2 Crazy grandmasters for Reaper

Initially I just wanted to ask if anyone has tried to make use out of the first 2 Reaper grandmasters, since all the builds I find choose the one that gives quickness, and for good reason. Not only is it stronger than others by far, it also has a great feeling.But then I also wanted to add some ideas while am at it

The first should focus on survivability:Bilghter's boon: When you enter shroud, taunt all nearby enemies. When you exit shroud, gain a barrier equal to the lifeforce you lost to enemy attacks. While having this barrier, the duration of all disables is drastically reduced.

The second I think should focus on chill usage and give an additional, if gated, CC option.Deathly Chill: Chill stacks in intensity, up to 4 stacks (-99% skill recharge and movement speed). If you're wielding a Greatsword, your next hit against and enemy with 4 chill stacks encases them in ice, stunning them and refunding a portion of Grasping Darkness

Yes, people use them.

Deathly Chill is vital for condi builds, because of the trait that inflicts Chill on Blind, which is what makes the entire build work with Greatsword, Well of Darkness, etc. Without it Reaper has basically no condi build and would have to trait into Scourge.

Blighter's Boon is heavily used in competitive modes for tanking, since its the only way you can heal in Shroud.

Sry but I have to doubt that, I searched so far most, if not all the main sites that make builds, for all game made modes. And so far I've never found even a mention of blighter's boon or deathly chill. And condi reaper was never a thing. You could make something out of it for open world, but in that case everything works.

@Al Masone.1274 said:Sry but I have to doubt that, I searched so far most, if not all the main sites that make builds, for all game made modes. And so far I've never found even a mention of blighter's boon or deathly chill. And condi reaper was never a thing. You could make something out of it for open world, but in that case everything works.

Condition Reaper have been a thing, also very popular, for a long time before PoF.

Despite the popular sites no longer having any up to date build for it, it is a viable alternative to Condition Scourge and it also got buffed recently.

Reaper and Scourge are very different and there are people, like me, that would never play Scourge Condition (which is also insanely difficult to play effectively in PvE). Deathly Chill is a very important trait for Condition Reaper.

Blighter's Boon is used in PvE for sustain, often in conjunction with Chilling Victory for generating stacks of might and LF quickly. It is definitely useful for abusing shroud.

Deathly Chill is only used in hybrid power-condition damage builds for raids and such. Also used in corruption builds for WvW and PvP.

Neither setup is meta but both are used

PvE Reaper often uses Blighters together with Might generating traits like Chilling Victory and Spite traitline in order to heal in Shroud.PvP Reaper also sees some use of Blighters as well.

Deathly Chill is used by Condi Reapers still.

What yu suggested for Blighters though, I would like to see on Scourge instead.Scourge plays around with Barriers alot, and something to increase their survivability through Barriers would be pretty exciting.

Imo it could be tweaked a little and slapped onto Harbinger Shroud and maybe we can start seeing fun Tank Heal Scourges in PvE or even dueling Scourges in PvP/WvW.(Something like prime Harbinger Shroud and Taunt nearby enemies, and gaining additional Barrier for themselves and their allies based on how many enemies were hit)

@"Hannelore.8153" said:Blighter's Boon is heavily used in competitive modes for tanking, since its the only way you can heal in Shroud."Heavily"? Then these people have no clue about reaper.

Signet of vampirism (both the active and the passive) and the two leeching traits of blood magic heal you in shroud and outperform blighter's boon with ease.

Blighter's boon is never worth using for the following reasons:

• You have to pick spite and boon sigils to get any benefit out of it. Otherwise this gm (!) trait does almost nothing.
• It has a good synergy with awaken the pain, which conflicts with the signet trait, which has better sustain potential than blighter's boon.
• Your attacks are much slower than with an onslaught build, this means on an onslaught build you get more healing from the BM leechings equalizing blighter's boon.
• Traited signet of undeath is better for life force generation than blighter's boon because it works passive.
• Sigil of energy and sigil of cleansing at once have more damage avoidance potential than any boon sigil could grant for blighter's boon.

The trait is simply worthless. It's the worst reaper trait. And anet did even nerf it indirectly when they removed the boons from axe3 (retaliation) and focus4 (regeneration).

Bligher's boon might get a boost if the dagger autoattacks would be buffed to generate some boon (e.g. 2s of regeneration or protection on the 3rd auto). Would even be a good synergy as dagger is a sustain weapon. Or they could add an additional boon to the shroud autoattacks when you trait blighter's boon - this would make it less dependant from the spite traitline. So much they could do with this trait... and nothing happens.

@Al Masone.1274 said:Sry but I have to doubt that, I searched so far most, if not all the main sites that make builds, for all game made modes. And so far I've never found even a mention of blighter's boon or deathly chill. And condi reaper was never a thing. You could make something out of it for open world, but in that case everything works.

Let's be careful here ... build sites don't tend to list anything BUT the most optimal builds and those tend to also be targetted for instanced group content (even if you want to believe the trash these sites push as OW builds) ... so what is it that you exactly want to talk about here?

Personally, I would like the Reaper traits in general to focus on either survivability, condition damage, or power damage.

Survivability:Blighter's Boon -> new name (maybe a relentless pursuit merge?)While in shroud you are immune to control effects, entering shroud breaks stun.The loss of healing would be solved by making Soul Eater the healing trait (by lowering the heal in PvE, but letting it work in shroud again)

Condition Damage:Deathly Chill:Chill applies bleed, Life Reap applies bleed/additional rangeIn general Deathly Chill just needs to buffed up to the same level as Demonic Lore

Chilling Victory grants Might whenever striking a chilled foe, which is a lot in PvE playing Reaper. Blighter's Boon then proc's on might generation so it has some value without traits other than CV.

Blighter's Boon regenerates LF or health in small amounts to make Reaper a little bit less glassy without consuming a utility slot or using anything but full dps equipment. It is a sustain-type trait like Vampyric Presence.

The nerfs to core Necro's weapons do suck, though, and I sometimes wonder if all boons, including might, will be scoured from the profession. Regen on Mark of Blood and protection on Spectral Armor could be replaced by barrier. Self-might could easily disappear.

@Redpawa.4108 said:Personally, I would like the Reaper traits in general to focus on either survivability, condition damage, or power damage.

Survivability:Blighter's Boon -> new name (maybe a relentless pursuit merge?)While in shroud you are immune to control effects, entering shroud breaks stun.The loss of healing would be solved by making Soul Eater the healing trait (by lowering the heal in PvE, but letting it work in shroud again)

Condition Damage:Deathly Chill:Chill applies bleed, Life Reap applies bleed/additional rangeIn general Deathly Chill just needs to buffed up to the same level as Demonic Lore

Immune to control effects while in shroud, you must be kidding.Pulsing stability would already be extreme strong, but simply being immune to control effects just makes this ridiculously overpowered.

Fair point @"Kodama.6453" but that was intentional, Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.

To make it a one-to-one choice against against Reaper's Onslaught it would have to be:Gain toughness while in a reaper's shroud. Being hit reduces the recharge of all shroud skills. Gain pulsating stability while in Reaper's Shroud.2 Stability (3s)Toughness: 300Recharge Time Reduced: 1 secondInterval: 3 Seconds

Personally I would prefer a trait that has less overloaded text, and just does one thing well.

Extra note: There is precedent for grand master traits completely negating game mechanics

Stone Heart Critical hit immunityDon't Stop 100% reduction of soft cc (with -condition duration food)

@Redpawa.4108 said:Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.... which proves that the spec is only viable with onslaught, because every balance patch for reaper is based on picking onslaught. If this trait didn't exist reaper would need some heavy buffs to be competitive.

This brings us back to the idea of a baseline attack speed increase of shroud. Since the other 2 gm traits are extremely underpowered this is probably the best way to fix blighter's boon and deathly chill at once. Onslaught would still be good if it only granted +300 ferocity and the shroud skill recharge reductions.

A faster attack speed for blighter's boon would result in better healing and a better damage/sustain ratio.A faster attack speed for deathly chill would result in an extreme boost to dhuumfire+chill reapers. Ich would probably start play condi reaper for the first time in my life.

@Redpawa.4108 said:Fair point @"Kodama.6453" but that was intentional, Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.

 

To make it a one-to-one choice against against Reaper's Onslaught it would have to be:Gain toughness while in a reaper's shroud. Being hit reduces the recharge of all shroud skills. Gain pulsating stability while in Reaper's Shroud.2 Stability (3s)Toughness: 300Recharge Time Reduced: 1 secondInterval: 3 Seconds

Personally I would prefer a trait that has less overloaded text, and just does one thing well.

 

Extra note: There is precedent for grand master traits completely negating game mechanics

Stone Heart Critical hit immunityDon't Stop 100% reduction of soft cc (with -condition duration food)

Don't stop doesn't really work as an example here, since it does not remove a game mechanic on it's own. Like you mention, there is another component needed for this to happen (buff food). The equivalent for your idea to don't stop would be that this new grandmaster trait reduces CC duration by 80%, but not gives complete immunity on it's own.

Also I don't think such a trait is really a good idea. The major weakness of reaper's shroud is kiting, CC is an important aspect to be able to do that. Giving complete CC immunity in shroud is basically asking for having a trait that removes the counterplay of the shroud.

@Redpawa.4108 said:Fair point @"Kodama.6453" but that was intentional, Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.

 

To make it a one-to-one choice against against Reaper's Onslaught it would have to be:Gain toughness while in a reaper's shroud. Being hit reduces the recharge of all shroud skills. Gain pulsating stability while in Reaper's Shroud.2 Stability (3s)Toughness: 300Recharge Time Reduced: 1 secondInterval: 3 Seconds

Personally I would prefer a trait that has less overloaded text, and just does one thing well.

 

Extra note: There is precedent for grand master traits completely negating game mechanics

Stone Heart Critical hit immunityDon't Stop 100% reduction of soft cc (with -condition duration food)

This doesn't really make sense. One of the main reason RO is favored as a trait is because it's an offensive trait. Thinking that an overpowered defensive trait competiting with it would be a good way to reduce the popualrity of RO is wrong and can only break the game in the game mode where the community is the most vocal (sPvP).

Honnestly, whether it's RO for reaper or Death perception for the core necromancer, both traits are to strong from a PvP point of view yet feel needed to carry the necromancer's dps in PvE. What ANet would logically do about those 2 traits would be to halve the ferocity they grant in sPvP and WvW.

The only solution to make Blighter boon valuable in PvE end game is to make the core necromancer's support tools valuable there. Which basically mean that ANet need to fix the lack of interaction between boon corruption and the defiance mechanism and learn to create encounters that pressure the players with slow ramping continuous condition pressure that the necromancer could manipulate. Interestingly enough these changes would also make deathly chill a more popular option since it would allow condition damage builds to benefit a lot.

I've used Blighter's Boon to great effect in WvW. It is fine, stronger even now that power damage got nerfed across the board. Deathly chill could use one more stack of bleed though.

If you thing BB is bad, then try running more autogenerated boons. Dread in Spite can make up for the lost quickness, and in WvW/PvE a Sigil of Celerity goes a long way on a necro of any sort if you don't want to use Dread.

@KrHome.1920 said:

@Redpawa.4108 said:Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.... which proves that the spec is only viable with onslaught, because every balance patch for reaper is based on picking onslaught. If this trait didn't exist reaper would need some heavy buffs to be competitive.

@Redpawa.4108 said:Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.... which proves that the spec is only viable with onslaught, because every balance patch for reaper is based on picking onslaught. If this trait didn't exist reaper would need some heavy buffs to be competitive.

That's a very valid point.And IMO it's not just that RO is far better as a grandmaster, it's that it also feels like you're entering "berserk mode", in the sense that you swap from slow attacks (more or less, depending on the weapon you're using) to going balls out with your scythe. And the cooldown reduction, which would already be strong on its own, here is the cherry on top the cake.

That said, I'm not sure that increasing attack speed in shroud is the best idea, because then you could still get quickness for even more speed. You could remove quickness from RO, but in teamfights you could receive it from an ally, and it might be a problem. Though just maybe, since Reaper's dps isn't stellar anyway.

I wonder if Quickness could be swapped with the cold shoulder damage amp:Cold shoulder: Chill lasts longer and striking chilled foes while in shroud grants quickness.Reaper Onslaught: Deal more damage to chill foes and gain additional ferocity while in shroud. Life Reap reduce the recharge of shroud skills

Both of these traits are perfectly fine as they are. Their problems are not related to themselves but to other aspects of the Necromancer.Blighter's Boon relies heavily on boon generation and Necromancer boon generation is lacklustre at best. If boons were to appear in other places on the Necromancer this trait would be far more popular.Similarly Deathly Chill is dependent on chill generation and is subsequently impacted by Chilling Darkness's CD.

They're also both perfectly playable traits. I play Deathly Chill in WvW as you do get a ton of Chill against targets with Resistance or Fury, and it's a functional build to blend with Epidemic in PvE. Blighter's Boon suffered with losing the Retal on Axe 3; it's only edged out in Spite/SR/Reaper by Reaper's Onslaught because while it is functional it doesn't outstrip Onslaught when it comes to what kind of goal that build has.

The most I'd do if I wanted to make Blighter's Boon more popular is add some core boon generation.

@Redpawa.4108 said:Fair point @Kodama.6453 but that was intentional, Any Reaper GM trait has to be absurd to compete with RO.

Still too strong even if it has to compete with RO.And it seems like it's a major Reaper GM problem if RO is simply the best option available at all times.

However, if it was changed to CC immunity BUT Shroud now no longer consumes Lifeforce or need Lifeforce to activate, but only lasts 7 seconds.Now that could be worth considering because it lets the Necro go into Reaper Shroud whenever, but forces it to have a timed life of 7 seconds, and Lifeforce becomes a more defensive feature which could be better in PvP situations.

I've tested the two gm traits today. Both do just need a faster attack speed, then they are viable.

Deathly chill is not super strong but viable if you build for maximum chill spam. Nevertheless increasing the bleed on chill to 2 would definitely be overpowered. The trait is at least good enough that I got some salty condi noob mails.Build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSgAYFlJwaYJMPWJW2W/NVA-zxIY8o6vMqMV7sqs7kEE/B-eIf this had a faster attack speed in shroud it would be extremely good in wvw and at least viable in pvp as you can't use the sigils there which are a good part of your pressure.

Blighter's boon is complete trash. You are slow and you don't gain any noticeable sustain from the trait.

One gripe I have though is that the theme around Reaper is that of a character who hits slowly but extremely hard, and that just screams power build. Sure it's a necromancer, which always implies conditions, but I just can't see Reaper thematically fit into a condition build. Not that a slow and tough dude chipping you away with conditions sounds bad mind you, like a plague hulk, but I just don't see the reaper doing that.To each his own I guess, but personally I'll never like the condition reaper

@"Al Masone.1274" said:One gripe I have though is that the theme around Reaper is that of a character who hits slowly but extremely hard, and that just screams power build. Sure it's a necromancer, which always implies conditions, but I just can't see Reaper thematically fit into a condition build. Not that a slow and tough dude chipping you away with conditions sounds bad mind you, like a plague hulk, but I just don't see the reaper doing that.To each his own I guess, but personally I'll never like the condition reaper

Nope, the theme of the reaper is the "slasher" from horror movies. However, amongst the slashers, if there is Jason that hit hard, there is also Freddy that don't necessarily kill things quickly. The reaper's GS hit slowly but extremly hard, but the e-spec isn't designed around the design of the GS itself nor should it be.

Each spec should be playable with each damage type. That's the whole purpose of gear and trait options.

@"KrHome.1920" said:Each spec should be playable with each damage type. That's the whole purpose of gear and trait options.

This doesn't really seem to be Anet's design goal.

Example: Scrapper, the grandmaster minor trait "impact savant" converts all power damage into barrier. Conditions don't have any effect here and all damage modifiers on scrapper are also for power damage solely.

@Kodama.6453 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:Each spec should be playable with each damage type. That's the whole purpose of gear and trait options.

Well, most of the time you'll do power damage on top of your condition damage anyway (which is probably what ANet was taking into account with this trait).I'm pretty sure that the most competitive condi dps necromancer builds will have at least 1/3rd of their damage as power damage (and that's probably true for all other professions).