TR couple returning from a 3 year vacation... Advice please

[DefecTalisman]

We stopped playing towards the beginning of 2016 due to reasons....

Anyway, nostalgia took over and both of us got the itch to play again so we grabbed 3 months VIP to see how things are. Blow me down, was it overwhelming logging in. Absolutely no clue what our main characters quirks were and why they were built the way we did. So over the weekend we ground out the last xp to lv30 needed so we can epic TR then heroic TR. I think my main is on life 24 and the way we TR'ed was always building on self sustainable characters but at the same time my wife and my builds would compliment each other in order to make fast work of the TR xp grind. We both have around 2k+ bravery bonus for elite (this was before the bravery pause thing) and had the xp grind down to a T(though its all forgotten now).
NB: The following questions are about heroic only, we intend to do a few heroic TR's to get back into the swing of things before hitting the epics again.

I have no idea what the story with reaper difficulty is but can see that it can be done on heroic lvls.
** Is it possible to to a heroic TR on reaper difficulty and does it have a bravery bonus streak?

** If we do majority reaper quests, would it be a good idea to have 1 go dedicated healer and the other main DPS or would it be better to go with builds that are self sustainable and just heal each other through the dungeons instead of the selfish route?

** I would assume it would still be a great idea to have a sufficient trapper, is it a must with a reaper TR or could we get away with high saves?

Thank you in advance for reading and any advice you can offer.

[SardaofChaos]

Reaper is just elite as far as bravery bonus is concerned. Don't know as it matters too much one way or the other about healing source for a group that plays together all the time and therefore knows eachother's tendencies. For traps, I see people talking about soloing R1 for heroic lives all the time so it must not be that important to have a trapper as long as you know how to avoid the traps altogether.

[DefecTalisman]

Reaper is just elite as far as bravery bonus is concerned. Don't know as it matters too much one way or the other about healing source for a group that plays together all the time and therefore knows eachother's tendencies. For traps, I see people talking about soloing R1 for heroic lives all the time so it must not be that important to have a trapper as long as you know how to avoid the traps altogether.

Good to know about the bravery bonus, so if we can't cut it on reaper we just run elite and nothing is effected.

[C-Dog]

...at the same time my wife and my builds would compliment each other in order to make fast work of the TR xp grind... we intend to do a few heroic TR's to get back into the swing of things before hitting the epics again.
Any level of Reaper (range 1-10) gives a bonus to XP, so many use it for faster leveling (aka the "TR train").

o https://ddowiki.com/page/Reaper_difficulty#Rewards

And the Reaper XP adds up and makes it quicker. Also, for casters, there are "lost souls" that recharge a bit of spell power - many casters find R1 easier than Elite b/c of this.


... had the xp grind down to a T(though its all forgotten now).

Threads to refresh that memory...

o TR LEVELING https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/483566-Most-efficient-TR-questing?p=5964369&viewfull=1#post5964369
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/481990-An-updated-Solo-TR-leveling-guide?p=5912852&viewfull=1#post5912852
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/496240-Query-for-Speed-Levelling
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/492659-1-20-Quest-guide-for-efficient-TR-ing-(No-Sov-pots-edition)?p=6051211&viewfull=1#post6051211
& links https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/500318-First-Life-TRing?p=6147123&viewfull=1#post6147123

o Leveling https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/481557-Leveling-suggestions-for-18

Some claim to have it down to several days, altho' they are an exception. A week or three is no great news.


NB: The following questions are about heroic only...

** If we do majority reaper quests, would it be a good idea to have 1 go dedicated healer and the other main DPS or would it be better to go with builds that are self sustainable and just heal each other through the dungeons instead of the selfish route?

** I would assume it would still be a great idea to have a sufficient trapper, is it a must with a reaper TR or could we get away with high saves?
Trapping gets many quests a +30% xp bonus - so it will speed up leveling and TR'ing. And there are many "trapper" builds that do not have more than 1 level of Rogue (or Arti), so the flexibility there is quite wide.

As for the Healer - you can drag a hire along if you have to, so long as you manage them wisely. Self-healing ~kinda~ works in R1 - which is where you'll start - it's the higher skull levels that make it impractical.

The most important thing for players/characters new to Reaper is to go Ranged at first - either caster or Ranged weapons (preferably a Repeater). In melee, they just hit too hard, at least until you have a bunch of RXP under your belt. (Past Lives help, but more the Iconic/Epic PL benefits, rather than just the Heroic Class PL's.) If you kill them fast, they can't hurt you.

o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/488109-12-Artificer-6-Fighter-2-Monk-Reaper-Build?p=5995673&viewfull=1#post5995673

Also be aware there are now Racial Past Lives (an alternate to Heroic TR when reincarnating @ 20), which (after 3 of the same race) give +1 free Racial Action Point (to use on whatever your current racial enhancement tree is). Handy for builds that are tight on AP (and use their Racial tree).

o https://ddowiki.com/page/Reincarnation

[DefecTalisman]

Any level of Reaper (range 1-10) gives a bonus to XP, so many use it for faster leveling (aka the "TR train").

o https://ddowiki.com/page/Reaper_difficulty#Rewards

And the Reaper XP adds up and makes it quicker. Also, for casters, there are "lost souls" that recharge a bit of spell power - many casters find R1 easier than Elite b/c of this.

I can't see any mention, are there rest shrines in reaper? Can the pocket shrines be used?



Threads to refresh that memory...

o TR LEVELING https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/483566-Most-efficient-TR-questing?p=5964369&viewfull=1#post5964369
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/481990-An-updated-Solo-TR-leveling-guide?p=5912852&viewfull=1#post5912852
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/496240-Query-for-Speed-Levelling
& https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/492659-1-20-Quest-guide-for-efficient-TR-ing-(No-Sov-pots-edition)?p=6051211&viewfull=1#post6051211
& links https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/500318-First-Life-TRing?p=6147123&viewfull=1#post6147123

o Leveling https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/481557-Leveling-suggestions-for-18

Some claim to have it down to several days, altho' they are an exception. A week or three is no great news.


We had it down to a week or 2 on average depending on how busy our working week was and how much waiting around we had to do for friends.



Trapping gets many quests a +30% xp bonus - so it will speed up leveling and TR'ing. And there are many "trapper" builds that do not have more than 1 level of Rogue (or Arti), so the flexibility there is quite wide.


So no real change here then.



As for the Healer - you can drag a hire along if you have to, so long as you manage them wisely. Self-healing ~kinda~ works in R1 - which is where you'll start - it's the higher skull levels that make it impractical.

The most important thing for players/characters new to Reaper is to go Ranged at first - either caster or Ranged weapons (preferably a Repeater). In melee, they just hit too hard, at least until you have a bunch of RXP under your belt. (Past Lives help, but more the Iconic/Epic PL benefits, rather than just the Heroic Class PL's.) If you kill them fast, they can't hurt you.

o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/488109-12-Artificer-6-Fighter-2-Monk-Reaper-Build?p=5995673&viewfull=1#post5995673


So kite everything around? How does the old way of running and dropping AOE's like BB work?



Also be aware there are now Racial Past Lives (an alternate to Heroic TR when reincarnating @ 20), which (after 3 of the same race) give +1 free Racial Action Point (to use on whatever your current racial enhancement tree is). Handy for builds that are tight on AP (and use their Racial tree).

o https://ddowiki.com/page/Reincarnation

Interesting, I saw them but just assumed they came along with a Heroic TR, so I am wrong and these are another 33 lives to done ontop of triple completionist?

[Sharktopus]

So kite everything around? How does the old way of running and dropping AOE's like BB work?


I'm running my racial TRs on reaper 1-3. toon is 1art/1ftr/cleric, so trapping cleric with a crossbow. BB, cometfall, tch tch tch, heal, repeat. falconry trees gives wisdom for hit and damage and has some crowd control clickies to go with it. There is a fair amount of kiting, yes.

Racial lives are separate hearts of wood yes, but since you're just TRing a race, you can build any crazy class split you want. you can play a bard 5 times in a row if you feel like it. Racial lives are also a significant step up in power from most heroic past lives.

[C-Dog]

I can't see any mention, are there rest shrines in reaper? Can the pocket shrines be used?
Quests are the same, shrining is the same, it's only self-healing that's nerfed.


So kite everything around? How does the old way of running and dropping AOE's like BB work?
Casters count as a stand-off attack, so solve any meleeing concerns, and AoE spells work as normal. Problem is that some Reapers are casters too, just stand there and do their thing, and/or teleport next to you when you run, so you can't count on them "running" through the effect. Blasters/insta-kills are far more approp.


Interesting, I saw them but just assumed they came along with a Heroic TR, so I am wrong and these are another 33 lives to done ontop of triple completionist?
Correct, another 33. If/when you complete all 33 (or 36, by the time you're done???), you get "Racial Completionist", which is identical to the original Completionist except 1) it's free, doesn't require a Feat slot, and 2) it stacks w/ the Heroic version (if you have that too).

[DefecTalisman]

Quests are the same, shrining is the same, it's only self-healing that's nerfed.


Casters count as a stand-off attack, so solve any meleeing concerns, and AoE spells work as normal. Problem is that some Reapers are casters too, just stand there and do their thing, and/or teleport next to you when you run, so you can't count on them "running" through the effect. Blasters/insta-kills are far more approp.


Correct, another 33. If/when you complete all 33 (or 36, by the time you're done???), you get "Racial Completionist", which is identical to the original Completionist except 1) it's free, doesn't require a Feat slot, and 2) it stacks w/ the Heroic version (if you have that too).

Well thats good news, at least the flow of the quests isn't changed much then other than more time spent killing healing.

Ok so it looks like triple heroic completionist is on hold, better to get the 33 racial PL's in. Time to get some good complimentary builds going.

[DefecTalisman]

I'm running my racial TRs on reaper 1-3. toon is 1art/1ftr/cleric, so trapping cleric with a crossbow. BB, cometfall, tch tch tch, heal, repeat. falconry trees gives wisdom for hit and damage and has some crowd control clickies to go with it. There is a fair amount of kiting, yes.

Racial lives are separate hearts of wood yes, but since you're just TRing a race, you can build any crazy class split you want. you can play a bard 5 times in a row if you feel like it. Racial lives are also a significant step up in power from most heroic past lives.

Sounds fun but I never really enjoyed repeaters, the noise alone drove me insane. Might go something like clonk and PM trapper. So much to figure out again....

[donweel]

I went aasimar zen archer with falconery, was just experimental but happy so far at 16 first life. Never took much damage from traps using a good monk build.

https://orderofsyncletica.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/ddo-zen-archer-the-completed-build/



Sounds fun but I never really enjoyed repeaters, the noise alone drove me insane. Might go something like clonk and PM trapper. So much to figure out again....