Fear the Reaper (we can be like they are)

[harmlesslarry]

So it looks like if you arent willing to run content at level on reaper 2 no one wants to join your lfm. Unless its the weekend, most players who game here during the off time only want reaper. I have tried for the past two days to get a HE group going and was successful once with one person. Im sorry guys but my character is a third lifer with no epic lives, I cant do reaper at level unless its a full group and theres a warlock or other caster in there. I just want to get my lives done so I can move on to reaper.

The sad things is that reaper is really unnecessary, ultimately. You only need to do it if you want to go further into it. Now, I dont mind reaper one that is fine, but with as many lives as it takes to become strong at this game, were I to do everything on reaper 2 or 3 it would take years to get there. I dont have years, and I doubt this game will be around long enough for me to be that strong were I to do reaper all the time. I need faster leveling right now, and I think if people were honest with themselves they would see the logic here. Tired of wasting an hour doing enter the kobald on reaper two with four people only to wipe and have to restart.

[bracelet]

So it looks like if you arent willing to run content at level on reaper 2 no one wants to join your lfm. Unless its the weekend, most players who game here during the off time only want reaper. I have tried for the past two days to get a HE group going and was successful once with one person. Im sorry guys but my character is a third lifer with no epic lives, I cant do reaper at level unless its a full group and theres a warlock or other caster in there. I just want to get my lives done so I can move on to reaper.

The sad things is that reaper is really unnecessary, ultimately. You only need to do it if you want to go further into it. Now, I dont mind reaper one that is fine, but with as many lives as it takes to become strong at this game, were I to do everything on reaper 2 or 3 it would take years to get there. I dont have years, and I doubt this game will be around long enough for me to be that strong were I to do reaper all the time. I need faster leveling right now, and I think if people were honest with themselves they would see the logic here. Tired of wasting an hour doing enter the kobald on reaper two with four people only to wipe and have to restart.

Enter the Kobold? OMG. That is one of the hardest quests in the game. I have wasted an hour or two doing normal way back in the day. Set your sights a little lower perhaps. And I don't mean HE Enter the Kobold. Give Wheloon a whirl on HE. You might be pleasantly surprised. You shouldn't have any trouble filling a group for those. There are plenty of quests that will fill quickly when posted for HE.

[harmlesslarry]

That hasnt been my experience this week. Everyone is doing R2 at level in the LFM and my HE groups arent filling.

[FranOhmsford]

Enter the Kobold? OMG. That is one of the hardest quests in the game. I have wasted an hour or two doing normal way back in the day. Set your sights a little lower perhaps. And I don't mean HE Enter the Kobold. Give Wheloon a whirl on HE. You might be pleasantly surprised. You shouldn't have any trouble filling a group for those. There are plenty of quests that will fill quickly when posted for HE.

That was one example and yes a bad one as RR was virtually impossible to get a group for before Reaper existed!

But I had to Solo Heroic E-BB VoN 3 the other day and don't tell me that's not popular!

[TDarkchylde]

As many of us were worried about when Reaper was being pushed to Live, Reaper has indeed become the new Elite. And as players start to become more proficient at it, higher skulls will become the new default.

This is absolutely devastating to newer players.

[Vish]

Well,
Best xp is on a reaper train
So it may be better to suck it up and join
Even if you're semi piking,
Since most of those trains are conducted by vets that can almost solo it
That may not be the case in epic, where u need lives
It seems the reaper isn't such a draw in epics
Mostly since its even more difficult at level, and most cant even handle elite
I would say most don't have the gear for it...

My other concern for reaper,
It seems to be killing off players...
I have noticed a general decline in player pop on Sarlona,
The Chinese have disappeared
Mostly vets running r2+ in heroic
Tho lately I've seen epics coming back to life
The honeymoon may be over,
And people are switching back to elite

Really, reaper seems best suited for heroics,
Where epics lives and reaper points turn you into a beast

What reaper has done is seriously divided the player base
Before, casuals could hang in elite
But r1 needs a cleric, or to be a warlock
Sigh,
No clerics too be seen hardly
But when one is in group, so much better than a hire

I feel your pain...

[Enoach]

... Tired of wasting an hour doing enter the kobald on reaper two with four people only to wipe and have to restart.


Enter the Kobold? OMG. That is one of the hardest quests in the game. I have wasted an hour or two doing normal way back in the day. Set your sights a little lower perhaps. And I don't mean HE Enter the Kobold. Give Wheloon a whirl on HE. You might be pleasantly surprised. You shouldn't have any trouble filling a group for those. There are plenty of quests that will fill quickly when posted for HE.

Enter the Kobold is one of those quests that is deceptively easy to get to the End Boss fight, but has taken out many a 6 man group even on Normal and the characters being 2 levels over.

But this quest can be made easier with these things...

1. Evasion/Improved Evasion <- Not required but it takes out a lot of the damage that is thrown out
2. Fire Resistance/Fire Absorption <- Even with evasion anything you have that mitigates Fire damage will up your survival - Fire Shield even scrolled is valuable in this end fight
3. Ooze Puppet Crowd Control on the Living Spells. If you have someone that can cast this spell and land it you will have taken out 1/2 the AoE Reflex damage as well as up your own teams DPS
4. Someone to open the door back to the shrine (Pets/Hirelings work well here)

I've done this at level on Reaper 3 in a full group, it is not for the faint of heart (or Ill prepared).

---
As for filling groups, sure many people want to run Reaper 1 for fast XP when they run it at the Base Quest Level, and I've seen Reaper 2 for those running at the Bravery Bonus level, But I will say that I've had no shortage of people joining my Heroic Elite runs when I put them up.

[Phoenicis]

That was one example and yes a bad one as RR was virtually impossible to get a group for before Reaper existed!

But I had to Solo Heroic E-BB VoN 3 the other day and don't tell me that's not popular!

All you have to do to see why is look at the first time bonus 120% for first time running on reaper.

Make that hamster wheel just as fast as possible, and I don't blame folks.

Getting rid of them now, well, won't happen. But BB and first time bonuses should not exist, underlevel bonuses IMHO would have been the way to go from the start, push people into content that was harder and harder as their characters got stronger. Maybe 2% for each level you were under the base level of the quest, then tack another 5% if ran on hard, 10% on elite. Would also incentivize the devs to make higher and higher level quests as character power increased.

[TDarkchylde]

No clerics too be seen hardly

I don't know about others who run divines, but "Heals on me" is a way of life for me. Not so much in Reaper, outside of guild runs.

So I won't run a divine through a PUG Reaper run. Others may be feeling the same way, hence a perceived lack of healers.

[archest]

game is screwed with reaper. should call it dragon born not dungeons and dragons.
team play is not team play unless your reaper player vip with $1000 in perks so you can solo.
lol
vets.........hah.

just get a vip membership and you will kill reapers like they are ghosts.
sorry game is gonna die if this kind of restrictive attitude keeps up from players.

DnD should be team effort not your not welcome if you can't self solo the reapers level.

ah well all the same either cheating hacks in cod or bad attitudes in DnD.

Grow up get a job and leave this **** behind you its not worth the aggravation,
pay to be made a fool of.
lol

[Lonnbeimnech]

Enter the Kobold is one of those quests that is deceptively easy to get to the End Boss fight, but has taken out many a 6 man group even on Normal and the characters being 2 levels over.

But this quest can be made easier with these things...

1. Evasion/Improved Evasion <- Not required but it takes out a lot of the damage that is thrown out
2. Fire Resistance/Fire Absorption <- Even with evasion anything you have that mitigates Fire damage will up your survival - Fire Shield even scrolled is valuable in this end fight
3. Ooze Puppet Crowd Control on the Living Spells. If you have someone that can cast this spell and land it you will have taken out 1/2 the AoE Reflex damage as well as up your own teams DPS
4. Someone to open the door back to the shrine (Pets/Hirelings work well here)

I've done this at level on Reaper 3 in a full group, it is not for the faint of heart (or Ill prepared).

---
As for filling groups, sure many people want to run Reaper 1 for fast XP when they run it at the Base Quest Level, and I've seen Reaper 2 for those running at the Bravery Bonus level, But I will say that I've had no shortage of people joining my Heroic Elite runs when I put them up.


Nah. You have the warlock cast ice shield, then run in and agro everything and alternate between shining through and stanch while everyone else stands outside and ranges.

[Cantor]

All you have to do to see why is look at the first time bonus 120% for first time running on reaper.

Make that hamster wheel just as fast as possible, and I don't blame folks.

Getting rid of them now, well, won't happen. But BB and first time bonuses should not exist, underlevel bonuses IMHO would have been the way to go from the start, push people into content that was harder and harder as their characters got stronger. Maybe 2% for each level you were under the base level of the quest, then tack another 5% if ran on hard, 10% on elite. Would also incentivize the devs to make higher and higher level quests as character power increased.

Reaper is not the best xp if you are not ready for it, regardless of that 120. Yes vets who were steamrolling elite are going to steamroll low skull for the better rewards. If you were not steamrolling elite before reaper then ignore reaper til you are.

[FranOhmsford]

Reaper is not the best xp if you are not ready for it, regardless of that 120. Yes vets who were steamrolling elite are going to steamroll low skull for the better rewards. If you were not steamrolling elite before reaper then ignore reaper til you are.

Also - That's not 120% above what E-BB gives!

And one guy joined my E-BB VoN 3 > Told me to run Reaper > I said no > He left and started his own Reaper LFM.

He ended up soloing too.

Also he wasn't a Rogue, I was, I got full trap bonus, he didn't!

Yeah on his warlock he completed Rwhatever faster than I completed Elite and yes my Rogue got killed by the named Beholder {No DB on that alt annoyingly} so I lost 10% too but don't tell me I wouldn't have lost that 10% in Reaper!

[Lonnbeimnech]

Also - That's not 120% above what E-BB gives!

And one guy joined my E-BB VoN 3 > Told me to run Reaper > I said no > He left and started his own Reaper LFM.

He ended up soloing too.

Also he wasn't a Rogue, I was, I got full trap bonus, he didn't!

Yeah on his warlock he completed Rwhatever faster than I completed Elite and yes my Rogue got killed by the named Beholder {No DB on that alt annoyingly} so I lost 10% too but don't tell me I wouldn't have lost that 10% in Reaper!

Some people are doings TRs just to get the reaper xp. For example last life I went into vale, at level 16, holding 17, 1 xp from 18, and did all the quests anyway because it was about 6k reaper xp. So doing them faster on elite with trap bonuses would mean nothing to me.

I still capped no problem.

[Cantor]

Some people are doings TRs just to get the reaper xp. For example last life I went into vale, at level 16, holding 17, 1 xp from 18, and did all the quests anyway because it was about 6k reaper xp. So doing them faster on elite with trap bonuses would mean nothing to me.

I still capped no problem.

I did this one life too. I now decided not to, and maximize racial trs. With plenty of lives to do in heroics no point wasting racial progress.

[Lonnbeimnech]

I did this one life too. I now decided not to, and maximize racial trs. With plenty of lives to do in heroics no point wasting racial progress.

I thought of doing it that way, but I know that will mean banging out the 30 racial trs and needing about another 90 to finish the reaper trees.

[Enoach]

Some people are doings TRs just to get the reaper xp. For example last life I went into vale, at level 16, holding 17, 1 xp from 18, and did all the quests anyway because it was about 6k reaper xp. So doing them faster on elite with trap bonuses would mean nothing to me.

I still capped no problem.

Was running the 2nd Madness chain when I hard capped after the 2nd Quest, group was doing this on Reaper 2. I was on my Cleric and the group was having fun so I stuck around earning just the Reaper XP. That is one nice thing about the Reaper XP currently, it is a reason to stick with a group to finish a series when you do hard cap and leveling would take you past the group's level range.

[Sam-u-r-eye]

Was running the 2nd Madness chain when I hard capped after the 2nd Quest, group was doing this on Reaper 2. I was on my Cleric and the group was having fun so I stuck around earning just the Reaper XP. That is one nice thing about the Reaper XP currently, it is a reason to stick with a group to finish a series when you do hard cap and leveling would take you past the group's level range.

+1

[sk3l3t0r]

...
I have noticed a general decline in player pop on Sarlona,
The Chinese have disappeared
...
.

I have noticed this as well... I typically play early mornings (5 - 7 am EST) and the 2-3 Chinese guilds on Sarlona would normally be out in full force. Some of the players I normally run with haven't been online in a while or they are running alts through reaper Heroics or are playing in Private channels / Guild runs.

[Gratch]

There's a lot doing reaper heroic both because heroic quests are generally quicker reaper xp and to get +2 con, 2 racial AP from 3x warforged and 3x dwarf lives (or you know... a lot more than that heroic racial reinc wise).

Though personally I should be "tacking on" some +PRR Divine or +HP Primal epic lives that I never maxed out. Kind of a big "tack".

[FranOhmsford]

I have noticed this as well... I typically play early mornings (5 - 7 am EST) and the 2-3 Chinese guilds on Sarlona would normally be out in full force. Some of the players I normally run with haven't been online in a while or they are running alts through reaper Heroics or are playing in Private channels / Guild runs.

There's still plenty of Chinese Team and Dawn of War people around.

[Airmaiden]

I have been TR'ing on a regular basis for the last 7 weeks and do not have an issue filling teams. I do a 1st come 1st serve basis ( I invite anyone who hits LFM). I did notice that if I posted for example:
Level 8 quests on Reaper for fun and do! ....... I filled faster then if I posted:
Level 8 quests on R5-6 for fun and do!. Think people might be scared off.
I explain to people that we need to change our game plan and not to just run into mobs like people might do on Elite. Within a few mobs or maybe even a quest, we generally have a strategy going and have a lot of fun. I do not Zerg reaper, I collect all collectables, I make sure we raise and heal up between fights and stay together.
If you join my groups and are having problems with the difficulty, change your strategy, pick on 1 mob at a time, wait till someone else gets aggro before attacking etc. Please do not think you are semi Piking because you are looking for a strategy. I run reaper at level to max out reaper XP. That means that the quest is not only harder, but you might be running the quest 2-4 levels under where you normally run Elites.

On a side note......... stop reading these **** forums and get back to gaming! See you all soon!
Signed: Firegoddess ????

[Vish]

Looks like I'm not the only one soloing!

Tilo,
I lead pugs mostly,
So my comments reflect pug composition
I don't see many clerics
But when I do, they make all the difference in a smoother reaper run
Otherwise, I run a cleric hire,
Since that allows me to build best for what I'm doing, usually dps
I rarely solo,
Mostly da to test builds. That's my litmus.
But clerics are missing from the reaper scene.
Sure in static, or guild, you can always accommodate.
Hell, I'm the cleric in epic, on my paralyzer build.

But what I'm seeing is the same old same old
Brute forcing the game with dps on a warlock that scrolls heal and Rez
No teamwork,
Just a bunch of soloers raping the game
Reaper has not incentivized team play,
Except in maybe static or guild
The pug lfm scene is still vets who can solo the quest,
Dragging others along with them
This has truly disgusted me
Instead of Zerg,
They should be showing their leadership by running a cleric
And coordinating the group
But that would be scary,
And most just hide behind warlocks.

And as a note, I'm still playing soft builds as I work through lives towards completionist.
That's a challenge by itself.

[Chai]

Kind of odd if a ton of people all claim they are soloing....

None of you play on the same server(s)?

Another reason why is because people throw up LFMs and then never enter the quest until they have party members. Might as well put "trinity is still my name" in the LFM.

I have been able ot get people to join HE groups alot more often when I put the LFM up as "in progress" and then enter the quest.

[Enoach]

Tilo,
I lead pugs mostly,
So my comments reflect pug composition
I don't see many clerics
But when I do, they make all the difference in a smoother reaper run
Otherwise, I run a cleric hire,
Since that allows me to build best for what I'm doing, usually dps
I rarely solo,
Mostly da to test builds. That's my litmus.
But clerics are missing from the reaper scene.
Sure in static, or guild, you can always accommodate.
Hell, I'm the cleric in epic, on my paralyzer build.

But what I'm seeing is the same old same old
Brute forcing the game with dps on a warlock that scrolls heal and Rez
No teamwork,
Just a bunch of soloers raping the game
Reaper has not incentivized team play,
Except in maybe static or guild
The pug lfm scene is still vets who can solo the quest,
Dragging others along with them
This has truly disgusted me
Instead of Zerg,
They should be showing their leadership by running a cleric
And coordinating the group
But that would be scary,
And most just hide behind warlocks.

And as a note, I'm still playing soft builds as I work through lives towards completionist.
That's a challenge by itself.

I agree that the Reaper 1s & 2s pugs are generally filled with Warlock builds blasting their way through and doing racial reincarnations. But for those running 3+ it is usually a different scene.

I realize I'm not on the same server as you, but I did decide that I was going to work for more serious Reaper XP using my Cleric. Right now I'm having fun in groups running Reaper - Shocking many when I keep them up. Part of what I'm also trying to do is teach them to keep their Cleric/FvS/Druid/Bard/Artificer that is healing them up as well. I do this by not healing myself to full. Some pick up on this since it takes about 3 to 4 times the resources to heal myself then it does to heal them, and they like being healed :). Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a healbot. My CC can hang with some of the best at level, and I know how to use the weapon in my main hand.

But to come to a point, It is likely many who play characters like Cleric's are doing reaper at higher difficulties, I would say they may even be like me in that they are motivated to do it for the fun as I have found these groups do tend to work more as a team. But again this has been my experience on Khyber.