Thread: How should a burglar approach a reaver

OK... i know burgs are OP... its the only reason my ###### playstyle actually stands a chance in the moors... but i always struggle with high rank reavers.

I hit knives out for the loss of incoming damage, but i guess i just don't know enough about the reaver skills to know how to deal with them.

Rather than go level one, can someone please explain the rank 6 and up reaver skills, what they look like and how to combat them...

Much appreciated

Regards OP burg who is really not that OP lol

Delete burg


Swtich to RK

Typically, you wanna save knives out just when you know the reaver is about to Dev strike you for a huge chunk of morale. Good, experienced burgs can do it to a ffn T lol, so dam annoying . Do this at a lil more than half morale, if you are feeling lucky, do it at half lol.

All you really need to know with reavers rnk 6+:Blood of Fire will inhibit you, just do your best to counter the reflect damage through your damage. Rank 7 Reavers' Blade toss: When a burg uses KO, a good reaver will attempt to kite (switching back and forth through them so not to give up too much positional) for 10 seconds, or use blade toss (since its ranged damage, not melee) and wound pot it off or simply let the duration take its toll.

In conclusion, once you get more experienced with burgs and doing this, you should be able to do fairly well against high ranked reavers. One thing tho, make sure to not use any cds like tng and hips lol, ppl wont be willing to fight you after that (as long as the reaver uses dying rage at rnk 9+ lol, then just hips and laugh).

Hope I could be of help, I only fought burgs, never had one tho; maybe you'll get some experienced burgs to respond later .

Originally Posted by LLCreepJ

Typically, you wanna save knives out just when you know the reaver is about to Dev strike you for a huge chunk of morale. Good, experienced burgs can do it to a ffn T lol, so dam annoying . Do this at a lil more than half morale, if you are feeling lucky, do it at half lol.

All you really need to know with reavers rnk 6+:Blood of Fire will inhibit you, just do your best to counter the reflect damage through your damage. Rank 7 Reavers' Blade toss: When a burg uses KO, a good reaver will attempt to kite (switching back and forth through them so not to give up too much positional) for 10 seconds, or use blade toss (since its ranged damage, not melee) and wound pot it off or simply let the duration take its toll.

In conclusion, once you get more experienced with burgs and doing this, you should be able to do fairly well against high ranked reavers. One thing tho, make sure to not use any cds like tng and hips lol, ppl wont be willing to fight you after that (as long as the reaver uses dying rage at rnk 9+ lol, then just hips and laugh).

Hope I could be of help, I only fought burgs, never had one tho; maybe you'll get some experienced burgs to respond later .

Thanks for the reply +1 rep for some handy tips.
What does blade toss do?
Are there any icons i should be looking out for under there morale bar? What would dying rage look like?
My main way of winning is getting some stuns off however higher ranks tend to have plenty of stun pots. I need to work on my movement technique too. I spend far too much time walking backwards...
Anyone out there have a high rank burg and reaver?

Originally Posted by Glimlioin

Thanks for the reply +1 rep for some handy tips.
What does blade toss do?
Are there any icons i should be looking out for under there morale bar? What would dying rage look like?
My main way of winning is getting some stuns off however higher ranks tend to have plenty of stun pots. I need to work on my movement technique too. I spend far too much time walking backwards...
Anyone out there have a high rank burg and reaver?

regular stun pot = 2 min cooldown.

Reavers (R5+) obtain resilience: allows them to shake off dazes and stuns. 20s CD

One common strategy (admittedly not popular with the reavers themselves) is to kite them with DITE and use your extended trick range to whittle them down spamming disable/counter defense repeatedly. They can't hit you...you can hit them. Sucks for the reaver.


Secondarily, keep them slowed, and use disable on them rather than counter defense to lower their damage and pray you can get enough crits to beat them up. I also like to use Cunning Attack + Aim on them (as long as they don't b/p/e it) because bleeds do not hurt you via blood of fire.

Personally I tend to avoid reavers over r6 unless I absolutely know they are terribad and can beat them.

Originally Posted by timmyloo22546

Reavers (R5+) obtain resilience: allows them to shake off dazes and stuns. 20s CD

1 min CD

Basically, You wanna start with either a aim/lie SS, or CA (either works, I grew fond of the CA though due to bleed crits) after that you want to get counter defense up (if u dont trait it disable could be better) and attempt to get positional with mouse turning while spamming ur basic dmg skills (subtle stab, surprise strike, CA, etc) and make sure to keep the CA bleeds up (they stack if u have the legacy or if one crits and the other doesnt, and the stealth one counts as another) At around 40% of the reavers health u wanna pop KO, and I usually would pop feint attack aim SS at this point too (make sure the SS is positional). Then just dps to your heart's content and u should be fine.
But no guarantees due to the wonderful RNG.

Originally Posted by alex-gab58

1 min CD

Ahh ha so every 45 seconds when i try and use a startling twist they will likely have this skill ready to get out of it. So maybe i should try a riddle quickly first.. see if they are dumb enough to use this skill then twist...

Thanks for the advice and yes i always use cunning attack with aim from stealth now. I have done some investigation and all of the bleed crit for around 170 as well so with an intial crit hit of 500-800 i then get 15 bleeds of 170 odd. That quite often is doing 3000 damage from one hit.
I guess a question i have too is can that be potted?

Originally Posted by alex-gab58

1 min CD

oh, thanks for correcting that. Maybe I was thinking of warleaders snap out of it.

Originally Posted by Glimlioin

Ahh ha so every 45 seconds when i try and use a startling twist they will likely have this skill ready to get out of it. So maybe i should try a riddle quickly first.. see if they are dumb enough to use this skill then twist...

Thanks for the advice and yes i always use cunning attack with aim from stealth now. I have done some investigation and all of the bleed crit for around 170 as well so with an intial crit hit of 500-800 i then get 15 bleeds of 170 odd. That quite often is doing 3000 damage from one hit.
I guess a question i have too is can that be potted?

As far as I know, that damage cannot be potted.

Originally Posted by bennyw2784

As far as I know, that damage cannot be potted.

Yup definitely cant be potted. Only the miss chance portion of dust can be potted from a burg, many burgs like to twist immediately after dust and quite often end up wasting twist to a creep who wound pots the dust quickly. Something to keep in mind for the OP.

Trait counter defense, start with aim/cunning, follow crit chain when it's open, keep up your slow from dust so they can't run, use what stuns you've got, that's important r5+. The fight shouldn't last more than a minute so don't worry about DR. If you need to use Knives Out do it just before you get to 1/2 morale and hit glee right as it's about to wear off. You'll leave the reaver trying to spam DS instead of using other attacks. If you need to use Touch and Go switch your trick to dust, should give you ~65% evade chance and reaver has 20% miss chance, basically giving the reaver only a 15% chance to hit you and that's if he's behind, if not then you add parry in there too.

Over all, reavers below r9 shouldn't really pose an issue if you get the jump from stealth, only above that can really be an issue with the debuffs they can start to stack. All imo at least. And even r9+ one or two cool downs and it's a cake walk.

Originally Posted by Glimlioin

Ahh ha so every 45 seconds when i try and use a startling twist they will likely have this skill ready to get out of it. So maybe i should try a riddle quickly first.. see if they are dumb enough to use this skill then twist...

Thanks for the advice and yes i always use cunning attack with aim from stealth now. I have done some investigation and all of the bleed crit for around 170 as well so with an intial crit hit of 500-800 i then get 15 bleeds of 170 odd. That quite often is doing 3000 damage from one hit.
I guess a question i have too is can that be potted?

On the 3rd CC effect there is already so much DR that your Twist will only be a second or two.

As for going Riddle first, if you don't trait it for the 5s unbreakable, they can just root pot out of it if they have the self damaging ones. If they do that, they can break 3 of your CC effects. Root pot for mez, Stun pot for stun, Resilience for stun.

Against pretty much any reaver I will always start with my Reveal Weakness, LiE my Cunning Attack, Dust, then use Startling Twist and not touch a single other stun or root for the full duration of Startling Twist's cooldown. A lot of the reavers I seem to fight don't carry stun pots so this seems to work fairly well, but if the one you're fighting does then the next thing I would do is Exploit Opening. I never touch Riddle unless the reaver or I am trying to run away.

Originally Posted by Elysiak

Yup definitely cant be potted. Only the miss chance portion of dust can be potted from a burg, many burgs like to twist immediately after dust and quite often end up wasting twist to a creep who wound pots the dust quickly. Something to keep in mind for the OP.

Ahhh very good to know, thanks for all the help people.

I just need to work on my strafe movement now, minimise the time i have my back to the creep. Most reavers tend to run through you, hit you travel 10 metres and then turn and repeat so you only get 1 move off at at time and your crit chain cds out...

if you're running QK i would suggest working on movement so you can stay behind the creep a majority of the time for the extra positional damage which makes a big difference...normally i do this by just running thru the creep and doing quickly doing a complete 180

Im also a fan of using provoke mez with improved feign attack...it buys more time to get positional damage and usually takes 1-2 seconds to break plus another second of them shaking off the stun...and sometimes if your really lucky it wont break until 5 or so seconds after you mez them...ive had that happen a few times against some unfortunate reavers :P

As for the reavers skills...if your not feeling confident yet pot that dust...its a real game changer against the high ranked reavers if you pot it

also as mentioned earlier in the thread its not a bad idea to use knives out right when you hit half morale...the reaver might be spamming their dev strike and with knives out should only hit you for a mere 200 or less :P

altho with practice you wont need to rely on knives out and is best used if the reaver decides to use dying rage instead

Of course if you are running gambler...well too bad i dont use gambler in the moors and half this stuff wont matter to you :P

Just trick kite them and watch them rage.

You don't need knives out, t&g, startling twist or riddle against reavers. Just trait 5 red with capstone, sidestep + improved counter defense.

Use gambler stance for +5% evade.
Reveal weakness first, let the reaver charge. Use dite before the reaver reaches you -> trickrange ftw. Enable autoattack instantly(keybind) followed by subtle stab. Wait for crit or evade, use crit chain, use improved feint attack. Meanwhile you should have lost ~800 morale, now trade your dust debuff against MG and use counter defense after this. Make sure ifa buff remains while doing this. Use aim + cunning attack for the strong dot. Now its really simple. Make sure counter defense is up all the time and just dps by subtle stab, surprise strike, critical chain and flashing blades/ifa. Dont loose your ifa buff by using surprise strike, provoke or cunning attack after you applied the strong critical stealth cunning attack. You can use surprise strike if u are 100% sure u are in position. You will get +~8% dmg boost most of the time this way. I win ~90% of the fights this way, even against r11+ reavers. Its easy if u know the burglar class.

If you are badly geared you can kite the reaver when he disarms you. Or you can pot his dust debuff. If the reaver uses dying rage its ok to use knifes out. Don't use t&g/knifes out/startling twist/riddle against reavers.... only noob burglars use those i win buttons to cover the fact, that they can't play the class

Its even easier if you are traited and geared for gambler.

edit regarding gear:
use 4xDN(fire mitigation), mirkwood crafting gloves(15% chance to get ~80 morale for each incoming hit), stack melee mitigation 12%+.

Originally Posted by gorma_eu

You don't need knives out, t&g, startling twist or riddle against reavers.

you dont need MG, aim or gambler stance either

Originally Posted by gorma_eu

You don't need knives out, t&g, startling twist or riddle against reavers. Just trait 5 red with capstone, sidestep + improved counter defense.

Use gambler stance for +5% evade.
Reveal weakness first, let the reaver charge. Use dite before the reaver reaches you -> trickrange ftw. Enable autoattack instantly(keybind) followed by subtle stab. Wait for crit or evade, use crit chain, use improved feint attack. Meanwhile you should have lost ~800 morale, now trade your dust debuff against MG and use counter defense after this. Make sure ifa buff remains while doing this. Use aim + cunning attack for the strong dot. Now its really simple. Make sure counter defense is up all the time and just dps by subtle stab, surprise strike, critical chain and flashing blades/ifa. Dont loose your ifa buff by using surprise strike, provoke or cunning attack after you applied the strong critical stealth cunning attack. You can use surprise strike if u are 100% sure u are in position. You will get +~8% dmg boost most of the time this way. I win ~90% of the fights this way, even against r11+ reavers. Its easy if u know the burglar class.

If you are badly geared you can kite the reaver when he disarms you. Or you can pot his dust debuff. If the reaver uses dying rage its ok to use knifes out. Don't use t&g/knifes out/startling twist/riddle against reavers.... only noob burglars use those i win buttons to cover the fact, that they can't play the class

Its even easier if you are traited and geared for gambler.

edit regarding gear:
use 4xDN(fire mitigation), mirkwood crafting gloves(15% chance to get ~80 morale for each incoming hit), stack melee mitigation 12%+.

I'm still really not gettin how reavers on the euro servers lose to burgs that dont use startling or riddle, not like they are game changing skills if the reaver is competent and quick with the resilience key, esp considering rank 11s. You are prolly good, just the reavers, not so much lol. Recently though, burgs on my server have been winning outta stealth vs reavers not using any cds (tng, hips) or game changers (knives out), but they still use riddle and twist, dont get why you wouldnt.

Originally Posted by LLCreepJ

I'm still really not gettin how reavers on the euro servers lose to burgs that dont use startling or riddle, not like they are game changing skills if the reaver is competent and quick with the resilience key, esp considering rank 11s. You are prolly good, just the reavers, not so much lol. Recently though, burgs on my server have been winning outta stealth vs reavers not using any cds (tng, hips) or game changers (knives out), but they still use riddle and twist, dont get why you wouldnt.

Maybe EU burgs know what to do unlike americans..

Originally Posted by LLCreepJ

I'm still really not gettin how reavers on the euro servers lose to burgs that dont use startling or riddle, not like they are game changing skills if the reaver is competent and quick with the resilience key, esp considering rank 11s. You are prolly good, just the reavers, not so much lol. Recently though, burgs on my server have been winning outta stealth vs reavers not using any cds (tng, hips) or game changers (knives out), but they still use riddle and twist, dont get why you wouldnt.

Try it without charge, DS, dust, disarm and ask again ;-) of course you won't find every reaver playing like this but it's the same with burgs.. Not everyone leaves startling and riddle out..

Originally Posted by Blynjar

Maybe EU burgs know what to do unlike americans..

Maybe the EU reavers are just stupid?

Originally Posted by Osdorof

Try it without charge, DS, dust, disarm and ask again ;-) of course you won't find every reaver playing like this but it's the same with burgs.. Not everyone leaves startling and riddle out..

Why would you gimp urself is what I don't get? The fight isn't really proving much if you lose to the burg, seeing how you made it harder for yourself to win, same goes with burg. I find that will just engender excuses as to why one lost the fight lol. Use everything at ur disposal that is not a long cd (or unneeded one), but I feel that startling and riddle is needed vs a good reaver that goes all out.

Originally Posted by LLCreepJ

I'm still really not gettin how reavers on the euro servers lose to burgs that dont use startling or riddle, not like they are game changing skills if the reaver is competent and quick with the resilience key, esp considering rank 11s. You are prolly good, just the reavers, not so much lol. Recently though, burgs on my server have been winning outta stealth vs reavers not using any cds (tng, hips) or game changers (knives out), but they still use riddle and twist, dont get why you wouldnt.

Remember that chances of some skills being resistet is a lot lower if u don't use em . Startling twist requires 2 tricks and time. Riddle requires time and one addle which is also very useful in your dps rotaion. I use my time for dps, making sure counter defense is up all the time, don't wasting my time on skills being resistet which i don't need at all. Its not that euro reavers are bad or euro burglar are incredibly good. If the burglar can play, he'll win nearly every 1vs1 against reavers without i win buttons.

Originally Posted by gorma_eu

Remember that chances of some skills being resistet is a lot lower if u don't use em . Startling twist requires 2 tricks and time. Riddle requires time and one addle which is also very useful in your dps rotaion. I use my time for dps, making sure counter defense is up all the time, don't wasting my time on skills being resistet which i don't need at all. Its not that euro reavers are bad or euro burglar are incredibly good. If the burglar can play, he'll win nearly every 1vs1 against reavers without i win buttons.

Maybe because my movement needs some practice, i find i need to use cds like Knives out.

Thanks to this advice i have been having some succcess against some high rank reavers. I stand a very good chance if i get the jump on them and get a critted CA on them first up.

Then i try and use Knives out around half morale and i keep em slowed with dust. use twist and glee as well. I try not to use my 50% evade but hey if i need it to win... i will

Mind you some reavers are clever and they run off when you have these cds on

Originally Posted by BrittainTheCommie

Just trick kite them and watch them rage.

Burgs can beat reavers without taking any damage other than reflect damage (and blade toss if r7+) if they play like this. Although if you do, dont expect to find many that will stay amd fight you solo. Oh, and never ever use riddle, its a waste of dr, and i havent fought aburgyet that has beat me while using it. Heck, i have 2v1'd burgs thst riddle me and i lol everytime.

As others said, movement is key, you want to be behind the rwaver as much as possible, and you will want to save KO for when you hit 50% morale and use glee right as it ends. (although personally i dont use dev strike right as they hit 50% morale, as most burgs either have tng up, or expect the devstrike and KO.)

If you get desperate, you can always hips, regen a bit, and SS from stealth again(reaver regen is absolutely dreadful even with the DP perk active.)

I also see your on BW, so if you ever see me out there im generally solo(barring tribe groups) and am always up for 1v1's

Originally Posted by Blynjar

Maybe EU burgs know what to do unlike americans..

Originally Posted by BrittainTheCommie

Just trick kite them and watch them rage.

Lol @ both, + rep.

Originally Posted by gorma_eu

Remember that chances of some skills being resistet is a lot lower if u don't use em . Startling twist requires 2 tricks and time. Riddle requires time and one addle which is also very useful in your dps rotaion. I use my time for dps, making sure counter defense is up all the time, don't wasting my time on skills being resistet which i don't need at all. Its not that euro reavers are bad or euro burglar are incredibly good. If the burglar can play, he'll win nearly every 1vs1 against reavers without i win buttons.

Considering most Euro Reavers in 1v1s don't use a plethora of skills and pots, I suggest Burgs to take your advice and bravado lightly.

US players will do everything at all costs to win, not to just get points.

Originally Posted by 0987654321

Burgs can beat reavers without taking any damage other than reflect damage (and blade toss if r7+) if they play like this. Although if you do, dont expect to find many that will stay amd fight you solo. Oh, and never ever use riddle, its a waste of dr, and i havent fought aburgyet that has beat me while using it. Heck, i have 2v1'd burgs thst riddle me and i lol everytime.

As others said, movement is key, you want to be behind the rwaver as much as possible, and you will want to save KO for when you hit 50% morale and use glee right as it ends. (although personally i dont use dev strike right as they hit 50% morale, as most burgs either have tng up, or expect the devstrike and KO.)

If you get desperate, you can always hips, regen a bit, and SS from stealth again(reaver regen is absolutely dreadful even with the DP perk active.)

I also see your on BW, so if you ever see me out there im generally solo(barring tribe groups) and am always up for 1v1's

Cheers Lugbar

I consider you a very good Reaver, you have taken me down once or twice.

I will take you up on a 1v1 if i see you. You will know it has started when i CA you from behind

See you out there

Originally Posted by Glimlioin

Cheers Lugbar

I consider you a very good Reaver, you have taken me down once or twice.

I will take you up on a 1v1 if i see you. You will know it has started when i CA you from behind

See you out there

Well, unfortunatly isen is coming out in 2 days, andi have 6 characters to get to 75, so it will take me quite a while to get back to the moors, and besides that, everything will have changed, especially when it comes to 1v1's. Higher mits, more crits, etc.