Since our damage is massively debuffed

[Talon_Moonshadow]

why tho.

No, really.

Different weapons were used for good reasons. You had a weapon that was good against specific mob types, that could break DR, that could apply specific effects, etc. I knew my holy+undead bane weapons were good against undead because that's what they said on the tin. I knew I needed silver weapons to combat devils because that's what you needed in PnP (and it said so in silver's effect description.) Same with Good+Silver for the stronger devils.

Ye Olde golf bag was fine because it was intuitive and made sense. This is "ordinary rat takes almost no damage from slashing AND piercing attacks, because reasons." There's no rhyme or reason, you don't swap weapons for any thematically sensible effect, you swap weapons simply because **** you.

And while being able to swap to different damage types more easily can be worked in as a positive for a build, the system still does harshly punish some builds... off the top of my head would be stick builds, which have zero options to break this DR until they get Rahl's Might at lvl18. They don't even have options for the THF style period if they don't have class levels that give them proficiencies in other weapons. For ranged builds, I think blunted ammunition is also ML16, and I don't think xbow builds have any way to get slashing damage. TWF monks have no means by which to do piercing damage (except from one seasonal event.) So it's not just about, oh no, a Kensai can't use their preferred weapon, there are builds that cannot even use their combat style because of this.

I'm personally fine with keeping the crazy damage resistances in; ultimately this is a mode where you'll often need to rely on your teammates, anyway. But it's really, really not a positive. It's not a "GOOD" thing. The game would not suffer at all if it was removed, and would greatly benefit if it was tweaked: they can start by barring zombies from getting slash absorb, and skeletons from getting blunt absorb.

I am sure things will be tweaked somewhat, eventually.

I have never liked it when they simply added a game mechanic universally without consideration for specific situations.

However, this is supposed to be a difficulty s hard that only the easiest reaper settings should be completable by us currently.

We should be slowing down.
Should be backing up and trying to figure out why a certain attack is not working, and if we can find an attack that does work.
We should be relying on team-mates and everyone working together to defeat monsters.

I am assuming that the DR buffs you mention are not on every monster?
I am assuming that they just come up on a few random monsters over the course of a dungeon.

This does not bother me at all.

There was a time, when I specifically tried to carry weapons of differing damage types.
There have been times in the past, when I used a weapon that the base damage wasn't effective against what I was fighting, but the extra damage type it did was doing some damage to what I was fighting.

I didn't totally like those situations, (really wished I could access my bank or mules inside a dungeon to find an effective weapon) but I was entirely on the Dev's side for creating that challenge for me(us).

I realize some builds (like any Warlock) never have DR issues.
I think the Devs need to add things that give them trouble; not remove things that give other builds trouble.

An interesting, challenging game has variety and every build has a time to shine and a time to ask another superhero to take care of the guy with the Kryptonite.

[Daine]

There is quite easy solution for that. When a player hits opponent with immunity or damage reduction, a text should appear that describe immunity/reduction type.

Text in same line where our dealt damage appear.

This, yes!

[the_one_dwarfforged]

personally i prefer to play kensei, which suffers from the whole "kinda locked into one weapon/type" thing, which is massively irritating especially in the face of enemies such as slashing resistant champions. however, in the past (especially since the kensei pass, but even when kensei was completely unplayable and i had to switch to other classes) its been easy enough to stun (or not even, or just trip) such an enemy and deal with everything else first or kill that enemy more quickly and ignore the debuff. partly because im of the opinion that the kensei mechanic is stupid as hell considering its the only dps path for fighters (if it was a high risk/reward dps path, **amongst others**...then it would make more sense...) and **** that **** ill keep my +10 damage and crit mods, and also because its not really worth switching weapons for only one enemy when you still kill everything so much faster using a falchion/axe/esos/khopesh.

given the already highly reduced damage of reaper mode, such random champ buffs become considerably more worth taking notice of. this definitely does sting as a kensei. so much of the passive power of the class (which is mostly about passive combat stat buffs to begin with) is tied essentially to a specific weapon. as a thf kensei you are even worse off, because you can do slashing weapons, and blunt weapons...but there arent really piercing options. yes, you could find some named staff that is pretending its a spear and does piercing damage, but would it be good enough of a weapon to really be valuable in lvl 30+ 10 skull reaper mode quests on a character that is not specced for it outside of str to dmg and thf feats? is that really an acceptable alternative? an additional flaw with this option is that it then becomes not about character building but acquiring a specific item, which to me is a major design flaw. as for twf, personally i have been thinking lately that i would switch to this, and my quick and dirty alternative was probably to just carry a couple balizardes (expanded crit range with keen, and piercing dmg, convenient), though i still really loathe that thought.

on principle i dont think the damage type resist buffs champions get are a bad thing in reaper, and id rather keep them in. however i dont want to be stuck dealing with unfortunate design choices that end up screwing me just because. my preferred option would be to fix, and yes i do really mean fix, the idiocy that is kensei and weapon focus feats. one option would be to just consolidate them into generic weapon focus, weapon specialization etc, without having a type, with each tier being selectable multiple times (with a cap if preferred). or make a tier 5 ability that applies your weapon focus feat and enhancement bonuses to all weapon types, or stick this in the 18 or 20 core. or instead of applying to all weapons, just one additional type so at least kensei would never truly get screwed by one type of dr. or in the same place in the tree make a toggle that turns kensei weapon damage into force damage or untyped damage or something. anything to fix this really cumbersome annoying mechanic.

as for comparison to casters/sorcs...you know what you are getting yourself into when you play a sorc and run into the traditional spell resistances. when you need to respec for a certain quest or for new endgame content, dragons blood and some plat and its all better. for a fighter, would would have to change a number of feats as well, meaning at least an etr.

all that being said, i really have an issue with the weapon focus mechanic more than kenseis being proportionately more ****ed by the damage resists in reaper. in fact, having to switch weapon types and sucking and having no choice but to suck it up, or just personally ignore that champ...tickles my inner masochist.

[nokowi]

Agreed. I was never a fan of the whole keeping 20 weapons on your hotbar thing we used to have in DDO, and a return of that isn't an improvement in my book.

I enjoyed the era where getting more than one weapon was important. It gave me more to do, and it helped separate those who understand the game from those who don't. The current era where you don't need to understand anything is not an improvement. I would prefer mob DR to be consistent with the mob type rather than random.

In D&D, there are feats that let your unarmed combat switch between slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing. I would suggest this as an option for unarmed combat (1 feat per additional damage type).

The rest of us will have to learn which mobs we are the most effective against, and use teamwork.

If DR becomes large enough, players might need to find new builds outside of the x10 crit damage with only one weapon type. I don't see how this is a bad thing, as it provides more things for players to do.

The only drawback I see is that using non DR weapons causes your weapons to break quickly. Exiting a dungeon with many broken weapons is not particularly fun.

Maybe increased weapon durability would be a good reaper reward that doesn't cause power creep?

[Jetrule]

It looks like a fairly reasonable effort to encourage diverse grouping. It would encourage it even more if some things were practically immune to all types of physical damage say a 600 a.c. and 600 prr and others to all types of magical damage, say 500 mrr 500 spell resistance healed by force and alignment damage and 100,000 points of damage reduction versus untyped damage. And some others had missile weapon invulnerability wonder woman bracers of deflecting every shot some back at the shooter ect.. It promotes targeting the right enemy by the right player. Got to find some way of defeating a all kiter cheese group style.

[levy1964]

Yeah we don't need Reaper mode to be too hard....

ofc mate...dose any1 have suggestion what to do to reaper be more easy ?

start from skull 10 mayby, becouse this is hardness difficult...

my suggestion class C build can do solo reaper 1-3 B build 1-6 i A build 1-9 lol....

buahahaha some1 have 20 Weapons to swapping...winner!

why u not use from as long as i remember....minII gs+ cold iron type weapon for ADQ
we never be forced to have 20type of weapon in DDO, so i don't think so this is it's happend now
and some of u debating about DR becouse is unfun swapping 20 type of weapon! ?

[slarden]

For me the most important thing for reaper is that it is exactly as Turbine makes it without watering down difficulty for people that feel a certain class is at a disadvantage. The beauty of reaper is that Turbine doesn't need to worry about balance since gear is not tied to it. It must be frustrating for Turbine when people ask for more challenge and then complain the challenge is too hard. I like Cordovan's description - the DM is trying to kill you.

I already know some of my builds will be sub-optimal for reaper - who cares - it's for an extreme challenge. I will either respec or not run those on reaper.

I do like the suggestion of a visual of immunities which I view more as a quality of life vs. a request to make reaper easier. I am guessing it won't happen. I have never been a big of using the examine feature while fighting, but maybe I'll get used it to now that it's needed more.

[Ellihor]

If they do that then should also remove the elemental resists, deathblock and fom buffs. That will not happen. Deal with it, that's by desing, to require teamwork.

See 0 damage? Just let your party mates get that one. Or swap to suboptimal weapon, 70% dps is still dps. You are still better off than casters who can't do their most important things like energy burst, SLAs, or DC spell when faced with the respective ward.

And it's a must to add light, force and aligned absorption. I don't know why currently the champions in live don't have it. They should add that for non-reaper too.

The champion wards should have a stylized symbol over their heads instead of the champions crown. Like a permanent deathward icon above their heads for the champs with deathblock, and a blue shield for one kind of damage absorption, another color for another.. etc.

[Eth]

The champion wards should have a stylized symbol over their heads instead of the champions crown. Like a permanent deathward icon above their heads for the champs with deathblock, and a blue shield for one kind of damage absorption, another color for another.. etc.

That would look weird. Mobs have more than just one of these buffs (having 5 or more different buffs at the same time seems pretty common on higher skulls).

[Ellihor]

That would look weird. Mobs have more than just one of these buffs (having 5 or more different buffs at the same time seems pretty common on higher skulls).

Yes they do, but should do that for deathblock at least, because this one makes you waste sp. The absorption is not that big of a deal, you sure waste the attack but it's less of a problem.

Edit: for comparison, it would be like if you were doing say, slashing or eletric damage on the champion, it has the absorption buff to that, but you do full damage as if it hadn't, but on the last hit it gets back the HP that should be absorpted, and from there on you get the reduced damage on the log. Terrible, it's not challenge, it just sucks.