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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 Quickness, Might Might, and critical chance. It also brings heavy CC and Vulnerability 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 Quickness, Might Might, Fury 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 Chilled uptime.
  • Signet of Undeath - worth taking if Chilled 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 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.


Template Code

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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 RendLife SlashLife Reap x7
  8. Exit Reaper's Shroud
  9. Gravedigger
  10. Death Spiral
  11. Dusk StrikeFading TwilightChilling Scythe x2


Loop part 2

  1. Nightfall
  2. Grasping Darkness
  3. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  4. Ghastly Claws
  5. Well of Darkness
  6. Well of Suffering
  7. Reaper's Shroud
  8. Soul Spiral
  9. Life RendLife SlashLife Reap x6
  10. Exit Reaper's Shroud
  11. Ghastly Claws
  12. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  13. Gravedigger
  14. Death Spiral
  15. Dusk StrikeFading TwilightChilling 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 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.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 12 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Necroffe gave this build 5 stars • June 2024
Its a great build but now with sword it should be upgraded....Reaper is one the spec that never gets old, you can do mostly any content in the game with that, great boon gen, great cleave, great great build!
5 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 5 stars • April 2024
High damage for a build that self-generates so many boons. Still has to be a little careful about taking too much damage in shroud, but encounter knowledge can mitigate this greatly. Incredible cleave and blind spam also make this an excellent build for dealing with trash mobs.
5 stars
Thumpen gave this build 5 stars • February 2024
the GO TO build for almost all content in the game. finding my self always at top DPS in PVE content! i’m playing with Dagger/Torch and not with staff. easy to learn and fun rotation ! 5 stars for me :)
5 stars
Vall gave this build 5 stars • November 2023
I use a variant of this build (opting for Dagger+Warhorn instead of staff) and I gotta say this build is perfect for someone new (like me) who wants to jump straight into T4 Fractals, Raids and whatever really. It's easy to do enough DPS to pull your own weight and not too hard to top the DPS meter unless you're playing with very experienced players. TL;DR - Easy to play, Good DPS, Perfect for beginners.
5 stars
Lelouch1885 gave this build 5 stars • March 2023
Very good build for Reaper. The different gear options are well put together and work well. Reaper shines in every and all content, and in the hands of an experienced Reaper, can outshine meta builds and specs. It just works! Reaper is in the best state it's been in years, though I think ArenaNet could give it a little love. We need more strong Power Specs, and Reaper has the kit for it.
4 stars
Mikepresjr gave this build 4 stars • December 2022
This build says 'Updated December 5th' but the description is the same, when it should be hard recommending chilled to the bone now due to the recent buffs to Reaper. With chilled on a 40 sec cooldown now, as well as giving fury and might, it is easily best elite skill for most encounters, even if there is only 1 add it's a good amount of self fury and chill and stability. The rest of the build is still pretty spot on. I would recommend axe/warhorn over staff simply for the CC and superior life force regen and small heal. Just only swap to that bar in in between other actions, like swap to it for a quick axe 2 to top up on LF before hitting shroud for a burst, etc. That being said, the biggest flaw with reaper is that failing to avoid damage will cancel your burst all together. With good gameplay reaper isn't terrible, if you stand in ever AoE you will never do DPS as reaper.
5 stars
Kisyana gave this build 5 stars • October 2021
Very good class, easy to learn, and has double potential as necro can always swap to condi scourge when needed. Overall, my favorite for any PvE content outside of zerging. Personally played with marauder gear and eagle runes.
5 stars
Yotsudlt gave this build 5 stars • May 2021
One of the best dps build for fractals imo. It does very big aoe damage with an easy to learn rotation, have a lot of hp despite being full berserker and some very good CC with your golem.
5 stars
Zhao gave this build 5 stars • March 2021
Reaper is actually amazing for Fractals and I hate seeing it rated so low. It may be on the lower side of the Benchmarks (honestly not by much), but it is a very independent class with great burst, boon corruption, and sustain. Due to how easy it is to play, it is actually more common to see Reapers topping the DPS charts in your typical fractal runs as well.
5 stars
Darwa gave this build 5 stars • December 2020
I've only been playing since March and was quite struggling finding reliable 'fun' playing Necro, so someone suggested I try this build. Now, I'm having a great time when my friends aren't around.
4 stars
QueenCesta gave this build 4 stars • September 2020
A solid build on a solid class that's easy for anyone to pick up and do decently with. One of the best uses I've found for Power Reaper with a build similar to this is soloing pretty much whatever I feel like soloing throughout the open world and even some dungeon paths. If you're looking for absolute tippy top DPS, this might not get you there, but there is no content in the game that this build wouldn't work for.
5 stars
Cosmik gave this build 5 stars • June 2020
Great build, easy to play, good Dps/Aoe

Comments

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