I have no power so I spent money

[EdsanDarkbane]

left in 2011. I returned for about 6 months. I don't remember what year. I remember leaving after the nerf to monkchers and the release of reaper mode.

I would like no more nerfs. I just read about the offhand versatility change. I am not as impacted as those who built around this.

I don't want anything nerfed.

When I came back to DDO this past September, I started by leveling a sorc build I rolled when the lvl cap was 12. The character stat distribution is poor.

I was able to blast right up until lvl 30 or so. My sorcerer is running very old gear with +6 stat items.
I had so much fun playing I subscribed for 3 months. And bought an Otto's box, and a 20 heart of wood from the store.

I tr'd my main into a dark apostate and then twice into a stormsinger. I am having so much fun.

BUT

I tried melee and ranger builds. What a difference. Reaper mode is so exponentially harder. In fact it's so hard it feels like it was intended to punish, nerf, discourage these classes from being played.

I rolled a ranger, and I invested so many augments and spent tons of time farming all this new low level gear. I farmed weapons. Hours and hours. DDO points, and crystal shards. I mean this build was a Cadillac. I spent time reading about all the quests I needed to learn to farm the gear I wanted. I spent a lot of time researching build ideas reading threads and messaging other players.

I jump into reaper. My damage was not ok. Not enough. I had a frustrating time playing. The entire day I was behind in every group I played in. I kept resetting enhancements thinking I just built him wrong. I cannot believe the difference. I was not expecting the game to be so lopsided.

Please stop nerfing. There are unintended consequences that come from tunnel vision. And nerfing always seems to be a product of it.

Just thinking about how much time and money I spent. And how frustrated I became seems not equitable. I mean I logged into other games for the last part of the evening.

It made me sad because I love this game.

Please don't nerf any more. Nerfing only removes fun options.

The monkchers nerf was silly. I came back to the game and owned most of it with a sorc who's main stat was so low. How low? At 32 my sorc stat is 49.

Please stop making some parts of the game not fun.


.

[jirksa]

I agree that some stuff got over-nerfed. But the idea of nerfing is not bad at its core. It depends on what and how you nerf.

Reaper being far tougher for melees is not primarily a consequence of a nerf. I believe, that is what reaper should feel like. I believe that casters are just more optimized for reaper - since lost souls, SP clickies, SP bonuses, SP regen. Casters are way different from the class they used to be, when SP conservation was a problem. IMHO, this is a product of giving players new options, not nerfing.

Do I want casters to be nerfed? Absolutely not! I don't wish nerfs for anyone (and I am melee only player, who constantly lacks behind good caster builds in reaper).

Is reaper way to much for melees? Yes and no. I am more of a casual player (17 class, 6 epic PLs, 44 reaper points, in 7 years of playing), I can still solo legendary R4/5 as a good melee build (but it is hard )

Nerfing offhand versatility? SURE ... Stone me to death If you want, but that feat was abused and OP!
I don't know if you know it, but it gave you autocrit for the whole duration of the spell, not only for the duration of the effect! So ... be Pale master - Proc offhand versatility - get autocrit - cast all your death auras - profit! Your death auras are now criting for the 5 minutes straight. This was way OP.
Did they nerf it 'fairly'? Don't know, probably overnerfed.

[Tilomere]

There was no need to spend a penny or farm any ranger gear or plan any ranger build. This is how you level melee in heroic reaper.

[LavidDynch]

There was no need to spend a penny or farm any ranger gear or plan any ranger build. This is how you level melee in heroic reaper.

By not meleeing, good advice.

@OP: Once you get everything on your melee toon; 3 monk lifes, razorclaw, arcane, primal lifes, racial and heroic completionist, 210k sent shard with optimal filigrees on your Epic SoS then you can expect to be about par with a first life caster. Melee is 'roleplay' tier for leveling in this game... but as I stated above, get everything and it´s not actually that bad.

also, would love to see what kind of gear you spent hours to grind out. just curious.

[Eantarus]

but as I stated above, get everything and it´s not actually that bad.

Having all of that stuff should not be a perquisite to playing melee. You sure as hell don't need all the arcane stuff to play a sorc.

[macellomatik]

Currently leveling a Bow Fighter/Ranger/Rogue running Reaper only, and honestly it's not so hard.

Just run with a caster friend that can one-shot enemy groups.

I have even got 10-20 trash mobs kills per instance with lucky crits (cause I'm ranged)

[KoobTheProud]

I get the OP's frustration. That said, the trick to doing well in DDO is to find the builds that do well in DDO.

[Tilomere]

Just run with a caster friend that can one-shot enemy groups.

I like this answer. I should start collecting answers like this hahahah. That way when these types of threads pop up I'll have a whole slew ready!

I get the OP's frustration. That said, the trick to doing well in DDO is to find the builds that do well in DDO.

There are a lot of really solid heroic melee builds, as long as you soften the mobs up a bit with some pew pew:

10 Sorc 10 melee (linked above)
10 Warlock 10 melee (most common pick)
10 AT Arti 10 melee (ride the lightning, Arti spells all cap at 10 anyways)
10 Clr or FvS 10 melee (smites cap at 10 and flame strike is redic)
10 Alc 10 Melee (max/emp inflict sla potions do some heavy lifting, and also cap at 10)
10 Wiz 10 Melee (necrotic blast SLA ball lightning + zoombie power + healing auras is redic)
10 Druid 10 Melee (flame strike)

Melee are designed not to have much heroic power, but designs such as above allows for rounding it out with spell power.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Three thoughts:

1. Welcome back to the game! DDO is more fun now than it has ever been.
2. Nerfs will always happen in MMOs. Every MMO ever made makes constant adjustments, some of which decrease the power of certain classes that are overperforming.
3. Melee is viable. If you ever play with 3 or so good melee characters you will see they crush content. Strikethrough and stuns going off everywhere just melting mobs. Now, I agree, if you're running in a PUG group then melee will tend to look underwhelming because casters and ranged are racking up kill counts. Casting AOE is fun, but there are some melee builds you can play that make you feel like an utter god of war.

[Oxarhamar]

Three thoughts:

1. Welcome back to the game! DDO is more fun now than it has ever been.
2. Nerfs will always happen in MMOs. Every MMO ever made makes constant adjustments, some of which decrease the power of certain classes that are overperforming.
3. Melee is viable. If you ever play with 3 or so good melee characters you will see they crush content. Strikethrough and stuns going off everywhere just melting mobs. Now, I agree, if you're running in a PUG group then melee will tend to look underwhelming because casters and ranged are racking up kill counts. Casting AOE is fun, but there are some melee builds you can play that make you feel like an utter god of war.

only play with melee to make melee fun that’s your solution

[SiliconScout]

only play with melee to make melee fun that’s your solution

Not only that but only play melee's in a group is also prevalent around here. Yet my caster solo's easily and I am hardly a top tier player, at best a top 1/3 if I am lucky but I need no help at all as a caster.

The OP is right melee sucks, the only way it's remotely decent is if you play a THF build so you can at least have some AoE but even a really good non THF melee simply has a TTK (time to kill) that is so laughably behind anyone doing AoE that the difference is painful, glaring and frankly insulting.

[droid327]

To be fair, tempest before L12 is hardly the bellwether for melee overall right now. It's pretty painful before DoD, but that's more to do with ranger and twf issues than systemic melee

[KoobTheProud]

Not only that but only play melee's in a group is also prevalent around here. Yet my caster solo's easily and I am hardly a top tier player, at best a top 1/3 if I am lucky but I need no help at all as a caster.

The OP is right melee sucks, the only way it's remotely decent is if you play a THF build so you can at least have some AoE but even a really good non THF melee simply has a TTK (time to kill) that is so laughably behind anyone doing AoE that the difference is painful, glaring and frankly insulting.

This issue is purely an issue of design in the newer content - post 2016 or so.

When you create content that is largely focused on packs as the obstacle then the meta will shift to an AoE meta - which is what has happened.

The reason THF works well in the meta is that the adjustments to THF post 2016 have been all about creating melee AoE. If you want to play a melee in post 2016 content you really want to be a THF and if your build is otherwise sound you will prosper. Make builds that DDO favors and you will be happy with your builds.

Example: in 2013 DDO released Shadows Over Wheloon. The x-pac was full of spawns where multiple mobs in the spawn were likely to stay in one spot and range or cast at the players. You could maybe clear half a spawn at best with an insta-AoE. You had to run to or cast at individuals elsewhere in that pack. This was not an AoE meta although AoE did just fine alongside other archetypes. There were a few packs in the meta, like Howlers, where AoE was really strong and much better than most other archetypes.

Example 2: Ruins of Gianthold had many quests where fighting one or two fairly powerful mobs at a time was the rule of thumb. Go into Trial By Fire and you were immediately confronted by two trolls. Following this encounter you got spiders in a long chain, one at a time. Then you got to an area where 3 or 4 spiders spawned. Then another chain of single spiders and another spider pack. Then you got a long corridor with single and double mobs. Then you got a room full of trolls followed by two areas in which half the room would pull and the other half not. Then you emerged into a sub-boss fight in which everybody but the boss was pinned and ranging you down. This mix of packs and things that could not be addressed as packs was constant through the instance. Many other instances in that pack were like this also.

Now Ravenloft is released and there are many quests that are just one pack after another. 6+ mobs per encounter, mostly mobile and clustering around the player. Bam-AoE meta begins and it has never let up since then.

[PedXing20]

only play with melee to make melee fun that’s your solution

If you like to play a melee and don't like casters killing everything then how is this a bad idea?

I don't like running with people who talk non stop in voice, so i don't run with them. I don't ask for voice chat in the game to be disabled.

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

with the latest changes, imbue, etc, my warlocks are unplayable - warlocks have been so over-nerfed they're now broke as a joke.
So like my monk, my warlocks will be storage characters - and considering imbue just borked most builds, I'm sure more. My fvs was nerfed
to irrelevance, my inquis zombie was gutted, my druid trapper is now impossible to do; luckily my jedi build seems ok but the imbue really ruined
its dmg.

[Oxarhamar]

If you like to play a melee and don't like casters killing everything then how is this a bad idea?

I don't like running with people who talk non stop in voice, so i don't run with them. I don't ask for voice chat in the game to be disabled.

It seems too restricted and maybe bit exclusionary to me

I don't have a problem running with anyone who is a team player no matter what class

I haven't run a melee in some time but I run with them and I don't see casters taking all the kills I like having some mix in our groups

I like to see melee play a role in the group not to be only grouping with melee but if that fun for players that's really their business I just wouldn't suggest that as a solution

[GeneralDiomedes]

with the latest changes, imbue, etc, my warlocks are unplayable - warlocks have been so over-nerfed they're now broke as a joke.
So like my monk, my warlocks will be storage characters - and considering imbue just borked most builds, I'm sure more. My fvs was nerfed
to irrelevance, my inquis zombie was gutted, my druid trapper is now impossible to do; luckily my jedi build seems ok but the imbue really ruined
its dmg.

I actually gained light imbue dmg on my warlock because of the change to draconic spell sword ability changing to imbue dice. Not having a problem soloing R2s with 19 reaper points, a handful of past lives and no raid gear.

Now in a heroic group warlock is at a disadvantage because they lack burst dmg and always have.

Op - if you like ranged inquisitive ranger still solos Reaper just fine. Last time I checked improved precise shot still worked.

[MaeveTuohy]

Is reaper way to much for melees? Yes and no. I am more of a casual player (17 class, 6 epic PLs, 44 reaper points, in 7 years of playing), I can still solo legendary R4/5 as a good melee build (but it is hard )

What are you running?

[Cantor]

with the latest changes, imbue, etc, my warlocks are unplayable - warlocks have been so over-nerfed they're now broke as a joke.
So like my monk, my warlocks will be storage characters - and considering imbue just borked most builds, I'm sure more. My fvs was nerfed
to irrelevance, my inquis zombie was gutted, my druid trapper is now impossible to do; luckily my jedi build seems ok but the imbue really ruined
its dmg.

I made my current inquis after the imbue change, but it's stronger than last couple I did. There is something there, it's just different.