Reaper Difficulty

[Gonzo120]

I believe Reaper (and champions) are one of the major reasons for the decline in the player base of DDO. Along with the decline in experienced players willing to take the time to aide the new players in basics of game play. You rarely find a LFM post that isn't reaper difficulty which is the death knell of the inexperienced player. One of the remedies for this "Let the noob post his/her own LFM with no Reaper. That is one of the most ridiculous solutions in a case where the new player usually has no idea how to post a LFM or in the case of a good many new players their shyness is a factor which is usually remedied later in the game. I'm in a guild that caters to the new members to the world of DDO. I have see too many players quit in the first month of playing or the first week of game play after the Harbor. The first bit of advice given to a new player is "join a group" to help learn and progress in the game and that even before you need to join a Guild for help, for which again the shyness factor kicks in. Most players in my guild are transient and within a week of two they have the basics and most by a month move on to larger populated guilds as we suggest to have a more numerous and diverse group of players to help and run with. I've experienced more players quitting within the first month due to the reasons I've just stated and it's a shame. I love this game it was great when I first joined in 2011 and remained so up until the last few years when the desire to obtain that "Uber Toon" took priority over just having fun running around and doing stupid stuff. A portion of the current player base now is running for their newest TRed toon on their 3-5+life at a pace that affords no benefit to new player experiencing the intricacies of running a dungon. Now with Reaper mode which now can be defined as the new hard, or elite or rather the norm, nobody wants to keep rezing or running the new guy or guys back to the shrine. What happens then is the group disbands with just the experienced players reforming the same group a minute later w/o putting up a LFM post to rid themselves of the inconvenience of the poor inexperienced player, who is left wondering what he just ran through, and alone. This happens on a regular basis. Don't misconstrue my opinion of the game, it is still one of the best games I've and enjoyed. I remember in my first week of playing standing in front of the bank dwarf in the Harbor when someone asked me if I was new to the game and after a few of my questions for which I was grateful for the help she gave my Ranger a new bow which far superior to mine (just excess to her as I later found out) that aided me in latter dungeons. I look back on that now and feel as I do to this day that that was the neatest thing since peanut butter.... You still see that today but not as frequently. There are still many many good hearted players but all the new bows in the world will not overcome Reapers and the need to run them at ever opportunity. Even first life players that catch on to the game mechanics faster tend to run Reaper because everyone else is doing so. Thus exacerbates the the original problem of Reaper and Champions for the new player. I don't know how to fix the problem but I can see that there is one.. and you can argue the point of a diminishing player base if you wish (and using Steam login statistics is a waste of time, relatively few go through Steam to play DDO) but I have been playing DDO relatively consistently for many years, long before I joined the forums and I see it, I experience it, and the old Guard is still there and some of the "Newer Old Guard" is still there but new players...not so much. I am saddened by this.

[rabidfox]

Now with Reaper mode which now can be defined as the new hard, or elite or rather the norm, nobody wants to keep rezing or running the new guy or guys back to the shrine. What happens then is the group disbands with just the experienced players reforming the same group a minute later w/o putting up a LFM post to rid themselves of the inconvenience of the poor inexperienced player, who is left wondering what he just ran through, and alone. This happens on a regular basis.

***? This happens? I don't think I've ever been in a group that's broken up and reformed to avoid people (unless I was on the outside of that reformation...) I've been known to spam close wounds on new players just so they effectively become unkillable machines at low levels when running around in stuff over their heads (I could just 1 or 2 shot the mobs, but letting them pewpew is often more fun for both of us). Even the people that zerg so fast that I'm chasing them, they'll slow their roll and explain stuff to new players. If people are too shy (or don't speak the native language of the group) then it's really easy for them to feel alienated by the dynamic; so it would be nifty if there was an icon designation on new account characters for the 1st month (the same way you can see someone is reincarnated) so it's obvious that they're new and not just someone mucking around on an alt.

Don't misconstrue my opinion of the game, it is still one of the best games I've and enjoyed. I remember in my first week of playing standing in front of the bank dwarf in the Harbor when someone asked me if I was new to the game and after a few of my questions for which I was grateful for the help she gave my Ranger a new bow which far superior to mine (just excess to her as I later found out) that aided me in latter dungeons. I look back on that now and feel as I do to this day that that was the neatest thing since peanut butter.... You still see that today but not as frequently. There are still many many good hearted players but all the new bows in the world will not overcome Reapers and the need to run them at ever opportunity.

Last year when I came back after 8 years away, I rolled an alt on different server from my old main (all the character slots were taken) just to get a feel for the game again. I was randomly handed a ton of platinum by someone who saw I was "new" and it made a world of difference just like you getting that bow did.

[HungarianRhapsody]

***? This happens? I don't think I've ever been in a group that's broken up and reformed to avoid people (unless I was on the outside of that reformation...)

I've totally seen that happen.

I also saw it happen back in 2010, so I don't think that's tremendously different.

What I see more often is people running on R6+ telling another player that the other player is really just not ready for R6+ and that they might consider getting used to R1 first before trying R6+. I see players who die a dozen times in one quest drop from the group in embarrassment much more often than I see groups encourage them to look for a more suitable LFM.

I've also been the player who died 3 times in just a minute or two and then I apologize in chat and say that I've been doing favor cleanup and that I will up my game so that I stop dying as much. I get super sloppy after doing favor cleanup. "Oh, Hit Points are a thing I have to look at sometimes?"

[rabidfox]

What I see more often is people running on R6+ telling another player that the other player is really just not ready for R6+ and that they might consider getting used to R1 first before trying R6+.

That seems like an appropriate thing to me; I'd rather someone tell me I'm not in the spec/build/mindset/etc for higher skulls than just breaking a group up and reforming without giving me any feedback.

I've also been the player who died 3 times in just a minute or two and then I apologize in chat and say that I've been doing favor cleanup and that I will up my game so that I stop dying as much. I get super sloppy after doing favor cleanup. "Oh, Hit Points are a thing I have to look at sometimes?"

Every time after an ETR...
Or when I'm when I'm auto-pilot trapping and forget I'm not on an evade build with my current life; "oh, would you mind rez'ing me for not walking around an easily avoidable trap? <sigh>"