Reaper is a complete fail

[Enoach]

This is the issue in a nutshell.

It's great that SSG can make some money off of Reaper in terms of the consumables needed to *guarantee* completions at this point. However that fact makes Reaper unchallenging for the people that the difficulty level was supposed to challenge. In the long run Reaper will look like something that was designed to be a bait-and-switch instead of the content the community was asking for. That can't be good.

I just want to note that store bought consumables are not needed to *guarantee* a completion. When very difficult raids for their time came out like Lord of Blades and Master Artificer and Fall of Truth many groups used the *brute force* method by supplying the group with consumables not bout in the DDO store but looted through their time playing and also at vendors such as scrolls and potions.

For may people being the "first" to do something is the most important thing for them as a gamer. The cost of being first is inconsequential.

If people find R10 to be too costly they will adjust. But not all people are diving in head first, some are starting at R1 and learning how the system works and building up to the next. Each will do this at their own pace.

[JOTMON]

I think the best answer is to cap deaths in an instance before it closes. Whatever the number is the group cannot exceed it or the run is over. That would be challenging.

Some players are more susceptible to death than others.. hard to punish the whole party.
Especially with poor game mechanics.. like Fear reaper that you cant get to and basically have to kill yourselves multiple times to find let alone kill the reaper.
besides.. I am sure this promotes higher rez cake sales... which makes it a win for the DDO store.

The DDO store has already won from me.. a dozen rez cakes, stack of mana pots and two repair efreets for a rough Tower of Frost run on Reaper 10..

[Gleep_Wurp]

i've been solo'ing it easily.

That is one of the reasons it is a fail.

why the new account to post? . i think you just might be a troll.

[Tizian]

I assume I count as a relative newbie in DDO - I only did my first eTR+hTR a week or two ago (rogue mechanic into monk, now level 11), though I've dabbled with the game over the years (I _think_ I tried this before it went f2p, but certainly not much)

It seems it's hard to get into DDO nowadays, especially if you want to contribute instead of just leech success while others do the work. The playerbase seems to be primarily old veterans and it's hard to break into that group, at least for me, for both social and game competence reasons. A lot of the content, from my point of view, was too hard for me but too easy for long term players. The open groups I saw seemed to either require something I couldn't provide (ie. my character wasn't good enough) or were just there as a freebie given while the guy soloes it (something I didn't want), so I've mostly soloed my way, kind of working towards where I feel like I can contribute meaningfully alongside the vets.

I've done a couple of reaper difficulty quests solo (with cleric hireling) at higher level, but I've also died on hard and elite difficulty quests with the new champions.

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1) Reaper seems exciting to me - if it can't be soloed, there should logically be more groups. I'm enjoying DDO solo too though and want to become Completionist one day! I feel like a healing cleric, for example, sounds like a player might be useful to group even if he didn't farm 3000 hours for the perfect gear.

2) I felt the Elite difficulty groups in past were already too exclusive for a newbie - I can see Reaper being even more so (but I think I'm in a better place myself now). The "know the quest", "be worth your scaling" and others (even "byoh") can really discourage new players.

3) If veterans continue being the majority of playerbase and they keep on gathering better gear and more Reaper enhancements, the default reaper skull being run will rise - this will further increase the gap between new players and old ones. New players trickle in so slowly that many don't ever meet in game before they quit?

4) I guess playerbase will play as hard a difficulty as they can to get the achievement (figuratively speaking) and then when that's done optimize for the fastest xp/gear/whatever they grind for and run appropriate skull difficulty for that (while complaining about lack of end game). Changing difficulty would do nothing to solve that.

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Don't know what I'm really thinking of Reaper. The idea pleases me, but I have a hard time seeing how it will help the game grow maybe? Still, judging by the forums I'd call it a success.

[Skunkhunt42]

Me and a guildie were doing a few r10 quests yesterday and he could cc and instakill pretty much every mob in the dungeon but the boss.

Like he killed all mobs with death spells but the boss.

F A I L !

[mr420247]

I know what your saying some things that could help that power gap

Would be to make the reaper xp account wide to vets would be

More inclined to farm there alts through heroic reapers then there 3x everything mains

So instead of a completionist it would probly be a legend working on completionist

with maybe a few etrs or maybe not then it comes down to gear

[Tizian]

Me and a guildie were doing a few r10 quests yesterday and he could cc and instakill pretty much every mob in the dungeon but the boss.

Like he killed all mobs with death spells but the boss.

F A I L !

Another new-ish player perspective:

From what I've seen, if non-boss mobs can't be killed with death spells, these forums will call that a fail too. And then go on to say how "ranged builds" are too strong and how melee and DC casters need buffs.
DDO Builds - If it's not the best, it's trash and the devs have failed. If everything is the best, that's probably a fail too, for denying players the option to make a difference with interesting builds....

[mr420247]

I'm pretty sure reapers are death warded and cant be hurled or instakilled

So not sure about him killing every single mob but maybe

[Amundir]

I think the best answer is to cap deaths in an instance before it closes. Whatever the number is the group cannot exceed it or the run is over. That would be challenging.

How about instead of capping them, for every death a new reaper spawns

[Skunkhunt42]

I'm pretty sure reapers are death warded and cant be hurled or instakilled

So not sure about him killing every single mob but maybe

Reapers can be cc'ed, it's really funny to see that hold works on reapers btw.

[slarden]

Me and a guildie were doing a few r10 quests yesterday and he could cc and instakill pretty much every mob in the dungeon but the boss.

Like he killed all mobs with death spells but the boss.

F A I L !

I think the same thing everyone else does about you. How about you post your completions so the devs can see what is making it too easy if what you are saying is true (which we all know it isn't). This is just your new tactic since your tactic to reduce rewards failed.

[Amorais]

Cant say its a fail when its optional.

More options are always good in every circumstance, even if you don't like it or take advantage of it.

[scipiojedi]

Maybe they should re-institute the death penalty on Reaper, especially above Reaper 5? I mean these are reapers we are talking about. If you are going to lose permanent xp anywhere in game it makes sense that a reaper would take it away.

[JOTMON]

Me and a guildie were doing a few r10 quests yesterday and he could cc and instakill pretty much every mob in the dungeon but the boss.

Like he killed all mobs with death spells but the boss.

F A I L !

mhm.. a lot of boasting, but no screenshots...

[Simard]

mhm.. a lot of boasting, but no screenshots...

He's too busy living it up in Vail with his wine collection and multi-millionaire lifestyle for screenshots.

[Skunkhunt42]

Not just hold but disco ball and otto works on reapers too.

Guess if it is wai or not....

[Alcedes]

I love enhanced difficulty. However, I hate all the "one-shotting" going on. Especially when a very good and fully geared/TR'd/destined tank is getting one shotted by physical damage. I understand there are ways to avoid most hits but its impossible to avoid all hits. One hit should not = death.

There has to be a better way to create difficulty other than having mobs hit for 20,000 damage.

Other than that, Reaper mode is great.

(Tho i do wish there was more "out of reaper mode" bonuses like a "Reaper Stance" or something that can be used any time, starts off relatively useless but gains more and more SMALL stacking bonuses based on how many points you have spent in each of the 3 reaper trees)

[Skunkhunt42]

I love enhanced difficulty. However, I hate all the "one-shotting" going on. Especially when a very good and fully geared/TR'd/destined tank is getting one shotted by physical damage. I understand there are ways to avoid most hits but its impossible to avoid all hits. One hit should not = death.

There has to be a better way to create difficulty other than having mobs hit for 20,000 damage.

Other than that, Reaper mode is great.

(Tho i do wish there was more "out of reaper mode" bonuses like a "Reaper Stance" or something that can be used any time, starts off relatively useless but gains more and more SMALL stacking bonuses based on how many points you have spent in each of the 3 reaper trees)

1 shot is fine if you have a warning or a way to avoid it.

But the way r10 was made is just to exclude melees like LE did at the start.

[Connman]

He's too busy living it up in Vail with his wine collection and multi-millionaire lifestyle for screenshots.

I hear Puerto Rico is nice this time of year...

[Mr_Helmet]

I love enhanced difficulty. However, I hate all the "one-shotting" going on.

Don't you like challenge? If you can't take the one-shotting play casual.