Solo Queue For Island Expeditions?

Blizzard is finally releasing their new patch, Shadowlands 9.1 – Chains of Domination, next week! Therefore, I thought it would be beneficial to quickly check out the PTR and see whether they’ve successfully incorporated the long-awaited solo queue for Island Expeditions.

According to Jeremy Feasel, he was hopeful that a solo queue for Island Expeditions could be incorporated in 9.1 but didn’t hold much hope for Warfronts.

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What Are Island Expeditions:

For those unaware, Blizzard introduced Island Expeditions in Battle for Azeroth (BFA). Players could approach the Expedition Map and sign up to queue for four different difficulties, Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and PvP.

You needed a team of three players to participate, and it had a simple objective, reach the azerite goal first, and you won! In addition, Blizzard introduced further incentives and tasks throughout the expansion of BFA and made it worthwhile for players to continue participating in Island Expeditions for Companion Pets, Mounts and Transmog.

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Why The Need For A Solo Queue?

With the release of Shadowlands and the lure of new content, players that continued to queue for Island Expeditions found it difficult to get groups due to a lack of interest. Thankfully, early in Shadowlands, there was hope. Jeremy Feasel informed the World of Warcraft community that they were trying to incorporate a solo queue. The community had hoped that the improvement was ready for Shadowlands 9.1.

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The 9.1 PTR:

I quickly copied over my main character onto the PTR and hurried over to the Port of Zandalar. I interacted with the Expedition Map. To my astonishment, there was no method to solo queue for an Island Expedition.

When I hovered over the four difficulties, the tooltips expressed the need for three players to participate in the Mythic and PvP queue. However, the tooltip for Normal and Heroic had no minimum player requirement. Furthermore, all four options needed me to select find crew, suggesting there’s no solo queue yet!

With 9.1 due to release on the 29th of June for NA (30th for EU), there’s no way they’re releasing the solo queue unless they plan to release something in the next few days. So that would suggest that there’s no testing expected before the release of 9.1.

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If No Solo Queue In 9.1, When?

Suppose there’s no solo queue in 9.1. In that case, I can only assume that Blizzard maybe hit a snag while making alterations to Island Expeditions. However, if they plan to release this during Shadowlands, then perhaps it will come in 9.2. It’s worth remembering that Blizzard usually waits for two expansions before making previous content more accessible for soloing.

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What Does This Mean For Gold-Making?

The inability to solo queue for Island Expeditions means that players will continue to struggle to queue. Therefore, the need for offloading Island Expedition Transmog (as warned in my previous post) may not be necessary now. Gold-makers were worried that with the ability to solo queue, the demand for Transmog would drop. At the same time, the supply would increase, meaning a loss in value. What will likely happen now is the opposite, more demand and a lack of supply, slowly increasing its value!

But stay vigilant; Blizzard has in the past made changes where necessary, without warning. So expect Island Expedition Transmog to hold its value for now, but adapt if there are any late changes.

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