After a long day of work or school, the last thing you want to do is wait 30 minutes for a raid group to form, or deal with toxic players yelling about missed mechanics in a random dungeon. If you’ve ever asked can you solo World of Warcraft, the short answer is yes, for almost all of the game’s massive library of content. I’ve been playing WoW off and on for 12 years, and these days I spend 90% of my playtime alone, grinding mounts, running old raids, and working through expansion storylines I missed when they first launched. You don’t need a guild or a regular group to get hundreds of hours of fun out of the game, as long as you know what content to target and how to set yourself up for success.
What WoW Content Is Fully Soloable for Most Players?
The vast majority of WoW’s content is designed to be playable alone, even for players with average gear and limited playtime. The most popular solo activities are legacy raid transmog and mount farms — every raid from the original Vanilla launch up to two expansions before the current one is fully soloable on all difficulty levels, including Mythic. I ran all of Legion’s Mythic raids last month to farm the Fandral’s Flamescythe staff for my druid, and I finished the whole grind in three 2-hour sessions with zero group help.
All open world content is also 100% playable alone, no exceptions. That includes every expansion’s quest line, all open world reputation grinds and side quest lines, pet battles, fishing, archeology, and profession leveling. You can even play through the entire current expansion’s main story without ever joining a group, if that’s what you want to do. The only catch is that some rare spawns or world events are easier with a group, but you can still complete them alone if you’re willing to take a bit more time or use a few consumables.
If you’re a new player, you don’t have to worry about being forced to group up to progress. The entire level 1 to max level experience is designed for solo play, and you’ll get all the gear you need from quest rewards to keep up with the content as you go. I recently leveled a new warlock from 1 to 70 in a week, and I only joined one group the entire time, just to test a dungeon I’d never done before.
Can You Solo World of Warcraft Endgame Content, Too?
When people ask about soloing WoW, they usually want to know if they can skip the group endgame entirely and still have things to do at max level. The answer is mostly yes, though there are a few exceptions. All current expansion world quests and weekly open world events are fully soloable, and you can earn high enough gear from these activities to complete any other solo content you want. You can even farm most current world bosses alone, as long as your gear is decently upgraded and you know your class rotation.
The only content you can’t realistically solo as a casual player is high-difficulty current group content. That includes current Mythic raids, high-level Mythic+ dungeons, and rated PvP arenas or battlegrounds. A tiny number of extremely skilled, fully geared players have managed to solo normal current raids a few months after a patch launches, but that’s not something most players will ever be able to pull off, and it’s definitely not a relaxing way to play the game.
The good news is that you don’t need to do any of that group content if you don’t want to. WoW has so much solo content that you can play for years without ever joining a raid or dungeon group, and you’ll never run out of things to do. I’ve been max level for three years on my main shaman, and I’ve never stepped foot in a current Mythic raid, and I still have a huge list of solo goals I’m working through every week.
The Best Classes for Smooth, Enjoyable Solo Play
You can solo almost all content on any class, if you’re willing to adjust your playstyle and take things a bit slower. But if you want the most seamless, low-stress solo experience possible, there are a few classes that stand out above the rest. These classes have high survivability, self healing, and high AoE damage, so you can pull big groups of mobs and clear content fast without dying constantly.
- Protection Paladin: This is easily the best all-around solo class in the game right now. They have insane self healing, near-unbreakable armor, and enough AoE damage to wipe out 20+ mobs at once without breaking a sweat. They also have a built-in 20% mount speed boost, which makes traveling between farms or quest objectives way faster. I have a level 70 prot paladin I use specifically for legacy raid farms, and I can clear an entire Burning Crusade raid in 15 minutes flat.
- Beast Mastery Hunter: If you want the lowest-effort solo play possible, Beast Mastery Hunter is perfect for you. Your pet does almost all the tanking and a huge chunk of the damage, so you just stand back and cast simple abilities while your pet does all the work. You can even step away from your keyboard mid-fight if you need to grab a drink, and your pet will keep fighting without you. I know a lot of players who main BM hunter specifically because they can play while watching TV or doing other things on the side.
- Havoc Demon Hunter: If speed is your top priority, you can’t go wrong with Havoc Demon Hunter. They have the best mobility in the game, with double jump, glide, and multiple short cooldown dashes that let you zip through zones and raids faster than almost any other class. They also have great self healing and high burst damage, so you can pull big groups of mobs and kill them in seconds before they even have a chance to attack you. They’re my go-to class for reputation grinds that require running back and forth across big open world zones.
If your favorite class isn’t on this list, don’t worry. I main a Restoration Shaman, which is a healing spec that’s not designed for damage, and I still solo every legacy raid and open world activity I want to. I just have to pull smaller groups of mobs and use a few more healing potions than a prot paladin would, but it still works perfectly fine. Play the class you enjoy, not just the one that’s considered “meta” for solo play.
Pro Tips to Make Your Solo WoW Sessions More Fun and Rewarding
Solo play is already pretty low-stress, but there are a few small changes you can make to your routine to make it even more enjoyable, and help you hit your goals faster. The first thing I recommend is setting clear goals before you log on every time. It’s easy to log in, wander around aimlessly for an hour, and log off feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything. If you decide ahead of time that you’re going to run Icecrown Citadel for the Invincible mount, or grind out the last 10,000 reputation you need for the Kurenai tabard, you’ll feel way more satisfied with your playtime.
Another tip is to adjust the difficulty of content to match what you find fun. If you’re running an old raid and it’s so easy that you’re falling asleep, crank the difficulty up to Mythic to get better loot and make the fights a bit more engaging. If a piece of content is too hard and you’re dying over and over, drop the difficulty down or come back later when you have better gear. There’s no award for playing on the highest difficulty possible if it’s not fun for you.
You should also take advantage of quality of life addons to make your solo play smoother. Addons that track rare spawn timers, show you exactly where to go for quest objectives, or track your mount and transmog collection progress will cut down on a lot of wasted time. I use a mount collection addon that tells me which raids drop the mounts I’m missing, and it’s cut my mount farm planning time in half.
Finally, don’t be afraid to take breaks or switch activities if you’re getting burnt out. I spent six years running Icecrown Citadel once a week to get the Invincible mount, and I never got sick of it because I only ran it once a week, and I switched to other farms if I ever felt bored. There’s no deadline for completing any solo content, so take it at your own pace.
At the end of the day, the answer to can you solo World of Warcraft is a resounding yes for almost every type of player. Whether you want to grind old raids for rare transmog, play through every expansion’s story, or just relax and fish for a few hours after a long day, you never need to join a group if you don’t want to. WoW is designed to be flexible, and you can play it exactly the way you want to, no matter if you prefer playing alone or with a big group of friends. Give solo play a try the next time you log on, you might be surprised by how much fun you have.
