Why Soul Feast?

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/skill/272-soul-feast

I got this skill,and despite it's remarkable healing, it seems rather pointless b/c I only get a 1 time health boost from a nearby corpse. I prefer Parasitic Bond or Life drain b/c I seem to get health back and I deal damage. Anyone have any insight as to why I'd want to even consider equipping Soul Feast? Since I normally keep Animate Bone Horror... I just don't see any other uses for corpses.

Thanks

I have used it as a backup heal. Since it really does give you a big health boost it can be useful to keep yourself from dieing. It's also useful for corpse denial if your not using minions.

On my necro secondclass to my Primary Mesmer, I love soul feast, as mesmers as primaries get very little way in the healing. I switch between death/blood quite often on my secondary, and this baby is all I need besides <My lousy inspiration magic heal, Ether Feast> I use this for a slot because monks might forget to heal me <has happened more then once> As I am not a primary tank or healer, not even nuker, so I'm considered fringe. So I need to watch out for myself.

--The Shim

Based on the builds... I don't fall under any of the categories. The way I play my N/Me is purely for effects. I'm all about disabling and killing my opponents slowly

Currently...
Death = 5
Curses = 5
Blood = 6
Domination = 1
Soul Reaving = 3

Skills:
Backfire - Dom
Empathy - Dom

Life Siphon - Blood

Faintheatestness - Curse
Mark of Pain - Curse
Parasitic Bond - Curse

Animate Bone Horror - Death

Revival Signet - N/a

The only reason I have the revival is b/c I'm lvl 9 and still getting my butt kicked by Charr. We loose at least 1 player every time we go out (mainly b/c I end up with some Dumb@__ that always runs ahead).

I prefer the status effects b/c I've found that in the long run, adding negative effects to an adversary makes it easier for the party to take them down. Which works really nice with Mark of Pain.


BTW>... can someone explain "Shadow Damage"? Is it like a dark type damage... or is there a specific use for "Shadow Damage"?

THanks.

Shadow is the opposition to Holy, I believe.

Don't quote me, though.

--The Shim

Like holy damage, I think Shadow has 100% armour penetration? So whatever it says it hits on an opponent, it will hit that exact number, not any lower, like say your Inferno elementalist spell hits adjacent foes for 98 fire damage, sometimes it will hit lower, but Shadow/Holy has 100% armour penetration and hits just what it says?

Not quite sure, so don't quote me on that either.

Hmm.....
So... does shadow and holy have varying effects on monsters of the opposite?

Like... using holy in the catacombs against undead and dark based monsters. Will that do more damage? Or using Dark/Shadow against holy monsters?

Soul Feast ROX on necro secondary who doesn't have HIGH energy count for strong healing.

At 10e. Soul Feast is my warrior self-heal spike of choice. 2nd to Victory is Mine!

You make it sound like it's a better skill as for a */N. But for an N/Me... I'm not finding use, so I'm just looking for a reason to even consider taking it since all my other healing skills deal damage and heal

Have:
Life Siphon
Vampiric Gaze
Vamipric Touch
Parasitic Bond
Blood Renewal
Insidious Parasite
Soul Feast

Right now.. I just can't merit taking Soul Feast for HP renewal. I find the others to be more useful.. but if you have a point I may have missed to using Soul Feast, I might have to reconsider.

If you're so sure it doesn't fit your build, why are you here? Don't take it.

I just picked it up (before I knew what it was).. so I'm trying to find a use for it.

I guess there really isn't a use for my style of play. ... oh well

Besides... I just pick up skills just to have them

Well, just because it doesn't suit your skill line up now doesn't mean that in the future you won't find a use for it.
Since it's in the Death Magic Attribute line, it can provide a heal without investing in Blood Magic. That can mean that you have attribute points to place elsewhere.

It's fast corpse disposal that doesn't teleport you into danger. Always handy.

So far, that's the best reason I've found for it.

Hmm....

Thanks.

1. Soul Feast is more useful when you have a very high level of Death Magic, as it can heal more than half your maximum hitpoints at level 20. Plus, as stated, it's arguably the best corpse-denial spell (Putrid Explosion has just enough recharge time to be iffy, Consume Corpse occasionally teleports you somewhere you don't want to be).

2. Holy damage does double damage (or maybe just 150%?) to undead. Shadow damage, like holy damage, ignores armor, but doesn't do extra damage to anything.

3. Your points are too spread out. At level 9 you should only be putting points into 2 attributes; I recommend death magic and soul reaping, as bone horrors with a 3 or 4 level advantage on the stuff you're fighting are incredible, and death also has direct damage and (as noted) self-healing. You'll get a lot more points later on to make multi-attribute builds work, but for the time being focusing on two is your best bet.

4. If you're careful, you should be able to solo every quest before Yak's Bend other than The Siege of Piken Square and Althea's Ashes, and if you can find a partner who knows what they're doing (a w/mo or a smite/heal monk), you should be able to do all 4 of the missions in Ascalon with just 2 people.

Edit fixed minor grammar mistakes that annoy only me.

Thanks, Shattered Self.

Probably Death & Blood.. but I'll have to see. I also have runes to increase everything 1 lvl and a chakram increasing my Dom +1. I'll have to consider reallocating stats and adjusting my play as such.

you said you were taking bone horror...
if you plan on using minions, then this skill isn't helping too much...
what you can do, is:
1. bone horror/bone minions
2. death nova
3. taste of death

high damage and better healing, but not spike healing really...
i personally love soul fiest as a pve spell, if you dont need corpses. you can take that and whenever you need (there are plenty of orpses in pve) you can use it for a good chunk of health...

Holy and shadow ignore armor and always inflict exactly what the skill says, unless the target has some sort of non-armor-based defensive buff, like Shielding Hands or Protective Spirit.

It's not accurate to call it 100% armor penetration, though. That would mean reducing the target's effective AL to zero, which would mean inflicting quite a bit more damage than the skill lists. Ordinary damage will actually increase if the target's AL is below a certain number - that number is 60 for level 20 targets, but it varies up and down and with level according to some formula I'm not at all clear on.

...I got kind of offtopic. Uh, Soul Feast is pretty neat if you have high Death Magic and don't need the corpses for minions. Yeah.

Well... after listenning to your very informative feedback, I tried adventuring with Soul Feast. I now sit at :

Normal
Dom - 2

Rune & Armor enhanced
Blood - 1
Death - 8
Soul Reaping - 2
Curses - 6

It was much easier cutting through enemies with lvl 10 bone horrors and I actually had a chance to use Soul Feast. It saved my butt twice, so I'm starting to see what y'all are talking about


Thanks again