Reaper - Power Greatsword
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: 
Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on June 22, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.
Overview
Power reaper is a high damage build with great burst and AoE. It is resilient, and very self-reliant. It maintains a lot of 
Might, and is one of the most reliable open world builds.
Template Code
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Skill Bar
Greatsword
Axe/Warhorn
Utility
Weapon Variants
- Staff - ranged AoE damage for tagging in groups.
Skill Variants
Healing Skills
- - works great when hitting multiple targets.
- - condi cleanse.
Utility Skills
- - DPS option to replace when there's no need to pull mobs.
- - transfers conditions and chills.
- - destroys projectiles.
- - defense and life force generation.
- - might and stunbreak
- - minion with decent DPS
- - excellent mix of damage and defense.
Elite Skills
- - tanky CC pet.
- - burst damage. Use skill 4 and end it.
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.
- - it is usually better to run instead.
Specializations
- - combine with , , and to sacrifice strong area damage for a low intensity playstyle. You can spam Locus and Vampirism as they will recharge quickly while in Shroud.
- - when running multiple shouts.
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 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
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Berserker
Greatsword
Berserker
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Axe
Berserker
Berserker
Warhorn
Berserker
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
x6
Variant Equipment
Gear
Knight - defensive trinkets for increased defense
Valkyrie - use with for a build with extremely high HP (and thus shroud uptime) while maintaining moderate DPS
Runes
- - budget DPS
Sigils
- - budget dps
- - offers higher
Chill uptime and an AOE damage proc - - 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 to get a powerful modifier against chilled foes. The following skills apply chill:
- - one of the primary sources of chill, used at the start of the combo.
- , - if running them, these skills apply chill in a large area.
- - this skill is usually used as an opener due to its pull, and it also chills.
- - the final hit of the greatsword auto-chain, this skill is essential to the build during shroud downtime.
- - applies chill in a large area and places an ice field.
- , - 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.
- - applies chill to any enemy feared, with no cooldown; this means will apply chill.
Dealing Damage
Most of the damage comes from Reaper's Shroud thanks to and together with the aforementioned . 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:
- has a long casting animation, you can enter Reaper's Shroud inmediatly after casting to skip it.
- (consider casting for Stablity to ensure you do not get interrupted during your high damage Reaper's Shroud).
- inside your wells to make use of the whirl finisher.
- x5. Do not interrupt Shroud autos to benefit from .
If the enemy is below 50% HP, keep spamming Gravedigger. Otherwise, cast greatsword autos. When your wells come off cooldown, start again from step 1.
If your life force is low, use 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 and Shroud autos. If following the rotation, your will cover that, otherwise use before spinning.
- Against bosses with a Defiance Bar or breakbar, it is generally worth delaying the rotation until the bar breaks. Consider opening with then . When the bar is almost broken, cast your wells and Nightfall and enter Shroud. If needed, finish off the bar with . Then do your Shroud rotation.
- When dealing with groups of mobs, remember 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
- Sidestep and walk or dodge out of enemy attacks.
- Stack blind, chill, and weakness on trash mobs to negate their damage.
- is as a second health bar and has a natural 33% damage redution. further reduces damage taken.
- Use to cleanse conditions. If more is needed, run or bring a dagger offhand for .
- If downed, just use to get back up.
Crowd Control
- - pull.
- - 2 seconds daze.
- - 1 second knockdown but can hit big enemies multiple times.
- ⇒ - 1 second fear.
- - 1,5 seconds stun.
Ratings
Solid build, but missing mainhand sword as an option (very small dps loss as a tradeoff for mobility and sustain) and erroneously claims that offhand sword has no CC. IMO offhand sword supercedes warhorn completely. Zakiros is also a bad suggestion on Reaper due to it not working in shroud and fury uptime being very low unless your run the Dread trait from Spite traitline.
"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.
I've been using this build for 2 months and i'm very satisfied, thank you.
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.
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.
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.
This build is easy to pick up and run with and definitely slaps!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Really easy build with an extremely high damage and survivability in almost all pve content.
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.
Fantastic build for open-world. Great burst and sustained damage, great self-boon coverage, and good survivability.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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