Reaper is a complete fail

[Chai]

I feel reaper is mostly a success. There are still some things that need to be improved. People constantly hitting eachother up with heals feels like old school permadeath play when elite was challenging.

[SuperNiCd]

I haven't done any skull runs yet but I'm willing to declare Reaper a success if for no other reason than it has stopped every third forum post from being an 80 page discussion about what needs to be nerfed.

[Borror0]

I'm happy just running elite and won't be going back to reaper.

I recently resumed playing and I haven't subscribed just yet, as our static group isn't high level enough yet to make it worthwhile. This week, nearly everyone couldn't play. I played on my level 9 ranger with a friend. There isn't as much F2P content available yet, so we tried to play Elite and then Reaper for max XP. Reaper 1 isn't much more challenging and, arguably, may be a bit easier if you're running SP-dependent characters due to Magic Gems.

I'm not saying to run them but I'm saying that you may very well enjoy the low Reaper difficulties and, as an added bonus, there's extra XP to fetch there. I expect it to make reincarnation more enjoyable for veterans.

If 10 skulls were impossible, people not going to run it, so what's the surprise here, they were just exceptionally prepared for it. Not to mention, I personally seen those videos, there were many deaths.

I haven't seen the videos yet but that sounds also pretty in-line with historically hard raids. When Suulomades came out, it took a while (several months, if I remember correctly) before it was ran flawlessly. Before then, one would run through several Mnemonic pots in order to succeed. It was arguably the first hard raid in the game. It was costly to run to completion; it was a mess, and it was hard fun.

If Reaper 10 is anything like that, then that sounds like a success.

[Marupal]

I've been playing this game for 8 years,...

You were able to run the original epics (when cap was 20)? View reaper as something more along those lines with the exception that you don't have to wait until cap.

But yeah, it's inevitable that reaper will be the new norm. And then R10 will be too easy. (It already is for a few folks) And then it'll go to 11.

Yeah, reaper probably will become the new norm, especially for people looking for solid grouping experiences. R11 though? Probably not. They've already announced that they are going to continue to adjust the difficulty scaling in reaper to keep it challenging. R10 should be a tough experience for a long time to come.

[Coyopa]

there's extra XP

Is this "reaper xp" or actual xp?

[AzB]

R11 though? Probably not. They've already announced that they are going to continue to adjust the difficulty scaling in reaper to keep it challenging. R10 should be a tough experience for a long time to come.

That part was a joke. Have you ever seen Spinal Tap? If not, you should watch it... great movie.

[Borror0]

Is this "reaper xp" or actual xp?

It's real XP.

[Rog]

I see reaper as extra benneis then again my toon has 30 etr's
when i get new enhancement from reaper my toon does not need them.
what i love is the extra exp from reaper mode. this will make my last 6 etr go really fast.
and for every player that has not invested time to tweak there toon out.
life just got real easy for you.
my advice if you feel your toon is under-powered then hit that lfm up anyways the people running reaper and looking for a group can handle reaper with or without you come for the ride.
it would be nice to have wings and the eyes.
for me i will be happier to fish my etr and competitionist so i never have to tr again and i can build my final toon.
mojomuscle

[Coyopa]

It's real XP.

Oh. Darn it. Now I have to care about running reaper, especially during heroics because I hate them so much now.

[Marupal]

That part was a joke. Have you ever seen Spinal Tap? If not, you should watch it... great movie.

Oops nope, haven't seen it. Missed the joke there.

[Coyopa]

This part of the wiki prompts a question:

There is a reaper XP over-level penalty (from the normal base challenge rating of the dungeon or raid) as follows:
+1 - None
+2 -20% (typical Bravery Bonus maximum level for Heroic)
+3 -50%
+4 -70%
+5 -90%
+6 -95%

So, if I'm level 10 and running Delera part 4 on reaper (which is a base level 8 quest), am I going to see a -20% penalty to xp?

[Coyopa]

Oops nope, haven't seen it. Missed the joke there.

You might be more familiar with it going over 9000....

[Krelar]

This part of the wiki prompts a question:



So, if I'm level 10 and running Delera part 4 on reaper (which is a base level 8 quest), am I going to see a -20% penalty to xp?

You'll have a penalty to reaper xp, you'll still get full bb heroic xp. (+the extra bonus to heroic xp for running reaper.)

[Coyopa]

You'll have a penalty to reaper xp, you'll still get full bb heroic xp. (+the extra bonus to heroic xp for running reaper.)

Thanks for that explanation, Krelar. This is something I'll have to think about now.

[Tlorrd]

I feel reaper is mostly a success. There are still some things that need to be improved. People constantly hitting each other up with heals feels like old school permadeath play when elite was challenging.

my experience in groups I run with as me the healer ... I'm the only one who heals, thus everyone else focuses on their role ... I rarely ever draw aggro and if I do, I shed it quickly, thus I walk around the battle field healing folks up as needed and tossing a few CC spells as needed. Occasionally I get hit hard and die and then just wait to get rezzed ... I can heal myself adequately well so if I even draw any collateral damage, I'm usually ok. This is my experience on reaper 7,8, 9, 10 quests (not raids). Other team members don't need to toss heals to anyone else.

[Powerhungry]

Here is my take on it...

More content equals more options.


If they want, they could add one mode above Reaper 10 called God Mode, in this mode Gods actually spawn and try to prevent you from completing the quest for reasons only they know... and end up becoming a new quest of their own just beating the freaking Gods. in God Mode you never know if a God will show up, where, or when, or even who.. .all random and all most powerful creatures ever! And they drop artifacts!

yet reapers adds exactly zero content.
In D&D PnP the deities have 1000-2000 hp (depending on deity) - so they're one shot kill trash mobs in DDO... (just pointing out the enormous power creep in DDO)

I don't mind reaper. My main (completionist/epic completionist) can solo r1 quite easily (she's a pure melee barb atm).
My other toons can (barely) solo elite sO group up with them for reaper runs.
Although the end fight in slavers part 3 with multiple red-named is rather unpleasant - legendary 3 skull - Nerals is just brutal for a melee

[Krell]

Being able to use a Jewelers Kit on slavelords items would be nice.

I do think the Reaper tree XP curve is silly. I don't think it should be more time than epic completionist. I have 3 characters I'd like to max them out with but with the current curve that would be years. Currently it appears to be far more time than a triple-triple completionist for 1 character. Not sure what the thinking was there. The boosts are fairly small and most just work in Reaper. It's not like people can't 10 skull things now so I don't see the need to put the trees so far out of reach. At 10x the current XP per quest it would still be a grind. Goals that are not realistically achievable without putting in the equivalent of a full time job for a year or two is annoying in my opinion. Please consider a radical change and not a small incremental adjustment.

I don't mind the other Reaper mechanics for the most part and I've been running them daily. I do think it segments the player base further. Some people that used to run LE with me and could at least get by don't want to run Reaper with me. Mostly due to a lot of deaths. I understand they are just not ready yet but further segmentation reduces socializing.

Also I would re-think the re-entry lock. I've had people that had to leave that we couldn't replace. Quests take longer and the chances of someone needing to leave is higher. Spell points aren't really an issue so I don't see how it really increases the challenge by blocking re-entry. Sometimes it does cause groups to fall apart.

[NaturalHazard]

We are not privy to the information that would allow us to tell if it is a fail or a success, its only a success if it leads to more sales, and more people playing. Otherwise its a flop and a major waste of time.

[KoobTheProud]

I have alot of characters - not seeing a 2 month farm. Besides, this was supposed to be about challenge and not farming. Show me your solo R10 completions and then we can start talking about it being too easy. With the old epics people challenged themselves by shortmanning with dual boxes. The same can be done here. This type of feedback would have been more appropriate for lamannia where what you are saying was already known about most (if not all) quests being completeable on R10.

If you don't care about reaper, why are you complaining about it? Not trying to be a jerk - I am just curious.

I'm complaining because hardcore vets asked for challenge and what they got instead was another grind. It was the perfect grind with the ability to complete it just by being persistent in an instance.

It's the ability to triumph via persistence that they should have left out. That's what is going to put it on farm in a very short period of time for exactly the people who actually needed a challenge at this point in their DDO careers.

I am probably never going to play Reaper at all. It bothers me that it will linger as something needing dev attention long after the players who really needed it to maintain interest are sated and done with it and that the process will of becoming sated will run it's course in weeks or a few months at most.

Reaper 1 should have been what Reaper 7 is. Reaper 3 should be where the vets are crashing and burning, with even persistence not enough at this point and them all scheming how to craft better gear and develop better tactics to get over the hump there. That's the Reaper that would have given long-time vets something to challenge them until the x-pac comes out this fall/winter.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Reaper 10 should not have been possible to complete yet.
The Devs really underestimate players power.


But.... I've always hoped the game could be solved with smart play, and not needing super powered min/maxed toons.
Not sure if this is currently that case with high skull reapers or not yet.

From what I see, most groups haven't made the switch to using team tactics yet.

The low skull reapers I have been on are powered through, with a lot of deaths, but few people learning from those deaths and playing smarter to prevent them.