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 11, 2025.

Overview

A fun, frenetic, solo open world condition Reaper build with both strong condi burst and strong sustained condi damage. This is primarily a Bleed build, leveraging interactions between the traits Dread, Shivers of Dread, and Deathly Chill to stack Bleeding, Chill, and multiple boons.

It 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. It puts out constant AoE CC since its damage rotation depends on casting all Fear skills on cooldown. It can also be used in WvW zergs with a few gear changes, explained in the Equipment section.

The main downside is it provides few boons to allies and is purely a solo build. Some conditions it inflicts like Fear, Chill, Blind, along with corrupting enemy boons and cleansing allies' conditions, are useful to allies though.

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Build and Stat Calculations

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Skillbar

Scepter/Warhorn

Sword/Sword

Utility

Weapon Variants

Scepter/Warhorn is a strong single target weapon set. 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. Warhorn is taken for Fear on Warhorn 4.

On the second weapon set, we recommend double Swords. Sword/Sword is a strong AoE weapon combo that can quickly burst multiple Bleed stacks onto targets. Sword 5 inflicts Fear and grants Might. Sword 4 inflicts Vulnerability and Chill. Sword 1 autoattack chain inflicts Chill. All five sword attacks cleave and pierce, hitting up to five enemies, giving a high chance to proc Chilling Nova.

Usage of mainhand and offhand sword requires Expanded Weapon Proficiency with Secrets of the Obscure. Other weapon alternatives include:

Staff

Staff provides burst damage from range, and is the only other weapon besides offhand Warhorn and offhand Sword with a Fear skill (Staff 5), but deals very low sustained damage.

Pistol/Sword

With Weaponmaster Training mainhand Pistol is 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 single target in 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.

Skill Variants

Healing skills

We default to "Your Soul Is Mine!" because of its very low 16s cooldown, but you can use any healing skill with this build. You could also consider:

• Consume Conditions - more healing and cleanses all conditions, but doesn't generate life force.

Utility skills

We default to:

• "Suffer!" - Chills and transfers conditions.
• Spectral Ring - Fears. Mandatory, do not replace.
• Well of Power - Breaks stun and converts your and allies' conditions into boons.

Other useful skills to consider:

• Well of Darkness - additional Chill (5 AoE pulses) and Blind. the Curses trait Chilling Darkness pairs well with this skill.
• Spectral Armor - alternate stun break.
• Spectral Walk - alternate stun break.
• Spectral Grasp - Replaces Spectral Ring when underwater. Use on land if you need even more CC.

Elite skills

• "Chilled to the Bone!": Applies conditions, notably Chill, Stun, and with 24px Relic of the Nightmare also Fear. Grants boons, notably Stability, Quickness, and Fury. Mandatory, do not replace.

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

For more survivability and/or boon duration, replace some Viper pieces with Trailblazer or Ritualist stats. 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. With full Dire armor and trinkets this 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

Use whatever food is needed to get Bleeding Duration to the 100% cap if needed, then prioritize Condition Damage and Precision.

Food

Utility

Usage

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.

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 dual Swords, cast Staff 5 ( Fear) -> Staff 3 ( Chill + Poison) -> Staff 2 ( Bleed), optionally Staff 4 to clear your conditions, 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.