10 Skull Mask of Deception Completion: Review of Reaper, Dec14th-16th, Captain's Crew

[Sam-u-r-eye]

...some editing may occur to this post over the next few days...


What we ran:
1. 5 skull then 7 skull then 10 skull Mask of Deception. Completed
2. 8 skull Haunted Halls. Failed
3. 5 skull Slave Lords Part 1. Completed
4. 6 skull TOEE part 1. Completed

I'll try to get the other videos up.
The HH run wiped because of alert in the zombie area.
We did not have the DPS to deal with all the undead and were shortman.
Slave lords and TOEE were 6man groups. It was hard enough that we could have maybe done 7-8 skull but I think that would have been the tank's limit.

As sev mentioned elsewhere there was a bug in the Mask quest making it easier: reapers weren't spawning as frequently.

Caster Perspective
The mana orbs on the ground were a little over-powered. I played a DC caster all night and it made it a bit easy.
Hurl through Hell, and Soul-eater Capstone are both banishment instakills.
Along with Prismatic spray they go through death ward. This may need to be nerfed if the Devs want that.
I did not lead kill count in TOEE or Slave Lords, but I was most focused on crowd control, and insta-killing reapers.

Tank Perspective
(UserChat3): [devchat] Seagryn: 'id like a feat/destiny/enhancement that makes intim work on mindless things'
That was after Haunted Halls. The zombies are mindless. There are many mindless things in the game. A tank can do nothing to help you in that situation. A little grease would be lovely.

TEH TROLL'S PERSPECTIVE
HJEAL MEH!

Bugs
Party: [To Party] (Combat): You hit Dragonsoul Warrior for 1,207 points of bludgeon damage.
This was a Colors of the Queen proc, from past life, that seemed to go through the nerf.

cakes go through raise timer

As per the guild name... ...pale master healing is still bugged

[FranOhmsford]

1) Was that your music or in-game?

2) What happened with that glitch at the last trap? You were inside pulling the mobs thru the trap then suddenly you were outside.

3) You seemed to be CCing everything handily - What were your DCs for Conjuration and Enchantment?

[Sam-u-r-eye]

1) Was that your music or in-game?

2) What happened with that glitch at the last trap? You were inside pulling the mobs thru the trap then suddenly you were outside.

3) You seemed to be CCing everything handily - What were your DCs for Conjuration and Enchantment?

1) Nah, I just didn't want to subject everyone to the teamspeak banter.
2) There are 3 videos that are side by side in the recording. I didn't do a good job with the 2nd transition.
3) 92 Necro / 83 Enchant / 86 Conjuration. I might be off a little bit but I think that's right.

Tentacles has no save, so that's very helpful. Another thing that could be nerfed about warlocks.

[Vish]

Sam,
Thanks for some video
Too bad you didn't pick one with reapers in it

My observations
Looks like a completely different style of play
Not a Zerg fest where everyone adds in...
Traditional roles,
But I saw most of them standing around
The warlock was doing all the holds
The tank was holding and tanking
The tempest was doing all the dps
The cleric was hand holding
Couldn't tell what the wizard was doing

But could that all be added dps?
I mean you held everything before dpsing it
I would think it should be more dynamic teamwork for killing
So I get it, again traditional roles
And I appreciate that play
Looks hella slow
But maybe it will introduce tactics again

My only caveat was that the cleric wasn't a radiant
And you played in such a safe manner
I guess because everything is one shot

My question is about death timers
Seems you have a minute or more timer on death
And that really underscored one mob at a time engagement
If that's the case that there is a substantial timer
It needs to be bypass able by divines
Otherwise again, clerics are just placeholders
They need to bring something to reaper that will cement them a place
Ive mentioned this before,
So what do you think?

Thanks again
I look forward to seeing what live brings

[FranOhmsford]

My only caveat was that the cleric wasn't a radiant
And you played in such a safe manner
I guess because everything is one shot

Thinking about it Radiant would probably be a bad choice for Reaper as Radiant pretty much requires the Cleric to get into Melee where he's going to die Aura or no Aura!

My question is about death timers
Seems you have a minute or more timer on death

I saw a couple of strangely fast Resses - Maybe it's just me not noticing how much time had gone by but not sure the Death timer is fully working yet looking at that video.

[Vish]

Thinking about it Radiant would probably be a bad choice for Reaper as Radiant pretty much requires the Cleric to get into Melee where he's going to die Aura or no Aura!

This is exactly my point
If radiants are not viable as anti reaper
Then I have no more place in this game

But the question of engagement is such that one shot if hit
But that was 10 skull

At 5 is there a middling?
Where radiant is useful to counteract damage

If this is not dialed in
They are missing the mark

[Sam-u-r-eye]

I saw a couple of strangely fast Resses - Maybe it's just me not noticing how much time had gone by but not sure the Death timer is fully working yet looking at that video.

Cakes work in reaper and bypass the death timer. Needs to be fixed. He used 2 right at the start to test it.

[Knight_slayer]

Seems you have a minute or more timer on death
And that really underscored one mob at a time engagement
If that's the case that there is a substantial timer
It needs to be bypass able by divines
Otherwise again, clerics are just placeholders
They need to bring something to reaper that will cement them a place

I like this idea. Could be that high level raise spells like true resurrection can bypass the death timer. +1 your idea.

[nokowi]

As always, thanks for the posts.

.
The HH run wiped because of alert in the zombie area.
We did not have the DPS to deal with all the undead and were shortman.

I can usually sneak through this area and find/grab the crest without any combat (EE, solo or group).

Not sure if this is the case on reaper.

[Severlin]

Just a note:

Because all of the enemies start as friendlies and change to hostiles, it interferes with Reaper generation. So this adventure in particular has almost no Reapers generating. We might have to make it unavailable on Reaper mode because of the specifics of its design.

Also, in response to stealth completions on Reaper, players don't get Reaper XP unless they defeat at least 10 enemies.

Sev~

[Wizza]

Also, in response to stealth completions on Reaper, players don't get Reaper XP unless they defeat at least 10 enemies.

Sev~

I don't understand why this. This game needs to promote different playstyles, not just the same old beatdown. At best, I would increase mobs' Listen and Spot, to make stealthing much, much harder.

[Gremmlynn]

I don't understand why this. This game needs to promote different playstyles, not just the same old beatdown. At best, I would increase mobs' Listen and Spot, to make stealthing much, much harder.

Except that wouldn't make it any harder, just limit the number of characters that can successfully play reaper as if it were any other difficulty to those with sneak values that exceed those amounts.

[Sam-u-r-eye]

Just a note:

Because all of the enemies start as friendlies and change to hostiles, it interferes with Reaper generation. So this adventure in particular has almost no Reapers generating. We might have to make it unavailable on Reaper mode because of the specifics of its design.

Also, in response to stealth completions on Reaper, players don't get Reaper XP unless they defeat at least 10 enemies.

Sev~

good stuff

what were your thoughts on hurl through hell and the other banishment spells?

[Severlin]

good stuff

what were your thoughts on hurl through hell and the other banishment spells?

We don't want to start making knee-jerk changes because some power or another is doing well in Reaper. We plan to see how stuff is playing out. Single target effects that destroy or CC single targets are great for Reaper and we don't want to remove them from the equation now that they've found a niche unless they are so good that they are trivializing the game play.

Sev~

[Sam-u-r-eye]

Well they say patience is the companion of wisdom.

[Mr_Helmet]

Also, in response to stealth completions on Reaper, players don't get Reaper XP unless they defeat at least 10 enemies.

Sev~

What the heck is this "reaper XP" people keep talking about?

[Sam-u-r-eye]

What the heck is this "reaper XP" people keep talking about?

There was a "120% bonus" or something to base XP.

[cru121]

here's what I found in my screen shots about reaper XP


ooh here's another one, and this one is somewhat buggy:
XP log says Status: Underway
Objectives list says Status: Completed
There might be some work to do here...

[Rys]

Reaper XP

Don't do it T.T

[nokowi]

Don't do it T.T

EE actually worked great when the rewards were power based (Epic Gianthold) and it had difficulty to keep some players out- special item - yes please! Market based economy! Yes please!

Once EE switched to XP (and demand for nothing else), the game quickly devolved, and players lost interest.

History repeats itself? Let's hope not.