Build: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:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on September 20, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 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, Might, and critical chance. It also brings heavy CC and 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, Might, Fury, and so on.

Apart from DPS, Reaper can provide some party support through Vampiric Presence, and can bring utilities like Corrosive Poison Cloud and Spectral Grasp 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 Dagger/Sword or Spear for players that own Secrets of the Obscure or Janthir Wilds, respectively. These have higher sustained damage than Staff but lack cleave and the ability to prestack extra damage with marks.
  • Staff is chosen for its balance of DPS and lifeforce generation, and the ability to precast the marks during downtime for extra burst.
  • Sword is your highest damage ranged weapon, and cleaves.
  • Axe is the highest damage ranged weapon for players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure, but isn't recommended.
  • Mainhand Dagger is the highest damage option and has good boonrip, but has the lowest lifeforce generation. Also provides a sizable heal.
  • Spear deals comparable damage to Dagger/Sword and brings an even bringer heal, stronger boonrip, and high lifeforce generation. It does deal lower damage above 50% though, so is likely to be less effective in real encounters.
• Only Sword offers any DPS as an offhand option. For players that do not own Secrets of the Obscure, Warhorn is the default choice, but other options can be taken if necessary:
  • Sword provides extra damage by sacrificing health, but provides some healing too.
  • Warhorn offers a bit of healing, a bit of CC, and good lifeforce generation.
  • Focus adds more boonrip.
  • Torch has the biggest CC.
  • 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 options.

Skill Variants

Healing

• Well of Blood - your biggest heal, that also heals allies.
• Summon Blood Fiend - better DPS than Signet of Vampirism when there are multiple targets.
• Consume Conditions - if conditions are a problem.

Utility

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

• "Nothing Can Save You!" - additional boonrip and unblockable attacks.
• "Suffer!" - transfers conditions and helps with Chilled uptime.
• Well of Corruption - AoE boonstrip.
• Spectral Grasp - AoE pull for easier cleaving. Also helps with Chilled uptime.
• Signet of Undeath - worth taking if Chilled uptime is good, but life force is a problem.
• Corrosive Poison Cloud - destroys projectiles.
• Summon Flesh Wurm - 1200 range teleport. Can also bodyblock certain projectiles (e.g. Old Tom's poison whirl).
• Well of Power - Personal stability and AoE condition cleanse.
• Blood Is Power - if the party lacks might.

Elite

• Lich Form - better burst damage than Summon Flesh Golem. Also useful for soloing Thaumanova heat room with your massive health pool.
• "Chilled to the Bone!" - if area CC is needed.

Template Code

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Specializations

• Soul Marks can be replaced with Unyielding Blast 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

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

Impact Sigil Variant

If you want to benefit from Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact, 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

The logic behind this rotation is to maximise Soul Barbs uptime by entering shroud as often as is possible, while trying to time Nightfall, Well of Suffering and Well of Darkness with Reaper's Shroud so that their pulsing effects benefit from the extra ferocity from Reaper's Onslaught and extra critical damage from Death Perception. Other damage skills such as Gravedigger are used to fill downtime.

The buff from Relic of Fireworks is maintained for as long as possible by spacing out Nightfall, Soul Spiral and Executioner's Scythe during the shroud burst.

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. Nightfall - this triggers Relic of Fireworks on each pulse, making the buff last for 12 seconds
2. "You Are All Weaklings!"
3. Well of Darkness
4. Well of Suffering
5. Reaper's Shroud

Reaper's Shroud

Death's Charge 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 Relic of Fireworks. To enable this, you need to cast Executioner's Scythe no more than three auto chains after Soul Spiral, 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. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap x4
2. Soul Spiral - you can queue this during the cast of the previous skill to ensure no autoattacks sneak in
3. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap x3
4. Executioner's Scythe
5. Exit Reaper's Shroud

Greatsword

Cast Gravedigger and Death Spiral as soon as you Exit Reaper's Shroud. Otherwise complete auto chains and use Gravedigger 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

Dagger/Sword Rotation

Opener

1. Nightfall - this triggers Relic of Fireworks on each pulse, making the buff last for 12 seconds
2. "You Are All Weaklings!"
3. Grasping Darkness
4. Weapon Swap quickly to cancel the aftercast
5. Well of Darkness
6. Well of Suffering
7. Life Siphon
8. Reaper's Shroud

Reaper's Shroud

Each time you enter Reaper's Shroud you do the same rotation.

1. Death's Charge
2. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap x2
3. Death's Charge
4. Soul Spiral - you can queue this during the cast of the previous skill to ensure no autoattacks sneak in
5. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap
6. Death's Charge
7. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap (optional)
8. Executioner's Scythe - 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.
9. Exit Reaper's Shroud

Dagger-to-Greatsword

1. Hungering Maelstrom
2. Dark Pact
3. Devouring Visage (if available)
4. Gormandize
5. Consume (if available)
6. Life Siphon
7. Weapon swap
8. Gravedigger
9. Death Spiral
10. Dusk Strike - a single auto is optimal if you're fast enough
11. Nightfall
12. Well of Darkness
13. Well of Suffering
14. Grasping Darkness
15. Reaper's Shroud
16. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation

Greatsword-to-Dagger

1. Gravedigger
2. Death Spiral
3. Dusk Strike - a single auto is optimal if you're fast enough
4. Nightfall
5. Weapon swap
6. Hungering Maelstrom
7. Dark Pact
8. Devouring Visage (if available)
9. Gormandize
10. Consume (if available)
11. Well of Darkness
12. Well of Suffering
13. Life Siphon
14. Reaper's Shroud
15. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation

The full loop cycles between Reaper's Shroud ⇒ Dagger-to-Greatsword ⇒ Reaper's Shroud ⇒ Greatsword-to-Dagger ⇒ Repeat.

Video example

Below 50% health, the rotation changes slightly (see below for details).

Rotation Explanation

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

• Every time you swap to Greatsword (or exit shroud to it), use each available skill once.
• Every time you swap to Dagger/Sword (or exit shroud to it) use all available skills once, separating the sword abilities and their flip skill with another skill use.
• Use "You Are All Weaklings!" off cooldown.
  • Grasping Darkness and Devouring Visage ⇒ Consume have long cooldowns and so are only used once each loop.
• Always whirl inside the boss so you hit with every whirl finisher from Soul Spiral.

Below 50% Health

When the boss is below 50% health, your rotation changes due to Gravedigger having no cooldown. As Devouring Visage ⇒ Consume deals lower damage than Gravedigger, you omit these skills from your loop and do two or three extra Gravediggers while on Greatsword (how many depends on how fast you are).

• Even though Devouring Visage isn't used for damage below 50%, it triggers Relic of Fireworks, so should be used if this buff drops.

Staff Rotation

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 Grasping Darkness, 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. Nightfall - this triggers Relic of Fireworks on each pulse, making the buff last for 12 seconds
2. "You Are All Weaklings!"
3. Grasping Darkness
4. Weapon Swap quickly to cancel the aftercast
5. Reaper's Mark
6. Chillblains
7. Well of Darkness
8. Well of Suffering
9. Reaper's Shroud

Reaper's Shroud

Each time you enter Reaper's Shroud you do the same rotation.

1. Death's Charge
2. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap x2
3. Death's Charge
4. Soul Spiral - you can queue this during the cast of the previous skill to ensure no autoattacks sneak in
5. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap
6. Death's Charge
7. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap (optional)
8. Executioner's Scythe - 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.
9. Exit Reaper's Shroud

Staff-to-Greatsword

1. Mark of Blood
2. Chillblains
3. Putrid Mark
4. Reaper's Mark
5. Weapon swap
6. Gravedigger
7. Death Spiral
8. Dusk Strike ⇒ Fading Twilight ⇒ Chilling Scythe
9. Gravedigger
10. Nightfall
11. Well of Darkness
12. Well of Suffering
13. Grasping Darkness
14. Reaper's Shroud
15. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation

Greatsword-to-Staff

1. Gravedigger
2. Death Spiral
3. Dusk Strike ⇒ Fading Twilight ⇒ Chilling Scythe
4. Gravedigger
5. Nightfall
6. Weapon swap
7. Reaper's Mark - the order of marks doesn't strictly matter, but if you drop 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.
8. Putrid Mark
9. Chillblains
10. Mark of Blood
11. Well of Darkness
12. Well of Suffering
13. Reaper's Shroud
14. 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)

Rotation Explanation

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

• Every time you swap to Greatsword (or exit shroud to it), use Gravedigger followed by Death Spiral.
• A full auto chain resets Gravedigger, so after one chain use it again then use your burst skills.
• Use "You Are All Weaklings!" off cooldown.
• 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 Soul Spiral.

Below 50% Health

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

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

Spear Rotation

Click to view

Opener

1. Nightfall - this triggers Relic of Fireworks on each pulse, making the buff last for 12 seconds
2. "You Are All Weaklings!"
3. Weapon Swap
4. Isolate
5. Well of Darkness
6. Well of Suffering
7. Distress
8. Perforate
9. Reaper's Shroud

Reaper's Shroud

1. Death's Charge
2. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap x2
3. Death's Charge
4. Soul Spiral - you can queue this during the cast of the previous skill to ensure no autoattacks sneak in
5. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap
6. Death's Charge
7. Life Rend ⇒ Life Slash ⇒ Life Reap (optional)
8. Executioner's Scythe - 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.
9. Exit Reaper's Shroud

Spear-to-Greatsword

1. Addle
2. Extirpate
3. Isolate
4. Perforate
5. Dark Slash - make sure that Perforate has ended before using Distress
6. Distress
7. Perforate
8. Weapon Swap
9. Gravedigger
10. Death Spiral
11. Nightfall
12. Well of Darkness
13. Well of Suffering
14. Grasping Darkness
15. Reaper's Shroud
16. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation

Greatsword-to-Spear

1. Gravedigger
2. Death Spiral
3. Dusk Strike - a single auto is optimal if you're fast enough
4. Nightfall
5. Weapon swap
6. Addle
7. Extirpate
8. Isolate
9. Perforate
10. Dark Slash - make sure that Perforate has ended before using Distress
11. Distress
12. Perforate
13. Well of Darkness
14. Well of Suffering
15. Reaper's Shroud
16. Repeat Reaper's Shroud Rotation

The full loop cycles between Reaper's Shroud ⇒ Spear-to-Greatsword ⇒ Reaper's Shroud ⇒ Greatsword-to-Spear ⇒ Repeat.

Below 50% health, the rotation changes very slightly (see below for details).

Rotation Explanation

Necromancer's Spear is one of the less complicated spears. Most of your weapons skills build up stacks of a powerful lifesteal buff called Soul Shards that caps at six stacks. Perforate consumes these stacks for a burst of damage and healing. Addle and Extirpate generate four and two stacks, respectively, so these are used for the first Perforate. Distress generates six stacks, and so it is used both to recharge, and power the second Perforate. You may gain different numbers of stacks depending on the number of enemies nearby, but this doesn't change your rotation.

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

• Every time you swap to Greatsword (or exit shroud to it), use each available skill once.
• Every time you swap to Spear (or exit shroud to it) use all available skills once, refreshing Perforate with the flip skill of Isolate and using it a second time.
• Use "You Are All Weaklings!" off cooldown.
• Always whirl inside the boss so you hit with every whirl finisher from Soul Spiral.

Below 50% Health

When the boss is below 50% health, your rotation changes due to Gravedigger having no cooldown. All this means is that you can use Gravedigger an extra time.

Notes

• Use "You Are All Weaklings!" off cooldown.
• Never interrupt your Reaper's Shroud autoattack chain.
• In real fights, you won't always be able to make full use of Reaper's Shroud 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 Exit Reaper's Shroud 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 Gravedigger 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 Gravedigger. Both these methods take practise, so feel free to skip if you find yourself struggling.
• Grasping Darkness is a DPS loss if the aftercast is not cancelled. You can cancel the aftercast by entering Reaper's Shroud or weapon swapping. Feel free to save this skill for CC or the pull.
• The casts of Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering are easy to interrupt by entering Reaper's Shroud, so don't be too quick with it.
• In fights with adds or trash mobs, you can reset Gravedigger's cooldown by hitting adds under 50% health. Take advantage of this to push out more Gravedigger 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 Reaper's Shroud. If needed, delay your shroud by a little bit if you know that you're going to be healed soon.

CC

• Grasping Darkness
• Executioner's Scythe
• Charge (necromancer)
• "Chilled to the Bone!"
• Wail of Doom
• Terrify

Miscellaneous

• Use Unholy Feast or Spinal Shivers for boonstrip.
• Since Infusing Terror 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 Death's Charge, then Exit Reaper's Shroud for a long jump.