from the monsters and and sends it back to the players or a "Potion Pool' where every ones potions are pooled together to help those who may lack health regeneration or have bad overall Health and through lack of good armor, resistances or defenses seems to get killed more often because of these disadvantages) I have Tibault's Will on and have extra pots which helped a lot as I upgraded my Masterworking on my gear venturing in the Pit, now I seem to never use more than 2-3 before they are replaced.

These two examples could help build a few shared synergies between all classes to help strengthen a group's efforts in working together. It should be noted that you do not have to have all different classes in a group, the choices for these "Group Only" skills can be say 3 out of 8 or 9 choices that way the blend can vary and everyone still benefits when they "party up" even if the entire group is made up of say Barbarians, they can work together with different "Group only" skills to tackle any situation, not that a well geared Barbarian needs help since they seem to one-shot world bosses without breaking a sweat...Comment by TrulyBadBradMy outlook may be like this because I play HC, but I don't really feel like there's a problem. Sure you may only get 50% of the mats but you don't use any of your own stones to get into the pit. Same with Uber bosses. Only the one that summons said boss gets mats to farm the next Uber boss. But the other players didn't use their mats. However, everyone gets something for their time. To me group play is only there to make the grind feel less grindy, since you have people to chill and talk to while you play, or to help someone level a fresh toon by getting them maxed item score gear. It's not usually used because I as a player felt like I needed help to clear content.

I feel like a good alternative is coming up with the announcement of the new expansion. Which is adding in specific content that is suppose to be played as a group.

That way soloists have plenty of content they can grind by themselves and groupies have something they can grind in with friends or fellow randoms.