World of Warcraft might finally have nailed solo dungeons with Delves

A tension inherent in massively multiplayer role-playing games like World of Warcraft is that a lot of the biggest narrative moments, the coolest scenarios, and the most refined design — not to mention the best loot — goes into content that isn’t so easy for all players to enjoy. Multiplayer dungeons and raids are nearly always the pinnacle of an MMO’s endgame and the North Star that things like character class balance are organized around (with apologies to player-versus-player fans). But they can be intimidating, too: intense, time-consuming, and socially daunting, especially considering the community around them, which is not known for its chill.

The WoW team at Blizzard has tried to get around this by offering various solo-friendly or small-group versions of World of Warcraft’s dungeon experience in the past, like Mists of Pandaria’s Scenarios and Shadowlands’ roguelike-inspired Torghast tower. None of these has really stuck, and the developer has seemed reluctant to risk diluting the dungeon and raid experience — often considered the best part of the whole game. But now, in the newly launched expansion The War Within, Blizzard is making its most determined effort yet to open dungeon gameplay to the silent majority of WoW players that prefers to play alone.

This push comes in two forms, each with a different goal in mind: Follower Dungeons and Delves. Follower Dungeons are a way for solo players to fill in the gaps they might have in WoW’s narrative, while Delves offer a new track for character progression and rewards, and a new way to test your skill and your character’s gear. Delves are the more significant addition, but it’s worth talking about Follower Dungeons quickly first.

Follower Dungeons were actually added back in January in one of the later patches to the Dragonflight expansion, and work similarly to the popular Duty Support system in WoW’s principal rival, Final Fantasy 14. Follower Dungeons allow some or even all the other slots in a standard dungeon party of five to be filled by AI-controlled characters, making dungeons soloable. In fact, a similar system has been used for the last few years in the simple dungeon in WoW’s current default starting area, Exile’s Reach, but it’s only since January that it’s been available throughout the game.

In The War Within, Blizzard has integrated Follower Dungeon runs into the game’s campaign questline, so players jump straight into dungeons and experience them as a contiguous part of the game’s story, accompanied by key characters. It’s a big improvement to the coherence of WoW’s storytelling, and it’s very slick — like blasting through a dungeon with a super well-trained and well-equipped squad of players who don’t mind waiting for you and don’t talk back. Arguably, it cheapens the dungeons to have players’ first experience of them be so easy and frictionless, absent the charge and drama of a proper multiplayer run. But a bad run with an impatient or fractious group of players can be quite the vibe-killer, too.

Delves are something else. These are a new form of mini-dungeon introduced in The War Within, and they can be played solo or in groups. They’re role-agnostic, meaning you don’t need a tank or a healer to play them; players are accompanied by an AI companion whose role can be switched to complement the player’s class. They only take around 15 minutes to complete. There are loads of them — 12 in total across The War Within’s four zones — and each has multiple configurations of scenarios and hazards.

There’s a lot of flexibility there, but what’s really impressive about Delves is how clearly they’ve been engineered for the long haul. These mini-dungeons aren’t mere diversions; they’re a new, substantial, and viable progression track for WoW that will ultimately sit alongside Mythic-tier dungeons and even raids. The AI companion — right now, it’s dwarven explorer Brann Bronzebeard, but subsequent seasons will introduce new companions — can be leveled up and customized with trinkets, called curios, that grant special abilities. There are no less than 11 difficulty tiers to climb (tiers 4 and up will unlock when season 1 begins on Sept. 10), and the loot rewards scale to match. High-tier Delves will drop gear of the same quality as Mythic dungeons and normal-difficulty raid bosses.

In other words, Delves are a real, honest-to-goodness, soloable endgame for WoW. They’ll probably even be a useful way to fill in loot gaps for people who do engage in raiding and Mythic dungeons. The community seems delighted, and the chances are good that Delves will outlive The War Within to form a permanent part of WoW’s tapestry of ways to play.

Importantly, they’re also pretty fun. They’re not as epic or as finely tuned as dungeons, they can be a little chaotic, and on the lower difficulty tiers, they haven’t really bared their teeth yet as far as challenge goes. But they’re atmospheric and entertaining, with a knockabout, comic sensibility, and a plethora of interesting hazards and mechanics to mix things up.

Delves are also far, far easier to fit into your day than even the most straightforward dungeon run. It’s not just about length, although that’s a big factor. It’s also that they’re not timed, so if you’re playing solo, you can simply pause whenever you need. One of the biggest accessibility hurdles for dungeons and raiding is that you’re effectively locked in from start to finish, which can easily be an hour or more; what makes them thrilling is also what can make them feel claustrophobic, and an awkward fit for anyone with other demands on their attention and time. Delves, however, are almost as easy to pick up and put down as casual questing out in the world.

Over WoW’s long lifetime, in any fight between purism and approachability, approachability has tended to win. The game is a lot more forgiving and easier to enjoy now than it was 20 years ago. Even so, it has taken the team at Blizzard all of those two decades to come up with a genuine alternative to dungeons for the solo player. With Delves — and, to a lesser extent, Follower Dungeons — it seems they’ve finally done it.

source https://www.polygon.com/world-of-warcraft/445135/wow-war-within-delves