Reaper - Power DPS

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Direct damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on December 30, 2023 and is up to date for the February 27, 2024 patch.

Overview

Reaper is a self-sufficient AoE DPS class that gets even better the less experienced its group is.

Reaper's niche is that it has a huge health pool for a DPS class, and sustains very high personal Quickness Quickness, Might Might, and critical chance. It also brings heavy CC and Vulnerability Vulnerability similar to Holosmith. This makes it one of the best "solo carry" DPS classes, and it's very strong in disorganized groups that don't have dedicated supports providing Quickness Quickness, Might Might, Fury Fury, and so on.

Apart from DPS, Reaper can provide some party support through , and can bring utilities like and to a dungeon/fractal group. It is also capable of stripping boons if needed.


Skill Bar

Greatsword
Staff
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Staff can be replaced with Axe or Dagger mainhand, paired with any offhand weapon (none offer any real damage):
    • Staff is chosen for its balance of DPS and lifeforce generation, and the ability to precast the marks during downtime for extra burst.
    • Axe is your highest damage ranged weapon, but otherwise doesn't offer much.
    • Dagger is the highest damage option and has good boonrip, but has the lowest lifeforce generation. Also provides a sizable heal.
    • Warhorn offers a bit of healing, a bit of CC, and good lifeforce generation.
    • Focus adds more boonrip.
    • Torch has the biggest CC.
  • None of the offhand weapon options offer any DPS. Warhorn is the default choice for the CC from , but other options can be taken if necessary:
    • Use Focus offhand for additional boonstrip.
    • Use Dagger offhand for a blind and condition cleanse. Be aware that dagger has no life force skill, making it more niche than the other two options.


Skill Variants

Healing

  • - your biggest heal, that also heals allies.
  • - better DPS than when there are multiple targets.
  • - if conditions are a problem.


Utility

When swapping out utility skills, don't replace unless it's absolutely necessary.

  • - additional boonrip and unblockable attacks.
  • - transfers conditions and helps with Chilled Chilled uptime.
  • - better burst damage and cleave than . Also boonstrips in an area.
  • - AoE pull for easier cleaving. Also helps with Chilled Chilled uptime.
  • - worth taking if Chilled Chilled uptime is good, but life force is a problem.
  • - destroys projectiles.
  • - 1200 range teleport. Can also bodyblock certain projectiles (e.g. Old Tom's poison whirl).
  • - AoE stability and condition cleanse.
  • - if the party lacks might.


Elite

  • - better burst damage than . Also useful for soloing Thaumanova heat room with your massive health pool.
  • - if area CC is needed.


Template Code

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Specializations

  • can be replaced with if you are not using a staff.


Equipment

Head
Assassin
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x12
Infusion
x6
Relic


Equipment Variants

  • would be a tiny DPS loss.
  • or slaying sigils if you can benefit from the bonus (replacing ).
  • If you don't have stat infusions, use Assassin stats Assassin stats legs as well.
    • You want to aim for ~2005-2010 precision (with ).


Impact Sigil Variant

If you want to benefit from , you will need to slot in more assassins pieces:

Head
Assassin
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Assassin
Accessory
Assassin
Accessory
Assassin
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Assassin
Ring
Assassin
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic
  • You want to aim for ~2155 precision.


Consumables

Food


Utility

  • or slaying potions


Usage

Simplified Rotation

As Greatsword is by far the strongest weapon, the full rotation can be simplified by camping it and also dropping a few of the less impactful skills:


Opener

  1. - this triggers on each pulse, making the buff last for 12 seconds


Reaper's Shroud

is only a small DPS increase over shroud autos, so to prevent being locked into the animation it can just be skipped. The exact position of skills is not fixed, but the idea is to never drop the buff from . To enable this, you need to cast no more than three auto chains after , and leave shroud immediately after. Aim to get 5-7 auto chains in (below 50% you may lack the life force to do 7).

  1. x4
  2. - you can queue this during the cast of the previous skill to ensure no autoattacks sneak in
  3. x3


Greatsword

Cast and as soon as you . Otherwise complete auto chains and use whenever it is available - completing an auto chain refreshes its cooldown, and if your target it below 50% health, it has no cooldown at all and should be spammed.

When your shroud has a ~3s cooldown remaining, repeat the opener.


Video guide by Masel


Rotation

The logic behind this rotation is to maximise uptime by entering shroud as often as is possible, while trying to time , and with so that their pulsing effects benefit from the extra ferocity from and extra critical damage from . Other damage skills such as are used to fill downtime.

The buff from is maintained for as long as possible by spacing out , and during the shroud burst.


Opener

The opener is pretty flexible, but will determine which part of the loop to move on to next. In fractal CMs, it is useful to be prepared to vary the opener by when bosses open their defiance bars - if they open immediately (e.g. Skorvald or MAMA) then starting on Greatsword means you can immediately use , but if the defiance bar appears a bit later (e.g. Siax) you can start on Staff and spam marks before switching to Greatsword for CC into your burst.

  1. - this triggers on each pulse, making the buff last for 12 seconds
  2. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap quickly to cancel the aftercast


Reaper's Shroud

Each time you enter you do the same rotation.

  1. x2
  2. - you can queue this during the cast of the previous skill to ensure no autoattacks sneak in
  3. (optional)
  4. - this skill deals extra damage when the target is below 50% and 25% health, so you can use the extra auto chain above if this would put your target below the threshold, or if it lines up with a break bar.


Staff-to-Greatsword

  1. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  2. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation


Greatsword-to-Staff

  1. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  2. - the order of marks doesn't strictly matter, but if you drop Alacrity Alacrity then Reaper's Mark might not be off cooldown in time when you exit Reaper's Shroud. Thus we use it early just in case.
  3. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation


The full loop cycles between Reaper's Shroud Staff-to-Greatsword Reaper's Shroud Greatsword-to-Staff Repeat


Video example (staff)

Video example (daggers)


Rotation Explanation

Above 50% health, the rotation boils down to the following:

  • Every time you swap to Greatsword (or exit shroud to it), use followed by .
  • A full auto chain resets , so after one chain use it again then use your burst skills.
  • Every time you swap to Staff (or exit shroud to it) you spam all your marks and either weapon swap or enter shroud.
  • Always whirl inside the boss so you hit with every whirl finisher from .


Below 50% Health

When the boss is below 50% health, your rotation changes due to having no cooldown. Follow the rotation as above, but replace the Greatsword auto chain with a single .

  • Your life force generation is lower below 50% health, as you no longer use Greatsword autos.


Notes

  • Use off cooldown.
  • Never interrupt your autoattack chain.
  • In real fights, you won't always be able to make full use of because taking damage in Shroud will reduce your remaining life force. Anticipate this and break your rotation if needed so that you can build up enough life force to resume the normal rotation.
  • Whenever you you can use it to cancel the animation of the last autoattack for a slight DPS increase.
  • If possible, bind a key to Stow Weapon and use it to cancel the animation of immediately after the damage number appears. This shaves 200-300 ms off the activation time, which translates to a big DPS increase when the boss is under 50%. You can do the same by quickly queuing an autoattack and then cancelling it with . Both these methods take practise, so feel free to skip if you find yourself struggling.
  • is a DPS loss if the aftercast is not cancelled. You can cancel the aftercast by entering or weapon swapping. Feel free to save this skill for CC or the pull.
  • The casts of and are easy to interrupt by entering , so don't be too quick with it.
  • In fights with adds or trash mobs, you can reset 's cooldown by hitting adds under 50% health. Take advantage of this to push out more casts while the boss is over 50% health.
  • On some bosses, you can prestack marks with a staff for slightly better burst damage when the fight begins. You can do this on Siax, Skorvald, Viirastra/Artsariiv, Mursaat Overseer, Slothasor, Samarog, Gorseval, Vale Guardian, and Keep Construct.
  • You can't get healed while in . If needed, delay your shroud by a little bit if you know that you're going to be healed soon.


CC


Miscellaneous

  • Use or for boonstrip.
  • Since has no cast time, you can weave it in during your shroud rotation for stability and damage reduction. The damage reduction will also reduce the loss of life force.
  • You can jump as you cast , then for a long jump.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 11 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Thumpen gave this build 5 stars • February 2024
the GO TO build for almost all content in the game. finding my self always at top DPS in PVE content! i’m playing with Dagger/Torch and not with staff. easy to learn and fun rotation ! 5 stars for me :)
5 stars
Vall gave this build 5 stars • November 2023
I use a variant of this build (opting for Dagger+Warhorn instead of staff) and I gotta say this build is perfect for someone new (like me) who wants to jump straight into T4 Fractals, Raids and whatever really. It's easy to do enough DPS to pull your own weight and not too hard to top the DPS meter unless you're playing with very experienced players. TL;DR - Easy to play, Good DPS, Perfect for beginners.
5 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 5 stars • May 2023
Absurdly high damage for a build that self-generates so many boons. Still has to be a little careful about taking too much damage in shroud, but the recent Infusing Terror buff mitigates this greatly. Incredible cleave and blind spam also make this an excellent build for dealing with trash mobs.
5 stars
Lelouch1885 gave this build 5 stars • March 2023
Very good build for Reaper. The different gear options are well put together and work well. Reaper shines in every and all content, and in the hands of an experienced Reaper, can outshine meta builds and specs. It just works! Reaper is in the best state it's been in years, though I think ArenaNet could give it a little love. We need more strong Power Specs, and Reaper has the kit for it.
4 stars
Mikepresjr gave this build 4 stars • December 2022
This build says 'Updated December 5th' but the description is the same, when it should be hard recommending chilled to the bone now due to the recent buffs to Reaper. With chilled on a 40 sec cooldown now, as well as giving fury and might, it is easily best elite skill for most encounters, even if there is only 1 add it's a good amount of self fury and chill and stability. The rest of the build is still pretty spot on. I would recommend axe/warhorn over staff simply for the CC and superior life force regen and small heal. Just only swap to that bar in in between other actions, like swap to it for a quick axe 2 to top up on LF before hitting shroud for a burst, etc. That being said, the biggest flaw with reaper is that failing to avoid damage will cancel your burst all together. With good gameplay reaper isn't terrible, if you stand in ever AoE you will never do DPS as reaper.
5 stars
Kisyana gave this build 5 stars • October 2021
Very good class, easy to learn, and has double potential as necro can always swap to condi scourge when needed. Overall, my favorite for any PvE content outside of zerging. Personally played with marauder gear and eagle runes.
5 stars
Yotsudlt gave this build 5 stars • May 2021
One of the best dps build for fractals imo. It does very big aoe damage with an easy to learn rotation, have a lot of hp despite being full berserker and some very good CC with your golem.
5 stars
Zhao gave this build 5 stars • March 2021
Reaper is actually amazing for Fractals and I hate seeing it rated so low. It may be on the lower side of the Benchmarks (honestly not by much), but it is a very independent class with great burst, boon corruption, and sustain. Due to how easy it is to play, it is actually more common to see Reapers topping the DPS charts in your typical fractal runs as well.
5 stars
Darwa gave this build 5 stars • December 2020
I've only been playing since March and was quite struggling finding reliable 'fun' playing Necro, so someone suggested I try this build. Now, I'm having a great time when my friends aren't around.
4 stars
QueenCesta gave this build 4 stars • September 2020
A solid build on a solid class that's easy for anyone to pick up and do decently with. One of the best uses I've found for Power Reaper with a build similar to this is soloing pretty much whatever I feel like soloing throughout the open world and even some dungeon paths. If you're looking for absolute tippy top DPS, this might not get you there, but there is no content in the game that this build wouldn't work for.
5 stars
Cosmik gave this build 5 stars • June 2020
Great build, easy to play, good Dps/Aoe

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