Logo Albion iconAlbion Online Deadlock iconDeadlock GW2 iconGuild Wars 2 TL iconThrone & Liberty

Difference between revisions of "Reaper - Power Greatsword"

Line 1: Line 1:
{{SEO|description=This is a high-damage, bursty Reaper open world build with high self sufficiency and cleave damage. It is an excellent pick for farming open world and is relatively simple to play. This build focuses on a very high Chill uptime in order to maintain Cold Shoulder, a core damage modifier for reaper.}}
 
 
{{Build
 
{{Build
 
| profession = necromancer
 
| profession = necromancer

Revision as of 15:52, 14 April 2022

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: Heart of Thorns builds

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

Overview

This is a high-damage, bursty build with high self sufficiency and cleave damage. It is an excellent pick for farming open world and is relatively simple to play. This build focuses on a very high Chill Chill uptime in order to maintain Cold Shoulder, a core damage modifier for reaper.


Template Code

[&DQg1KTIlIjXBEigPgQCBAEABQAFvAXUBAxOSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Copy Template Code


Skill Bar

Greatsword
Axe/Warhorn
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Staff - ranged aoe for farming in groups


Skill Variants

Healing Skills

  • Consume Conditions - condi cleanse

Utility Skills

  • Signet of Spite - DPS option to replace Well of Suffering if taking Signets of Suffering
  • "Suffer!" - more condition cleanse & chill
  • Corrosive Poison Cloud - destroys projectiles.
  • Spectral Grasp - pulls in mobs
  • Spectral Armor - more life force generation
  • "You Are All Weaklings!" - might and stunbreak
  • Summon Shadow Fiend - minion with decent DPS

Elite Skills

  • Summon Flesh Golem - tanky CC buddy

Minions Minions can provide extra bodies for defense, though their damage is very low. This should be run with the Death Magic // Minion variant below.

  • Summon Blood Fiend
  • Summon Shadow Fiend
  • Summon Bone Fiend
  • Summon Bone Minions
  • Summon Flesh Golem


Specializations

  • Signets of Suffering - combine with Signet of Vampirism, Signet of Spite, and Signet of Undeath to sacrifice strong area damage for a simpler playstyle.
  • Decimate Defenses - provides an alternative playstyle; see the gear variants below
  • Bitter Chill - better Vulnerability Vulnerability uptime.
  • Chilling Nova - if not running shouts or simply to improve burst damage and chill uptime which synergizes with Cold Shoulder.


Death Magic / Minions

If using several minions, Death Magic can replace Spite for a boost to defense, though this will drastically lower DPS. If using this, it is best to also take Chilling Victory in Reaper.


Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; exotic gear with the same stats is fine.

This set uses gear similar to that of Build:Reaper_-_Power_DPS. This makes it a good option for general PVE.

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



Variant Equipment

Gear

  • Knight Knight - defensive trinkets for increased defense
  • Valkyrie Valkyrie - use with Decimate Defenses for a build with extremely high HP (and thus shroud uptime) while maintaining moderate DPS


Runes

  • Rune of Superior Rune of Infiltration - budget DPS
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Pack, Rune of Superior Rune of the Eagle - used to fine-tune crit chance


Sigils

  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Air - budget dps
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Hydromancy - offers higher Chill Chill uptime and an AOE damage proc
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - defensive options


Consumables

Food
  • Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
  • - farming
  • , - DPS
  • - defense
Utility
  • (and variants) - farming
  • , - dps


Usage

Damage

Chill Application

This build's damage focuses on Cold Shoulder to get a powerful modifier against chilled foes. To do this, chill must be applied frequently. If taking Bitter Chill, any chill will also apply Vulnerability Vulnerability. The following skills apply chill:

  • Well of Darkness - one of the primary sources of chill; use this any time its available
  • "Suffer!", "Chilled to the Bone!" - if running them, these skills apply chill in a large area.
  • Grasping Darkness - this skill is usually used as an opener due to its pull, but it also applies chill to anything it hits!
  • Chilling Scythe - the final hit of the greatsword auto-chain, this skill is essential to the build during shroud downtime
  • Executioner's Scythe - applies chill in a large area and places an ice field.
  • Soul Spiral, Gravedigger - 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.
  • Shivers of Dread - applies chill to any enemy feared, with no cooldown; this means Terrify will apply chill!
  • If running Focus: Spinal Shivers - applies some chill


Dealing Damage

Most of the damage comes from Reaper's Shroud thanks to Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught together with the aforementioned Cold Shoulder. As such, the general idea is to chill your enemy and have your pulsing skills dealing damage while you are in Shroud. A general rotation goes as follows:

  1. Well of Darkness
  2. Well of Suffering
  3. Nightfall
  4. Grasping Darkness has a long casting animation, you can enter Reaper's Shroud inmediatly after casting to skip it.
  5. Reaper's Shroud (consider casting Infusing Terror for Stablity to ensure you do not get interrupted during your high damage Reaper's Shroud).
  6. Soul Spiral inside your wells to make use of the whirl finisher.
  7. Life Rend Life Slash Life Reap x5. Do not interrupt Shroud autos to benefit from Reaper's Onslaught.
  8. Exit Reaper's Shroud
  9. Death Spiral
  10. Gravedigger

If the enemy is below 50% HP, keep spamming Gravedigger. Oterwhise, cast greatsword autos. When your wells come off cooldown, start again from step 1.

If your life force is low, use Ghastly Claws after step 4 to generate some life force, use it again after exiting Shroud on step 8, then continue with greatsword.

  • Make sure your target is chilled before unleashing your high damage Soul Spiral and Shroud autos. If following the rotation, your Well of Darkness will cover that, otherwise use Executioner's Scythe before spinning.
  • Against bosses with a Defiance Bar or breakbar, it is generally worth delaying the rotation until the bar breaks. Consider opening with Wail of Doom then Grasping Darkness. When the bar is almost broken, cast your wells and Nightfall and enter Shroud. If needed, finish off the bar with Executioner's Scythe. Then do your Shroud rotation.
  • When dealing with groups of mobs, remember Gravedigger 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.


Survivability

  • Remember that players can always sidestep and walk or dodge out of enemy attacks. Not taking damage is always the better option because it conserves life force.
  • Stack blind, chill, and weakness on enemies to mitigate most of their damage.
  • If taking a lot of damage, it is possibel to use Reaper's Shroud as a second health bar. Infusing Terror in shroud helps with damage mitigation.
  • Use Consume Conditions to cleanse conditions. If more is needed, run "Suffer!" or bring a dagger offhand for Deathly Swarm.
  • If downed, just use Life Leech to get back up.


Crowd Control

  • Grasping Darkness
  • Wail of Doom
  • Charge (necromancer)
  • Terrify
  • Executioner's Scythe


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 22 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Warming Hearth gave this build 5 stars • April 2024
"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.
5 stars
Oyortizen gave this build 5 stars • December 2023
I've been using this build for 2 months and i'm very satisfied, thank you.
5 stars
Auir gave this build 5 stars • September 2022
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.
5 stars
IbnBattuta gave this build 5 stars • September 2022
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.
5 stars
Retvolki gave this build 5 stars • May 2022
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.
5 stars
StubbornSlowbro gave this build 5 stars • December 2021
This build is easy to pick up and run with and definitely slaps!
5 stars
Mathiasxii gave this build 5 stars • July 2021
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
5 stars
Onlywrin gave this build 5 stars • May 2021
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.
5 stars
AllenZoomfig gave this build 5 stars • January 2021
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.
5 stars
MasterZi gave this build 5 stars • September 2020
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.
5 stars
Yonguy gave this build 5 stars • June 2020
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.
5 stars
Photoscore77 gave this build 5 stars • April 2020
Really easy build with an extremely high damage and survivability in almost all pve content.
5 stars
MuffinGuru gave this build 5 stars • November 2019
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.
5 stars
Painbow gave this build 5 stars • September 2019
Fantastic build for open-world. Great burst and sustained damage, great self-boon coverage, and good survivability.
5 stars
Kaihan gave this build 5 stars • May 2019
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.
5 stars
Shrouded Weaver gave this build 5 stars • March 2019
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.
5 stars
Darkrayne gave this build 5 stars • December 2018
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.
5 stars
Nacho Replay gave this build 5 stars • September 2018
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.
5 stars
Chinkeeyong gave this build 5 stars • September 2018
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.
5 stars
Magicmoopeeps gave this build 5 stars • August 2018
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.
5 stars
Screaming gave this build 5 stars • July 2018
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.
5 stars
Antherios gave this build 5 stars • July 2018
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

Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
MetaBattle is recruiting!
We are seeking an experienced Build Admin for Throne and Liberty with a deep understanding of the meta across most weapons and game modes. Get in touch with Galaxian on Discord if you're a good fit for the role or know someone else who is. This is a paid position.
Split Metabattle Logo