Soul Reaping?

Hey all. I have a question about how many points I should put into Soul Reaping, if any.

This last BWE, my first, I mainly played a Necro/Mesmer and really liked it, so most likely that will be my first main when the game comes out. I was doing pretty well with him, using mostly Necro Blood spells/hexes, Conjure Phantasm, the Mesmer's energy steal skill and the other Mes skill that reduces enemies energy and turns it into life for you(sorry, can't remember their names). So typically I would throw a few hexes on the enemy and use Vampiric Gaze between hexes, and use energy steal whenever possible/needed. I ended up making it to level 9 using this strategy, but I'm guessing some of the skills will be replaced by the time I get further in the game.

Up to this point, I had lvl 7 or so Blood Magic, and most of my other attribute points into Illusion or Inspiration Magic. I didn't put much into Death or Curses as I didn't use them much. The problem was, I thought Soul Reaping was a whole other set of skills, so I never put any points into it, since I didn't have any "Soul Reaping" skills. I didn't even consider that it was the Necro's inherent skill.

So from what I understand Soul Reaping takes health/energy away from corpses after they die. I would really like to have another source of energy coming in, as I have to limit/balance my skills otherwise, since energy steal doesn't provide that big a source of energy. I know that Soul Reaping isn't going to give me limitless energy or anything, but mainly am just wondering how many attribute points you guys recommend spending on it. Just a few for a little extra source of life/energy, or is getting it to a higher level really worth it?

Any opinions are appreciated, thanks.

Well the soul reaping line is for every point you put into soul reaping you get that much energy back whenever some"thing" dies either it be your minions, your group, your enemies and so forth. So it is a nice thing to have soul reaping in PvE because when you used a lot of spells and instead of having no more energy when something dies you gain the energy from soul reaping. I usually hear most the time that people tend to put 7 into soul reaping with their builds. Especially when you are a minion master. Whilst you're using spells to kill a target instead of waiting to have enough energy to raise a minion when it dies you gain x amount of energy and should be enough for you to raise right then and there.

I generally put about 7 points into Soul Reaping on a PvE necro. 7 is where you start hitting diminishing returns for investing your attribute points, and you'll likely want to put the majority of your points into attribute lines that will help you deal damage(or heal if you're doing a N/Mo).

I was considering making a Necro/Elementalist, focusing the Elementalist towards fire skills (mostly for nuking multiple targets at once), and pumping the heck out of Soul Reaping on the Necro side. Having not tried this build yet, can anyone tell me if this is at all workable for a PvE character?

Currently I'm running a Necro/Ranger, but I've been unsatisfied with his overall effectiveness. Looking to upgrade when GW goes Gold.

Yes, it is workable for PvE.

Obviously you miss out on Energy Storage which is really nice, but for PvE Soul Reaping is pretty nice since things are dying constantly.

Also, if you raise some undead minions they give energy also when they die.

The biggest problem with The Ne/El build (IMO) is losing out on Aura of Restoration. Getting healed automatically as you cast is pretty darn nice.

Still, I'm sure that say 11/10/10 -- Fire/Soul Reaping/and maybe Earth for the great Wards or Water for Maelstrom would be perfectly effective.

If I were going for a Fire damage dealer, I'd probably go El/Me and use Energy Drain and Inspired Hex (and even also Energy Tap) to supplement Energy Storage. Then you get extra mana AND a big pool to start 11/10/10 Fire/Storage/Inspiration.

Thanks for the advise!