I've been told it's worth it to autotrain and spec 41 soulrending, giving a lifetap that delves for ~20 more damage and returns 90% life (instead of the 70%).

Can anyone who has experience with this help me out? How much extra damage do you actually do? How much health do you think you are regaining every ~30 seconds using either the level 41 or 36 spells? Are the lifetaps often resisted?

I know on live most people would not spend above 36 points in soul, opting for higher parry instead. What makes things different here? I noticed that you don't get to use the top 2 tiers of each spell (the highest lifetap you have and the one before it) as was the case on live. Does this have any bearing on why people seem to like higher soulrending here? To me it seems like since you're getting less out of the line with fewer spell options then it would be more beneficial to get higher defenses through parry.

Opinions from people with EXPERIENCE? Any numbers you could post with regards to differencs in damage and health regained would be appreciated. Thanks!

Dont AT, its a ******. In general that spell is a rupter, not something that would keep u alive ages, and in that sense, have any real meaning to what level it is.
And yes, higher parry is the way to go,
But ofc, there will be people that disagree

Many will tell you squeezing every bit of performance out of your toon is worth it. Im one of them.

More damage (no matter how trivial) and more life returned (again, no matter how trivial) is not a bad thing. Also the higher level on the spell means less resists.

Also, im fairly certain Soul quench damage is moderately affected by soulrend spec, and even more influenced by piety.

Do you NEED to AT to have a solid reaver? No. Will you benefit from it? Yes.

DarkKnghtZ wrote:Many will tell you squeezing every bit of performance out of your toon is worth it. Im one of them.

More damage (no matter how trivial) and more life returned (again, no matter how trivial) is not a bad thing. Also the higher level on the spell means less resists.

Also, im fairly certain Soul quench damage is moderately affected by soulrend spec, and even more influenced by piety.

Do you NEED to AT to have a solid reaver? No. Will you benefit from it? Yes.

have you actualy AT-d a reaver ?

I did, even in a mildly set grp from the start its the worst pain in the arse ever.

All that pain does not pay off in RvR later on.

How is leveling with crush or thrust weapons instead of flex "the worst pain in the arse"? Flex isnt great until 50 anyhow. I wont comment on usefullness of AT for a reaver, because mine is only lvl 34, but so far it has been no problem at all to simply fight with another type of weapon.

crush is an easy weapon to level up on and even rvr in braemar and wilton (the 2 style 6 sec stun is hard to top)

So is there anyone here who actually plays a reaver spec'd with 41 soul? Do you feel like the lifetap actually does much for you in a 1v1 situation? Was it worth it?

I didn't AT my reaver, and I'm regretting it all the way.
Our free rr5 should depend on a combination of composite soulrend spec of 51 for variance, and piety for extra dmg. At least on live.
Haven't tested it yet. Need to get to rr5 first. =)

Besides, your main non-positional dmg source is your off block chain.
So speccing your parry as low as possible is required to get any decent blocks off.

At the beginning I thought the same way as you, but form a lvl 50 point of view, you spend how many hours leveling your toon to 50, and how many actually playing a lvl 50?
If you compare those two, you'll see that its actually worth the AT, at least to 44.

Braxis wrote:Besides, your main non-positional dmg source is your off block chain.
So speccing your parry as low as possible is required to get any decent blocks off.

... its actually worth the AT, at least to 44.

that.

if you are in a position that you are actually parrying, that means you and your enemy are facing eachother; meaning you are not spamming leviathan. now you're either hoping for an ally to save you, or you want to dish damage up-front, and the best way to do this is an off-block chain. since block checks are performed after evade and parry, you actually want your parry to be lower.
in reality it is not so simple, but it's at least one more reason to drop parry for SR.

as for AT-ing, it's definitely worth it if have the will. at least when you are solo you don't get to use positionals on mobs and your anytimes
with flex suck balls. if you know how to get in groups easily autotraining should not hinder you at all.


mind you I don't play reaver at all so this is just theorycraft LOL.

I AT'ed to 40, specced SR to 36. Was able to lvl okay with guildies/group, but FREAKIN' LOVED my reaver after I was able to lifetap (and this from only a side positional, levi will be even more fun).

In my experience, which is not extensive, the higher lifetap will not help much (41 vs 36).

So to sum, I only AT'ed to 40, which lessened my parry anyways and still gave me all the other tools I needed.

Since were at the subject (sorry for the slight hijack), can any of you rr5+ reavers confirm the mechanics of our free rr5 ability here on uthgard?

As far as I know, on live, soul quench should use SR for variance (up to 51?) and piety for extra dmg, and was able to crit with wild power and dual threat and so forth.

Does this work like that here too?

And whats your usual dmg that you do with soul quench, and the life return?
Cause it says modified up or down by the reavers SR lvl, so it should go higher then 250 delve if you're composite SR spec was lets say 50...

Yes, Ive autotrained a reaver on Kay way back in the day.

Leveling with crush is very easy. Find undead, preferably skeletons, (there are plenty at various levels) and you have a 2 part stun, your procs and lifetaps doing more damage, and killing very quickly.

Someone else pointed out something very sage-like. How long do you spend leveling? How long do you play at 50? Why would you NOT want to squeeze every bit of performance out of your toon for the time that you will mostly play at? Said it before, ill say it again:

Do you NEED to AT? No. Will the reaver who DOES at be better off than the one who doesnt? YES.

Simple scenario: If you have a close fight with a purge-after-slam opponent and its one on one (yes, they happen), then that lifetap might be the 70+ HP that keeps you alive. The lower level one will be resisted more often and give less life back. Sure it wont happen often. Probably even less than 1% of your one on ones. But, given the choice to have it or not have it, why would you choose to not? Also the Soul Quench damage going up is nothing to sneeze at since you can hit an entire zerg with it.

DarkKnghtZ wrote:Also the Soul Quench damage going up is nothing to sneeze at since you can hit an entire zerg with it.

Yea, but hit for how much exactly? =)
I want to know so I can have my final template as near to perfection as possible.

Anyone else got any ideas how soul quench works here?