Dual Race / True Hearts of woodW

[elvesunited]

Currently DDO is suffering from an imbalance caused by unintended consequences of the Racial update.

Activity in the epics have dropped while the heroics are filled with fast tracking warlocks grinding for 30 heroic lives. ( to be fair I'm also seeing a fair amount of wizards and sorcerers. The key seems to be being able to kill many opponents very quickly. )

A dual racial / true heart would help solve that. The player would acquire a true reincarnation heart and a racial heart and then a "heart combiner". Then upon reincarnation they'd get a past life feat for the class and one for the race. ( Similar to how it works for Iconic )

1) Players would be encouraged to play a much larger variety of classes in heroics.
2) Players would spend more time in epics as they have to work to get two hearts and the combiner.
3) For less exuberant players having the reincarnation grind would seem less daunting.

[Cleanincubus]

/not signed

I don't think there should be an easy button for those who choose the grind. If players are only playing specific classes to get through content as quickly as possible, that simply shows that most classes need even more work to be balanced properly.

Honestly, I think having to worry about fewer players in Epics is a temporary problem. A new Adventure Pack is on the way in the next month or 2, and the Ravenloft Expansion not too far off either. Sure Ravenloft will be level 10 Heroics as well, but people are going to want the Epic items far more than the Heroic ones. And who knows if both Raids will be both Heroic and Epic, or one or both will be Epic only.

[JOTMON]

/not signed

I don't think there should be an easy button for those who choose the grind. If players are only playing specific classes to get through content as quickly as possible, that simply shows that most classes need even more work to be balanced properly.

Honestly, I think having to worry about fewer players in Epics is a temporary problem. A new Adventure Pack is on the way in the next month or 2, and the Ravenloft Expansion not too far off either. Sure Ravenloft will be level 10 Heroics as well, but people are going to want the Epic items far more than the Heroic ones. And who knows if both Raids will be both Heroic and Epic, or one or both will be Epic only.

it wouldn't be an easy button though..

Heroic TR at 20 is 3.8mm xp for class or racial.
Taking it to level 30 is another 8.2mm xp..
you could run heroic lives 3x for the XP it would take to level to 30.

cycling in a way to run to epic would give more options to the hamster wheel.
adding an option to get the class and racial combined by levelling to 30 would be a viable alternative for many players.


Pretty optimistic if you think we will see Ravenloft in the next month or two..
more likely we wont see this until late fall at the best...

besides.. if there is no incentive to run epics.. Ravenloft epics groups will likely be barren....
Without a banking revamp... epics and future loot hoarding is in jeopardy
don't need to add more maybe useful epic gear to the TR cache cleansing (before even considering TR cahe losing loot that for which there has been no Dev response or resolution on lost TR cache loot)..
when we can just finish the hamster wheel then go farm the loot to suit whatever will be the final life build up.

[elvesunited]

I don't think there should be an easy button for those who choose the grind. If players are only playing specific classes to get through content as quickly as possible, that simply shows that most classes need even more work to be balanced properly.

Not so much an easy button as it would require the player to get two hearts and something to combine them but something that would encourage more variety.

Some characters by their very nature simply kill faster. But the flip side of that is that they also tend to be a lot more fragile, have a limited pool of power and often specialized in the types of enemies they are good at killing. Not necessarily more powerful just different.

Honestly, I think having to worry about fewer players in Epics is a temporary problem. A new Adventure Pack is on the way in the next month or 2, and the Ravenloft Expansion not too far off either. Sure Ravenloft will be level 10 Heroics as well, but people are going to want the Epic items far more than the Heroic ones. And who knows if both Raids will be both Heroic and Epic, or one or both will be Epic only.

Because "Riding out the storm" is played so much these days? Almost all raids, even new ones, have taken the hit.

Heroic TR at 20 is 3.8mm xp for class or racial.
Taking it to level 30 is another 8.2mm xp..
you could run heroic lives 3x for the XP it would take to level to 30.

Just to play devil's advocate .... With the epic normal/hard XP trains out there you can earn XP 10 times faster in Epic.

TR cache cleansing (before even considering TR cahe losing loot that for which there has been no Dev response or resolution on lost TR cache loot)..

I believe the devs added something recently that would help them restore characters who lost everything reincarnating.
That said, it bears repeating what the devs have said. You should exit the game completely and re-enter before beginning the Reincarnation process.

[Mglaxix]

/Not Signed

Currently DDO is suffering from an imbalance caused by unintended consequences of the Racial update.

Activity in the epics have dropped while the heroics are filled with fast tracking warlocks grinding for 30 heroic lives. ( to be fair I'm also seeing a fair amount of wizards and sorcerers. The key seems to be being able to kill many opponents very quickly. )

A dual racial / true heart would help solve that. The player would acquire a true reincarnation heart and a racial heart and then a "heart combiner". Then upon reincarnation they'd get a past life feat for the class and one for the race. ( Similar to how it works for Iconic )

And for those that have no need for heroic past lives.....

1) Players would be encouraged to play a much larger variety of classes in heroics. --- Why play anything but a class that performs the best for you in any content for racial

2) Players would spend more time in epics as they have to work to get two hearts and the combiner. --- untrue just run your cap toon and pass it on over to your others

3) For less exuberant players having the reincarnation grind would seem less daunting. --- by making them run to epics to get your combiner makes it easier how.... by the time you get your heart I could run off another heroic life or perhaps 2 if I was grinding on it ( I don't grind anymore I did 7 heroic lives to my guildies 1 heroic life when I was grinding with a duo partner )

I run with a guy on his 3rd life toon that filled out his ED's has no EPL's and outperforms uber completionists because he has farmed his gear learned how to play to his strengths and minimized his weakenesses. There is not any content I would hesitate to run with him at a level I would feel I could contribute in I feel inferior to his abilities as a player with my uber completionist considering how much more base power I have than him. I do not feel equal to his skill as a player regardless of my acquired power.


All the power in the game does not make you a better player. Period.

There is no best class there is no best race there is no best build I have yet to meet the best player that can outperform anyone at anytime in any quest.

Perhaps people should be doing is actually learning how to play to your class and builds strengths vs weaknesses and learning tactics that suit your play style instead of coming up with excuses to make it easier.

The game is what you make of it. Enjoyable, a Grind, a Zerg-Fest, whatever you like.

It may seem harsh but by earning it you will appreciate it more.

If some of you put as much effort into your game as you did into making up excuses to make it easier you'd already be ahead of the curve.

[Cleanincubus]

...

Pretty optimistic if you think we will see Ravenloft in the next month or two..
more likely we wont see this until late fall at the best...

...

U36 (a new Adventure Pack) in the next month or 2, Ravenloft not too far off. Seeing how it's already the middle of June, I don't consider October or November to be all that long from now.

[elvesunited]

All the power in the game does not make you a better player. Period.

The game is what you make of it. Enjoyable, a Grind, a Zerg-Fest, whatever you like.

It may seem harsh but by earning it you will appreciate it more.

Ha!

You misunderstand my why.

Personally I currently have 8 characters each who sticks to their theme ( archer / sword + shield / light caster / etc. ) I only True reincarnate when I change race or class to approach the theme from a slightly different angle or I abandon a theme entirely. Otherwise I stick to Iconic or Epic Reincarnations when they reach max level. I made the choice early on that I was not going to go for heroic completionist. And I've yet to do a racial reincarnate and I may never do it. My choice was not to create a single character but a party of them of which I can choose which to play according to my mood. And they're all strong capable characters who do well in quests. ( except maybe the throwing axe Swashbuckler but that's more a concept/gear problem )

I'm suggesting this as a way to get others to encourage others to vary their play. The number of players in epics have dropped and the heroics are flooded with fast tracking warlocks. Recently after an iconic reincarnation I ran a quest and 5 warlocks joined. It was like going through the reaper diff quest with the wall of death from the third level of Shroud on my side.

[Arch-Necromancer]

I support this idea.

Merging racial and class reincarnation would be nice to new players because it would reduce grind needed to get all those past lives and make it easiet for them to catch up to older players in power.

Since this is a really old game, I believe it should help new players catch up with old veterans so they don't feel like they will never catch up to them and because of that lose interest in playing the game.

Some old veterans could argue that it makes them feel like they wasted their time for nothing because they reincarnated before racial reincarnaton and now have to do it again, but on the other side this gives them reason to continue playing the game and TR-ing.

So this is a question of either benefiting new players (and possibly making SOME older players feel like they wasted their time on this game for no benefit) or not benefiting new players and making them feel like they will never catch up with older players.

I think the benefit for the new players is greater then the bad feeling of SOME older players that might feel bad because of this (I believe many older players would support this and not feel bad because of it).

[elvesunited]

I don't think there should be an easy button for those who choose the grind. If players are only playing specific classes to get through content as quickly as possible, that simply shows that most classes need even more work to be balanced properly.

One way to make sure it isn't an easy button would be to make the dual class-race heart work like an Iconic heart which grants both a class and iconic past life but can't be used until level 30.

So a dual class/race heart could give you both a class past life and a race past life but you have to be level 30 to use it and afterwards you are reduced to starter level again.