After a lot of runs in the Infinite Archive working on and tweaking my character's build (and with the help of a friend) I finally got through Arc 4 and now I have all but three of the IA achievements. To take a break on a whim I decided to try soloing Scrivener's Hall and Bal Sunnar on normal. When these dungeons first came out I had queued and completed each one with a character for the experience, but of course then there was no time to really read/listen to the dialogue to understand what was going on, understand the boss mechanics because they were all killed so quickly, or experience the side puzzles or secret bosses. I know, the common argument is if I wanted to do that I should have asked in guild chat and found three other like-minded people who all wanted to do that to at the same time I was able to, but in reality that can be problematic, so I just tried to glean what I could from the queued runs and then read a guide later to understand the story better. Well, like I said I decided just to try to solo them (with a companion), and surprisingly I was able to complete them with the character I built for the IA! This was not the character I had queued up for the dungeons with so many months ago, and it was actually fun going through the dungeon at a slow pace and figuring it out as I went along. I died a few times during the boss fights but finally figured out the mechanics and made it through all the way to the end. But it made me think that not everyone has or even wants a character built for the IA, or wants to try soloing hard content or has the time it takes to do so, and not everyone has access to other people who could help them go slowly through dungeons to experience their well-written and scripted stories (I really loved Bal Sunnar!). I know all the arguments - ESO is not a solo game, people should join guilds, etc. - but sometimes that's just not feasible for some people and it's such a shame a lot of players have to miss out on this content. Instead of just normal and veteran versions, I think they should add one more, "Story Mode" or "Easy" to the choices. The rewards could be green versions of the gear so people who only solo could complete their sticker books if they wanted, or if people against this idea think that's too much the rewards could simply be overland pieces from the zone the dungeons are in. And doing dungeons on story mode could not qualify for Undaunted pledges if people think that would be too much too. And finally, it has always been my opinion no dungeons should ever have mechanics that require two or more players to progress through the dungeons - I think people who like the challenge of soloing dungeons should at be able to make it through every one if they have the skill to do so and not be blocked by impassable mechanics.
Edited by ZOS_Hadeostry on 2 January 2024 04:09