Anyone else hate Soul Reaper?

[CausalXXLinkXx]

I absolutely hate Soul reaper, and would like the old execute back

[Murdos]

I absolutely hate Soul reaper, and would like the old execute back

Even though Soul Reaper does more damage then a brainless passive?

Oh wait, it's not brainless. I see.

[Snes]

I absolutely hate Soul reaper, and would like the old execute back

Wait, DK's had an execute ability before Soul Reaper? Am I missing something besides the mindless passive damage boost?

[Murdos]

Nope. Only execute we had was Merciless Combat. 12% additional damage to Obliterate, Howling Blast and Frost Strike under 35%.

[Deleted]

I don't PvP, but as an unholy PvE player it's an awesome ability. So what if it has a delay? Hits far harder than a 2h obliterate would and, depending on the fight you could have a minute or more's worth of soul reapers going on... That's a lot of extra damage! Drop them on adds that die quickly during AOE phases and you get a haste boost -there's no real drawback.

[Deleted]

I hate it. Cost runes?

You are unholy :
Mastery is you'r worst stat to upgrade soulreaper dmg.
You don't have killing machine, so the 4p is useless for you.

You are frost :
Mastery is for FROST DAMAGE.
Its RNG , and this means you have to whatch and know when you have killing machine to use Frost reaper, or don't use it cause an obliterate CRIT > Soulreaper non crit.
Its the theory, in pratice : YOU SPAM ALL YOU CAN. Keep a proc (killing machine) means you CAN'T keep them and KEEP SPAMING SKILL (or that means : you will not use it everytime its UP)

Really unique and exciting execute ? real shit !
War : look power bar. push button. job done.
DK : Will i push ? will not ? Ok Killing machine Proc, Wait 5 sec to activate ....
and maybe my next obliterate WILL NOT BE A CRIT cause i use my killing machine proc to soulreaper.
So boring.

A real soulreaper ?
Shadow dmg for unholy and Frost dmg for Frost. (For blood? fuck them.)
Keep the 5 sec cooldow, even more (10! 15!) are fine if you DELETE the 5 sec DOT.
AND OF COURSE : No more RUNES cost.

[Tojara]

It feels awful as Frost.

It feels fine for Blood/Unholy and while you have to plan it WELL ahead it can setup some really nice burst as Unholy if you apply it at the right time.

I'd rather it cost two runes as frost and be a replacement for obliterate when we hit the 35% marker. Would feel a lot more natural.

[Maxweii]

This is an issue that bothers me alot about the death knight community in general. I feel its a very well designed ability with very little cons associated with it. This will likely be a pretty big post since i'm going to go through every spec as well as some general notes on it.

Soul Reaper is a unique execute because of its delay. Unlike every other execute in the game, you can use it preemptively and with proper timing, can create massive burst damage. PvE prediction depends largely on how much total health a boss has. Sometimes it may be worth it to use on a target with 37% health because they will be dps'd below 35% when it triggers, other times it may be useful on targets with 70% or more health. It really just depends. On a fight like lei shi heroic, one can soul reaper the adds almost immediately and get it to trigger......

Shrunk this for it's length, but this is just an amazing summary of what Soul Reaper is. While I was in the beta I LOVED getting this while leveling, it was a great move to get and it was and still is really strong and hard hitting for all specs. Yes 2hander frost will have a bit more complication with it compared to the others, but honestly they should not change the execute of the class to accommodate 1 spec.

I absolutely hate Soul reaper, and would like the old execute back

Now to continue on, yes before we had an execute. It was for frost, a spec of death knight's. This along with how Unholy had no execute to be heard of, made Frost significantly more powerful and more often used due to it's high burst/execute dps. Now that Soul Reaper is in, it gives the class an execute.

If they were ever to get rid of Soul Reaper honestly it would be for frost only, as for Unholy it hits like a truck, and for blood it can be a very powerful and simple to use alternate to Heart Strike/Blood Boil. They gave us an execute, something a lot of Unholy death knights wanted for so long, and they didn't just give us a boring passive or make Frost/Blood QQ over how only Unholy gets it, they gave it to us all and made it "mostly" the same for all specs.

Imagine if they gave it to only Unholy, Frost dk's would have a trip complaining about it, saying it's unfair to give it to Frost as it is so strong ect ect, and this thread would instead be a thread about "Should Frost also get Soul Reaper?"

Now, really I must say this. If you hate how Soul Reaper interacts with 2hander Frost, why not go 1hander, or go Unholy? Set aside the complaints of Unholy is a pet class, I want it boiled down to if you complain so much about something that is in fact something you "should" be doing to max your dps, why do you stay as that spec and continue to hate it.

Yes, a good idea. Same for scourge strike and hearthstrike and thats fine !

Just a question, is this a troll or are you serious?

Why would Scourge Strike costing 2 runes EVER be good? It wouldn't feel natural in the Unholy rotation, and would totally mess up Unholy dk's whom have played for a long time, I would despise that as a change. With Heart Strike it wouldn't bother me as much as I don't main as Blood, but it would still be a horrid change to the Blood playstyle now.

[Deleted]

I'd rather it cost two runes as frost and be a replacement for obliterate when we hit the 35% marker. Would feel a lot more natural.

Yes, a good idea. Same for scourge strike and hearthstrike and thats fine !

---------- Post added 2013-02-14 at 04:45 AM ----------

Why would Scourge Strike costing 2 runes EVER be good?

Nah :
For frost : 1 Unholy + 1 Frost (like obliterate).
For Unholy : 1 Unholy (like scourge strike)
For blood : 1 Blood (like hearthstrike)

[Nangz]

I hate it. Cost runes?

You are unholy :
Mastery is you'r worst stat to upgrade soulreaper dmg.
You don't have killing machine, so the 4p is useless for you.

You are frost :
Mastery is for FROST DAMAGE.
Its RNG , and this means you have to whatch and know when you have killing machine to use Frost reaper, or don't use it cause an obliterate CRIT > Soulreaper non crit.
Its the theory, in pratice : YOU SPAM ALL YOU CAN. Keep a proc (killing machine) means you CAN'T keep them and KEEP SPAMING SKILL (or that means : you will not use it everytime its UP)

Really unique and exciting execute ? real shit !
War : look power bar. push button. job done.
DK : Will i push ? will not ? Ok Killing machine Proc, Wait 5 sec to activate ....
and maybe my next obliterate WILL NOT BE A CRIT cause i use my killing machine proc to soulreaper.
So boring.

A real soulreaper ?
Shadow dmg for unholy and Frost dmg for Frost. (For blood? fuck them.)
Keep the 5 sec cooldow, even more (10! 15!) are fine if you DELETE the 5 sec DOT.
AND OF COURSE : No more RUNES cost.

Unholy response:

The 4 piece lets you soul reaper below 45% instead of 35%. Its amazing for unholy.

Frost response:

I don't really understand what you're trying to say. Soul reaper is an amazing ability even for frost, the only hard part about it is that RE is rng and that is what most 2h frost dks tend to use. The fact that it doesn't benefit from frost's mastery is fine, it still deals high damage. Nobody complains that obliterate doesn't scale with mastery.....

KM being used on soul reaper only gives more benefit to soul reaper. Soul Reaper hits harder than a hit obliterate so a crit soul reaper would hit harder than a crit obliterate for half the rune cost. Is it boring? I think its a pretty nice change. Pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for people who complain about soul reaper not hitting hard enough for 2h frost. (Which in my opinion is a more valid complaint than the rune cost).

[Cuppy]

IMO It's quite annoying. I forgot it all the goddamn time. Better find a macro which Obliterate normally, but if the target is at <30%, it would throw SR in instead..

[Deleted]

All the people whining are either terrible at pvp (like 75% of the wow base population, made up number to explain my point), don't pvp at all, play frost in pvp or doesn't know how to play UH.
Trinket + SR on a target with say 120k necros = guaranteed kill, i've seen 300k crits with zerk on shitty geared people and do 150/160k on full T2 people everyday. Granted it doesnt crit often since our crit rate is low, still 80+k hit is more than welcome.
I cannot count the number of times a healer delayed his heal, fake casted while having NS on his face thinking he was fine because i used my interrupt/silence before or trying to only use instants to keep him up and get shot in the foot for not paying attention. Happens to good players because SR is the god of pressuring low health targets.

[NeverStop]

I find Soul Reaper very easy to use as DW Frost. Every 6 seconds just replace the next HB with SR if it's a single target fight.

[Deleted]

IMO It's quite annoying. I forgot it all the goddamn time. Better find a macro which Obliterate normally, but if the target is at <30%, it would throw SR in instead..

It's 35%! Set up a WeakAura that plays a chime when a hostile target falls under 36%... And another that, when a target is below 35% and you have the runes available lights up your soul reaper button.

[Kiqjaq]

And another that, when a target is below 35% and you have the runes available lights up your soul reaper button.

I go for this one (minus the rune check, I track runes myself, the glow flickering on and off as I fight would only annoy).
I couldn't seem to get it to only glow for low health enemies at first, but now I rather like watching people in Brawler's Guild and telling them that my Soul Reaper wants to eat them.

[JGWentworth]

A lot of people keep comparing our execute to a warrior's

if you like their execute so much why are you playing a DK? I know that can sound rude but its not meant to be, it's a legitimate question. Classes are different, classes have different abilities. If they were all the same would this game really be fun?

[Senathor]

My buddy thinks it's the coolest thing since sliced bread. He loves throwing it on somebody. Walking away, and watching them blow up.

Then he is also my buddy.

[Spamor]

Unholy's PvP soul reaper usage is interesting as well. It requires quick thinking an adaptation since it is not always the correct choice. It competes with primarily Necrotic Strike and Scourge Strike and while it is almost always better than Scourge Strike, it isn't always better than Necrotic Strike. For instance when fighting a caster, keeping up the 25% casting slow from necrotic strike may be more important than getting soul reaper off. I personally love the decision making involved with it and hope it doesn't change.

What?
5sec is forever in pvp(arena). People die in that time from 100 to 0. And you will only use deathrunes for soul reaper if there is no healer around.
The post reads like your applying pve to pvp.

[Ssith]

my only issue with it is that it allows me to use it before the 35% mark - i have accidentally hit it before, it annoys me. other than that, it's a fine ability.

going to be extra fine once the KM change goes live, too =)

[Tojara]

Like I mentioned earlier I like it in PvP (in general), blood PvE and unholy PvE. I play 2 handed from with RE and it just feels really clunky to use. I don't 'hate' the ability and I understand that it's an increase in damage, but it still doesn't make it all that fun to use when playing 2 handed frost at least.

For those that don't like it in PvP you're probably doing it wrong. If you're using it at or around a low health range it's not going to be all that useful. The delay on the ability is a disadvantage for those treating it like a warrior execute that you simply mash once the target hits the desired threshold. The shear fact you can use it WELL before 35% approaches is actually pretty powerful for bursting if you plan it properly. Stacking necrotics on a target as unholy, applying soul reaper around 50-60% bringing your target at or below 35% right before it checks for health percent can be a real game changer. I've won plenty of arena games with a well timed soul reaper due to peoples failure to react to the damage. A normal hit soul reaper as unholy in PvP with more incoming damage will cause CDs or land a kill depending on how low you get them, a critical soul reaper right around 35% is probably going to instantly net you a kill on a lot of classes.

I do like the ability in PvP. I just don't find the ability all that interesting/fun as 2 handed frost as do a lot of people.