Can deep dungeons get a real solo mode? Or allow matched parties?

[kamikrazy]

Before I start, I'll express to anyone reading right now that I absolutely livid while posting this.

FOUR WEEKS. I have been trying to keep a group together for palace of the dead for FOUR WEEKS. I've had probably 16 groups in that time of people who say that they'll follow-up, but they never ever do. They ghost me, only one other person will show up, they'll show up saying they don't want to do it tonight because they are drunk, crap crap crap and I'm really sick of it.

I work full time and go to school full time, Friday and Saturday evenings are literally the only time I can play the game. These people will make promises a week in advance after we get to a high floor, such as floor 170, and then it turns into one of the following:
"Oh, I forgot."
"I don't feel like it tonight."
"I'm drunk lol"
No call, no show
"I'm with another group sorry."
"Can we do it some other time?"

The worst part about this game is having to rely on other people, and its too easy to screw me over just because you felt like being lazy and irresponsible.

Please SE for the love of all that is holy, find a way to make these people more accountable to return groups, I can't stand this anymore. At this point its legitimately easier to SOLO 1-200 in potd than do it with a group because the RNG and overinflated stats of potd 150+ can at least be overcome through luck and hard work. The people barrier just can't be overcome, its completely out of my control.

Please please please pleaaaaaaaaase add a solo-scale mode or allow matched parties in potd. Doing it with a fixed party doesn't prove anything that a matched party wouldn't equally prove. Keeping a party together in this game is impossible for me, and because of that I'm locked out, I feel completely helpless.

/scream into pillow
/endvent

[OurMom]

There is a solo scale mode.

There's a pretty decent sized discord with people that run potd/hoh extremely often, sadly I don't have the link right now but I believe it's advertised in the balance discord. People that bail are reported and kicked so it's a group of consistent non flaky people.

If you're on aether (I'm not good at knowing which server is on which data center, sorry) I run potd to floor to 200 often so you're more than welcome to message me when you're free.

[RiyahArp]

SE has sort of this thing where they let one aspect of content dominate and even cripple the whole. Like the fixed party thing for the challenge floors, or the focus on Feast over all for PvP. They should just let it be matched parties; it can't hurt the content to be able to do floors with randoms even if wiping is higher. I mean, you can even do all of savage in raid finder, if people used it.

[CorbinDallas]

SE has sort of this thing where they let one aspect of content dominate and even cripple the whole. Like the fixed party thing for the challenge floors, or the focus on Feast over all for PvP. They should just let it be matched parties; it can't hurt the content to be able to do floors with randoms even if wiping is higher. I mean, you can even do all of savage in raid finder, if people used it.

Good luck going through 150+ without a healthy stock of pomanders. Those chimeras are due for a snack.

[Penthea]

SE has sort of this thing where they let one aspect of content dominate and even cripple the whole. Like the fixed party thing for the challenge floors, or the focus on Feast over all for PvP. They should just let it be matched parties; it can't hurt the content to be able to do floors with randoms even if wiping is higher. I mean, you can even do all of savage in raid finder, if people used it.

Honestly many savage and ex fights are easier than the last 20 to 30 floors of POTD and HoH. Having completed both I can tell you the chances of a pug finishing them is extremely low. One mistake can very easily lead to a wipe. The margin for error is tiny.

Good luck going through 150+ without a healthy stock of pomanders. Those chimeras are due for a snack.

Yea forget about doing the last 20 to 30 floors without a hefty bundle of pomanders. Matched parties won't work for those floors based on that alone.

[LalaRu]

Putting together a decent group for HoH or PoTD require lot of time and a good number of member replacements.

And when you find people good at it, befriend them immediately, they are rare.

[Ilan]

Putting together a decent group for HoH or PoTD require lot of time and a good number of member replacements.

And when you find people good at it, befriend them immediately, they are rare.

Or it just needs an FC or a FL..

[RiyahArp]

Honestly many savage and ex fights are easier than the last 20 to 30 floors of POTD and HoH. Having completed both I can tell you the chances of a pug finishing them is extremely low. One mistake can very easily lead to a wipe. The margin for error is tiny.

If it's a different kind of difficulty though, not entirely based on rotations and uptime. Some people on the other hand might find it easier. But what's the point even if they can't? At least with matched you can try and practice the floors much more, now you run into the problems the op states.

[Darrcyphfeid]

I think the biggest culprit is just that you have to work through 100 floors of fluff every time you restart. If you didn't have to start at 51F and could just start at 101F after having cleared 100F once, you'd shave a lot of time and frustration off right there. Probably not enough to fully overcome the problem of unreliable random people, but it would help.

FC and friends are generally the way to go, though. Have made multiple climbs with a couple different combinations, and we've just taken it slowly. At least with friends you can be more confident that even if something comes up and plans fall through one day/week, you can just get together the next day/week and carry on then.

[Vidu]

If it's a different kind of difficulty though, not entirely based on rotations and uptime. Some people on the other hand might find it easier. But what's the point even if they can't? At least with matched you can try and practice the floors much more, now you run into the problems the op states.

You are excatly right about that: Its a different kind of difficulty - and it is one that doesnt require you to know your rotation perfectly or study the pattern of the boss in question.
PotD/HoH require you to actually pay attention. To watch out where you're going, judge the situation you're in, have the foresight to peak into the next room and see that there are two patrols coming and to pull one of them while slowly backing away. To save your pomanders for situations that are actually critical - and specially for those where they're crucial. I wouldnt want to go into the higher floors of PotD/HoH without a bag full of pomanders, which is excatly what you'd be doing if you'd queue for it via DF. And even if they gave you a certain amount of pomanders or something like that, you'd still have to deal with the idiot who burns everyone of them on 91, yelling "YOLO!" and running straight into the first room while stepping on a pull-trap.
Non of that is really something you can "practise" though, like you can practise your rotation or the pattern of a boss.
Savage raids and EX-primals have a "practise difficulty" - PotD has a "pay real attention and re-act"-difficulty.

PotD-difficulty is much, much more about coordinating on the fly, paying attention and watching out what the mobs and your fellow party-members are doing than savage is.
And mistakes are more severly punished. A wipe in a raid will cost you 10 minutes tops. Its frustrating when it happens at 2%, but its 10 minutes lost.
A wipe on floor 174 costs you what? A coupld of hours?
And people will wipe in DF-matched parties. And they will complain.

People saying "Oh, I just want to see those higher floors, at least give me a chance to do that!" arent perfectly honest - at least thats what I believe. Because I dont believe, that they're really be fine with just "seeing" the higher floors, they do wanna beat PotD. They dont want to see just the higher floors, they want to see the highest floor.
And "practise" wont help you in PotD when you get a matched party that wipes you because someone wasnt careful and stepped on a trap. What did you practise there? "Dont step on traps"?

To preserve the difficulty of PotD - that "one life"-thing is part of it - matched parties arent an option.

I know that finding relaible people for this isnt easy and my personal suggestion would be to convince friends or FC-mates to go in with you - not random people from the street, because they might bail. And yes, that sucks.
But it would also suck to have your save ruined by some random guy somewhere down the line. Or to not be able to progress because you cant communicate with your party or are lacking the needed pomanders - or a healer or tank for the higher floors, because they kinda require one.
We asked for some challenging content to do with our friends or in smaller groups at least and thats what we've got - and I'm happy we did! Please dont take this away or nerf it, just to make it DF-able...
Find people that are comited to you first, and then make them comit to the content!