Reaper - Greatsword Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Direct damage

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on August 22, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A bursty Power Reaper build for WvW roaming. Its sustain is rather low, but sometimes the best defense is a good offense.


Skill Bar

Greatsword
Axe/Focus
Utility


Skill Bar Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

  • - ranged teleport and stun breaking, useful for disengaging or chasing down targets.
  • - unblockable boon corruption.
  • - ranged CC which stops enemies from escaping, and even helps with LF management.


Weapons

  • Taking Staff over Greatsword is also a viable option. With this variant pick up on Soul Reaping.


Template Code

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Specializations


Specialization Variants

If you're roaming in a group and you have a support to fall back on, replacing Blood Magic with Spite can also be considered:

Variants

  • trades some vulnerability stacking for slightly higher sustain.


Equipment

Head
Marauder
Shoulders
Marauder
Chest
Marauder
Hands
Marauder
Legs
Marauder
Feet
Marauder
Backpiece
Cavalier
Accessory
Marauder
Accessory
Marauder
Amulet
Cavalier
Ring
Cavalier
Ring
Marauder
Greatsword
Marauder
Sigil
Sigil
Axe
Marauder
Focus
Marauder
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18

Runes

  • - if you're willing to sacrifice sustain for higher damage.
  • - retains some of Durability's sustain and offers better mobility in combat.


Consumables

Food

  • - passive damage mitigation and great stats.
  • - active damage mitigation.
    • - budget version


Utility

  • or .


Usage

General

  • Spectral skills are going to be the main Life Force (LF) builders
    • Even at maximum LF you can consider using before entering . Both the Protection Protection and the extra LF from incoming attacks are going to increase the time you'll be able to spend in shroud.
  • Build Life Force by killing critters or any other PvE mob while roaming.
  • There's more to (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 when your enemies jump after you.
    • Activate SW break line of sight cast 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 (if using Flesh Wurm) teleport back when they catch up to you.
  • For mobility use the following sequence: (this also applies Swiftness Swiftness from ) just before Death's Charge finishes.
  • 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.
  • and are some of the best burst skills in the build, try to use them while the proc is active.


Shroud

  • Most of your burst comes from , where your damage is further increased by and .
  • Opening with is very common, as it helps getting your damage off uninterrupted while the damage reduction helps you stay in shroud longer.
    • 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.
  • should be used in the field created by for the Frost Aura Frost Aura whenever possible.
  • should primarily be used on CC'd or downed targets (as Poison Poison reduces the resurrection healing coming from their allies), but thanks to the permanent Quickness Quickness while in shroud this skill is now much easier to land without any real setup.
  • 's a single target skill for the most part, as it only stuns one target. can Fear Fear targets long enough to prevent enemies from dodging this skill.
  • Use autoattacks when eveything else is on CD.


Greatsword

  • 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 situations, especially when it comes to surviving vs melee players.
  • The autoattack chain is just way too slow and will barely (if ever) be used.
  • 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 Quickness Quickness from .
  • is excellent for stacking some vulnerability/life force.
  • 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.

Related Builds

Spectral Onslaught - the Conquest PvP version of this roaming build.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 4 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
4 stars
Hanz gave this build 4 stars • July 2023
Gave the build a small update, switched to the Curses variant, shout heal and once again slotted in Blood Bond. The build has a lot of damage and even sustain isn't bad, but requires proper CD management because if you get caught offguard just once you'll die, and it's still rather susceptible to CC. It's not bad, just not as good as Power options on some other classes, but it can absolutely dominate when mastered.
4 stars
Ruler gave this build 4 stars • May 2019
Im giving this 4 Stars because of how forgiving I've found it, while still being able to do MASSIVE burst damage. Its up there with Spellbreaker on builds I'd reccommend for new roamers. If you're struggling to sustain try taking the Death Magic line over Spite, helps with survivability and has a couple get out of jail free cards.
4 stars
Fergand gave this build 4 stars • May 2019
It can feel vulnerable against high mobility opponents. However, with good timing and patience you can burst many opponents from full to down very quickly. While primarily for damage, you can use shroud defensively if you're finding yourself running low on HP and unable to heal. Life force is a precious resource though, so try to limit your time in shroud to when you can take full advantage of it's strength.
5 stars
Bluezone76 gave this build 5 stars • October 2018
very nice and fun build, it does really high damage

Comments

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