As a returning player, I find my friends list nuked and my guild inactive/disbanded. That being said, I continuously grind my dailies and hope to make the most out of em. Unfortunately, there are some I have to skip due to unfortunate reasons such as mostly being a solo player and having most of my 8 friends offline. During these times I constantly daydream of things such as:
* Hireable AI mercenaries to complete what is essentially a "solo" party (hireable by gold).
* Mercs do not loot, they only help clear mobs
* AI Mercs will have their own distinguishable uniform to immediately tell which run has a merc
* Mercs are only hired as a group to complete the PT, with a max duplicate class of 2 (so a 2 mage pt will get a Rogue and War merc, a 1 player pt will get 1 of each class)
* Mercs are FIXED price, this means if you are a party of 3 and you need to hire 1 merc, you will have to pay for the merc as if you were renting an entire group, this will enable people not to resort to mercs every time and make sure that they only hire them when needed, and will still force them to invite players as much as possible. This might even end up as a decent gold sink for those who want to level up several characters.
That being said ofc Mercs are AI and therefore they're bound to be pretty dumb. They're merely there to give a helping hand, but not as an actual thinking person that will:
* Actually avoid red zones
* Follow map specific instructions (like split up and pull mobs)
* Follow proper skill timing
* Console you when you suck
