Patch 8.2.5 of World of Warcraft introduces Party Sync. At least Cortyn sees it quite critically and does not believe it will have much effect.
While the hype continues in World of Warcraft Classic and players are gradually approaching level 60, in “Retail” things are feeling a bit stale. No wonder, as the Azshara Patch 8.2 is now more than 3 months old. However, the next update is already in the works and nearly completed. One of the “big” features of Patch 8.2.5 is the “Party Sync” feature.
But I honestly do not believe that this will truly help with group play in World of Warcraft.
What is the “Party Sync” feature? With Patch 8.2.5, it will be possible to adjust the level of your character to match the gameplay area of another character.
For example: A friend has just started and is at level 58. You have a character at level 120, so you would defeat all enemies in mere fractions of a second. If you are now in a group with your friend, you can “scale down” to your friend’s level range.
In this example, the character would then be set to level 60. He temporarily loses talents and abilities that he would not have at level 60.
At the same time, there is the possibility to set your progress on the same quests as your friend. You can thus complete quests again and receive rewards for them while you are with your friend. The rewards will then scale to also be meaningful at level 120.
Actually, it seems like a win-win situation, doesn’t it?
Exactly, I see it completely differently.
Group play in WoW offers no real incentive during leveling
The biggest problem for me is that there is essentially no incentive to play with other players during the leveling phase, which is a shame. By incentives, I do not mean rewards, but rather incentives that arise from the game mechanics itself.
The leveling phase in World of Warcraft has been tailored to solo players for quite a while. There are hardly any group quests left, aside from a few very old quests from The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. The regular enemies pose no threat to any class in any specialization, so leveling is actually a very comfortable, steady flow without major hurdles.
From a pure gameplay perspective, forming a group “doesn’t benefit me”. It reduces the experience points received per mob, and you are not much faster – whether enemies fall after 5 seconds or 4 seconds changes the speed only marginally.
To draw a comparison to Classic, which is currently in the spotlight: There, (almost) every class has some “downtimes” during leveling, where killing enemies is tough. Warriors, for example, often reach their limits around level 30 when good gear is lacking, as do mages or rogues. Just from the game’s design, it already makes sense to form a group and head out together.
This motivation is completely missing. The quests in World of Warcraft are certainly interesting, but only a fraction of them have a difficulty that would justify forming a group for them.
So there remains only one solid reason: The desire to play with the other person. That may be sufficient for some, but I think it is not enough for a larger portion of the player base. I always look forward to doing something with my friends at level 120, but during the leveling phase, I prefer to go solo. And I believe many feel the same way.
Every player has their own “flow” when questing. Some are quicker, some are more relaxed. If it does not align perfectly, dissatisfaction quickly arises. Again, for comparison: In Classic, this flow is naturally determined by the regeneration times and mana pauses after battles. In Retail, that is not the case.
The leveling phase is too short
I am, of course, happy that Blizzard is trying to make the leveling phase more enjoyable for newcomers, and the fundamental ability to play with friends “always” is certainly a fundamentally good thing.
However, I wonder why Blizzard even undertakes this effort. After all, the leveling phase in World of Warcraft is extremely short. Those who really put in the effort can level from 1 to 120 in just a few days – even faster with leveling gear.
Implementing such a comprehensive system, where virtually all quests in the game have been evaluated for their “sync compatibility”, for a segment of gameplay that is comparatively quick to finish is hard for me to understand.
My only hope here is that Blizzard is planning a revision of the world in the future (perhaps with the next expansion?) and wants to expand and implement the feature directly then. That would also fit with the overall goal of making the leveling phase more enjoyable and giving it more significance. But that is still just wishful thinking.
PvP in “Party Sync” could become a joke
One last point that makes me ponder is the PvP integrity of “Party Sync”. I believe there could be some very annoying situations if there are no countermeasures.
Let’s assume the mythically geared player at level 120 scales down to level 60 to play with his friend. Now a player from the opposing faction comes along who is at level 80.
Will the mythically geared “level 120 player” be simply destroyed by the level 80 character because the 120 player had Party Sync active? If so, that would be a clear argument against using this feature or, alternatively, to completely avoid war mode.
If that happens, I already see a horde of PvP players just waiting to take down characters with Party Sync. That does not sound like the best motivation to use this feature to me.
In summary, I do not think that “Party Sync” will lead to many players suddenly pairing up with friends. I simply cannot imagine it, as the necessity for it does not exist and the rewards are negligible.
In my opinion, Blizzard needs to overhaul the leveling phase in such a way that group play provides an incentive on its own, whether because the gameplay is challenging or because one cannot complete elite quests otherwise.
But maybe it is just me thinking this way. What do you think about the “Party Sync” feature? Will it be a huge success and lead to you questing with lower-level players? Or is this feature not for you?
Ihr wollt mehr zum Spiel? Tolle Specials, heiße News und interessante Infos zu World of Warcraft findet ihr auch auf unserer WoW-Seite auf Facebook.
