The worst thing about reaper is...

[meleehater]

have to deal with those dumb **** hires.

[mrphlegm]

Agree. Never used hires much before reaper. It's a very frustrating experience that would gain a lot by some simple fixes.

* After calling them they stop responding to commands (heal, raise etc). Have to toggle their stance to reset them.
* Moving around even if they are set to passive and stand ground
* Slow to react with healing. Really, if i'm under 50% health i should be getting a cure spell within seconds if a hire is in range. Ideally automatic top offs every time i'm <80%
* Poor pathing and responsiveness in some places when asked to pull levers etc
* "Using" shrines, sitting down, then standing up not rested... All. The. Time. Can't reset them out of this either, have to wait for them to stand up before you can issue a new command.
* Healing friendly npcs, charmed monsters... Occasionally useful but generally not. In those few cases it's beneficial, we can hard target the NPC ourselves to have the hire heal it.
* The 5(?) seconds cool down after calling a hire is annoying. I get why it's there but...

[lugoman]

When you summon a hireling it activates all their cool downs, although most times the cool down animation doesn't show on the hotbar. So when you click the heal hotbar button it looks like they are ignoring you but really heal is on cool down.

[Dragavon]

The worst thing about reaper is all the *****s complaining about reaper on the forums.

If you do not like reaper difficulty play on lower difficulty, and ****.

[psykopeta]

have to deal with those dumb **** hires.

so the worst thing about reaper isn't reaper exclusive?

i don't see it sorry

also they suck in lower diffs, wouldn't expect them to be better in reaper w/o reason

[SerPounce]

Hirelings used to be a real pain, but the way you can instantly summon them now makes them pretty easy to manage. Set to stay, then summon between fights for healing, then stay again. Yeah the 3 second (or whatever) delay is a bit annoying, but it would be too strong to be a be able to summon them for an instant heal in battle.

Sometimes I'll summon them into a fight after I'm sure I've aggroed everything, and that works decently also. The key is to summon when they're not set on "swords" then switch to swords after you summon, that seems to reset their AI the fastest.

Hireling management is just another skill to learn.

[YUTANG75]

Hirelings used to be a real pain, but the way you can instantly summon them now makes them pretty easy to manage. Set to stay, then summon between fights for healing, then stay again. Yeah the 3 second (or whatever) delay is a bit annoying, but it would be too strong to be a be able to summon them for an instant heal in battle.

Sometimes I'll summon them into a fight after I'm sure I've aggroed everything, and that works decently also. The key is to summon when they're not set on "swords" then switch to swords after you summon, that seems to reset their AI the fastest.

Hireling management is just another skill to learn.

Yep, a quick flick to a different mode and back forces them to update and respond. It's a real pain having to do that repeatedly because they won't check if something should be done until you take damage. I've got a great healer hire but he keeps saying he's got work and stuff so I have to poke up with the dumb ones most of the time. :P

[meleehater]

The worst thing about reaper is all the *****s complaining about reaper on the forums.

If you do not like reaper difficulty play on lower difficulty, and ****.

Are the hirelings smarter in casual mode?

Tell me more pls.

[TedSandyman]

I actually wouldn't mind reaper so much if they simply dropped the healing penalty on R1 content.

It would still be harder than elite. There would still be reapers. Things would still hit harder. But it would give those of us who like to solo and like to play melee types the opportunity to participate in reaper and still be able to somewhat heal ourselves. If you want the extra challenge, you still have nine reaper levels that are exactly the same.

Some may say, "Then everyone will simply play R1 to get away from the penalty." To which I reply, that if everyone switches back to playing R1 without the penalty, then it just proves that most people would prefer to play without the penalty. If R2 and up takes off and no one plays R1 anymore, then it proves people want the challenge. But it leaves R1 for people like me, who feel reaper is ONLY for the uber or for specific classes and we have no place anymore in the game.

Come on guys, let me have ONE of the ten reaper levels. I'm a wuss, I know it. But giving me one level will still leave you with nine hard levels for ego stroking and it may just keep a few of the players like me in the game spending money.

[DrakHar]

Are the hirelings smarter in casual mode?

Tell me more pls.

That's your fault. You posted a very valid topic about hires and labelled it as reaper. You actually often have good points but intentionally express them as poorly as possible.

[SerPounce]

I actually wouldn't mind reaper so much if they simply dropped the healing penalty on R1 content.

It would still be harder than elite. There would still be reapers. Things would still hit harder. But it would give those of us who like to solo and like to play melee types the opportunity to participate in reaper and still be able to somewhat heal ourselves. If you want the extra challenge, you still have nine reaper levels that are exactly the same.

Some may say, "Then everyone will simply play R1 to get away from the penalty." To which I reply, that if everyone switches back to playing R1 without the penalty, then it just proves that most people would prefer to play without the penalty. If R2 and up takes off and no one plays R1 anymore, then it proves people want the challenge. But it leaves R1 for people like me, who feel reaper is ONLY for the uber or for specific classes and we have no place anymore in the game.

Come on guys, let me have ONE of the ten reaper levels. I'm a wuss, I know it. But giving me one level will still leave you with nine hard levels for ego stroking and it may just keep a few of the players like me in the game spending money.

r1 without the self healing penalty and with reaper trees is going to be way easier than elite once you have a few reaper tree points. Even without any reaper tree points the difference between r1 and elite would be tiny without the healing penalty.

[masterofthewand]

Reaper is a debacle. I have my problems with it, mainly the reaper enchantments and false life abilities. I voiced my opinions, and was handedly shut down by the power gamer brigade. What I learned is things are not likely to change, this is what we have now. However I'd like to say please stop calling people bad players for voicing opinions. There are still old guys who just don't like it because its ill conceived. I myself have been vip since jan07, and played at the highest levels of the game for years. I only joined the forums in 13 because I didn't have anything to say till then. And I'd like to see these so called power gamers in a perma death scenario.

[Odysseus2011]

People feeling entitled to run reaper as soon as they step off the ship from Korthos, and even though they're grossly underprepared come to the forums to whine and complain about how they should be able to. Or complain about how the hireling can't do it for them.

[Odysseus2011]

I actually wouldn't mind reaper so much if they simply dropped the healing penalty on R1 content.

It would still be harder than elite.

If you removed the healing penalty from Reaper 1 then without a doubt Reaper 1 would be easier than Elite. Currently it's debatable which is harder, in Elite you can heal yourself, but in Reaper 1 you gain a ton of Action Point bonuses to HP/Damage. imo Reaper 1 is already easier than Elite because of this, my caster gets something like a +5 to spell DCs and as a result I prefer R1 over E.

[meleehater]

People feeling entitled to run reaper as soon as they step off the ship from Korthos, and even though they're grossly underprepared come to the forums to whine and complain about how they should be able to. Or complain about how the hireling can't do it for them.

Did you learn what melee dps is already?

[Astoroth]

have to deal with those dumb **** hires.

There are so many things wrong with the way reaper is affecting the game. The extra exp driving the game to that mode, and the disruption and narrow range of levels for lfms anymore.

But yeah hirelings are a complete mess. Here's a dozen things that could stand to be done:

01. No auto shrine.
02. No standing in lava or spells
03. No pretend shrining
04. No cure light wounds when a character is basically dead or incapped
05. No cure poison or disease when a character is wounded and a heal will get it as well, assuming hireling has heal
06. When you issue a command right as they decide to use that skill one or the other should actually take effect, the hireling shouldn't do nothing
07. Be able to issue them commands with a target when they are on stay put
08. A little fewer ray of lights when there are dead or wounded party members
09. When you call a hireling when its fighting it shouldn't immediately run back towards the monster it was fighting
10. Update hirelings to have MRR and PRR
11. Update the hirelings to have Positive Energy Burst and Positive Energy Aura
12. And most of all give the hirelings with mass heal quicken

[meleehater]

There are so many things wrong with the way reaper is affecting the game. The extra exp driving the game to that mode, and the disruption and narrow range of levels for lfms anymore.

But yeah hirelings are a complete mess. Here's a dozen things that could stand to be done:

01. No auto shrine.
02. No standing in lava or spells
03. No pretend shrining
04. No cure light wounds when a character is basically dead or incapped
05. No cure poison or disease when a character is wounded and a heal will get it as well, assuming hireling has heal
06. When you issue a command right as they decide to use that skill one or the other should actually take effect, the hireling shouldn't do nothing
07. Be able to issue them commands with a target when they are on stay put
08. A little fewer ray of lights when there are dead or wounded party members
09. When you call a hireling when its fighting it shouldn't immediately run back towards the monster it was fighting
10. Update hirelings to have MRR and PRR
11. Update the hirelings to have Positive Energy Burst and Positive Energy Aura
12. And most of all give the hirelings with mass heal quicken

Great list but yo can add:

-trying to rez someone that just died and have the death timer thing.

[nokowi]

People feeling entitled to run reaper as soon as they step off the ship from Korthos, and even though they're grossly underprepared come to the forums to whine and complain about how they should be able to. Or complain about how the hireling can't do it for them.

More specifically, a reaper design that both doesn't encourage challenge and also pushes players that don't enjoy challenge or grouping into reaper.

The fixes are as simple as,
1) no hirelings (reaper was for groups, right?)
2) no rez cakes
3) fix a few of the tactics reaper can not challenge, and then (and only then) better reward higher level reaper runs
4) don't hand out massive rewards that encourage unskilled players to enter the content. Those seeking challenge don't need them.

[Ryiah]

Are the hirelings smarter in casual mode?

No, but then if you needed them to hold your hand in the first place you should have been running the difficulty they're made for.

[masterofthewand]

More specifically, a reaper design that both doesn't encourage challenge and also pushes players that don't enjoy challenge or grouping into reaper.

The fixes are as simple as,
1) no hirelings (reaper was for groups, right?)
2) no rez cakes
3) fix a few of the tactics reaper can not challenge, and then (and only then) better reward higher level reaper runs
4) don't hand out massive rewards that encourage unskilled players to enter the content. Those seeking challenge don't need them.

Hey, someone else who thinks hirelings in a group based difficulty is an oxymoron. You are too logical, you must be shut down. Power gamer brigade attack!