User:Masel/Builds/Reaper

Greatsword + Swords Power Reaper

Build Rating (Subjective)

Criterion	Rating
Burst Damage	4/5
Sustained Damage	5/5
Utility Options	3/5
Survivability	5/5
Difficulty	2/5

Power  Reaper is a very bursty and resilient choice, even with a simplified rotation like the one I use. It's an amazing pick for all aspects of PvE and it's surely one of the strongest power builds for general open world and solo gameplay, as it provides itself with good amounts of the most essential offensive boons:  Quickness,  Fury and  Might. Through   Reaper's Shroud, it has access to a second health bar, making it very durable, especially when making smaller adjustments to the standard raid/strike/fractal build and using Staff as a ranged secondary weapon.

Link to the Build on the Editor

Playstyle & Skills

Skill Type	Skills
Reaper's Shroud
Greatsword
Staff
Utility

Reaper's Shroud and Life force Management

• Reaper's Shroud does is not drastically different from Death Shroud, but it will drain Life force faster and includes stronger melee abilities.
• The auto attack chain is really strong for damage and recharges all other shroud skills on the final hit. That way, auto attacking in shroud helps with using the other skills faster!

Skill Usage & Choices

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.

Generally, you'll want to try and maximize time spent in   Reaper's Shroud while keeping  Soul Barbs up. Use your damaging AoE-fields   Nightfall,   Well of Darkness and   Well of Suffering before going back into shroud to have them benefit from the additional damage gained via  Reaper's Onslaught and  Death Perception.

•   Dusk Strike,   Fading Twilight +   Chilling Scythe make up for a very strong but slow chain of auto attacks that will recharge   Gravedigger when completed. Above 50% health, you should try to fit in one full auto attack and 2 casts of   Gravedigger per loop.
•   Gravedigger is a very strong Whirl finisher that recharges itself when it hits an enemy below 50% health. For that reason, it replaces the auto attack chain below 50% health.
•   Death Spiral is another Whirl finisher that also applies lots of  Vulnerability. This also restores Life force per enemy hit. Below 50% enemy health, you can repalce this with   Gravedigger as well.
•   Nightfall is a Dark field that does nice damage and applies  Blinded and  Crippled.
•   Grasping Darkness is a Pull that also grants Life force per enemy struck. Not the highest priority, but still better than auto attacking and the Life force it grants.

Utility Skills

Default Skill	Notes
"Your Soul Is Mine!"	Heals for a large amount and also gives lots of Life force. Can be repalced by   Signet of Vampirism if you don't need the Life force.
Well of Darkness	Good damage skill that also applies  Chilled and  Blinded.
Well of Suffering	Good damage skill that also applies  Vulnerability.
"You Are All Weaklings!"	This does nice damage and grants lots of  Might to you and applies  Weakness to foes.
Summon Flesh Golem	Good for passive damage and the strong Breakbar damage on the seconcary cast   Charge. If you want higher burst at the cost of the Breakbar damage, you can use   Lich Form here and use   Summon Madness as the first skill when entering combat, then leave   Lich Form right after.

CC Skills for breakbar damage:

•   Charge
•   Infusing Terror ->   Terrify (applies  Fear)
•   Reaper's Mark (applies  Fear)

Gear

Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):

1. At least 75% Critical Chance: Fury gives the remaining 25%.
2. Maximize Ferocity
3. Maximize Power

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Shoulders	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Chest	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Gloves	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Legs	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Boots	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Assassin's
Ring 1	Berserker's
Ring 2	Berserker's
Accessory 1	Berserker's
Accessory 2	Berserker's
Backpack	Berserker's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Greatsword (Main & Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Force & Superior Sigil of Accuracy
Sword (Main Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Force
Sword (Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Accuracy
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro Lime Sous-Vide Steak
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Oysters with Zesty Sauce
Damage	Utility	Potent Superior Sharpening Stone
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic	Relic of Fireworks

• For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces of Berserker's with rare/exotic Berserker's.
• Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.
• Relic of Fireworks needs to be triggered every 6 seconds. The skills that trigger it in the kit are   Soul Spiral,  Nightfall,   Executioner's Scythe and   Grasping Darkness, so we are spreading them across the loop to maintain the relic. If you don't want to deal with that at the cost of a small amount of damage, use Relic of the Thief

Traits

Spite
Soul Reaping
Reaper

• The default specializations for damage are  Spite,  Soul Reaping and of course  Reaper.
• We're using all of them in both open world and instanced content, which is very convenient!

 Spite

•  Spite boosts your damage output by making you deal 10% more damage to foes with no boons, increasing the power given by  Might and giving you 20% more damage to foes under 50 % health via  Close to Death. This is the reason why the damage you deal will ramp up towards the end of a fight, making execute phases easier.
• It'll also make give you  Might on shroud auto attacks, when entering shroud and when attacking foes below 50% health.

 Soul Reaping

•  Soul Reaping is universally great for necromancer, because it strongly enhances your Life force generation and both strike damage and condition damage.
•  Death Perception increases your Critical chance (always active) and Critical damage (only in shroud).
•  Soul Barbs increases your damage by 10% for 15 seconds after leaving or entering shroud, making it ideal to alternate between them in frequent intervals.

 Reaper

• With the traits of choice,  Reaper will make you deal 10% increased strike damage to nearby foes and another 15% to  Chilled foes. You maintain  Chilled naturally during the rotation and you remain in melee range, keeping this active all the time.
•  Chilling Nova further deals damage to the target and foes around it and further contributes to keeping  Chilled up.
•  Reaper's Onslaught gives you additional Ferocity while in shroud and maintains  Quickness while you are in shroud. This makes reaper very self-sufficient, as it covers good amounts of both  Might and  Quickness on itself.

Open World Build

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.

Link to the Build in the Editor

For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.

Increasing General Survivability

• The first major step to increase survivability is to use Swords as secondary weapons. They give you 1200 range on all your weaon skills and synergizes well with the kit of the build.
• Use all swords skills on cooldown. It is okay to only use the first skill of all sword skills, as the secondary skills sacrifice health.   Gorge heals you for rouhgly the amount you sacrifice, so this is always safe to use.
•   Devouring Visage applies  Fear, which triggers  Dread. make sure to use it whenever it is available.
• Second, use  Blighter's Boon instead of  Reaper's Onslaught. This will give you lots of Life force and health whenever you apply a boon to yourself.
•  Blighter's Boon triggers on every stack of  Might you apply to yourself. Through the traits  Reaper's Might,  Siphoned Power and  Chilling Victory and by using  Fried Golden Dumpling food, you apply loads of  Might to yourself, leading to massive healing and Life force generation in- and outside of shroud.
• Use  "Rise!" to generate Minions as decoy. They will also absorb damage for you, which is awesome! This skill also does respectable damage in melee range.
• If those changes are not comfortable enough for you, you can use the survivability food and utlity item listed above for another -10% damage taken and 150 Toughness!

Boon Coverage

•  Might is covered by  Reaper's Might,  Fried Golden Dumpling,  Siphoned Power and  Chilling Victory, as explained above.
• Since we lose the  Quickness from  Reaper's Onslaught, we'll make use of  Dread in  Spite and use a Relic of the Chronomancer.
• Dread triggers on   Reaper's Mark and  Terrify and covers both  Fury and  Quickness on you. It also recharges  Infusing Terror by 50% every time you kill something while it is on cooldown, allowing you to spam it in shroud for constant application of  Quickness.
• To trigger Relic of the Chronomancer, we'll use   Well of Blood, Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering. They will grant you additional  Quickness outside of shroud.
•   "Chilled to the Bone!" covers additional  Might,  Fury,  Quickness and  Stability.
• To cover more boons, make use of   Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and   Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge.
• These give for 150 additional Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from  Stability,  Resistance and  Resolution on entering combat. The  Protection from this is another free massive gain to survivability!

Utility Skills (Open World)

Skill Choice	Notes
Well of Blood	Decent area heal, mainly use to trigger Relic of the Chronomancer. Is also a Light field that can be used to cleanse conditions by using any finisher inside of it.
Well of Suffering	Big AoE damage and applies lots of  Vulnerability. Also triggers Relic of the Chronomancer.
Well of Darkness	Big AoE damage and applies lots of  Chilled,  Blinded and  Vulnerability via  Bitter Chill. Also triggers Relic of the Chronomancer.
"Rise!"	Designated Flex Spot, can be replaced by any skill you like!
"Chilled to the Bone!"	Very overloaded skill these days, it does it all: Stun,  Might,  Fury,  Quickness and  Stability,  Vulnerability and massive AoE damage. You gain  Might,  Fury and  Stability per enemy hit by this!

Dealing with Conditions and Control effects

•   Well of Blood is a Light field. Using any finisher inside of it (e.g.   Gravedigger,   Soul Spiral or   Putrid Mark) will cleanse conditions.
•   "Suffer!" is a strong condition cleanse with a short cooldown. Also applies  Vulnerability via  Bitter Chill.
•   Spectral Armor gives you some  Protection and a Stun break as well as Life force when you take damage.
•   Spectral Walk is a Stun break and cleanses conditions over its duration, so it does both. Also allows you to cover  Swiftness on yourself in general roaming.
•   "You Are All Weaklings!" is another Stun break that applies lots of  Might, giving you either Life force or health via  Blighter's Boon.