Not sure I understand soul tear. I've tried shouting at some bandits but nothing much seems to happen. Their health drops, but that is all I see. Does it only work for lower level enemies? Does it work on animals? Undead? The in-game description is rather vague.

The idea is that you rip the soul out of an enemy and they become your servant. Like killing and raising the dead all in one motion. Not sure what the level max is for it. I do not use it much.

From what I understand, you use it against a common enemy and it both captures their soul and commands them to fight for you. If an enemy is too strong, it just drops their health

yeah use it once you've damaged the enemy to a quarter health and it'll soul trap them and bring them back to fight for you, its pretty cool, but doesn't do much if the enemy survives it

It does a big chunk of damage, and if it manages to kill the enemy while you have a soul gem of sufficient size is available it traps it. If the enemy a low enough level, it will also reanimate them to fight for you.

I think it can also be used as a reanimate shout on dead bodies, but haven't checked.

You shout against a person, the person dies, the person's soul becomes yours, the person gets conjured and fights for you.

It works much like the vampire lords bite attack. if the person is low on health and you use it, it will kill them, soul trap their soul, and raise them from the dead to fight for you. but the shout has to kill them for it to work

It's never too weak, the shout needs to kill them. It's incredibly useful, allows you to raise ebony archer draugr deathlords, we know how strong they are. They can't be raised with dread zombie as they're even 40, normal melee dd can as they're level 30.

Get an enemy down to low health, then shout the level 3 soul tear. You will get his soul in a gem and he will be your reanimated zombie.