The Reaper XP problem

[Fizban]

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.

I hear what you're saying but that is entirely not accurate. In fact, the scope of people I run with on Khyber run Reaper from R1 through R10 from level 4 to level 32. We almost always have the majority of LFMs up in heroic, epic, and legendary in reaper.

Nothing you wrote is true on Khyber.

 

[DBZ]

I would be excited to log grind trade and work the systems again something to do

MD pack make quest gear bta oe raid gear btc oe or leave that out done ssg gets there cut

 

[Dunspartacus]

Maybe they could do something like a reaper leaderboard every month for some cosmetic rewards or a statue in the hall for that month? It might not even have to be RXP gained, it could be like timed runs through X quest on X skull, or a doom reaper kill count, or a "kill quest/raid boss on X skull" bounty board that changes each kill, or some such.

Maybe reaper TRing where you give up X reaper exp for a feat which gives stats, or damage vs reapers, or a stack of crowns that stacks up higher and higher each time you TR or something.

I just don't like the idea of increasing the already massive grind for people who aren't at cap or for new players in order to benefit the top %, especially when a non-zero number of that top % is already complaining that R10 is too easy and would probably throw a fit if the reaper trees got even more power.

(Disclaimer: This post made by a player with only 88 RP who gets bodied in R8+ almost every time she tries it and is therefore very slow at gaining them, some biased may have been used).

 

[Redoubt]

1. If you don't like to group, then you are far less likely to be able to run high reaper and get points fast. But if you don't group, why would it matter???
2. As others have said, you don't need past lives to get reaper xp. In fact, I've recently begun work on a new character and started out by working on reaper xp first. Each life I'd level at R1 and then find people to run legendary R4 with. Sometimes I'd tag along on higher reaper.
3. Don't want to be carried but still want to get reaper xp at the rate of the big boys.... ah, sorry, but it will be like that sometimes. One day, you will be the one carrying someone else who is new.
4. You don't need latest and greatest gear. The character I'm working on is wearing sharn and feywild. Pick a gearset and stick with it. Using my example, run sharn and feywild each life on R1 or R2 until you build your gearset. Then you can up it to R4... then...
5. Don't change build each life. Make a quality gear set and learn to play a build. Get 6 or 9 past lives with it (or even more.) Racial past lives are more valuable (imo) for a new character than heroic. As an example, I've been playing as a warlock. I've got 3x dragonborn, 3x tiefling, 3x Warlock, and I'm working on half elf lives. You will be carried less because you have your gear and you know how to play the build. You will advance faster for the same reasons.
6. I got my wings at life 15. No repeats. Just running what I consider the easier reapers and joining groups. I actually recommend not trying to solo LRxp. Its a slog. Each person you add makes it half a hard. If you are trying to solo, you will get frustrated and want to quit so much sooner.

 

[Fizzix]

The fact that Devs with nerf from orbit any first life build/class combo that a relatively normal person could play without a full chest of twink gear in mid reaper to some proficiency, prevents the people who know about them from posting them and the people who need to know from learning about them.

When I find "synergies", albeit rarely cause I'm not a super duper build guru, I tell no one.

 

[Br4d]

The fact that Devs with nerf from orbit any first life build/class combo that a relatively normal person could play without a full chest of twink gear in mid reaper to some proficiency, prevents the people who know about them from posting them and the people who need to know from learning about them.

When I find "synergies", albeit rarely cause I'm not a super duper build guru, I tell no one.

About 90% of those nerfs are planned demolitions after a fairly random period in which DDO releases a completely OP thing with full knowledge beforehand that it is such.

 

[rabidfox]

relatively normal person could play without a full chest of twink gear in mid reaper to some proficiency

Expecting people to have a decent build and well setup gear for mid+ skulls is a reasonable thing IMO. On HC (I know people hate these examples), it took about a week farming to gear up a character to do r4's (doing an hour or two a night of elites to get gear). If folks expect to use a flavor of the month overpowered build that works without gear then they shouldn't be surprised when it gets nerf'd.

 

[Fizzix]

Expecting people to have a decent build and well setup gear for mid+ skulls is a reasonable thing IMO. On HC (I know people hate these examples), it took about a week farming to gear up a character to do r4's (doing an hour or two a night of elites to get gear). If folks expect to use a flavor of the month overpowered build that works without gear then they shouldn't be surprised when it gets nerf'd.

I was being somewhat facetious, youre correct, you should have farmed up some decent blues if your hopping in mid reaps, not necessarily everything is best in slot or raid gear, but at least a well thought attempt.

I was just voicing my dislike of how poorly "class balance" is handled. The devs do not have a feathered touch, its mostly scorched earth.

 

[Ying]

I couldn't care less about leaderboards.

 

[rabidfox]

I couldn't care less about leaderboards.

Me too. But there's some people that love them and it would motivate them. Just like some love cosmetics and some that don't care. I think the more stuff SSG can encompass for appealing to lots of different folks, the better. I'm not 100% sure what I'd want to appeal to me. Bonus reaper frags? Being able to pick/choose the curse of my choice for an item? Something new like earning unique boosts for gear? Quarterly buffs from having done objectives? IDK, there's likely something that could spark joy in me on that end.

 

[Br4d]

In my opinion the real tragedy of DDO is that it has an almost unique character building system that would be attractive to most of the people who play now and very attractive to new players. However that unique build system is so overlayered with other systems that the confusion level for new players is out of control. Then when they understand the deal it drives most of them screaming into the parking lot.

It is *not* normal to setup an MMO with a multi-year grind just to get to semi-normal among veteran players.

Note that this has nothing to do with game knowledge or play skill. Anybody who puts in the time required will get to both thresholds pretty easily.

 

[Fizzix]

Honestly I think the best thing they could do is make an additional 4th tree that you can spend points, enabled only after all the traditional trees are completely filled, per advancement step 4, 9, 10, 15, 17, 21 25 & 30, that allow you to buff specific members of your group similar to how a artificer can mark a char so that repair works on them.

or maybe available only after you've hit a min RP point.

Guardians buff or something. maybe break it into several different buffs you can buy that have charges. +PPR +MRR +SP +DCs + Dodge + maybe something similar to an auto-heal power, a super enhanced stone skin like alchs get.... The more points you have the more you can boost another player, providing that player has less reaper points and the resultant is below some reasonable cap.

Just a whole smorgasbord of different ability boosts that are really significant, permanent inside the quest, that allow someone with far fewer reaper points to join in, such that if you're way behind your friend group, say a 6th wheel just starting the game, in a higher performing group, these guardian boosts would elevate your required stats to make you not a speed bump. especially if 5 players were applying them to you.

There would have to be a reasonable thought on how to mitigate a whole group turning one caster into a god or something.

Something akin to the Runelords series...

 

[Mickeymouse]

In my opinion the real tragedy of DDO is that it has an almost unique character building system that would be attractive to most of the people who play now and very attractive to new players. However that unique build system is so overlayered with other systems that the confusion level for new players is out of control. Then when they understand the deal it drives most of them screaming into the parking lot.

It is *not* normal to setup an MMO with a multi-year grind just to get to semi-normal among veteran players.

Note that this has nothing to do with game knowledge or play skill. Anybody who puts in the time required will get to both thresholds pretty easily.

That is the best feature and the worst of DDO. I always felt that DDO was fairly unbalanced in a good way even pre-past lifes.

 

[Br4d]

That is the best feature and the worst of DDO. I always felt that DDO was fairly unbalanced in a good way even pre-past lifes.

Multi-classing, feats and enhancement trees give us the ability to create many different interesting builds. The power creep smushes most of them together into the same old mess.

Why exactly does every class and archetype need to do effective AoE damage?

Why exactly do all classes and archetypes need access to effective self-healing?

Why do both categories need to be pushed into the stratosphere on some builds, leading everybody else to demand the same?

It's just a mess right now.

 

[Tosicamir]

You can gear farm effectively on elite. I see plenty of LFMs on legendary elite like "Free XP, farming glove please pass if they drop". So make your own if you're farming a particular item. Or join a guild to find people. Gear farming is something that happens all the time since people switch up builds, or new content introduces new items.

I meant for people looking for Reaper enhanced gear, as that will by it's nature always be a BiS for those who care about such.

 

[JustHavingFunBro]

I came back to this game almost one year ago exactly. I had 1 past life. I learned very quickly that I had to stick to elite until I got more gear. I believe this is the key for new/returning players. Get geared up. And, this can't be overstated, learn the quest. You have no one to blame, if players run ahead of you and you take a wrong turn and get lost, or you run into a beholder, etc. The game is a very forgiving playerbase up to a certain point.

Epic lives are more powerful point for point. Concentrate on getting those. Reaper points come with time. There is zero rush to get 100 reaper points.

Also keep in mind the game is very small and you run into the same people over and over again. Keep your reputation intact. One great way of doing this is not asking where the quest is for your next 15 past lives. That is almost an impossible question to answer for many quest. Look it up on wiki, or again, learn it before you start joining reapers.

 

[Kintaya]

I came back to this game almost one year ago exactly. I had 1 past life. I learned very quickly that I had to stick to elite until I got more gear. I believe this is the key for new/returning players. Get geared up. And, this can't be understated, learn the quest. You have no one to blame, if players run ahead of you and you take a wrong turn and get lost, or you run into a beholder, etc. The game is a very forgiving playerbase up to a certain point.

Epic lives are more powerful point for point. Concentrate on getting those. Reaper points come with time. There is zero rush to get 100 reaper points.

Also keep in mind the game is very small and you run into the same people over and over again. Keep your reputation intact. One great way of doing this is not asking where the quest is for your next 15 past lives. That is almost an impossible question to answer for many quest. Look it up on wiki, or again, learn it before you start joining reapers.

I think a very important thing that a lot of players forget to do: speak up.
If you don't say anything - everyone will just run ahead of you.
If you mention that you're new/just returning after a while - people are more likely (no guarantee) to slow down a bit to help you navigate.

 

[erethizon1]

I hear what you're saying but that is entirely not accurate. In fact, the scope of people I run with on Khyber run Reaper from R1 through R10 from level 4 to level 32. We almost always have the majority of LFMs up in heroic, epic, and legendary in reaper.

Nothing you wrote is true on Khyber.

Nothing I wrote is true for the 6 people you run with. It is true that the vast majority of people that play R10's at legendary consider it a waste of time to run anything higher than R1 as they level up. You see this all the time on most servers. Some of these people even go so far as to complain that "heroic is boring because it is too easy" as these R10 players run R1 just because it is fast. The problem isn't that these people are not capable of higher reaper in heroics, it is that they do not feel like they are getting the reward they need to bother with it because it pales in comparison to what they get at the cap for R10's. There is no good reason to keep it this way and it should be fixed.

 

[DBZ]

The rxp is garbage in heroics n no one cares about heroic gear fix that and they will run it

 

[Br4d]

Nothing I wrote is true for the 6 people you run with. It is true that the vast majority of people that play R10's at legendary consider it a waste of time to run anything higher than R1 as they level up. You see this all the time on most servers. Some of these people even go so far as to complain that "heroic is boring because it is too easy" as these R10 players run R1 just because it is fast. The problem isn't that these people are not capable of higher reaper in heroics, it is that they do not feel like they are getting the reward they need to bother with it because it pales in comparison to what they get at the cap for R10's. There is no good reason to keep it this way and it should be fixed.

Reaper difficulty should not give additional XP over Elite. Reaper already supplies Reaper XP in addition to standard XP. It gives other bonuses as well to loot and of course the trees themselves and lost souls.

This would solve the R1 meta by turning it into an Elite or R1 meta depending on whether you are farming Reaper XP or not.