Build:Reaper - Power DPS

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

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Reaper is a self-sufficient AoE DPS class that gets 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. However, its effectiveness falls off in organized and experienced groups as its DPS is weak compared to other fully buffed DPS classes.

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

Axe/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

None of the offhand weapon options offer any DPS. Warhorn is the default choice for the CC from Wail of Doom, 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 Skills

• 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 Skills

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

• Well of Corruption - better burst damage and cleave than Summon Shadow Fiend. Also boonstrips in an area.
• 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 - AoE stability and condition cleanse.
• "Suffer!" - transfers conditions and helps with Chilled uptime.
• Blood Is Power - if the party lacks might.

Elite Skills

• 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.

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

• Signets of Suffering for encounters where more burst is needed (usually in fractals). It can also be taken when running Signet of Undeath for encounters that have too much incoming damage to maintain life force otherwise.

Blood Magic Variant

Blood Magic instead of Soul Reaping sacrifices significant personal DPS for sustain and party support. This is useful if your group struggles to stay above 90% health to maintain Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar bonus or a lot of res power is needed.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

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

Axe
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of the Night or slaying sigils if you can benefit from the bonus.

Consumables

Food

Utility

• or slaying potions

Usage

DPS Rotation

(Video example) 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 and critical chance from Reaper's Onslaught and Death Perception. Other damage skills such as Ghastly Claws and Gravedigger are used to fill downtime.

Loop part 1

1. Nightfall
2. Well of Darkness
3. Well of Suffering
4. Grasping Darkness
5. Reaper's Shroud
6. Soul Spiral
7. Life Rend → Life Slash → Life Reap x7
8. Exit Reaper's Shroud
9. Gravedigger
10. Death Spiral
11. Dusk Strike → Fading Twilight → Chilling Scythe x2

Loop part 2

1. Nightfall
2. Grasping Darkness
3. Weapon swap
4. Ghastly Claws
5. Well of Darkness
6. Well of Suffering
7. Reaper's Shroud
8. Soul Spiral
9. Life Rend → Life Slash → Life Reap x6
10. Exit Reaper's Shroud
11. Ghastly Claws
12. Weapon swap
13. Gravedigger
14. Death Spiral
15. Dusk Strike → Fading Twilight → Chilling Scythe x2
16. Repeat from part 1

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.
• After performing two autoattack chains on greatsword, use your burst skills and enter shroud.
• If you exit shroud onto axe, use Ghastly Claws and immediately swap back to greatsword - you never want to be autoattacking on axe unless your target is beyond melee range.
• 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 greatsword autos and Death Spiral with Gravedigger. You should also do one fewer shroud autoattack chain in each section.

• Your life force generation is lower below 50% health, as you no longer use Death Spiral. If you find yourself running low, replace one use of Gravedigger with Death Spiral and/or Locust Swarm, as necessary.
• Similarly, your Chilled uptime is lower, as you no longer use Chilling Scythe. If necessary, use Executioner's Scythe before Soul Spiral when you enter shroud, and use one fewer shroud autoattack chain (for four total).

Notes

• 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.
• Try to make sure you are above 90% health before going into Reaper's Shroud so that you benefit from Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar. This is because you can't get healed while in Reaper's Shroud. It's worth delaying your shroud by a little bit if you know that you're going to be healed soon.
• 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%.
• 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 with Nightfall or by entering Reaper's Shroud, so don't be too quick with these skills.
• 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.

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.