86 replies to this topic

[Chaz Darkbane]

Hey everyone I will be planning on doing a series of board posts regarding each class, so being the class with some of the most obvious and easy to understand skill trees I am starting off my how to series with the Reaver.

 

 

What abilities should I bring?

1. War Horn: Causes enemies to panic, stack this with the passive that makes you instantly crit panicked enemies, and the perk that makes crits lower your cooldown. It also gives the Reaver some hard CC, which is definitely helpful to your team.
2. Rampage: Hands down the best ultimate in the game, increased attack speed, crit chance and you heal yourself massively. The cooldown is 30 seconds, which may seem like a long time, but in actuality the cooldown starts the second you activate the ability, meaning by the time it is over you have already gone through 1/3 of the cooldown. If you have gotten crits then it will be even lower
3. Dragon Rage: Fantastic ability, it will basically replace your auto attack. It is faster, has a large aoe, rips people to shreds and the third hit in the combo hits twice. You hurt yourself slightly while using it, but in combination with Rampage you will never die against anything other than demon commander or templars spin-to-win.
4. Devour: This skill might not seem it, but it is fantastic. it functions as a high damaging guard breaker and heals you for more health depending on how low you are. Great panic button, breaks guards, hits twice, and it will have it's cooldown reduced by two seconds every time you hit with Dragon Rage.

How do I play Reaver?

First things first. You are not a tank. If you want to play him as a tank then give up now. Reaver is full dps, the only time he will be tanking is during Rampage when he gains threat from how jealous all the enemies are of your badassery. Your basic skill priority is as follows.

 

War horn > Rampage > Dragon Rage > Devour. This insures that enemies are panicked causing instant critical hits in an aoe with your deathblow passive ( I will go further into the skill trees later on), your flow of battle passive insures that each of these criticals will reduce the cooldown of Rampage, Devour and War Horn by one second. In the perfect situation, your Rampage will never be on cooldown. But wait there's more! Panicked enemies can not block, and if there is anything that completely screws the Reaver, it is getting blocked by an enemy; because not only do you waste your time but you are not healing yourself constantly or dealing damage. Aside from that, spam Dragon Rage.

 

But what if War Horn is on cooldown?

I am glad you asked. As previously mentioned the thing that really screws over the Reaver is being blocked by an enemy, and I cannot expect you to always have War Horn up and ready. So when you are being blocked by an enemy your next greatest ally is Devour. Devour is the most basic of basic skills for the Reaver, but that does not mean you should count it out. This ability hits twice, heals you and it will break your opponents guard allowing you to continue to go ham with Dragon Rage. Use it if you ever need health, need to break a block or just want a quick damage spike when you don't feel like losing health.

 

Why no Ring of Pain?

Another great question, and this one actually is a bit more complicated of an issue. My original build had Ring of Pain replacing War Horn, but in the end it didn't really pan out. So let me start with the good parts of Ring of Pain first.

 

The Good:

• Decent AoE Damage every second in a decently sized area
• Causes you to inflict more damage the more you are hurt
• Reduces the health cost of Dragon Rage (When Perked)
• Reduces the Cooldown of Devour (When Perked)

The Bad

• Stamina cost every second really screws you
• Half the benefits of Ring of Pain are negated or replaced by something else

For that last point let me go into some detail. Causing more damage the more you are hurt is an ability you already are forced to get, as a passive called 'blood frenzy' while this skill isn't nearly as strong (in fact it is half as good as ring of pains bonus) it is also not something you are going to be using regardless in the situation that you are keeping your Rampage up and maintaining your health levels. The same can be said for the reduction to the cost of Dragon Rage, and the cooldown to Devour. Once again Rampage maintains your health levels from using Dragon Rage. Dragon Rage itself already reduces the cooldown of Devour by two seconds when it is perked. So in the end, while it does do decent damage and it does have some pretty beneficial effects, it is simply not worth the stamina cost, because making sure you have the stamina needed to cast Rampage, War Horn and Devour will always take priority.

 

What should my Skill Tree look like?'

If you take a look at all the skills, it should be pretty obvious what kind of build would be optimal, but regardless I will go into my own personal set up and explain it as I go.

 

REAVER LINE

 

• Devour: Got to have it and it is a great skill. Skip out on the perk for it however, you will not be spamming devour so much that the crit chance will be beneficial to you for that one hit.
• Ring of Pain: Different skill, same story. Take it to get down the line and skip the perk.
• Fervor: Most obvious choice of for a damage dealer ever. You are meant to be killing things, and killing things makes you kill things better? Take dat.
• Blood Frenzy: Gotta have it, decent skill but for the most part you won't be needing it once you have Rampage.
• Wrathful: Not sure how big of a difference this makes, but I grabbed it for giggles.
• Bloodbath: Oh, those two skills you spam the hell out of now benefit everyone by weakening the enemy? Yes please.
• Scenting Blood: Probably the best passive effect for the Reaver. You have improved crit chance, and speed (movement and attack) when near wounded targets. With how the Reaver is that is pretty much everyone, also should we mention that speed buff is massive?
• War Horn: Went into detail about this earlier, panicked enemies are like weak peasants begging to reset your skills for you. (Note: I skipped out on the perk for this because guarded and armored enemies are not a huge problem, up to you)
• Flow of Battle: Keep the Rampage rolling but also lowers the cooldown of war horn and devour
• Terrifying Fury: Panic causes crits and crits cause panic? I love it when fantastic passive are necessary.
• Relentless Attack: Somehow you managed to not get a critical, fix that.
• Deathblow: Insures that all those panic crits we talked about earlier happen.
• Dragon Rage: This is your new auto attack. Love it. Perk it out to make Devour spammable.
• Ravage: Perk from Dragon Rage, this causes each hit from Dragon Rage to lower the cooldown of Devour by 2 seconds, as well as increase the damage of Dragon Rage.
• Rampage: Explained it detail earlier, in a nutshell it is absolutely necessary.

 

ASSAULT LINE

 

• Mighty Blow: Actually a really fun skill, but fun doesn't mean optimal you gotta have it but that doesn't mean you have to perk it out. So don't.
• Coup De Grace: More damage for the damage dealer. Yup.
• Adamant: More armor means less damage, you benefit quite a bit from this because the Reaver wears heavy armor but we just need it to get down the line.
• Deep Reserves: The first reason we came to the assault skill tree in the first place, more stamina regen means more availability to Rampage, Warhorn, and Devour.
• Crippling Blows: I think I made it obvious you will be critting a lot, but now your crits screw over tougher enemies damage. 
• Clear a Path: The real reason we came here. This makes it so every time you hit multiple enemies you replenish 10 stamina. Dragon Rage can hit multiple targets. Figure it out.

 

What kind of gear do I want?

While dps takes priority over most other stats you will benefit the most from critical chance and strength parts. Having a Pommel or Grip with 6% additional crit chance is a huge bonus. As for attributes I would recommend Strength (damage), Constitution(Health) and Cunning(critical chance). Keep in mind that sometimes a unique effect can make up for a lack in dps, a lower damage unique maul I got from a chest gives +2 guard per hit for example, and while this isn't anything overpowered or dramatic, it does stack up.

 

 

Closing

So you have it, a basic guide on what is needed to start you adventures as a Reaver. Experiment with it, mix and match some thing and find out what works for you. If you find yourself out of position or dying quickly you may want to swap out Crippling Blows with Bear Mauls the Wolves for example. Keep in mind that even though this guide is meant to help you understand some ability synergy with the Reaver, there is a lot of things you will simply have to figure out for yourself when it comes to putting it to use. For example, do yourself and everyone around you a massive favor and kill off ranged combatants first. No seriously. For the love of god do this. They may seems like small fries, but then your keeper has six arrows in his head and you have another three in you before you realized the venatori commander isn't the only thing your supposed to be killing.

[killacwalka3]

Looks like solid analysis. Been debating on what to use as the 4th active and was really looking at going war horn. Think my build is gonna look pretty similar when I finish it out.

[Chaz Darkbane]

Looks like solid analysis. Been debating on what to use as the 4th active and was really looking at going war horn. Think my build is gonna look pretty similar when I finish it out.

 

Appreciate the compliment, if it is between Ring of Pain and War Horn I would definitely go with the War Horn. You need to unlock it at the very least to get access to Flow of Battle anyway, and that ends up reducing the cooldown.

[Robbiesan]

Good write up. Will try this build.

[GetMyNut]

Have you tried this on perilous ?

[Peer of the Empire]

Thanks

[MaxCrushmore]

Almost the same as the build I've been using .. I replace Dragon Rage with Mighty Blow.

 

I like Mighty Blow for the heavy aoe damage and knocking down enemies. Plus, used in conjunction with the war horn, I can crit hit multiple enemies at the same time

[Azrus]

I'm glad someone finally put up a guide for Reaver.  It kills me seeing people run around playing them as if they're a Katari that's got a heal.  I was debating picking up War Horn as well, but opted for Roll instead.  The only real reason for that being that the CC break can be a life saver.  I've yet to prestige my Reaver, so I've got some wasted skill points, but overall I run a pretty similar build.  Clear a Path is an interesting point.  I was planning to pick it up anyway but hadn't even considered it'd allow us to regen stamina through Dragon-rage.  I agree with the perk for Devour as well.  Really, I wish that it'd guarantee a Terrifying Fury proc, though that'd pretty much negate the need to pick up War Horn.  Still, having a chance to have a chance to proc Terrifying Fury on a single hit is pretty crappy.

 

I love playing Reaver, there's just no other class like it.  It's crazy and aggressive and punishing if you make a stupid mistake, but so, so rewarding.  That said, I am really hoping they'll make some changes to the block-crazy infantry in the upcoming patches.  

 

Oh, one thing that you didn't mention that's worth mentioning:  The enemies with tower shields can be dropped quickly by spamming Devour while they're blocking.  The strike is blocked, but the first hit still deals damage.  Since it's blocked, however, it doesn't deduct the stamina cost, and doesn't initiate the cooldown on Devour.  It's a quirky mechanic, but it lets you drop the guys with shields really quickly, all without having to worry about positioning.

 

MaxCrushmore: Try replacing Mighty Blow with Dragon-rage.  You'll never go back, I promise you.  Dragon-rage is a close-range AoE as well, and doesn't cost stamina.  The health drain is mostly negligible as you can regen back to full almost instantly with Rampage.  On top of that, you'll do significantly more damage with Dragon-rage.  It doesn't look like it on paper, but give it a shot and you'll see for yourself.

[MaxCrushmore]

^^ I certainly wouldn't pass up War Horn .. use it with the upgraded option, it will fear all the enemies in a wide area, you could do that instead of using roll. Combined with the Deathblow passive, and you will critical hit everything automatically, which leads to increased cooldowns

[Azrus]

Yeah, I think I'll tinker with War Horn a bit.  I can definitely see the benefit to it.  That said, Roll is a really, really good ability that a lot of people don't appreciate.  It's not just that it allows you to dodge attacks more easily, but it breaks all incapacitating effects.  War Horn doesn't do you much good if you get stunned/panicked/knocked down and then can't dodge the next attack/arrows.  Demon Commander hit you with his Scream that's got an absurd range?  Not a problem!  Roll out of it immediately.  Your super helpful team mate ran right past you while the Templar boss was using that three-strike ground shatter ability or whirlwind?  Still not a problem!  Roll out of it immediately.

 

Anyway, I'm not saying that War Horn's not a great option, but Roll really shouldn't be discounted either. 

[tbxvividos]

Havnt tried war horn, but I prestiged my reaver a couple nights ago and havnt started rebuilding yet.

I did try ring of pain and it sucked.

Swapped in the roll and liked that a lot more.
it's a little finicky with its aiming, if you don't do it right you'll move on your screen but not actually in game so after a couple seconds you rubberband back.

But once you learn how to use it properly it's very nice.

[Chaz Darkbane]

The roll is definitely an option and is something that many people do find themselves using simply for the perked effect of breaking free of all ground control effects, so don't be afraid to replace something in this build with it. I don't use the roll personally because I find that it is a waste of our extremely limiting skill slots but one cannot deny that it is undoubtedly helpful. It is sort of a funny ability in the sense that, ideally; it is a skill you never want to have to use but when you absolutely need it there it is. The only times I have found the roll to really be useful is breaking out of demon commanders aoe before he pops up or the templar's spin-to-win attack, and for the most part those are dodge-able just by having having your Scenting Blood passive up.

Almost the same as the build I've been using .. I replace Dragon Rage with Mighty Blow.

 

I like Mighty Blow for the heavy aoe damage and knocking down enemies. Plus, used in conjunction with the war horn, I can crit hit multiple enemies at the same time

 

 

I would definitely drop Mighty Blow. Don't get me wrong, I love the skill and it is super fun to use, but it simply doesn't put out what you need in forms of damage. Dragon Rage nearly triples your auto attack dps and does not have a cooldown or use stamina. While it is incredibly fun to pancake a group of enemies into the ground most of your crowd control will be from causing panic with War Horn and making people explode, and given the nature of panic is to...well make enemies panic and run around, it moves them out of position for a Mighty Blow by making them scatter. With the right team comp, it can be a good skill for shattering frozen enemies and such, but Dragon Rage provides ridiculous damage that can hit multiple targets at the cost of a minor amount of health instead of having a cooldown or stamina cost. I should also mention that both Dragon Rage and Devour cause you to lunge slightly towards your target as well.

 

If you are insistant on going with Mighty Blow because of how cool of a skill it is, I recommend dropping Devour from your skillbar for it instead. That way you can still cast Mighty Blow as a guard breaker, and rely on the crits from War Horn + Dragon Rage to cool it down in a timely manner.

[veramis]

I think horn and roll are both good in threatening and wouldn't say one is better than the other. Horn lets your team get hit a lot less and can get guaranteed crits, but it causes enemies to run in random directions which will reduce dps and put archers in even better positions. With roll you can roll into range, roll to the rear of shielded or blocking enemies, all while most of the enemies keep getting closer to you and let you maximize dps, but the enemies are also doing more dps.

[21T09]

Great guide, and also good points from the other contributors!

 

There´s no mention of the Rampage bug though? I experienced it in two consecutive games yesterday. After my first death in each game, Rampage stopped working entirely for the remainder of the game.

I know, easy fix would be to stop dying in the first place .

[Stinja]

Ditto Rampage bug:  activate, charge in... bam dead.  There was only a few enemies, and every other time my health would stay at full doing this exact same scenario.

 

Here's a question for you Reavers;  so i unlocked a 2H Maul, so no AoE, but it has an ability like "generate 3 Guard on hit".

So does this mean with  Dragon Rage spamming, i will still be doing AoE attacks, and generating Guard?

 

Or do you need to be able to make Guard independently for this to function?  I'll have a go tonight, but curious if you can get a tankier Reaver via abilities like this.

[veramis]

Stinja, you should try it. I'm not sure, but I believe the AoE in dragon rage is smaller than basic attack, and it might be separate from the weapon's AoE. Even without AoE, that maul you got is incredibly good if it really has 3 guard per hit, assuming its decent level too.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

Very nice write up.  I too love the Reaver.  She is a powerful lady.  My only difference is that I prefer Ring of Pain to War Horn.  It's my opinion that both are situational and I feel that Ring of Pain better suits my needs than War Horn. 

 

War Horn panics all nearby enemies and this leads to the auto-criticals which is very nice.  However, in game I find that it actually slows my killing down if I have to chase panic'd enemies all over the field.  The auto-critical passive also works on asleep enemies as well and when I play with my friends (who are competent at this game) I find that it becomes redundant for me to panic the enemies because my teammates already have status effects on them a good bit of the time.  My job is to finish them.

 

Ring of Pain applies a constant DoT of 15% of weapon damage + 50% damage boost to Dragon Rage.  This isn't minor.  I only use it when there are big groups of enemies and I need that extra umph to clear them out. This does come at a cost, the steady stamina drain but it isn't that bad.  1st, Dragon Rage isn't dependent upon stamina.  In my build, only Rampage and Devour are dependent on stamina.  2nd, I take the passive in the other tree that gives me stamina when i hit multiple targets and I only use Ring of Pain when there are 5+ enemies and my Dragon Rate hits multiple targets negating the stamina drain.  I use my RoP at choke points, on a warrior who has taunted enemies, on the Arcane Warrior's Pull of Abyss, etc.  I can clear these areas out quickly and walk out of the circle stopping the stamina drain.  I'm only in the RoP for 5-10 seconds tops.  RoP never prevents me from using Rampage because I only use RoP immediately after popping Rampage.

 

Rampage>RoP>Dragon Rage... maybe a Devour then more Dragon Rage if needed.. then walk out of the circle.

 

That's just how I prefer to play her.  I would only use War Horn to panic enemies to allow me to escape and not to start my chain.   Which is a big reason why I prefer Ring of Pain to War Horn.

[Azrus]

Huh, I didn't expect to see someone advocating RoP.  I will say that I'm glad it's working out for you, and I think you should play the way you enjoy.

 

That said, I don't think RoP actually brings anything to the table that you actually need.  Reavers hardly need more damage, between Rampage and Dragon-rage nothing's going to stand up to that very well.  Extra HP drain from Devour could be handy, but if you only ever use RoP after popping Rampage then its negligible, as is the HP drain reduction on Dragon-rage.  The only situation I see RoP being superior to War Horn is when trying to kill the boss.  If you're not dealing with adds, then War Horn's useless in the boss fight whereas RoP would still boost your DPS pretty considerably.  On top of that, it's just not that effective unless you've already got Clear a Path unlocked since you'll have to auto-attack to regen a bit of stamina to keep RoP up.  In my opinion, any time spent auto-attacking when you're in the thick of it is time wasted.

 

Anyway, I don't necessarily agree with your choice, but I think it's an interesting one.  

[Stinja]

I believe the AoE in dragon rage is smaller than basic attack, and it might be separate from the weapon's AoE. Even without AoE, that maul you got is incredibly good if it really has 3 guard per hit, assuming its decent level too.

 

Yes with a maul you still do AoE with Dragon Rage.  I lied/confused it's only 2 guard per hit (i have a 1H with 3/hit), but unfortunately it just seem to generate up much.

Also given greatswords suit my tastes better, i've gone back to a common, but higher dps, GS.

 

It does give Guard, just not a tanky amount...

 

huh, how do you add images on here? ... "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community."

[xROLLxTIDEx]

Let me play devil's advocate for a second just for conversation's sake.

 

What does War Horn bring to the table?  

 

War Horn panics enemies allowing with passive to auto critical with every hit.  But as you point out do you really need to critical every regular mob to kill it with dragon rage? And everything that I do in game with the reaver is to get close to enemies.  I would never start my offensive attack with a skill that is going to send nearby enemies running away from me so I would then have to waste my rampage time chasing enemies down.   I would only ever use War Horn as a defensive measure to buy myself time to get out of combat.   And knowing myself and how I play that means that I would literally NEVER use the skill and it would be a waste for me to take the skill and invest a point into it, much less two.

 

I'm not advocating spamming RoP.  But there are a few instances each run where RoP and the little extra damage boost that it provides does come in quite handy. Also, I could be wrong but I believe that Clear a Path works with Dragon Rage so that if your Dragon Rage attack hits 2 people then you get 10% stamina for that extra hit.  I believe that it works the same was that you can use Dragon Rage to heal you in combination with Rampage.  You do not have to auto attack to heal yourself with rampage so why would you have to with clear a path? 

 

Clear a path reads... hitting multiple targets with a single swing of your weapon restores your stamina for each extra target.  It says nothing about it having to be an auto-attack.

[Scorpio989]

You cancel half the animation of a normal swing if you use Devour or Dragon right after you deal damage with it. This increases stamina gain greatly opposed to spamming Devour/Dragon alone. 

[Chaz Darkbane]

Let me play devil's advocate for a second just for conversation's sake.

 

What does War Horn bring to the table?  

 

War Horn panics enemies allowing with passive to auto critical with every hit.  But as you point out do you really need to critical every regular mob to kill it with dragon rage? And everything that I do in game with the reaver is to get close to enemies.  I would never start my offensive attack with a skill that is going to send nearby enemies running away from me so I would then have to waste my rampage time chasing enemies down.   I would only ever use War Horn as a defensive measure to buy myself time to get out of combat.   And knowing myself and how I play that means that I would literally NEVER use the skill and it would be a waste for me to take the skill and invest a point into it, much less two.

 

I'm not advocating spamming RoP.  But there are a few instances each run where RoP and the little extra damage boost that it provides does come in quite handy. Also, I could be wrong but I believe that Clear a Path works with Dragon Rage so that if your Dragon Rage attack hits 2 people then you get 10% stamina for that extra hit.  I believe that it works the same was that you can use Dragon Rage to heal you in combination with Rampage.  You do not have to auto attack to heal yourself with rampage so why would you have to with clear a path? 

 

Clear a path reads... hitting multiple targets with a single swing of your weapon restores your stamina for each extra target.  It says nothing about it having to be an auto-attack.

Firstly, yes Dragon Rage does proc Clear a Path, which is why I put it in the build in the first place. As for my argument against Ring of Pain; it is simple really. 15% weapon damage per second if extremely minor compared to what War Horn brings to the table when you bring you take the grand scheme of things into account. For example.

• War Horn guarantees auto crits, auto crits means cooldown reduction. Cooldown reduction means your Rampage is constantly up, which means you never die.
• War Horn provides crowd control, something the Reaver severely lacks otherwise and increases survivability to not only you, but your team as well as panicked enemies do not attack.
• Panicked enemies do not attack and can not block, this stops your Rampage + Dragon Rage combo from getting screwed over just because those couple of templars or tevinter soldiers decided to turtle.
• Ring of Pain is not overly large, it is best used when there is a large cluster of enemies but those fights normally do not last long enough for it to make a difference. When a group of enemies has been panicked by War Horn they are guaranteed criticals, further reducing the length of the battle. 

In closing,War Horn provides not only a massive boost to damage to the Reaver but also utility in the form of crowd control and critical procs. Remember all those critical perks I was talking about earlier? Just by making these enemies panic you insure that

• Flow of Battle causes your critical hits lower the cooldown of War Horn, Devour and Rampage. This leads to a never ending chain of ability spamming, and in the case of an extended fights such as bosses, allows you to continue to crowd control large groups of adds, preventing them from harming your team or you while nuking them down. That is huge.
• Crippling Blows causes your critical hits weaken enemies by 15% per crit (it stacks), this also prevents you or your allies from taking damage.
• Terrifying Fury gives your critical hits a chance to make enemies explode when you kill them, which panics other enemies. Once again panic leads to less damage for your team, zero chance of enemies blocking you, and more criticals, which causes more Terrifying Fury procs.
• Panic causes enemies to run around stupid, this is no problem for you to chase down because Dragon Rage and Devour both causes you to lunge forward toward targets, but you know who really benefits from that? An elementalist using Static Cage, the panic causes enemies to instantly run towards the edges of the ability and kill themselves. Panicked enemies being unable to block also benefits other melee damage dealers on your team and allows for assassins and ranged damage dealers to get off easy flank attacks bonuses at the enemies when they turn away.

So you can probably see now why I recommend War Horn over Ring of Pain. War Horn creates a chain of death and destruction that never ends and helps everyone involved, while Ring of Pain is more or less limited to holding choke points.

 

 

Ditto Rampage bug:  activate, charge in... bam dead.  There was only a few enemies, and every other time my health would stay at full doing this exact same scenario.

 

Here's a question for you Reavers;  so i unlocked a 2H Maul, so no AoE, but it has an ability like "generate 3 Guard on hit".

So does this mean with  Dragon Rage spamming, i will still be doing AoE attacks, and generating Guard?

 

Or do you need to be able to make Guard independently for this to function?  I'll have a go tonight, but curious if you can get a tankier Reaver via abilities like this.

The Last Stand is the name of that Maul. I use the exact same maul. Yes you will generate guard on every hit with Dragon Rage and it will still hit in a frontal cone allowing you to strike multiple enemies and generate guard quickly. As far as I can tell, "2 guard per hit" does not mean two bars of guard, but rather 2% guard. It is helpful to be sure but not overly powerful. It is extremely beneficial to you as you level up however because you do not have access to your entire skill set yet and allows you to spam Dragon Rage with a helpful health buffer between you and the enemy.

[Naitaka]

Here's something I've been debating internally. Whether to take Mighty Swing or Devour. While Devour synergize well with Dragon Rage, Mighty Swing is an AOE knockdown with lower Stamina cost that also works as a Impact Detonator. Since War Horn, Dragon Rage, Rampage are pretty much always on your bar, Devour is the only one I see that can be replaced with Mighty Swing.

[Chaz Darkbane]

Here's something I've been debating internally. Whether to take Mighty Swing or Devour. While Devour synergize well with Dragon Rage, Mighty Swing is an AOE knockdown with lower Stamina cost that also works as a Impact Detonator. Since War Horn, Dragon Rage, Rampage are pretty much always on your bar, Devour is the only one I see that can be replaced with Mighty Swing.

Honestly I would keep Devour. Mighty Swing is fantastic (and fun) for the detonation, but most of the time you are going to want a guard breaker up. It serves that purpose because the Dragon Rage perk along with Flow of Battle keeps it off cooldown. Not to mention it is always good to have a panic button, the heal from Devour couples with Rampage at low health can instantly shoot you to full from 10% if you take too much burst damage quickly, and sometimes you might be in a situation where Dragon Rage would be blocked or too slow to use before dying. 

[Stinja]

My one disappointment with this guide, is that it's so well considered, and i feel like i don't need to experiment myself 

I will try other builds..., but it looks exceedingly good, and my Reaver at level 12 is getting quite efficient now.

Many thanks Chaz!