Reaper

“

An inexorable force on the battlefield, the reaper empowers itself enough to wield a cleaving greatsword to harvest its foes. Slow and hard-hitting, these deadly combatants call out the impending doom of their enemies with piercing shouts. Upon accumulating sufficient life force, they can enter the reaper’s shroud, a deadly form that grants them a dark scythe of malevolent energy and the abilities to match it. Capable of heavily afflicting their victims with chill and other conditions, the reaper wades into melee receiving and dealing blows knowing nothing can save its foes!

— Reaper release notes

Reaper is an elite specialization for the necromancer that focuses on shout skills and enables the melee-oriented Reaper's Shroud. It also allows the necromancer to wield a greatsword.

List of reaper skills

See also: List of necromancer skills

Profession mechanic

Reaper's Shroud is the reaper's profession mechanic, replacing Death Shroud.

	Skill			Description
	Reaper's Shroud		10	Assume the form of a reaper and gain new skills, turning your life force into health.
	Exit Reaper's Shroud			Leave Reaper's Shroud and return to your normal form.
Terrestrial
1	Life Rend	0.5½		Cleave foes in front of you. This skill inherits traits from Life Blast.
	Life Slash	0.5½		Cleave foes in front of you again. This skill inherits traits from Life Blast.
	Life Reap	0.5½		Cleave foes around you, gaining life force for each foe struck. This skill inherits traits from Life Blast.
2	Death's Charge	10.25¼	6	Slide forward, destroying projectiles in your path. Blind foes at your destination. This skill inherits traits from Dark Path.
3	Infusing Terror		25	Shroud yourself with dark armor that grants stability and reduces incoming damage. You may shatter this armor to fear foes around you.
	Terrify	0.5½		Detonate your armor to make foes around you flee in fear.
4	Soul Spiral	20.75¾	30	Spiral and damage nearby foes, dealing high damage. This skill inherits traits from Life Transfer.
5	Executioner's Scythe	10.25¼	30	Deliver a powerful overhand strike to stun a single target. Deals more damage the lower health the target is. Leaves behind a field of ice.

Weapon skills

	Skill	Type			Description
Greatsword
1	Dusk Strike		0.75¾		Cleave foes in front of you.
1	Dusk Strike, Fading Twilight, Chilling Scythe chain  Fading Twilight		0.75¾		Cleave foes in front of you again.
1	Dusk Strike, Fading Twilight, Chilling Scythe chain  Chilling Scythe		1		Strike foes and chill them.
2	Gravedigger		10.25¼	8	Perform a huge swing that deals heavy damage. Recharges faster if it hits a downed or low health foe.
3	Death Spiral		1	12	Conjure a drill of dark energy on your blade and rend the armor of foes in front of you. Deal increased damage to foes above the health threshold.
4	Nightfall		0.5½	25	Call down a growing column of shadows that damages and applies conditions on foes per pulse.
5	Grasping Darkness		0.75¾	25	Conjure claws of darkness from the shadows to attack foes, applying a condition to them and pulling them to you. Gain life force for each struck foe.

Slot skills

Healing

Skill	Type					Description
"Your Soul Is Mine!"	Shout		15	0.75¾	20	Heal yourself and strike foes around you, absorbing life force for each foe struck.

Utility

Skill	Type					Description
"Nothing Can Save You!"	Shout		15	0.5½	25	Damage foes around you, converting their boons into vulnerability. Your attacks become unblockable for a short time. The duration increases based on the number of foes struck.
"Rise!"	Shout		15		40	Damage foes around you. Summon a shambling horror plus additional horrors near each enemy struck. Shambling horrors absorb damage for their master as long as they are attacking.
"Suffer!"	Shout		15		20	Damage foes around you and chill them. Transfer a condition to each foe you strike.
"You Are All Weaklings!"	Shout		15		30	Damage foes around you inflicting conditions on them and giving you boons. Gain additional might per foe struck.

Elite

Skill	Type					Description
"Chilled to the Bone!"	Shout		25	10.25¼	90	Freeze all enemies around. Gain boons for each foe you freeze.

List of Reaper traits

See also: List of necromancer traits

Tier	Name		Description
Minor Proficiency	Greatsword Proficiency		You can wield greatswords.
Minor Adept	Shroud Knight		Death shroud is replaced with reaper's shroud, which has more melee-oriented skills.
Major Adept	Augury of Death		Reduces recharge of shouts. Your shouts siphon health and gain additional recharge reduction for each foe they hit.
Major Adept	Chilling Nova	8	Critical hits against chilled foes causes an explosion that chills adjacent foes.
Major Adept	Relentless Pursuit		Reduces duration of movement-impairing conditions. Additional reduction while in reaper's shroud.
Minor Master	Shivers of Dread		Whenever you inflict fear, you also chill.
Major Master	Soul Eater		Greatsword skills gain reduced recharge. Periodically heal and gain life force while wielding a greatsword.
Major Master	Chilling Victory	1	Striking a chilled foe grants might and life force. (Single attacks can activate this trait more than once before recharging.)
Major Master	Decimate Defenses		Striking a foe with vulnerability increases your critical hit chance.
Minor Grandmaster	Cold Shoulder		Chill lasts longer, and chilled foes take more damage from your attacks.
Major Grandmaster	Blighter's Boon		Gain life force when you apply a boon to yourself. If you are in reaper's shroud, gain health instead.
Major Grandmaster	Deathly Chill		Chill deals damage over time.
Major Grandmaster	Reaper's Onslaught		Gain ferocity while in a reaper's shroud. Hitting with Life Reap reduces the recharge of all shroud skills. Gain pulsating quickness while in Reaper's Shroud. Recharge reduction can only occur once per use of Life Reap.

Gallery

• 

  Dark Harvest

• 

  Reaper's Shroud

• 

  Female Reaper's Shroud

• 

  Gravedigger

• 

  "Your Soul Is Mine!"

• 

  "Rise!"

• 

  "Chilled to the Bone!"

List of reaper equipment

•   Reaper's Greatsword
•   Dark Harvest
•   Reaper's Hood
•   Superior Rune of the Reaper

Related achievements

• Specializations (Heart of Thorns achievements): Adept Reaper — Begin training the necromancer's reaper elite specialization. (5)
• Specializations (Heart of Thorns achievements): Master Reaper — Completely train the necromancer's reaper elite specialization. (10)
• Specialization Collections: Dark Harvest — Collect these 14 items and skins to receive the reaper's greatsword, Dark Harvest. (3)

Trivia

• Reapers are often associated with the human god Grenth, most notably the Seven Reapers.
• Marjory Delaqua is likely the first Reaper. Marjory takes her sister's greatsword after Belinda's death at Fort Salma. In the Ghosts of Fort Salma mission, Belinda's spirit fuses itself with the sword, vowing to protect Marjory.
• Trahearne has used the Caladbolg - a greatsword granted to him by the Pale Tree, a magical sword made from the Pale Tree's thorn, however he did not use skills resembling the Reaper's skills, and Ree Soesbee has confirmed this to be a coincidence, not intended to hint at the Reaper elite spec.

External links

• Meet the Reaper: Necromancer’s Elite Specialization
• Hidden Arcana: Developer Spotlight on Lee Bledsoe
• Points of Interest: Reaper spotlight on YouTube

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Necromancer