When it comes to World of Warcraft, solo play works for some players, but is still limited for PvP. A new idea may just change this for the upcoming Eternity’s End update.
Group Finder has its flaws. It can take a long time to find a suitable team, moreso if you are DPS, and it doesn't necessarily put you in a workable group where you know you can trust your team to support you. Skirmishes do have a solo queue, but Arena has higher stakes and better rewards, with another way to progress your characters. Skirmishes don't offer gear upgrade rating, which follows because gear rewards tend to be associated with premade group content.
Still, the team wants to be careful not to discourage people from actively grouping up but they do want to have an option. Bring on “Solo Shuffle” A new idea and bracket that is solo queue only. When you queue up you are placed into a group of six with two healers and four damage dealers. Through six rounds of competition, the teams will break into teams of three, with one healer and two damage dealers. Players on both sides will have to adjust to different classes in the team compositions. The idea is players on the teams will generally play with every other player and earn or lose rating proportionally. If you win six rounds, you’ll get more than the player that won two rounds.
This mode is faster and has some differences from regular Arena. If your team is the first to kill an opponent, you immediately when they're around. Mana regeneration is restricted and there will be some changes to drinking. And if a player leaves the match, it counts as having lost every round with subsequent penalty.
For the full rundown on Solo Shuffle, see the announcement over at World of Warcraft.
