The Reaper XP problem

[Ying]

But the idea put forth that Reaper is the default difficulty by many on the forms push people to join those LFMs before they are ready.

Where on the forums do you see people pushing new players to join reaper LFMs on a first lifer? Cause I don't.

Normal is literally the default difficulty when you bring up the quest window. New players should play Normal to get familiar with the game. They'll get to level 20 just fine, and probably have a blast along the way.

When I first TR'd (2010 I think?) my biggest fear was not having enough XP to get to level 20. Why? Because if you ran a quest enough times, you eventually got 0 XP doing it. That fear is looooong gone because of all the new content added well as daily playthrough bonuses and ransack XP lessening over time. My guildies only ran elite content, and if you f'd up, everyone took a 10% XP penalty. That too is gone.

 

[erethizon1]

When it comes to gear, the first thing they need to do is change the sentient experience and reaper fragment system. All sentient experience should come from sentient gems so that there is never a reason to destroy an item that someone else in the party needs. This is also true for reaper fragments. Reaper fragments should drop in chests rather than encouraging players to destroy reaper bonus items. These two systems were terrible for group play as they strongly discourage the sharing of items. Most players either play entirely selfishly, never putting their gear up for roll, or they end up like me without a single item that has the max number of fillagree slots (and only two sentient items total) because so little of my gear ever gets ground down for sentient experience. I also have only 7 reaper fragments even though I have 131 reaper points. Not screwing over your fellow players in the name of sentient experience and reaper fragments comes at a high cost.

As for RXP, the time has long past come to stop favoring legendary quests. I realize it was the whiny player base that said that sitting at cap wasn't rewarding enough and got the devs to double the cap RXP. Well now sitting at cap is far too rewarding so it is time to more than double RXP for lower level quests. If you've ever run a quest on R10 that is below level 10 you know what an unbelievable waste of time it is, even though it is much harder than legendary R10 due to how much weaker our characters are. There is no good reason for high reaper to be so unrewarding in lower level quests, give that is where the challenge can really be found.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

When the devs decided to make Reaper mode give more power, and the most XP - they made it the default difficulty.

I agree it has had unfortunate consequences, but alas...here we are.

From a grouping perspective, you would be hard-pressed to level without joining reaper groups - it's definitely the most common grouping difficulty by a massive margin (excluding hardcore). The rxp gains running R1 1-29 is underwhelming so I think the xp is driving it much more than the power - at least for heroic leveling. Power is definitely driving end game reaper runs.

There is a decent sized population that either solos or runs in small groups of 2-3. It's hard to know what they run since unlike the lfm system it's not public.

So I agree with your assement from a practical point of view. You can make arguments othewise, but they don't fit with what I see on the lfm every day.

With that said most leveling groups are significantly overpowered for R1 so I would recommend joining and contribute the best you can. You will gain close to 10 points by 20 on your first life. The runs will be easy, smooth and fast - maybe too fast for some.

For your end game farming concern, consider leveling and parking a tanky 20 sorc - by tanky I simply mean using medium armor + large shield with a small splash to unyielding sentinel but still largely spec'ing for dc,dps. This build is A-tier for soloing and B tier for casual raiding.

All the best to you as you figure it all out.

 

[Reaped and Ravaged]

A bit of courage goes a long way in Legendary grouping. More experienced players can pass quality equipment in r6-r10 runs, making gearing a lot less tedious. Just make sure to have some basic knowledge of the quest and how to get there (a real challenge in content like the Cogs) and be Polite. Getting the 1st reaper 21 points is much faster at higher Legendary reaper levels and very doable on a 1st life. I suggest grabbing Isle of Dread ASAP as getting 2 IOD sets with the right bonii make ranged characters very viable in high reapers. Gear for debuffs to fortification, PRR and Improved deception to really help everyone else, just make sure not to pull too much at once. A Pure Bard with the Upgraded Sora Kell set and a Saltmarsh Ring is extremely viable in End Game reaper content and much appreciated by any group needing a Bard. A sentient weapon is as easy as completing Into the Mist in the Ravenloft campaign and talking to Tobar the Cool TWICE.

There is an exceptional player on Thelanis that makes an effort to run r10 Tempest Spine regularly and Lost at Sea almost daily to gives 1st time reaper runners a big chunk of reaper XP all at once. Very much appreciated!

 

[Jasparius]

I made 80k or 90k RXP in a couple of hours the other day joining groups running R3, R4 and R10 at cap.

They didnt care what gear I had or how many HP I had. I died a few times because 1 hit on R10 kills. We did the dungeons, everyone had fun.

If this isnt for you, then the bigger question is: why do you need Reaper points ?

Every TR we do R1 because its more XP and a little RXP which builds over time. We could do R3 or R4 but R1 is care free.

Im sure anyone in a group can do R1 no matter how many lives. I made a 1st life Dwarf Barbarian and it did plenty fine in R1 when duoing with a friend. Get a healer hireling and off you go.

 

[DBZ]

Test ran r10 feywilds had 1 guy he never complained once frags frags n more frags

 

[erethizon1]

I don't see a need to change anything with how RXP is accumulated at all.

I do. The system is designed so that running high reaper before legendary is not rewarded. Thus it is very hard to form high reaper groups before level 30 because the players, correctly, recognize that they are not properly rewarded for the time it takes. That is not a good system. Reaper is fun before level 30, but with the RXP reward most people will not participate.

 

[Br4d]

When the devs decided to make Reaper mode give more power, and the most XP - they made it the default difficulty.

I agree it has had unfortunate consequences, but alas...here we are.

I go back and forth on whether they meant to make R1 the default difficulty for all but very casual players. If they meant it to be the default then shame on them because not everybody was asking for increased difficulty and yet everybody had to deal with the change.

 

[Anuulified]

That opening was more poetic license than anything

You're correct, and I do acknowledge later that it's not mandatory for everyone.

Nice book. There is no problem. Reaper is challenge mode and completely optional in every sense.

 

[PraetorPlato]

I go back and forth on whether they meant to make R1 the default difficulty for all but very casual players. If they meant it to be the default then shame on them because not everybody was asking for increased difficulty and yet everybody had to deal with the change.

Adding a mode that gives more xp and adds more challenge is not making you deal with that change! You're welcome to continue getting the same amount of XP as before on elite—actually, significantly more, because XP has become more plentiful in a bunch of ways.

 

[Ying]

They didnt care what gear I had or how many HP I had. I died a few times because 1 hit on R10 kills.

If you're getting one shot in quests (aside from crits), you're doing content that's too difficult for some combination of your build, gear, reaper XP and/or past lives. "Don't get one shot" is a great rule of thumb to use when playing. Because if you're getting one shot, then there's zero chance for someone to throw you a heal to save you from death. That applies to whether you're a first lifer on hardcore, or an uberpletionist working on reaper point 200.

If you find people that want to carry your soulstone through quests, more power to you. Personally, being a soulstone while other people do the quest is boring AF to me so I try to avoid it as much as I can.

 

[Jasparius]

If you're getting one shot in quests (aside from crits), you're doing content that's too difficult for some combination of your build, gear, reaper XP and/or past lives. "Don't get one shot" is a great rule of thumb to use when playing. Because if you're getting one shot, then there's zero chance for someone to throw you a heal to save you from death. That applies to whether you're a first lifer on hardcore, or an uberpletionist working on reaper point 200.

If you find people that want to carry your soulstone through quests, more power to you. Personally, being a soulstone while other people do the quest is boring AF to me so I try to avoid it as much as I can.

Which is fine for you. Others play for fun and dont get upset if someone dies.

 

[Br4d]

Adding a mode that gives more xp and adds more challenge is not making you deal with that change! You're welcome to continue getting the same amount of XP as before on elite—actually, significantly more, because XP has become more plentiful in a bunch of ways.

Sorry this is off-base. If the grind is necessary then it needs to be done at the most efficient pace and R1 give more XP than Elite.

If DDO had scaled the XP boost in Reaper I'd have quit when reaper was released.

 

[PraetorPlato]

If the grind is necessary then it needs to be done at the most efficient pace

It doesn't, though. Adding an option to get more xp is just that—an option. If you weren't asking for increased difficulty, you can just ignore the option!

 

[nenetteblackmoor]

The issue with Reaper isn't about gear or game balance, but the absurd amount of RXP required.
The problem lies in the nonsensical balance that demands constantly spinning the hamster wheel known as TR, while stacking Delving Bonuses and guzzling EXP pots.

If we assume each quest takes 20 minutes and an additional 10 minutes for travel and recruitment, how many quests can you complete in a day?
Even if you play for 2 hours a day, you can only manage 4 quests in a day.
The Reaper system itself is designed for individuals who can continuously spin the hamster wheel, surrounded by companions, and play a lot every day.

Particularly in an environment where the active player count is decreasing, making party formation difficult and resulting in more solo play, the continued demand for such foolishly excessive RXP remains a significant problem.

 

[PraetorPlato]

If we assume each quest takes 20 minutes and an additional 10 minutes for travel and recruitment, how many quests can you complete in a day?
Even if you play for 2 hours a day, you can only manage 4 quests in a day.

That's the problem—that's 3-4x longer than necessary. In a good group, RXP of 1k/min before pot including town time is very reasonable (so abt half a million a week assuming a bit under 2 hours/day).

The reaper grind is very very reasonable compared to the racial grind—I find that in the time it takes me to do a life, I can get comfortably half a million rxp on a toon, million if I have a long session with a great group or two.

 

[GrizzlyOso]

The issue with Reaper isn't about gear or game balance, but the absurd amount of RXP required.
The problem lies in the nonsensical balance that demands constantly spinning the hamster wheel known as TR, while stacking Delving Bonuses and guzzling EXP pots.

If we assume each quest takes 20 minutes and an additional 10 minutes for travel and recruitment, how many quests can you complete in a day?
Even if you play for 2 hours a day, you can only manage 4 quests in a day.
The Reaper system itself is designed for individuals who can continuously spin the hamster wheel, surrounded by companions, and play a lot every day.

Particularly in an environment where the active player count is decreasing, making party formation difficult and resulting in more solo play, the continued demand for such foolishly excessive RXP remains a significant problem.

Your point isn't half bad but estimating 30 minutes per quest is *very off base with how ... some? people play. (For some definition of some)

 

[rabidfox]

If we assume each quest takes 20 minutes and an additional 10 minutes for travel and recruitment, how many quests can you complete in a day?
Even if you play for 2 hours a day, you can only manage 4 quests in a day.

Most quests don't take that long once you know them and are comfortable moving fast. For leveling, most quests are well below 10 minutes; even quests like madstone only takes about 8 to 9 minutes(as long as people know how to split). At cap, 2 hours of gameplay would be me doing a full saga or two and maybe a few other quests on r10. But I also know people that'll take 45 minutes to do quests that I do in under 5 minutes solo; there's a wide variety of what people do and how they do stuff; as long as they're having fun then there's no right nor wrong way to it.

 

[nenetteblackmoor]

Your point isn't half bad but estimating 30 minutes per quest is *very off base with how ... some? people play. (For some definition of some)

You should try playing only in public matches once.
The answer is there.

 

[GrizzlyOso]

You should try playing only in public matches once.
The answer is there.

What's that even mean? Do you mean pugs? I play almost exclusively in pugs, I have one single guildie.