Reaper - Condi Dread Reaper

This is a rough draft. Once adequately written, it will progress to the testing stage, where it can be rated by the community. You can help by proposing changes with a comment.

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Open World

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on April 10, 2025.

Overview

A fun, frenetic, solo open world condition Reaper build with both strong condi burst and strong sustained condi damage. This is a Bleed build that can self-maintain 25x Might, 25x Vulnerability, duration-capped Fury (30s), duration-capped Quickness (30s), 50+ stacks of Bleeding, plus a few stacks of Poison and Torment.

Core mechanics

1. Fear applies Quickness, Fury, and Chill. There are five abilities that apply Fear. Use them all on cooldown.
2. Chill applies Bleeding and Vulnerability. Besides Fear, there are three abilities, one whirl combo, and two passive traits that apply Chill (Chill of Death, Chilling Nova).
3. Critical Hits apply Bleeding directly from the trait Barbed Precision and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Earth, and Critical Hits against Chilled targets cause a Chilling Nova explosion that Chills and Bleeds nearby targets.
4. Gain Might from hitting enemies that are Chilled, hitting enemies that are below 50% health, or autoattacking enemies while in Reaper's Shroud.
5. Breakbar damage happens naturally by cycling through the Damage rotation. The strongest breakbar abilities are "Chilled to the Bone!" and Executioner's Scythe. Omit those from the damage rotation if needed to reserve them for active breakbar phases, but both are on relatively low 30s cooldowns and generally don't need to be conserved.

Skillbar

Sword/Sword

Scepter/Warhorn

Utility

Sword/Sword is a strong AoE weapon combo that can burst multiple Bleed stacks onto a target faster than any other weapons. Sword 5 inflicts Fear and grants Might, Sword 4 inflicts Vulnerability and Chill, and the Sword 1 autoattack chain inflicts Chill. All five sword attacks cleave and pierce, hitting up to five enemies at up to 900 range, giving a high chance to proc Chilling Nova. Sword also heals with every attack, and has a double-leap that is one of the more fun movement skills in the game. Mainhand Sword loses some single target damage compared to Scepter, but gains more AoE burst potential, movement, and healing.

Scepter is strong for single-target Bleed application. Conditions applied by Scepter are empowered by the Curses trait Lingering Curse, and Scepter's autoattack chain applies Bleeding to a single target with all three attacks in the chain.

Offhand Sword and Warhorn are the only offhand weapons with a skill that inflicts Fear, and are the strongest offhand options for this build. Equip those and cycle their Fear skills on cooldown.

Skill Variants

Weapons

Staff

Sword requires Expanded Weapon Proficiency. If you haven't unlocked that yet, use Staff in place of Sword/Sword. Cast Staff 5 -> Staff 3 -> Staff 2 to apply Fear, Chill, Poison, and Bleeding. Optionally cast Staff 4 to cleanse your conditions. Then immediately swap back to Scepter/Warhorn or enter Reaper's Shroud. Don't stay in Staff any longer than necessary to cast its 2-5 skills, since its autoattack is weak.

Pistol/Sword

With Weaponmaster Training mainhand Pistol becomes an option. Besides Scepter, Pistol is the other mainhand weapon that inflicts heavy conditions. However, Pistol focuses on Torment and provides no inherent Bleed or Chill application, so Scepter is still stronger for this build. The main value of Pistol is that Pistol 3 Vile Blast provides an additional Stun which is useful for breakbars. Pistol's autoattack Vicious Shot also bounces between two enemies, providing slightly more cleave AoE than Scepter autoattack, but mainhand Sword is superior for AoE.

Utility skills

• Well of Darkness for additional Chill (5 AoE pulses) and Blind. Also, the Curses trait Chilling Darkness pairs well with this skill.
• Spectral Armor: can replace Well of Power for an alternate stun break.
• Spectral Walk: can replace Well of Power for an alternate stun break.
• Spectral Grasp: can replace Spectral Ring when underwater, or Well of Power if you need even more CC and can sacrifice your only stun break for it.

Template Code

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Build and Stat Calculations

https://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFwk1aYZCJsmaWXbLpkVWpjrSfTF-DSJYmx/ZUgUNOVlCPJEEh2FEwKK/+JLP6bBVA-e

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Specializations

Variants

• Plague Sending for additional condition clear, which this build sometimes needs against heavy condition enemies.
• Path of Corruption for additional boon corrupt.
• Chilling Darkness pairs well with Well of Darkness.

Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Scepter
Viper

Warhorn
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Viper

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x6

Infusion
x12

Relic

Equipment Variants

Stats

Replace some Viper pieces with Trailblazer or Ritualist stats for more survivability and/or Boon Duration if needed. Try to keep Bleeding duration at 100%, possibly using Rune of Krait and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Agony together. Also keep in mind that Precision is valuable, as it causes Chilling Novas, Bleeding on Crit, and increases Condition Damage as a percent of Precision (trait + utility buff).

WvW

This build also works well in a WvW Zerg due to the constant CC and strong condi burst, but with a few changes. In WvW zergs, the conditions you inflict are constantly being cleared, sent back, or converted to boons, so Expertise and condition duration are less valuable. Instead focus on Condition Damage and survivability:

1. Replace all the Viper Armor and Trinkets with Dire or Trailblazer gear.
2. Use Rune of Necromancer. Full Dire armor and trinkets gives almost 30,000 health unbuffed, and over 2100 Condition Damage unbuffed.
3. Keep the Viper weapons for a base ~20% Crit Chance, but replace Sigil of Superior Sigil of Agony with Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting, Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom, or Sigil of Superior Sigil of Torment.
4. Switch two traits to Plague Sending and Path of Corruption, for more condition clear and boon corrupt.

Sigils

If you overcap Bleeding Duration beyond 100%, you can replace Sigil of Superior Sigil of Agony with one of the following. Aim for 100% Bleeding Duration, then maximum Condition Damage, or alternatively sigils that apply Torment or Poison.

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Malice
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting (WvW)
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Torment (WvW)
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom (WvW)

Runes

Rune of Trapper are preferred, but any of the runes below can work until you can craft Trapper Runes. Aim for 100% Bleeding duration, then maximum Condition Damage. Try to use the runes where the 5th and 6th runes give 100 and 125 Condition Damage respectively.

• Rune of Berserker
• Rune of Necromancer (WvW)
• Rune of Renegade
• Rune of Sunless
• Rune of Krait

Relic

• Relic of the Nightmare is by far the strongest relic for this build, both in PvE and WvW. Nightmare's AoE Fear on a relatively short 30s cooldown helps maintain Quickness and Fury uptime, increases "Chilled to the Bone!" breakbar damage, and applies more Chill and Bleed.

Consumables

Food and Utility buffs can give you about 3% condition duration each. Use those to get Bleeding Duration to the cap if needed, then prioritize Condition Damage and Precision.

Food

Utility

Usage

Standard Rotation

Open with Elite + Utilities

1. Elite: "Chilled to the Bone!": Chill + Fear
2. Utility: Spectral Ring: Fear + Condition cleanse
3. Utility: "Suffer!": Chill + Condition transfer

Scepter/Sword

1. Sword 5: Devouring Visage -> Consume: Fear + Might
2. Sword 4: Hungering Maelstrom -> Gormandize: Vulnerability + Chill

(If using Staff instead of Sword, start with Staff 5 -> Staff 3 -> Staff 2, then weapon swap.)

Weapon Swap to Scepter/Warhorn

1. Warhorn 4: Wail of Doom: Fear
2. Scepter 3: Devouring Darkness: Torment
3. Scepter 2: Grasping Dead: Bleed

Enter Reaper's Shroud

1. Shroud 3: Infusing Terror -> Terrify: Stability + Fear. Use on cooldown. Killing a mob reduces its cooldown by 50%, so in large packs it's almost spammable.
2. Shroud 5 + 4: Executioner's Scythe -> Soul Spiral: Ice Field + Whirl Finisher that applies massive amounts of Poison and Chill.
3. Shroud 1: Life Rend -> Life Slash -> Life Reap: autoattack in Reaper's Shroud for a few seconds for Crits to cause a Chilling Nova explosion and to allow Fear cooldowns to reset.

Exit Reaper's Shroud, attack with Scepter until Fear cooldowns reset, then repeat the rotation.