Champion mobs aren't fun.

[lyrecono]

Dear OP,

I understand where you're comming from, i really do.
The problem started due to players and devs were thinking the content had gotten too easy.
Although dificulty had gone up slightly with nearly every update , people rarely noticed because they kept up with gear and past lives and used builds that broke the game.
People were verry reluctant to come off their exploit build.
When nerfed they often disapear from the game, leaving normal players with the damage.

On lamania, new content usually gets tested on peoples main toons, not a first life barbarian, thus ballance is off.
Even when they play, some of the devs stick to op classes like artificer, where they negate 90% of the incomming physical damage simply by being out of melee range and thus rarely notice something is wrong.

The issue of broken mechanics are rarely adressed (densely packed stacks of mobs in ToEE) and rarely fixed(heroic abadishai having epic spellpower was fixed only after years of complaints).

What bothers many is how these hand crafted quests suddenly have their entire ballance chucked out of the window with what is called blanket coding.
Due to these champions, we now have random mobs with more hp, dps and general thoughnes then actual named npcs and bosses, wich is rather jarring for those who care about lore and ballance.
Another piece of blanket coding is reaper, with even more problems. Wich i'll skip here.

Lots of devs and players will defend champs here, not realising or not caring what the concequencesol of this lazy coding scheme are.
It doesn't only affect npcs( though they just fixed the bookbinder rescue), it affects the playerbase as a whole, dividing them even more.
At best you get advice on the forum like, play an arty or warlock, get more past lives and gear, etc not understanding that elite was just fine as it was.
Not unnderstanding that not every one plays like they do, not understanding that the dificulty just fine, a good investment of time in regards to tue rewards, exp, named loot and favor.

Sadly, the devs have publicly stated that they will not remove champs from n/h/e content now that they have introduced reaper. They seem to think that content is too easy. Even if they only play it on broken classes and in 1 case, heve to use cheat codes to get through quests on normal.

I can only suggest adapting or moving on, much of the playerbase allready has.
A few weeks afte launch and ravenloft is a ghost town over here.

What ever you decide, i wish you the best.

[elvesunited]

I wouldn't get rid of champs, they do add to the game, but I think some tweaks would go a long way.

Probably the biggest:

Multi-shot caster champs should only process damage on the first hit
Shiradi caster of about 7% chance per effect per shot. Equipment like Lantern Rings have a short cooldown preventing them from processing on every hit. Champs with extra damage process on every hit. For a melee champ that's not that big a deal. For some spellcaster types that's instant death. ( particularly Demon Soul. ) The extra damage should only process on the first hit of a multi-hit attack.

[Arch-Necromancer]

Why would you remove something if you can just make a selector in the Difficulty selection screen (like we have for Reaper skulls) that would give you a choice:

- Without champions
- With champions

For Hard and Elite.

Normal could also get champions (of the lowest tier) that way, because you would be able to select whether you want champions or not.

And "Without champions" should be the default selection because it better fits new players.

[losian2]

I understand that the boost in difficulty may come as a shock after a long time away, but to be fair DDO was always supposed to be a group activity and Elite was always supposed to require a party.

In the time you were away there were a LOT of threads full of people complaining about how easy the game had become (admittedly down to power creep). Hence the first 'resolution' to this was champions.

People still kept complaining about how easy the game had become. Hence Reaper mode, so people could choose to play on an even harder difficulty setting (I'm not getting into the argument over whether any of this was effective or not - I'm just trying to update you on the history!).

There is also the case that gear got a lot better since you were away, so if you are playing old characters with old items you are going to be under the power curve.

Unfortunately, if you prefer to solo then the answer is probably just to go for Hard setting unless you can pull a party together. At least until you have a few past lives under your belt or acquired better gear.

I get that this mindset is super deep-set in DDO, but champions are, like it or not, not the best implemented system. I was looking on the forums to see if something is bugged - a level 13 elite random abishai, not even an orange named, is spamming 260+ damage delayed fireballs in heroic with a DC above 30. There is no "gear up" for that. Playing a character with evasion and +25 saves with cold shield and I'm still being one-shotted. For some reason the abishai also have crazy SR at heroic levels, so you can't really lock 'em down. A "group" does not solve this issue, because most anyone will be pretty much one shotted by such enemies at level - which is the problem, some enemies with champion buffs are just ridiculously over powered.

The champion system, in a perfect world, would have some kind of rough hardcaps by level ranges so that enemies can't be horrifically out of line with their content level. I'm also really surprised at how useless heroic level control-casters are without a crazy number of past lives against mobs with ANY SR. Heck, CR11 mobs somehow have 25+ SR, that just seems way out of whack. SR badly needs to move to a % based scaling system like AC, hands down.

[Ryan220]

I am a fan of Champs (and Reaper) as they add challenge and uncertainty to the game. Admittedly I am fortunate enough to run with a group of people that I consider to be amongst the best on the server, but Champs and Reaper make us think about how we play and how we approach different fights instead of just face rolling everything.

That being said I can see how getting one shotted by champs when soloing or duoing or simply running undergeared characters can be frustrating.

As has been said before, I think making Champs optional would be a good idea.

I do feel that there would need to be a worthwhile benefit for those people that chose to run with the extra challenge of Champs otherwise it would be pointless having them.

[Sunnie]

I wouldn't get rid of champs, they do add to the game, but I think some tweaks would go a long way.

Probably the biggest:

Multi-shot caster champs should only process damage on the first hit
Shiradi caster of about 7% chance per effect per shot. Equipment like Lantern Rings have a short cooldown preventing them from processing on every hit. Champs with extra damage process on every hit. For a melee champ that's not that big a deal. For some spellcaster types that's instant death. ( particularly Demon Soul. ) The extra damage should only process on the first hit of a multi-hit attack.

That's one change that really should be implemented. Another is that their procs should not go off on non-damaging spells, and especially not if you make your save. Disco Balls cast by certain champions deal damage to you every time you make your save against it, you can also evade a fireball and still get hit by a DoT effect. That's not challenge, that's just broken mechanics.
Champions really need an internal cooldown (0.5 seconds would do) on their DoT effects, and it needs to be limited to "on damage".

I've learned to manage, with a lot of shinies not everyone will have access to, but the mechanics behind how champions apply their bonus damage are obviously broken. Things can't possibly be working as intended when a champion caster kills the party with the spells Slow and Scare.

If the way champions inflict DoT were fixed, they'd be perfect.

[C-Dog]

Getting your butt handed to you is never "fun".

The problem is, neither is a game where you win automatically. And in DDO, it's too easy to have a build that crushes Elite. Without champs - there would be zero challenge, so (imo) zero real "fun".

So you have to accept that the occasional unexpected wipe is "fun", if only b/c the alternative (never worrying about any unexpected enemy) would def not be.

If your toons can't handle some of the champs on Elite, then stick to Hard (no orange-crowns in Hard, only Yellow). Or build a better toon - mine are 1st life, and they can handle most champs. And when they can't, I have to be creative. That's fun.

And for the record, Reaper has its own level of Champs that can spawn - Red-crown. Now there's some "fun".

[Shiriru]

I think champions are balanced for mid/late game, be it heroic or epic levels. Same with reapers.

What I find weird, is that lvl 3 champions and reapers hit you for 60-100 damage, whereas lvl 10 champions hit you for 80-110 .. basically almost the same thing, but at lvl 10 , players get access to more spells/skills, better gear and more HP. So I do not find these creatures properly implemented for lvl 2-5 quest ranges. I never complain about them, when I get past lvl 7ish... Even enjoy and can't wait to see one. But there is a clear message with the current numbers champions dish out, that early game is made for warlocks and repeaters. Also it's sad that grouping up is so hard nowadays.

Having said all of this, I always know the risk when I enter a low lvl reaper. I enjoy the challenge and thrill, but low level reaper quests are not properly balanced, especially for a game, where grouping up is so hard nowadays. So weird that a boss monster in a lvl 3 R1 quest hits you for 10 damage, but a champion and/or reaper does x10 times more.