Build:Reaper - Power Greatsword

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on April 07, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Power reaper is a high damage build with great burst and AoE damage. It is resilient, and very self-reliant. It maintains a lot of Might and personal Quickness, and is one of the most reliable open world builds.

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Skill Bar

Greatsword

Dagger/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

Greatsword is absolutely mandatory. Never replace it.

• Staff - alternative to Dagger / Warhorn. Less damage and life force generation, but is ranged.
• Sword offhand - alternative to Warhorn. Requires Expanded Weapon Proficiency with Secrets of the Obscure. More damage but no crowd control.

Skill Variants

Healing Skills

"Your Soul Is Mine!" provides decent healing and life force generation.

• Consume Conditions - more healing and cleanses all conditions, but doesn't generate life force.

Utility Skills

Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering are required for damage. Spectral Grasp provides amazing utility with life force generation and pulls enemies around you so you can easily kill them.

• "You Are All Weaklings!" - DPS option to replace Spectral Grasp when there's no need to pull mobs. Also provides might and stunbreaks
• "Suffer!" - transfers conditions and chills.
• Corrosive Poison Cloud - destroys projectiles.
• Spectral Armor - power defense and life force generation.
• Spectral Walk - condition defense and life force generation.
• Summon Shadow Fiend - minion with decent life force generation.
• "Rise!" - great when fighting packs of enemies.

Elite Skills

"Chilled to the Bone!" does good damage and crowd control and provides boons.

• Summon Flesh Golem - tanky pet that can be activated to do crowd control. Generally a worse option to Chilled to the Bone.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; exotic gear with the same stats is fine.

Standard Equipment

This set uses the same gear as Build:Reaper_-_Power_DPS. This makes it a good option for general PVE.

Head
Assassin

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Assassin

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter and Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar are interchangeable.
• Other relics include Relic of the Thief, Relic of the Adventurer, Relic of Cerus, Relic of the Cavalier, and Relic of Durability.
• For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food, traits, or skills if required. If necessary, use Knight trinkets.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• /

Farming

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• (and variants)

Usage

Reaper's Shroud is the profession mechanic of the reaper. This offensive shroud is slightly less resilient than necromancer's Death Shroud but, in exchange, provides massive damage.

Damage

Most of the damage comes from Reaper's Shroud thanks to Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught. Start fights with greatsword, use all your skills, then enter Reaper's Shroud and do massive damage. Then exit the shroud and continue using your weapons to rebuild your life force.

Opener

When fighting bosses and other tough enemies, you can start fights with the following opener. The general idea is to have your pulsing skills dealing damage while you are in Shroud to benefit from Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught.

1. Nightfall
2. Grasping Darkness ⇒ Weapon swap
3. Well of Darkness
4. Well of Suffering
5. Life Siphon ⇒ Reaper's Shroud
6. Death's Charge
7. Soul Spiral inside your wells to make use of the whirl finisher.
8. Life Rend Life Slash Life Reap X2
9. Death's Charge
10. Life Rend Life Slash Life Reap X2
11. Death's Charge
12. Life Rend Life Slash Life Reap X2
13. Death's Charge
14. Exit Reaper's Shroud
15. Life Siphon ⇒ Weapon swap
16. Death Spiral
17. Gravedigger

• Grasping Darkness happens almost immediatly but has a long aftercast that you can cancel with weapon swap.
• Consider casting Infusing Terror for Stability to ensure you do not get interrupted during your high damage Reaper's Shroud.
• Use Executioner's Scythe instead of Shroud autos if the enemy is below 50% hp.
• Do not interrupt Shroud autos to benefit from Reaper's Onslaught.
• If the enemy is below 50% HP, keep spamming Gravedigger.
• Nightfall will trigger Relic of Fireworks for a nice damage boost as you prepare to enter Shroud.
• Against bosses with a Defiance Bar or breakbar, it is generally worth delaying the rotation until the bar breaks. You can contribute to this with Grasping Darkness and "Chilled to the Bone!".

Chill generation

Reaper's inflict much higher damage to chilled foes thanks to Cold Shoulder. Inflicting chill is very easy:

• Chilling Nova - one of the primary sources of chill, but requires the target to already be chilled.
• Well of Darkness - one of the primary sources of chill, used at the start of the combo.
• "Chilled to the Bone!" - applies chill in a large area.
• Grasping Darkness - this skill is usually used as an opener due to its pull, and it also chills.
• Chilling Scythe - the final hit of the greatsword auto-chain.
• Executioner's Scythe - applies chill in a large area and places an ice field.
  • Soul Spiral, Gravedigger, Death Spiral - if used in an ice field, these can create Chilling Bolts, which apply chill when they hit a target; if used inside a target's hitbox, this can apply a considerable amount of chill very quickly. (See also: Guide:What_are_Combo_Fields)
• Shivers of Dread - applies chill to any enemy feared, with no cooldown; this means Terrify will apply chill.

Notes and tips

• Pull mobs together with Spectral Grasp and/or Grasping Darkness before bursting them all down.
• When dealing with groups of mobs, remember Gravedigger will reset if at least one of them is below 50% HP. Cleave them all.
• You do not gain life force from nearby deaths while inside Shroud. Try to finish off your enemies outside of Reaper's Shroud to replenish your life force.
• Grasping Darkness has a long aftercast, but can be cancelled almost immediately after casting by weapon swapping or entering shroud.
• Stay in melee range to benefit from Soul Eater.
• Death's Charge destroys projectiles.
• Nightfall corrupts boons on enemies.

Survivability

• Sidestep and walk or dodge out of enemy attacks.
• Stack blind, chill, and weakness on trash mobs to negate their damage.
• Reaper's Shroud is as a second health bar and has a natural 33% damage redution. Infusing Terror further reduces damage taken.
• Use Consume Conditions to cleanse conditions. If more is needed, run "Suffer!".
• "Chilled to the Bone!" provides Stability.

Crowd Control

• Grasping Darkness - Pull.
• Wail of Doom - 1 second Fear.
• Infusing Terror ⇒ Terrify - 1 second Fear.
• Executioner's Scythe - 1,5 seconds Stun.
• "Chilled to the Bone!" - 2 or 3 seconds of Stun.