Vaal Reave

well.. since noone seems to care

feedback about this skill is short: 'meh'

it breaks normal reave stacks (or it seems so, but im pretty sure it does)
it does 'random' damage to 'random' targets - this concept does not work early game - due to low dmg, and late game - due to low dmg. you are always better when you can remove dmg source from the scene, not only wound it.

used it several times while strolling trough some maps. quickly forgot that i have it

comparing to VSpectral Throw or VMolten Shell this vaal gem is sadly a dust collector

please but really please re-balance/re-do VReave, VGround Slam and VGlacial Hammer

all these 3 are below 'meh' level

In short: For a character already using normal Reave, Vaal Reave is awesome! It's at least as fun and effective as Vaal Cyclone (at least for me it is).


At first I was underwhelmed by the skill, but then realized that its main purpose is not to deal huge damage, but instead to synergize with normal Reave. It allows you to build Reave stacks above the normal limit of 8, up to 16, and, it shares the stacks with normal Reave, so you can retain all 16 stacks as long as you keep hitting monsters with your normal Reave skill frequently enough.

I have Vaal Reave linked with Multistrike, Increased Area of Effect and Life Gain on Hit, that way it covers pretty much the whole screen in an instant and usually builds Reave stacks up to 16. On my normal Reave I'm usually also using Increased Area of Effect, so that even the normal Reave continues to cover almost the whole screen with 16 stacks.


Part of what makes Vaal Reave work is that it needs "only" 32 souls (kills) on Merciless instead of 64 that Vaal Cyclone for example needs. With 32 souls per use it can be used frequently enough. If it would be 64 souls like Vaal Cyclone, I'm not sure if I'd sacrifice the sockets for it. Vaal Reave is an utility skill that gives you a power up which you can keep up as long as you keep actively attacking monsters, whereas Vaal Cyclone is more of an atom bomb that you drop occasionally to wreck the whole screen.


So, thank you GGG for an awesome skill.


Edit: Oh right, it does have one big downside: It's almost useless for a character that does not use normal Reave. But I think that's fine, because there is already Vaal Cyclone for example, which is great for many melee characters.

and how does this work in practice? Reave stacks last for 2 seconds (And cannot be 'increased duration'). while i was wrong about vReave using up normal charges and did not notice 16charges it is because any gap between mob groups and charges are gone

i have a lvl 81 reaver. tried vReave briefly and i know why i havent noticed all this - because it is simply impossible to keep up the charges during normal gameplay unless someone manages to roll amazingly dense map

since you can only use vaal reave in a 4 link, it doesnt do any dmg at all. keeping reave stacks up might work for 1 or maybe 2 rooms but then you have to run to find more monsters...

not very positive about this skill tbh.

For my crit Reave build, this flask helps a lot:

20% quality Surgeon's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline
(6 second duration, 60-70% movement speed, recharges 1 charge on critical hit)

For non-crit, Perpetual (faster recharge) or Ample (more charges) prefixes should work well too.

Try Increased Area of Effect support gem with Vaal Reave. That way it covers pretty much the whole screen and is much more likely to hit more monsters, building up the Reave stacks up to 16 or close to it. I also use AoE support for my main Reave skill, it's so nice to have a main attack that covers most of the screen. Sometimes I use Concentrated Effect, but it's difficult to keep the stacks with it.


My crit Reave build is very successful in using Vaal Reave. It works in all maps (so far been up to 72 maps), but it really excels in high density areas. It's not like I can keep 16 stacks up all the time, but that's not the point. I use Vaal Reave actively, but it's still more or less a situational skill. When I see a lot of monsters, I pop Vaal Reave which results in ~12-16 Reave stacks, and then continue using my main Reave skill, which now covers most of the screen thanks to the additional stacks and AoE support gem. I keep a Quicksilver of Adrenaline up most of the time while using Reave, which helps a lot in keeping up the stacks.

The main downside I have noticed with Vaal Reave is that after using it, I tend to leave some loot behind while frantically sprinting to the next pack of monsters before the stacks expire, thus having to return to pick the items afterwards.

I can imagine that not everyone likes Vaal Reave, but at least for me it works like a charm and makes the build much more fun.

vaal reave should give you instant 16 stacks, then it would be great, even if you dont hit stuff...

I tried to build it into my crit claw reaver, but the 2 sec reave uptime is not worth the hastle imho.

Skill is ok as it is since it can be used to go over normal reave cap. If not for this it'd be useless.

However, is this behavior intended? Seems likely to be a bug.

I use this to generate 16 stacks for reave in the 1 month race on my crit reave claw shadow.

I have devoted a simple 3-link for this: Multistrike to get more hits out of it and faster attacks to speed up the animation:

I then try and keep the 16 stacks up for as long as i can or until vaal reave has recharged. It recharges pretty quickly. Clear speed for reave is quite amazing with 16 stacks of aoe carnage.

The tactic is usually clear the area and then pick up the loot from the area. If you try and do both you will just lose the stacks.

This skill does really nice damage also but i see that as a bonus. The purpose for me is generating those 16 stacks and try and keep them up as much as possible.

The only real issues i have with this skill and reave are:

1. The much too short duration to keep stacks up.
2. No visual feedback when stacks are about to vanish.

If it wasn't for this i would give this skill a five out of five rating. As it is now i give it a four out of five.