Reaper - Greatsword Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on February 05, 2024 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A bursty Power Reaper build for WvW roaming. Its sustain is rather low, but sometimes the best defense is a good offense.


Skill Bar

Greatsword
Axe/Focus
Utility


Skill Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

  • Spectral Armor - better LF generation plus a stun break and defense against strike damage.
  • Spectral Grasp - ranged CC which stops enemies from escaping, and even helps with LF management.
  • "Suffer!" - condition transfer with good range that could also snare enemies on a low CD.
  • Corrosive Poison Cloud - protects against projectiles, significantly reduces the damage dealt by melee enemies and even has poison for healing reduction.


Weapons

  • Taking Staff over Greatsword is also a viable option, offering better range and more condition removal.


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Specializations


Specialization Variants

Swapping Curses with Soul Reaping is also a viable option. This version of the build has lower sustain, lower crit chance, but higher burst potential and better mobility (also makes passive movement speed runes somewhat unnecessary):


Equipment

Head
Marauder
Shoulders
Marauder
Chest
Marauder
Hands
Marauder
Legs
Marauder
Feet
Marauder
Backpiece
Cavalier
Accessory
Marauder
Accessory
Marauder
Amulet
Cavalier
Ring
Cavalier
Ring
Marauder
Greatsword
Marauder
Sigil
Sigil
Axe
Marauder
Focus
Marauder
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic

Runes

  • Rune of Superior Rune of Surging - good offensive stats and passive mobility boost
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Cavalier - passive mobility, offers a middleground between Surging and Durability.


Relics

  • Relic of Speed - improved mobility with Spectral Walk but this synergy is very easily disrupted by boon removal. This relic works much better with the Soul Reaping Soul Reaping variant which has Speed of Shadows.


Sigils

  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Agility over Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing - trades some defense against conditions for Quickness Quickness to make it easier to pull off either a Ghastly Claws or Spinal Shivers. Has synergy with Relic of Speed (if taken).


Consumables

Food

  • - passive damage mitigation and great stats.
  • - cheap precision bump with armor-ignoring damage procs that heal you.
  • - active damage mitigation.
    • - budget version


Utility

  • or .


Usage

General

  • Spectral skills are going to be the main Life Force (LF) builders
    • Even at maximum LF you can consider using Spectral Armor before entering Reaper's Shroud. Both the Protection Protection and the extra LF from incoming attacks are going to increase the time you'll be able to spend in shroud.
  • Build Life Force by killing critters or any PvE mob before fighting players.
  • There's more to Spectral Walk (SW) than just being a stun breaker with a bit of LF management, this skill allows for quite a bit of creativity. For example:
    • Activate SW jump off a cliff while being chased Spectral Recall when your enemies jump after you.
    • Activate SW break line of sight cast "Chilled to the Bone!" teleport back at the very end of the channeling (this makes it harder to avoid and reduces the chance of getting interrupted, although the outcome is going to be a bit luck based).
    • Activate SW Necrotic Traversal (if using Flesh Wurm) teleport back when they catch up to you.
  • "Chilled to the Bone!" has a very distinct animation which makes it easy to avoid, if you feel like that's going to happen then stow your weapon to cancel the channeling. This is also great for fake casting - you can use the skill, cancel it immediately with weapon stow (the whole animation will still play, potentially baiting out dodges or other defensive CDs), and send it only on a CD of 5 seconds.
  • Ghastly Claws and Spinal Shivers are some of the best burst skills in the build, try to use them while the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Vision proc is active.
  • Entering shroud acts as an instant defensive measure:
    • Transfers conditions to enemies on your next attack via Plague Sending.
    • Procs Lesser Enfeeble for Weakness Weakness from Weakening Shroud which strikes foes after a small delay. If Lesser Enfeeble connects it'll immediately transfer conditions with Plague Sending. This is a really powerful interaction that could save your life even if you're stunned, as shroud can be activated while sitting in a CC.
    • Leaving shroud cleanses conditions through Unholy Martyr.


Shroud

  • Most of your burst comes from Reaper's Shroud, where your damage is further increased by Reaper's Onslaught.
  • Opening with Infusing Terror is very common, as it helps getting your damage off uninterrupted while the damage reduction helps you stay in shroud longer.
    • Terrify is the chain skill of this slot. This should only be used when either A) you need an emergency CC, or B) Infusing Terror is about to expire.
  • Death's Charge should be used in the field created by Executioner's Scythe for the Frost Aura Frost Aura whenever possible.
  • Soul Spiral should primarily be used on CC'd or downed targets (as Poison Poison reduces the resurrection healing coming from their allies), but thanks to the permanent Quickness Quickness while in shroud this skill is now much easier to land without any real setup.
  • Executioner's Scythe's a single target skill for the most part, as it only stuns one target. Terrify can Fear Fear targets long enough to prevent enemies from dodging this skill.
  • Use autoattacks when eveything else is on CD.


Greatsword

  • Nightfall is the only thing that justifies taking Greatsword, its strength is arguably on par with Well skills. Nightfall is fairly versatile and useful in many situations, especially when it comes to surviving vs melee players.
  • The autoattack chain is just way too slow and will barely (if ever) be used.
  • Gravedigger suffers from the same problem as the auto chain, but at least it hits way harder. This will mostly be used as a downed cleave skill when Shroud is on CD, but if you're feeling lucky you can try to use it for bursting in regular combat especially against bunkers. Much easier to land with some lingering Quickness Quickness from Reaper's Onslaught.
  • Death Spiral is excellent for stacking some vulnerability/life force.
  • Grasping Darkness is a decent CC but can be hard to land against moving targets.
  • After unloading skills 3-5 spend most of your time in Reaper's Shroud waiting for weapon swap to come off CD.


Related Builds

Spectral Onslaught - the Conquest PvP version of this WvW roaming build.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 4 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
4 stars
Hanz gave this build 4 stars • July 2023
Gave the build a small update, switched to the Curses variant, shout heal and once again slotted in Blood Bond. The build has a lot of damage and even sustain isn't bad, but requires proper CD management because if you get caught offguard just once you'll die, and it's still rather susceptible to CC. It's not bad, just not as good as Power options on some other classes, but it can absolutely dominate when mastered.
4 stars
Ruler gave this build 4 stars • May 2019
Im giving this 4 Stars because of how forgiving I've found it, while still being able to do MASSIVE burst damage. Its up there with Spellbreaker on builds I'd reccommend for new roamers. If you're struggling to sustain try taking the Death Magic line over Spite, helps with survivability and has a couple get out of jail free cards.
4 stars
Fergand gave this build 4 stars • May 2019
It can feel vulnerable against high mobility opponents. However, with good timing and patience you can burst many opponents from full to down very quickly. While primarily for damage, you can use shroud defensively if you're finding yourself running low on HP and unable to heal. Life force is a precious resource though, so try to limit your time in shroud to when you can take full advantage of it's strength.
5 stars
Bluezone76 gave this build 5 stars • October 2018
very nice and fun build, it does really high damage

Comments

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