Game:

Guild Wars 2 (2012)

Duration: 12:56

2,855 views

12

Here I'm beta testing a WvW Reaper build. I'm running Soul Reaping/Blood Magic/Reaper in this video (Spite build vid here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaIk2dSRZes), build and gearset are shown at the end of the video. The idea behind this build is to allow you to still fit in with the current Wellmancer meta in WvW, while swapping out Death Shroud for Reaper Shroud. Why you ask? Because frankly Greatsword is just all around bad at the moment, and Reapers suffer from a lack of invulns, blocks, reflects, long leaps, knockdowns, knockbacks, immob, etc.. that allow frontline classes to survive the heat.

So until Anet fixes Reaper's viability to play frontline, I thought to just make Reapers fit the current necromancer meta instead...a hybrid Wellmancer. In this video I'm using the same weapons as before, Staff and Dagger/WH. Gear is berserker with valk jewelry. I tried full zerker but there's not enough lifeforce, and playing more melee oriented requires a higher lifeforce pool.

The vid shows some escapes from hairy situations, situations in which necros often die to.

Pros:

-With Blood Magic, you still have the reduced wells cooldowns, allowing you to continue dropping big well bombs, which is what necros are needed for in WvW ZvZ gameplay. You have just as much power & ferocity as before so your wells will pop very well.

-With Reaper Shroud, you have added mobility to an extremely immobile class. As you see in the video, you can use Death's Charge to leap into combat, as well as leap out when things get hot. This leap while short distanced, is only on a 6 sec cooldown.

-Decimate Defenses help you cover for the lower crit chance. For best synergy take Unyielding Blast trait for this. I didn't in the video because in WvW, ranged hazing makes up for over 60% of the gameplay. But you can easily hit 100% crit chance while in Reaper Shroud, especially if you use Pack Runes (which I will be when Reaper goes live).

-Blighter's Boon is a godsend. You can passively generate lifeforce, I was getting from 0 - 100% lifeforce just running from one tower to another following the raid. During combat when boons start flying all over the place, you'll regen lifeforce extremely fast. Or if you're in Reaper Shroud you would gain health, which helps with sustain. This trait in my opinion is a must have for Reapers. I really wish we have this for Death Shroud.

-More access to stability! RS 3 (Infusing Terror) gives you pulsing stability, I found myself using it for stab more than I've used it for aoe fear. We now have a way to stomp without the need to pop Plague.

-Relentless Pursuit, greatly shortens immob, cripple, and chill effects on you...the things that often get us killed.

-Great cleave & aoe, RS 4 Soul Spiral do respectable damage, although it does take a bit too long to spin.

Cons:

-You lose out on your trusty 1200 range piercing Life Blast, it used to be in my ranged rotation so was hard to get used to not having access to it.

-You no longer have access to lifetransfer, which was always nice to have because it didn't require line of sight and could hit people behind walls & objects.

-Greatsword is too slow, too clunky, and the one skill I was looking foward to (GS 5 pull) does not work 90% of the time. For an action combat game like GW2, it's very hard to make slow swinging weapons work. When I tried GS, I couldn't get within range to hit much of anything because players in WvW don't stand still unlike target dummies. The damage is also low for a slow hitting weapon.

-Shouts are lackluster, primary issue is the cast time is too long. The only shout I did load and use was "you are all weaklings". It's a nice short cd stunbreaker, it spreads aoe weakness, and gives you stab & might. I tried the elite shout, it has nice effects, but nothing should take 2 seconds to cast in WvW/PvP.

-RS 5 (Executioner's Scythe) in its current iteration does not work most of the time. Biggest issue with it is the long cast time, reminds me of Focus 5. Plus the range is very short, nobody's going to stand there and watch you swing that scythe down on them.

All in all, Reapers have been very fun and made playing a Necromancer a lot more exciting and interactive. I would totally take Reaper just for stability, leap, and blighter's boon alone. I chose BM for wells cooldown, but you can make great Reapers with DM, Spite, and Curses also. Spite offers good might stacking, which is great for LF regen.

Will try out more melee oriented builds once they fix GS and Shouts in the future.

Music used:

Track 1: Aduro by Jens Kiilstofte
https://machinimasound.com/music/aduro
Track 2: Queen of the Night by Per Kiilstofte
https://machinimasound.com/music/queen-of-the-night
Track 3: Shadows of the Mind by Per Kiilstofte
https://machinimasound.com/music/shadows-of-the-mind
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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