DDOCast 451 - DDO Debates: Reaper Mode

[pjstechie]

This week we have a very lively debate all about reaper mode and if we should be able to craft the highest level random loot with Strimtom, Asheras & Voodu!


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DDO Debates: Reaper Mode - 1:43
-What quest are you most interested to play on reaper mode? - 3:28
-What should rewards for reaper mode look like? - 14:23
-Should there be a death timer on reaper and how long should it be? - 23:03
-What is the most important thing to get right with reaper mode? - 31:53
-Should we be able to craft the highest level random loot with cannith crafting? - 39:20
-What is the best dragon in DDO? - 52:12
Game News - 1:00:26
Community News - 1:10:42
Lightning Post - 1:20:44
Closing - 1:28:00


Update 33.1 Release Notes
DDO Chronicle 212
Voodu’s Week in Videos
Evennote’s Guide to Cosmetic Pets
Micki’s Delerium: Farming Hayweid Foundry
Citi Plays DDO: The Night Revels 2016
Order of Syncletica: Mystical Return

[FuzzyDuck81]

Of the 3, i agree with rainbow in the dark - the "uh-oh" moments of a reaper coming out of the darkness at you while you're also worrying about teleporting devils, or a crowd of rust monsters that are going to eat your weapons, or earth elementals that might leave you immobilised seems pretty crazy to me.

Agree with the reaper rewards idea that there should be nothing that adds power in non-reaper content, though cosmetic rewards for bragging rights are totally fine. Getting an LR heart as a reward could be nice, especially if it's bound to character, which would essentially be an "allow me to respec specifically for this very hard content" thing.

Most important thing to get right...not having bits of it leak across into non-reaper content.

Good call on Sinvala - love the setup. I remember when the quest came out, on elite she could even give a capped party a run for it's money, she can still very effectively stomp people at-level & is likely for a newer f2p player to be the first major dragon challenge they face. Truthful one I enjoy for his personality and voice acting.

Great point about the cannith crafted items being BtoA - you aren't making a lowbie item for just one character to be able to use, that loot can be passed around between multiple alts, and as a new player it's quite likely you'll be switching around & trying different characters, so a few universal bits & pieces are never a bad thing to have. I've invested in a few lowbie bits for TRing too. The trick is to use the planner and understand where the breakpoints of effect levels are - for example, I made some handwraps with good & bludgeon damage, they have exactly the same effect whether you use a level 4 or a level 8 shard, so make them at level 4 to save a few essences & get the most use out of them

[FranOhmsford]

Getting an LR heart as a reward could be nice, especially if it's bound to character, which would essentially be an "allow me to respec specifically for this very hard content" thing.

NO NO NO NO NO!

There are plenty of people who will never step foot in Reaper who need access to Lesser Hearts!

Lesser Hearts should not be a Reaper Only Item {DDOStore does not count!}.

Heck if you can complete Reaper on a character that character doesn't need a Lesser Heart!


Oh and don't even think of making +1 Lesser Hearts drop in Reaper because that would make Reaper a Must Play for anyone who wants to play Iconics!



We need +1 Lesser Hearts to drop in-game in reasonable numbers BUT NOT IN REAPER!

[FuzzyDuck81]

NO NO NO NO NO!

There are plenty of people who will never step foot in Reaper who need access to Lesser Hearts!

Lesser Hearts should not be a Reaper Only Item {DDOStore does not count!}.

Heck if you can complete Reaper on a character that character doesn't need a Lesser Heart!

Oh and don't even think of making +1 Lesser Hearts drop in Reaper because that would make Reaper a Must Play for anyone who wants to play Iconics!

We need +1 Lesser Hearts to drop in-game in reasonable numbers BUT NOT IN REAPER!

Lesser hearts (plain and + versions) already drop in-game as loot and as a possible dice reward, though they're admittedly ridiculously rare I agree though, being able to earn them more easily in-game in the same way that TR, ER & ITR hearts already can is definitely needed - if they were added to reaper mode rewards in addition to being available in those other ways, that'd be great, and really allow people to be more experimental with builds. Definitely need to be careful about making the + hearts easier though as yeah, I can see people really taking advantage of the addition for iconics.

And as for being able to complete reaper & being strong enough not to need the respec, there are going to be 10 levels of reaper difficulty - your existing build might be good enough for the lower ones, but the higher ones could need some extra attention.

[FranOhmsford]

Lesser hearts (plain and + versions) already drop in-game as loot and as a possible dice reward, though they're admittedly ridiculously rare I agree though, being able to earn them more easily in-game in the same way that TR, ER & ITR hearts already can is definitely needed - if they were added to reaper mode rewards in addition to being available in those other ways, that'd be great, and really allow people to be more experimental with builds. Definitely need to be careful about making the + hearts easier though as yeah, I can see people really taking advantage of the addition for iconics.

And as for being able to complete reaper & being strong enough not to need the respec, there are going to be 10 levels of reaper difficulty - your existing build might be good enough for the lower ones, but the higher ones could need some extra attention.

Reaper should NOT become the Default!

Even 1 Skull should be significantly harder than current Elite - 10 Skull should be nigh on impossible for anything other than the perfect 6 man group or 12 man Raid of top 1% players!
And even then doing that 10 Skull run should be something you get together to do once a month or so NOT Every day!
Running Reaper at all should be done for the Challenge of it rather than just making Reaper 2 or Reaper 3 or even Reaper 5 the new E-BB!


Saying that the fact Lesser Hearts drop in Gold Rolls on a 1 in a million roll and in-game on another 1 in a million roll = they drop in-game is disingenuous because basically for all intents and purposes they don't!
If you do get one it's a fluke!
Oh and Gold Rolls cost AS {which = Real Money somewhere down the line!} - Your chances of getting one on the weekly free roll are basically nil! Again if you do get one on the weekly free roll - Congratz, You might want to go and check your Lottery ticket!



I'm of the opinion that +1 Hearts should be made available in-game with a guaranteed way to get them {and they should be BtA too!} but making it so that only the top players are able to play Morninglord Wizards without paying for a Heart or accepting 1 level of Cleric is just wrong!
+1 Hearts need to be available to ALL not just a privileged few and the same goes for +0 Hearts! {Reaper can have +3, +5, +10 and +20 Hearts if you like though}.

[Mr_Helmet]

Gotta ask, did anyone on that podcast actually run/complete any 10 skull content when it was last on Lamania?

[Qhualor]

The current ideas presented by the devs on Reaper is what is going to make me quit DDO. I'm giving it until probably June next year to decide what I will do if they decide to move forward with it.

[Renvar]

Gotta ask, did anyone on that podcast actually run/complete any 10 skull content when it was last on Lamania?

I did not run/complete any 10 skull content. That said, I think the focus of the podcast was more: "what do you want to see from reaper" vs. "review the reaper features as presented on Lama". You will note that from the nature of the questions.

Reaper mode is being handled in a unique way in that it went from something that was mentioned in passing to something that was on lama. With no intervening mention in producers letter or dev posts. It is rare that the devs give us a look at something on lama this far in advance. As a result, there was no "pre-lama" discussion of what we would like it to be. Usually, we hear about something this big in advance and get to discuss what we would like to see. Then, it comes to Lama. Lama content is the coming update only. And that update is 2-4 weeks away, at most. At which point the feature set is basically done and what we will see on live and a review/reactions discussion can be had.

This was almost an alpha level preview. Which is great (and I would highly encourage such early looks in the future) but it does create some challenges. For one, several things, such as the ranged damage, were clearly bugged in it. Some of the incomplete or bugged features make hard to really get an accurate gauge for the overall difficulty and flow. That is the problem with very early play testing, especially for a player base that has not been exposed to this part of the cycle. Especially given how much of it may change prior to the next time we see it or when it goes live. As such, the discussion isn't so much about the specifics of the current iteration, as on what we would like it to be, when fully completed.

[Mr_Helmet]

The current ideas presented by the devs on Reaper is what is going to make me quit DDO. I'm giving it until probably June next year to decide what I will do if they decide to move forward with it.

While I get what you're saying, there was both good and bad in the early Reaper preview we saw a few weeks ago.

Turn up the good, turn down the bad, and they might be on to something.

[pjstechie]

NO NO NO NO NO!

There are plenty of people who will never step foot in Reaper who need access to Lesser Hearts!

Lesser Hearts should not be a Reaper Only Item {DDOStore does not count!}.

Heck if you can complete Reaper on a character that character doesn't need a Lesser Heart!


Oh and don't even think of making +1 Lesser Hearts drop in Reaper because that would make Reaper a Must Play for anyone who wants to play Iconics!



We need +1 Lesser Hearts to drop in-game in reasonable numbers BUT NOT IN REAPER!

i agree this being the only place wouldnt be ideal, but it would be nice to have lesser hearts somewhere

[pjstechie]

Gotta ask, did anyone on that podcast actually run/complete any 10 skull content when it was last on Lamania?

strimtom has, i have not, i know voodu has run reaper but not sure how hard.