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Reaper - Spectral Onslaught

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Direct damage and Control

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on January 19, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.


Overview

A high damage PvP Power Reaper built around the Reaper's Onslaught trait, augmented by spectral skills for proper Life Force management to decimate teamfights.


Skill Bar

Staff
Axe/Focus
Utility


Slot Changes

Utility

For the optional slot:

  • Spectral Armor - stun break, defense against direct damage, and great Life Force generation.
  • Spectral Wall - area denial that can save your life and has nice synergy with Fear of Death (if taken).
  • Well of Darkness - great sustain tool that can help both you and your team survive longer.
  • Corrosive Poison Cloud - excellent anti-projectile skill which also brings Template:Gw2wiki and Template:Gw2wiki spam to the table, further mitigating damage as well as enemy healing.
  • Spectral Grasp - CC and Life Force management.


Elite

  • "Chilled to the Bone!" - a rare sight these days, but it's a decent elite skill if you feel like you wouldn't be getting value out of your Lich due to things like AoE projectile denial being prevalent on the enemy team.

Weapons

  • Some people prefer playing with Greatsword instead of Staff, giving up some utility for more burst and some protection vs melee via Nightfall. Take Speed of Shadows on Soul Reaping. Overall GS is less competitive than Staff.


Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

  • Soul Barbs is a great damage boost if you're comfortable with giving up some sustain for it.
  • Fear of Death improves Life Force management/CC.

Variants

  • Augury of Death is also a viable option, and highly recommended when playing with any shout skills.

Specialization Variants

If you can afford to give up some sustain for better burst, consider replacing Blood Magic with Spite:


Equipment

Staff
Sigil
Sigil
Axe
Focus
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet


Equipment Variants

Amulets


Usage

General Spectral skills and Focus 4 are going to be the main Life Force (LF) builders, especially Spectral Armor.

  • Even at maximum LF you can consider using Spectral Armor before entering Reaper's Shroud. Both the Template:Gw2wiki and the extra LF from incoming attacks are going to increase the time you'll be able to spend in shroud.
  • Spam Soul Grasp as much as you can if you're not at the Life Force cap.

There's more to Spectral Walk (SW) than just being a stun breaker with a bit of LF management, this skill allows for quite a bit of creativity. For example:

  • Activate SW ⇒ jump off a cliff while being chased ⇒ Spectral Recall when your enemies jump after you.
  • Activate SW ⇒ break line of sight ⇒ cast "Chilled to the Bone!" ⇒ teleport back at the very end of the channeling (this makes it harder to avoid and reduces the chance of getting interrupted, although the outcome is going to be a bit luck based).
  • Activate SW ⇒ Necrotic Traversal (if using Flesh Wurm) ⇒ teleport back when they catch up to you. This works for stomping downed enemies as well, the channeling isn't interrupted by either of these teleports!

For mobility use the following sequence:

  1. Reaper's Shroud applies Template:Gw2wiki from Speed of Shadows
  2. Death's Charge
  3. Exit Reaper's Shroud just before Death's Charge finishes (the ending of DC brings your character to a halt, which can be cancelled by dropping out of shroud early)

"Chilled to the Bone!" has a very distinct animation which makes it easy to avoid, if you feel like that's going to happen then stow your weapon to cancel the channeling. This is also great for fake casting - you can use the skill, cancel it immediately with weapon stow (the whole animation will still play, potentially baiting out dodges or other defensive CDs), and send it only on a CD of 5 seconds.

Ghastly Claws is one of the best burst skills in the build. Try to use it when you have a fair amount of Template:Gw2skill stacks, Template:Gw2skill, and peferably Template:Gw2skill on the target.


Shroud

Most of your burst comes from Reaper's Shroud, where your damage is further increased by Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught.

Opening with Infusing Terror is very common, as it helps getting your damage off uninterrupted while the damage reduction helps you stay in shroud longer.

  • Terrify is the chain skill of this slot. This should only be used when either A) you need an emergency CC, or B) Infusing Terror is about to expire.

Death's Charge should be used in the field created by Executioner's Scythe for the Template:Gw2skill whenever possible.

Soul Spiral should primarily be used on CC'd or downed targets (as Template:Gw2wiki reduces the resurrection healing coming from their allies), but thanks to the permanent Template:Gw2wiki while in shroud this skill is now much easier to land without any real setup.

Executioner's Scythe's a single target skill for the most part, and one that's best used on low-HP targets. Terrify can Template:Gw2wiki targets long enough to prevent enemies from dodging this skill.

Use auto attacks when eveything else is on CD.

Burst combo example: Template:Gw2wiki (gap closer with good impact damage) ⇒ Template:Gw2wiki ⇒ Template:Gw2wiki ⇒ Template:Gw2wiki


Greatsword variant

Nightfall is the only thing that justifies taking Greatsword, its strength is arguably on par with Well skills. Nightfall is fairly versatile and useful in many sutations, especially when it comes to surviving vs melee players or 1v1ing on point (but that's not your main role).

The auto attack chain is just way too slow and will barely (if ever) be used.

Gravedigger suffers from the same problem as the auto chain, but at least it hits way harder. This will mostly be used as a downed cleave skill when Shroud is on CD, but if you're feeling lucky you can try to use it for bursting in regular combat especially against bunkers. Much easier to land with some lingering Template:Gw2skill from Reaper's Onslaught.

Death Spiral is excellent for stacking some vulnerability/life force.

Grasping Darkness is a decent CC but can be hard to land against moving targets.

After unloading skills 3-5 spend most of your time in Reaper's Shroud waiting for weapon swap to come off CD.


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Related Builds

Retrieved from "https://metabattle.com/wiki/index.php?title=Build:Reaper_-_Spectral_Onslaught&oldid=222"


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 15 votes.
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4 stars
Ethan gave this build 4 stars • October 2024
A classic, high damage, boonrip and not as squishy as other power necros. Still suffers from requiring a support to function, aswell as lack of mobility but that's always been a necro thing. Replacing axe with sword would allow you to have higher mobility and still have decent damage however axe is still higher dps, and doesn't rely on projectiles
5 stars
Hanz gave this build 5 stars • September 2023
Rising in popularity once against after the Relic patch in part thanks to its really high uptime of the Fireworks procs. Damage is A tier and the CC/boonrip also add to the pressure. Very squishy so you need to be careful with positioning and use your utilities well to survive especially without a support. While not meta, it's a strong option for ranked, one of the better ones actually.
4 stars
Vex gave this build 4 stars • March 2023
More like Paper Reaper with how quickly it dies to focus. Tons of fun when it works and the damage connects but just as unfun half the time when it doesn't. I climbed out of gold with it but switched to willbender right after and I have no regrets. Maybe I'll go back to this during the 3v3 season but for conquest willbender feels superior.
5 stars
Quanxi gave this build 5 stars • December 2022
Absolutely tears people up. The only thing I don't like is how quickly it can run out of shroud, very hard to land a full combo specially if I'm being targeted. Wish reaper was more tanky instead of having to run away with wurm and spectral walk but oh well. Tradeoffs I guess. I think I prefer the shout version but shouts could use a buff. If the heal gave more life force it'd be perfect.
5 stars
BookNQuill gave this build 5 stars • November 2021
One of the cheesiest but strongest Meta builds out there, way better than the two condition damage builds that is so called "Legendary", they're gold, platinum at best....This one is Legendary. I use Berserker's Amulet, Evasion Rune, Spec Armor, Nothing Can Save You, Spite(Top,Mid,Top), and it creates one hell of a burst. I use Lich and I can wipe up to 3 people ez, then reaper's shroud the rest.
4 stars
Xenex gave this build 4 stars • May 2021
this build is AWESOME! it annihilates anything in a teamfight if paired with a good support and litch oneshots pretty much everything. it's very hard to play at first but after some games it gets easier. It is the funniest necro build i ever played but if the other team has a deadeye thief (many use that meme build lately :-S) it becomes completely useless in any scenario because of it's lack of mobility. basically thiefes counter it very hard especially because it does not have any way to deal with deadeyes.
5 stars
Novuake gave this build 5 stars • June 2020
Strong counter to mallyx rev. Pretty good!
5 stars
Aditya Cyfer gave this build 5 stars • April 2020
Spite for reaper is weak now. The blood magic reaper version comes with equally nice damage, great condi sustain. Naru plays that one now.
5 stars
Saryko gave this build 5 stars • November 2019
really solid build tho I play a slightly modified version of it I based mine off this one. Great Life force management beginner-friendly, and effective later on as well. of course, the usual condition must be applied learn other classes to come up with a counter for their skills and you will get forward I personally prefer marauder amulet instead of the demolisher one same stat's but vitality instead of toughness tho I play always duo with a support Elementalist there for my slight change on the build
4 stars
MuffinGuru gave this build 4 stars • November 2019
Very under-rated build. This can especially be said when played defensively to cap Life Force and subsequently charge into team fights with the utility skill "Nothing Can Save You!" and shroud-provided stability; shreds bunkers, albeit Daredevil Staff bunker. Unfortunately, though, due to its lack of mobility, team utility, and general vulnerability outside of shroud, it requires a godly level of understanding on how to approach other classes in order to progress into the Platinum ranks within the current sPvP meta.
4 stars
Baescons gave this build 4 stars • May 2019
Decent in ranked and for replacing scourge FB in team play though it has fallen pretty far.
4 stars
Justavi gave this build 4 stars • January 2019
Pretty strong in 1v1s. Too squishy against more than 2 though, so I avoid anything where I'm outnumbered. I run it with Rune of Speed for the +99% speed to grab home quick and bounce between home and far. If overwhelmed, just use warhorn 5 and sprint away. Pretty fun~
5 stars
Artazkaran gave this build 5 stars • November 2018
This is best reaper build what can be used. Good for pushing lower ranks and with a lot of practise u can push to the higher (as I did). But for me is better to use Avaken the Pain in Spite trait line :D
4 stars
Shiroshiro gave this build 4 stars • November 2018
A good build overall, but I don't think it will last for more than 3 seasons. The damage is insane, cc is there, but it lacks sustainability against high damage burst conditions.
4 stars
Justiceretrohunter gave this build 4 stars • September 2018
Couple Revisions 1) Decimate Defences....no. With Spite Trait-line, Chilling Victory is BIS. Soul Eater is a contending preference (If you have trouble with Life Force). DD is completely unnecessary, and is irrelevant when you have 88% crit chance. 2) This configuration makes sense, but it's an obscene amount of damage, at the expense of sustain and survival. This iteration is indeed meta right now, but it is also not the best configuration. This build lacks condition cleanse, is easily pressured by ranged foes, and the Strength Rune choice is excessive. 3) Chilling Nova is fine and all, there's good synergy...but with the drop in Blighter's Boon, and going Onslaught, it is a waste of a trait because it's unnecessary (since you do so much damage already, and now you lack sustain). Despite the popular consensus, Relentless Pursuit now holds more value than it did before...making it a more viable option to deal with kiting foes. 4) Back to the Strength Rune. Rune of the Lynx makes for sticking to your target much easier, and provides more mobility and escape potential. I'd recommend that rune, over strength. 5) The amulets are up in the air...almost anything can work, again, the build has so much damage that you could go Barbarian and still hit like a truck. Personally i go with Demolisher. There are variations that use Seeker Amulets and Condi alternatives. There are also alternatives that swap Spite for Blood, Spite for Curses, and Spit

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