Reaper - Power Greatsword
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: Strike damage
Designed for: Open World and Open World General
Expansions required: 
Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on February 09, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.
Overview
Power reaper is a very high damage build with great burst and AoE damage. It is resilient, and very self-reliant, capable of maintaining a lot of 
Might and some personal 
Quickness. This, together with reaper’s excellent cleaving capabilities, make it a very simple yet highly effective build. As a downside, it has little ranged damage, always preferring to fight in melee range, and has little access to 
Fury.
Template Code
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Skill Bar
Greatsword
Sword/Sword
Utility
Weapon Variants
Greatsword is absolutely mandatory. Never replace it. On the second weapon set, we recommend double 
Swords. Usage of mainhand and offhand sword requires Expanded Weapon Proficiency with Secrets of the Obscure. Other weapon alternatives include:
Staff - replaces swords. provides burst damage from range, but deals very low sustained damage.
Mainhand dagger - replaces mainhand sword. Mainhand dagger has excellent life force generation and a little bit of sustain.
Axe - The only mainhand ranged power weapon for players without Secrets of the Obscure.
Warhorn - replaces offhand sword for players without Secrets of the Obscure.
Skill Variants
Healing Skills
We default to , it provides decent healing and life force generation. You could also consider:
- - more healing and cleanses all conditions, but doesn't generate life force.
Utility Skills
We default to:
is a great source of damage. Don't replace it.
is a good source of damage and 
Chill. It shouldn't be replaced unless really needed.
provides amazing utility with life force generation and pulls enemies around you so you can easily kill them. Can be replaced if you want.
If you want or need to run other skills, here are some suggestions:
- - DPS option to replace when there's no need to pull mobs. Also provides might and stunbreaks
- - transfers conditions and chills.
- - destroys projectiles.
- - power defense and life force generation.
- - condition defense and life force generation.
- - great when fighting packs of enemies.
Elite Skills
We recommend for its crowd control and offensive boons, most notably Fury. We don't suggest replacing it but you can consider:
- - tanky pet that can be activated to do crowd control. Generally a worse option to Chilled to the Bone.
Specializations
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
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Relic
- Note that reaper can be built around or . We suggest the Accuracy version as it better for raids, strikes, convergences, and other long fights. But if you mostly do short fights like fractals, check Build:Reaper - Power DPS for the Impact version.
- We recommend for a nice damage buff. But when solo, you can use to generate fury, something reaper sorely lacks.
- 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.
- /
- /
Defense
Farming
- Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
- /
- (and variants)
Usage
is the profession mechanic of the reaper. This offensive shroud is slightly less resilient than necromancer's but, in exchange, provides massive damage.
Damage
Most of the damage comes from Reaper's Shroud thanks to and . 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 and .
- ⇒
- inside your wells to make use of the whirl finisher.
- X2
- X2
- ⇒
- Don't interrupt your Shroud auto attack chain. The final attack deals much higher damage and triggers to reduce your cooldowns.
- is a tiny DPS gain, you can skip it if you want and use Shroud basic attacks instead. The skill is slightly buggy and may miss enemies.
- happens almost immediately but has a long aftercast that you can cancel with or weapon swap.
- Consider casting for
Stability to ensure you do not get interrupted during your high damage Reaper's Shroud. - can be skipped if your enemy is above 50% health, as its damage is only good against low health targets.
- If the enemy is below 50% HP, keep spamming .
- will trigger for a nice damage boost as you prepare to enter Shroud.
- Once you master this rotation, try incorporating your offhand sword skills ⇒ and ⇒ . You want to use them either right before Shroud or weapon swap, since you don't want to spend any longer on your sword weaponset.
- 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 and .
Chill generation
Reaper's inflict much higher damage to 
chilled foes thanks to . Inflicting chill is very easy:
- - one of the primary sources of chill, but requires the target to already be chilled.
- - one of the primary sources of chill, used at the start of the combo.
- - applies chill in a large area.
- - this skill is usually used as an opener due to its pull, and it also chills.
- - the final hit of the greatsword auto-chain.
- - applies chill in a large area and places an ice field.
- , , - 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)
- - applies chill to any enemy feared, with no cooldown; this means will apply chill.
Notes and tips
- Pull mobs together with and/or before bursting them all down.
- When dealing with groups of mobs, remember 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.
- has a long aftercast, but can be cancelled almost immediately after casting with , weapon swapping, or entering Shroud.
- Stay in melee range to benefit from .
- destroys projectiles.
- corrupts boons on enemies.
Survivability
- Sidestep and walk or dodge out of enemy attacks.
- Stack blind and chill on trash mobs to negate their damage.
- is as a second health bar and has a natural 33% damage reduction. further reduces damage taken.
- Use in condition heavy fights. If more is needed, run .
- provides Stability.
Crowd Control
Ratings
"Ol' reliable". Power reaper has always been one of the best open world builds due to its simplicity, damage, and resilience. Perfect for new players, but great for veterans as well.
I've been using this build for 2 months and i'm very satisfied, thank you.
I've used this build since I started a second toon on GW2 after my friends ditched me. I wanted something that could solo open world and provide meaningful damage for Fractals. I searched for Reaper builds and found this build recommendation. Whilst I am still grinding and crafting to reach full ascended gear, this build has made the most theoretical sense once I started checking numbers, and has also been really fun and reliable to play as.
Your build is the best for Reaper on all build sites out there and I'm using it since I joined the game and no matter how many times I test the other builds, yours is always the one capturing my heart and gives me the satisfying DPS numbers and better survival.
After trying both of your runes variations, I'd recommend for all players to use the eagle variation since it's superior in every way possible, it increased my damage by a huge margin that it's even better now than it was with your best build pre-nerfs, thief variation is so situational and isn't easy to apply its conditions while in middle of fights while eagle doesn't require any conditions to meet to do its full damage beside being below 50% of HP.
Something that I hope the new players joining the game to know is, this is an optimal build as in term of stats and synergy but it doesn't mean all its skills are optimal in every single situation, that's why he explained what others skill do to be used in those said situations like "Spectral Grasp" is optimal against almost all types of fights except 1v1 fights against bosses as an example, it help to group enemies and sometimes it's better to use "Your soul is mine!" with it than using "Well of Blood" in situations where mobs has ton of CC and you're soloing those said monsters.
This has been my main for a while now. Easy to play, fun, and has very good dps. Defensive version with Death Magic/ Minions has great sustain even with power gear + offensive runes. The only change I'd suggest from the version available here is to not choose Augury of Death for the minion/defensive variant. Augury only affects shouts (skills 6 and 9 in the reg dps variant) and both of those were swapped for minions. This is why you should go Chilling Nova instead.
This build is easy to pick up and run with and definitely slaps!
This will make it sound as if it is a cliche build (maybe it is?), but every gw2 account should have a reaper with this build. It's easy to use when used as explain here, and you shred through any game content in PvE with ease. Slightly tweaks to the build to favor shroud duration and life force gain makes you stay in shroud way longer than out of it. It's just insanely tough and powerful. I don't play it as much lately since it's kind of boringly simple to use. I prefer a higher input playstyle
With some recent changes this has quickly become one of my favorite open world DPS builds. It has absurd DPS for a solo power build due to its ability to generate permanent 25 might and quickness while having very high innate crit chance due to Soul Reaping.
This is an amazing guide, not just with how its built but with how its written. Its clean and simple. Too many of these builds tend to go hard into the game maths which can be good for seasoned vets and very dedicated players but for filthy casuals like myself its sort of a nightmare because I have trouble absorbing all of the information. With this guide however I only needed to read through it once and reference it a few times before I got the movement cycle down.
Best part is just the simple "These are your DPS skills, these are your healing skills, and this is your spam skill for when you're waiting on cooldown". Often times I'll see people write out a long attack chain which, as I have said, is good for more seasoned players whom are very well versed with the class. However with the simplicity of this explanation it was a lot easier for me to grasp the basics of the Reaper and as such I have had a TON of fun playing it.
This is actually such a disgustingly good build. You can facetank anything enemies try to hit you with while topping damage charts against groups of enemies or single targets. I like to run this build with minions, but that's just for aesthetic purposes. The raw survivability and AOE damage of this build allow you to mindlessly clear anything in the game, sometimes even solo-ing group content without worry. Unfortunately, you lack in-battle mobility, but it's a very small price to pay when you have mounts.
It's a great build, as it doesn't allow the possibility of some of your enemies dying, and you end up losing the DPS. Offers more features for your Reaper's Shroud, causing more damage. It has a little less survival, but nothing very impressive. great construction for those who don't like using minions very much and want to quickly execute the goals of the open world.
Really easy build with an extremely high damage and survivability in almost all pve content.
Undoubtedly S-tier in Open World, or any difficult solo content for that matter. It is the only true "afk build", whilst still dishing out respectable DPS. The only build that comes to mind capable of holding a candle to Minion Master in terms of solo-ability is a toughness- geared, defense- traited, veteran Spellbreaker.
Fantastic build for open-world. Great burst and sustained damage, great self-boon coverage, and good survivability.
The Undisputed Champion of the Open World. Let's face it, we all have bad days on GW2 and whenever I'm down and out, I always come back to this build and proceed to wreck whatever was giving me trouble. You melt mobs and solo champions for breakfast. For an easy combo, I run into a mob, -->cast Grasping Darkness to make sure the enemies are grouped-->drop Nightfall-->go into Reaper's Shroud-->Infusing Terror for stability--> Soul Spiral and by then, most things are dead. --> Life Rend will finish whatever else is standing.
If I need to fight at range, I switch to Axe/Focus. But the beauty of this build is that sustain mostly passive and you'll automatically generate so much healing you simply have to avoid enemy fields.
Just remember, use Reaper's Shroud whenever Lifeforce is maxed out and off cooldown. When you're out of Reaper's Shroud, you should be focused on generating Lifeforce through Axe 2, Focus 4, Greatsword 5 & 3.
Instead of "Rise", I use Signet of the Locust for 25% speed increase, purely for utility.
Post-patch I also use Axe/Focus instead of Axe/Warhorn. Focus 4, Soul Grasp, generates plenty of lifeforce. Also Focus 4 & 5 have 1200 range.
A great build for just about any content in the open world. Consider removing one of the minions for "You Are All Weaklings" shout for instant 10stacks of might since it got buffed in recent patch.
This build is probably the single best Open World build in the game right now.
If you struggle with it for some reason, maybe you're learning the play style or something, use Marauder gear instead of Berserker so you have more health and use the Blood Magic trait line instead of Death Magic so you have more self healing. You'll kill things a little slower but you'll be able to survive anything in open world a lot easier. Once you've got used to playing it, use Berserker gear and the Death Magic trait line.
This build, and all Necro builds, become a lot better once you have the 5th downed skill from Living World Season 3. Once you have that skill, left on passive, getting back up when downed is extremely easy because you drain tons of health when using the 1st downed skill. If you are using it before then, it is less effective but still a cut above the rest.
Amazing open world build for reaper, really good sustained DPS, and some good burst. Vulnerability can be gained very quickly and easily maintained to 20+. Survivability is good but not best, using "Infusing Terror" during shroud helps a bit. Condition cleansing is very nice with this build and "locust swarm" is very useful for speed when kiting is needed to avoid damage. Although at times i do prefer using offhand dagger for "Deathly Swarm" when additional condition cleansing is needed.
Hail to the king. Open world is where Reaper shines and this is the best open world Reaper build: it trivializes the vast majority of open world content and can solo dungeon paths and low fractals with barely any effort.
With the recent change to both Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught this is by far one of the most powerful open world builds. You are able to get 100% crit chance extremely quickly and can maintain 20+ stacks of vulnerability and a good amount of might by yourself while also having permanent quickness in shroud giving it extremely high burst in open world when compared to other classes (who cannot provide these boons to themselves and maintain such high damage). This is due to the fact that in open world you can not count on getting these boons from others and reaper is in a unique position where it can give itself these amazing boons by itself on top of getting a 100% crit chance very easily. It also helps that the boons/vulnerability stated above are granted simply as part of your damage rotation and you do not need to worry about self buffing during fights as the they just roll in naturally.
This build is capable of dealing decent sustained damage and good burst, though the burst isn't anything to write home about and it should be noted its survivability is a tad bit overstated due to its lack of active defence and that every time you get damaged in shroud decreasing your effectiveness.
Still though, it's not bad. It's capable of sustaining around 20 or even 25 vulnerability depending on variant used as well as a decent amount of might.
It should be said that for open world, the Soul Reaping variant is in my opinion better and more useful, as Soul Reaping has much more synergy (Vulnerability, crit chance in shroud, longer and more frequent access to shroud) with the rest of the build, as Curses doesn't really bring you anything useful for open world.
I created an account just to praise this build. I've always played a Warrior with Power build and I'm used to kill Veterans with 30% of my health left, and having a hard time against Elites, and not being able to handle some Champions at all.
With my new necro alt I tried this build and oh boy ... "Striking fear into the hearts of trash mobs" indeed.
If you play it decently it steams rolls any Open World content, and if you are great at it, no PVE mob can stand in your way. Its amazing how my necro with exotics is doing more damage than my full ascended, double legendary wielding GS/Dagger Warrior.
TL;DR: This build played properly renders almost all PvE content to a walk in the park.
Comments
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