Reaver guide U16.2 - For Noobs

[zolander]

A detail guide to Reaver ( Update 16 )
Hello Peeps

1. Whats the reaver? and what is the role of an reaver?
Reaver is an brutal dual-wielded orc warrior, the Reaver is capable to take much damage and deal massive damage to foes.
Primary role is Damage burst and secondary is tankish.

2. Starting a reaver
Making infamy on a new reaver is pretty tricky, but its not impossible like the WL ( lol )
So Start with doing the Main quests at Gramsfoot, head out to DG and continue to keep quests.
If the main action is somewhere at moors or Lagilliath try to avoid that till you reach r5 ( you dont want to feed the freeps right) ?
Reaching Rank 5 shouldnt take more then 2 Days. By rank5 you should be able to join raids and do some effect, tho you still not able to solo.
Easiest tactic would be jumping in a fight when someone is near death. You can charge in and get some nice infamy if you get a nice timed DS.
Reach r6 and you should be able to solo some freeps. Tho be carefull newbie, Freeps are OP nowadays.

3. Corruption Traits

Corruptions are very important of your character once you reach r5.
Okay, so corruptions are a hard thing to get around, each player has different tastes and opinions on them, its all about diffrent play styles

My current build for soloing
6 Mastery / HFP2 / HFP1 / HFD2 / 2 CRIT / DFP2

Tankish/Wrath Spammers
5 Mits / 3 Crit D / HFP1 / HFP2 / HFD2 / DFP2 ( could be nice for you new reavers )

Mixed
6 Mastery / 3 Crit D / HFP2 / HFP1 / HFD2 ( Very Nice build for solo players )

In raids Where enemy Teams have Those OP healing minis/RKs/beos
6 Mastery / 2 crit raitings / 1DFP2 / 1DFH2 / 1HFP2 / 1HFP1

And I recommend you ofc to buy permanent Corruptor Services item at the Special Items trader. This item lets you access the Corruptor everywhere
This is very usefull since we ( reavers ) dont have an 24/7 Trait build. You will mostly Change your build everyday in diffrent fights. And its boring to go back and fourth to the corruptor just to change your current build.
You will understand this later on when u get to known the Fights as a reaver.

4. Tactics

Spinning :
This, noobs, is a thing that will confuse your foes
If your a Keyturner
Just hold down both mouse buttons, and press A or D, depending which way you want to go.
This is a bit tricky, Run forward with W and then D ( right ) or A (Left ) depending on witch side you standing at and Then S to go back, This will make an circle forcing your target to run around you
If you're a mouseturner
Turn with your mouse.

Cutting Animations :
This is good tactic for any Reaver's DPS speed. Makes a great combo of 2 of your most high damaging attacks.
Example: Enter combat in a 1v1, pop debuffs etc, then start with the combo of: Ravage + Gut punch, then Thrash and Disarm.
The reason this is used is because if you pop gut punch after using a skill, it ignores the animation of said skill and goes straight on to the animation of gut punch, which is really quite fast.
The same goes to disarm. If you pop Ravage, which is the skill with the longest animation, then pop gut punch, it will remove the animation of ravage making for a quick skill
Then we have Lacerate/jaggedcut + Resilience, this will cut the animation too, and we have Blood fire, witch cut an animation too lol.

Charging :
Charing into a bunch of freeps is art
just get the right position and know what you're gonna do before going in there. Before charging in always remember to choose a target, and just nuke it with whatever you have.
Best to attack is a hunter, mini or RK. If the odd chance that someone is healing your target, you're not gonna take it solo. Try and run back to a safety

Dismounting freeps :
Charge -> Blade toss -> Ravage -> Gut punch
Charge for the 200% speed, blade toss the target to slow it down, Ravage + gut punch to dismount it

5. 1v1s
Basics :
Alright, so I'll tell you the basic rules of sparring.
At your spar area, there'll be players, 1v1ing ofc. To engage yourself in a spar, jump at the player, if they jump back, that means they accepted the Challenge, dont forget to give them time to enable any buffs they need to, you charge and you kill.

Rules?
There arent any rules, just nerfing yourself. Like there are people who use CDs and there are people who dont. Never Heal in a spar unless target heals up, so what do you have for healing skills? Against the odds and your POT skill, and ofc Wrath.
Meaning of nerfing yourself is to make the fight "Fair" and more intresting. Your CDs as a reaver is Impale, wrath and DS.

Rotation :
Charge -> Blade toss -> Ravage -> Gut Punch -> Sundering Blow -> Upper Hand -> Hamstring -> Dust -> Sudden strikes -> Lacerate -> Resilience -> Mutilation -> Blood of Fire ( if you dont have it on )
-> ( By this time Ravage and Gut Punch is up ) Ravage -> Gut punch -> Thrash -> Disarm -> Redebuff With Upper Hand, dust and Hamstring, and then start again with SS.
Btw If there's LM tar around, save your Resilience, because you need to be ready to use Resilience as soon as it's needed. Currently there seems to be a bug with Resilience where it doesn't always remove slows. not sure if they Fixed it so far

1v1 Tips
Champions - It's a DPS vs DPS fight. Disarm if at all possible and debuff with Blinding Dust, and dont forget to keep spinning and jumping through them to break up their attacks
Burglers - If a burgler puts on evade, try to delay till it runs out 30 seconds later.
Minstrels - Always keep your debuffs, and if they use heals, run away or keep fighting a fight that will take forever.
Loremasters - Easy target ( atleast for me ) unless they spam heals. Save the pots for the mezzes and roots instead of using them on the stuns
Hunter - Use trees and rocks to your advantage to close the distance, run in circles around them and do your best to kill them. By the way, if they are yellow traited, your dead ( Havent fought a yellow huntar so far with the 1sec CD Pots, I will update this later on )
Captains - I love fighting red Cappys, easy and fun, nothing to add, expect killing their pet
Wardens - Well if they spam light bleeds, try to find an cliff and jump down and sucide, jk jk jk ... Just keep keep debuffs on, have your bleeds on, and Impale, 1 impale should take it down to -50% morale, then just boom, DS, and it should be dead, I dont thin Wardens use NS in 1v1... but who knows
RKs - Easy and nice, just like the mini, keep your debuffs on and save your pots
Guardians - Easy kill if they wont heal, keep the debuffs always on... ALWAYS

1v1 Without Bleeds
1v1ing without any bleeds aint something easy, you wont be using any bleeds, no impale, no dust, no disarm, no DS and suck stuff, only you ... SB - Upper hand - Jagged cut ( untraited ) SS - Resilience - GP - Ravage- serration - and suck.
There is one Rotation that I usually go with ... I start off with Upper Hand - Severing strike - Resilience - Serration - Ravage - Gut punch - Sundering blow - Sudden strikes - Jagged cut ( untraited ) And so on.'

6. What do I want from Turbine as a Reaver?
I want Impale to be effective as it was before it was nerfed, it feels like the reaver have no more meaning in raid fight, I dont think there is anything else I want, expect balancing game overall, but that wont happen, right?

7. About me
I am a big fan of lotro since 2008. My main account got banned life time at 2012 imladris server for trolling. And I came back 2013 for the love of the witch king.
I am a full time reaver player, never liked the other MP classes
If you have any questions you can find me at Landroval server, Havent been acive for some time now, so I am mostly offline, but lets thanks lotro for adding a creep mail, so mail me whatever questions you have, I have tons of quest items to give, so dont be shy to ask.

OBS : It feels like Crit rat is bugged for us reavers, only reason why I am not using it anymore, I feel 6 mastery is more effective, sometimes I change to 5 Mastery andD DFP2 for 1v1s.
If you're having Power problems, just trait the 10%+ Powerr, pretty nice boost.
And, I recommend you eating the -4% Incoming Dmg, more effective then the 5% dmg boost.

And for Last, Thanks for reading my guide, I hope it helped. Like I said above, if you have any questions, just ask, and if anything needs to be added, please tell me by replying
Cheers! GoldenReaver From landy!