Reaper Suggestions

Overall I think reaper has some fairly solid design. But there's just some things about it that nag me and I feel should probably be looked at. or considered for improvement. Mostly when I look at reaper its the master tier traits that seem to be a bit off balanced and I also wanted to look at two of the grandmaster tier traits.

Soul Eater

This trait kinda bothers me as it is both our sustain trait and our damage increasing trait which directly competes with Decimate defenses. My personal feelings on this is that it should be focused on self healing and damage reduction while the Damage boost is either built into the baseline greatsword and reaper's shroud or put into Decimate defenses. I'd very much prefer if the top trait trio was more defensive in nature. So my suggestion would be to make the healing 10% once again and give a 10% damage reduction within the 300 radius.

Chilling Victory

When looking at this trait I somewhat feel the Reaper could use a greatsword trait here and Chilling Victory as far as I've seen is rarely used. My suggestion would be to keep it in line with the Theme of chill and have it change Gravedigger to a new skill Shivers of Dread. It should still have the same life force and might addition but I'm not sure how deep Anet wants to build up master tier traits on weapons, but its probably safe.

• Shivers of Dread: 1.25 second cast time | 8 second recharge | Strike foes in front of you 3 times, chilling them. Recharge this skill instantly if they're below 50%. The chill time could probably be about half a second or 3/4ths a second which can make this a tricky skill to pull off but once you do it would be terror inducing.

Decimate Defenses

I like this trait, but its crit chance increase is a bit unnecessary at times so i'd like this one to be updated just a bit. I'd reduce its overall crit chance increase to 25% but add the lost Damage from soul eater here. So 5-7% damage increase against vulnerable foes. This way we're not stacking healing on top of damage making the obvious top choice in most situations.

Blighter's Boon

The primary change here Is I'd like this trait to reduce the decay rate of reaper's shroud in addition to its previous effects. If you want to play a stalwart tank I feel it should be the no brainer choice most the time. So that's what I'd change here.

Deathly Chill

Biggest change I'd add here would be a 15-20% bleeding damage increase against chilled foes. Condi reaper isn't too far off of the mark they need to be competitive, so a little bit of a push from Chilling victory and deathly chill could go a long way to improve this.

These are just some simple suggestions I've been considering for a while now. So let me know what you think. I've also considered requesting that Nightfall apply chill instead of crippling but I feel at that point I might just be getting greedy.

Idk bout that Chilling Victory change.

I know a good few solo open world Reaper builds that rather run DM than Spite uses Chilling Victory for self Might generation, not to mention it works well with Blighter's Boon too.

Unless yu wanna change the skill to gain Might when inflicting Chill as well.

And yes please I would like that Blighter's Boon change.I do still play a Shroud camping Reaper and this would be perfect and I can drop Onslaught because Spite's Dread exists for my Quickness needs.

@Yasai.3549 said:Idk bout that Chilling Victory change.

I know a good few solo open world Reaper builds that rather run DM than Spite uses Chilling Victory for self Might generation, not to mention it works well with Blighter's Boon too.

Unless yu wanna change the skill to gain Might when inflicting Chill as well.

And yes please I would like that Blighter's Boon change.I do still play a Shroud camping Reaper and this would be perfect and I can drop Onslaught because Spite's Dread exists for my Quickness needs.

The chilling victory change suggestion is more an Addition on top of its existing effects. So it wouldn't change if you don't use greatsword. Kinda like how glacial hammer adds a chill packet and damage on all disables.

As for the other changes, I'm glad you like the blighter's boon suggestion. Its kinda a trait I feel got worse with the decay rate increase.

@Lily.1935 said:

Soul Eater

I'd very much prefer if the top trait trio was more defensive in nature. So my suggestion would be to make the healing 10% once again and give a 10% damage reduction within the 300 radius.

I think giving Necro even more damage reduction would make them far too OP.I play a tanky MM with a ton of sustain already but one of the biggest pros of it in group content is the massive damage reduction capabilities of Rise! and Protection working together, that combined with my sustain makes me almost invincible even in T4 fractals.Both of those defensive abilities individually give Necros a 33% damage reduction.

I'm not sure on the math but I do know that these effects do stack together although are diminished slightly so you won't get 66% damage reduction having them both active, according to another post I found it's more like 55% damage reduction which is already pretty massive specially since Rise! has a 25 second duration on a traited 36 second CD which can be boosted further by Alacrity to make it more or less a permanent buff.Giving them another 10% as well as buffing their healing/sustain which is already extremely strong would make Necro's far too op imo, even more dps focused ones.

@Teratus.2859 said:

@Lily.1935 said:

Soul Eater

I'd very much prefer if the top trait trio was more defensive in nature. So my suggestion would be to make the healing 10% once again and give a 10% damage reduction within the 300 radius.

We used to have 10% damage reduction(might have been 15%) from Cold Shoulder and it didn't cause a problem. Anet decided that damage was a bit more favorable when they moved away from that soul eater had the ability to heal you in reaper's shroud which honestly was too much. Not really suggesting that change and the damage reduction is proximity based so a lot of situations and bosses would move out.

As for fractals? Sustain is fine, damage is better. I'd rather deal more damage than have more sustain. As long as you have a good healer there's nothing threatening you in Fractals, not really. Maybe the 10% healing is too high? Maybe.

@Lily.1935 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:

@Lily.1935 said:

Soul Eater

I'd very much prefer if the top trait trio was more defensive in nature. So my suggestion would be to make the healing 10% once again and give a 10% damage reduction within the 300 radius.

Most people go that route ^^ I prefer to be the groups safety net since most people tend to run glass canons there and get downed quite often.I've had plenty of moments where i've pulled and revived the whole group with a single soul spiral which is good fun.Add to that it's a really nice aoe heal too even without Healing Power investment.

Being nearly invincible kinda of guarantees a successful run but you trade off some damage for it, I'm willing to accept that trade off but I avoid meta/quick run groups and just make my own to avoid any problems there.

Soul eater: maybe 10% increase of outgoing healing would be more appropriate than 10% damage reduction.Chilling victory: I must say that chill on gravedigger might be overkill. Why this focus on this skill? Didn't patch history already proved that it was a poor idea to focus a trait on gravedigger?

How about having chilling victory grant 180 power (or condition damage, if they think it's worth it to make it a condi trait) and some life force over time for a few second after chilling a foe? The buff being refreshed each time you chill a foe.

I think Reaper could use a bit of team utility.In terms of overall tankiness, at least for pve, reaper already has protection and the rise shout, plus of course the whole death shroud. Adding even more damage reduction I think is pretty much redundant.You can become very, very durable in pve with reaper already, but you end up doing pretty low damage and giving nothing of value to the party. Yes you will be the last man standing, but will probably be your fault the party couldn't burst the boss down. Or when it doesn't come to that, you mainly somone who's there doing his own thing, while the rest of team actually works with one another, by buffs and heals and so on.

A change to chilling victory could be to give might to the whole team when you strike a chilled enemy, or to extend all or part of the baseline damage increase from cold shoulder to the whole party (which would mean making it a grandmaster trait).A similar idea could apply to decimate defensive, like having the reaper apply a secondary effect like vulnerability, to enemies who already have max stacks of it.Soul eater used to work only with greatsword, but they changed it to work regardless of weapon to allow for more variety.... not sure how that worked out.

I really like the idea of a trait that changes one greatsword skill. Actually I think all trait lines should get something similar, like we already have for the scepter.

Lastly, Iike those specialisations trait-lines whose last trait further rethinks how their core mechanic works, like the way the grandmaster traits in daredevil add additional effects to dodges. I think there quite some room for the reaper in that regard.

• Reaper's onslaught already works well in this sense, though I think I could work more along the lines of "do great damage and fast while in shroud, but consume it faster"
• I don't really like condi reaper, since the greatsword is clearly built as a power weapon, but a trait could possibly change that, maybe allowing the reaper to have a power/condi hybrid build
• More sustain IMO is useless if you can't pull weight in a group. But if RO could be "reaper burst mode", there could be another variations that actually allows you to do more damage the more you remain in shroud.

Lastly lastly XD, I think the reaper should always want to be in melee all the time, not just in shroud, and I don't think the current traitline support that playstyle well enough. Even if you want to play reaper without the greatsword, your place in a fight should 90% of the time be in the thick of it, not at range.

@"Al Masone.1274" said:I think Reaper could use a bit of team utility.In terms of overall tankiness, at least for pve, reaper already has protection and the rise shout, plus of course the whole death shroud. Adding even more damage reduction I think is pretty much redundant.You can become very, very durable in pve with reaper already, but you end up doing pretty low damage and giving nothing of value to the party. Yes you will be the last man standing, but will probably be your fault the party couldn't burst the boss down. Or when it doesn't come to that, you mainly somone who's there doing his own thing, while the rest of team actually works with one another, by buffs and heals and so on.

A change to chilling victory could be to give might to the whole team when you strike a chilled enemy, or to extend all or part of the baseline damage increase from cold shoulder to the whole party (which would mean making it a grandmaster trait).A similar idea could apply to decimate defensive, like having the reaper apply a secondary effect like vulnerability, to enemies who already have max stacks of it.Soul eater used to work only with greatsword, but they changed it to work regardless of weapon to allow for more variety.... not sure how that worked out.

I really like the idea of a trait that changes one greatsword skill. Actually I think all trait lines should get something similar, like we already have for the scepter.

Lastly, Iike those specialisations trait-lines whose last trait further rethinks how their core mechanic works, like the way the grandmaster traits in daredevil add additional effects to dodges. I think there quite some room for the reaper in that regard.

• Reaper's onslaught already works well in this sense, though I think I could work more along the lines of "do great damage and fast while in shroud, but consume it faster"
• I don't really like condi reaper, since the greatsword is clearly built as a power weapon, but a trait could possibly change that, maybe allowing the reaper to have a power/condi hybrid build
• More sustain IMO is useless if you can't pull weight in a group. But if RO could be "reaper burst mode", there could be another variations that actually allows you to do more damage the more you remain in shroud.

Lastly lastly XD, I think the reaper should always want to be in melee all the time, not just in shroud, and I don't think the current traitline support that playstyle well enough. Even if you want to play reaper without the greatsword, your place in a fight should 90% of the time be in the thick of it, not at range.

So reaper is almost always in melee. It's pretty poor outside of melee. As for supporting, any and all support the reaper does should be external to the spec not internal. The design of the spec is the Movie monster slasher type villain. And helping others is contradictory to that theme.

If I was to suggest some form of support, I'd go with Dread granting allies around the foe you fear Quickness and fury. Or for It to grant you quickness and Fury then copy all boons you have to allies around you so you could then build a quick reaper using reaper's onslaught. But this would be external, not internal.

@Dadnir.5038 said:Soul eater: maybe 10% increase of outgoing healing would be more appropriate than 10% damage reduction.Chilling victory: I must say that chill on gravedigger might be overkill. Why this focus on this skill? Didn't patch history already proved that it was a poor idea to focus a trait on gravedigger?

How about having chilling victory grant 180 power (or condition damage, if they think it's worth it to make it a condi trait) and some life force over time for a few second after chilling a foe? The buff being refreshed each time you chill a foe.

Soul eater could have the healing with life steal on shroud Etb or exit. Maybe the damage reduction isn't needed. But I would like it to do something aside from give health since it would be competing with chilling victory for sustain.

I think A change in functionality for a skill in some way is not a bad thing. My thought on it is it's like a chainsaw instead of a cleaver. And one of the struggles with using greatsword in condi reaper rotation is it doesn't offer much so greatsword is mostly a dead weapon and you want to swap off as soon as possible which Is counter intuitive to the way reaper is expected to play.

I imagine the skill functioning like the Labyrinth Horror(Steve) skill so you lose out on the 360 attack for a short forward cone that does slightly less damage over all but makes up the difference in a capture type skill that chills. Neither skill is better so it wouldn't be required for a power build at all.

My goal with these suggestions is to better define the elite spec as a melee bruiser and give it the means to fight with its 3 primary identities.

Also I kinda want to chainsaw people down. Sounds like fun.

@Lily.1935 said:Overall I think reaper has some fairly solid design. But there's just some things about it that nag me and I feel should probably be looked at. or considered for improvement. Mostly when I look at reaper its the master tier traits that seem to be a bit off balanced and I also wanted to look at two of the grandmaster tier traits.

Soul Eater

This trait kinda bothers me as it is both our sustain trait and our damage increasing trait which directly competes with Decimate defenses. My personal feelings on this is that it should be focused on self healing and damage reduction while the Damage boost is either built into the baseline greatsword and reaper's shroud or put into Decimate defenses. I'd very much prefer if the top trait trio was more defensive in nature. So my suggestion would be to make the healing 10% once again and give a 10% damage reduction within the 300 radius.They should allow the necro to heal while in shroud with Soul Eater, but at a reduced rate.

Chilling Victory

When looking at this trait I somewhat feel the Reaper could use a greatsword trait here and Chilling Victory as far as I've seen is rarely used. My suggestion would be to keep it in line with the Theme of chill and have it change Gravedigger to a new skill Shivers of Dread. It should still have the same life force and might addition but I'm not sure how deep Anet wants to build up master tier traits on weapons, but its probably safe.

• Shivers of Dread: 1.25 second cast time | 8 second recharge | Strike foes in front of you 3 times, chilling them. Recharge this skill instantly if they're below 50%. The chill time could probably be about half a second or 3/4ths a second which can make this a tricky skill to pull off but once you do it would be terror inducing.Pass. Take Chilling Victory, Spite, and Blighter's Boon. Solo outnumbered matchups for days. You no touchy.

  Decimate Defenses

  I like this trait, but its crit chance increase is a bit unnecessary at times so i'd like this one to be updated just a bit. I'd reduce its overall crit chance increase to 25% but add the lost Damage from soul eater here. So 5-7% damage increase against vulnerable foes. This way we're not stacking healing on top of damage making the obvious top choice in most situations.DD is fine, it offers build diversity by divorcing from one of the primary stats. You don't have to mind you, but this trait is a good trait as is.

  Blighter's Boon

  The primary change here Is I'd like this trait to reduce the decay rate of reaper's shroud in addition to its previous effects. If you want to play a stalwart tank I feel it should be the no brainer choice most the time. So that's what I'd change here.See my statement above. Up your might generation game. BB's usefulness is dependent on your ability to fuel it.

  Deathly Chill

  Biggest change I'd add here would be a 15-20% bleeding damage increase against chilled foes. Condi reaper isn't too far off of the mark they need to be competitive, so a little bit of a push from Chilling victory and deathly chill could go a long way to improve this.Just give it one more stack of bleed in all game modes.These are just some simple suggestions I've been considering for a while now. So let me know what you think. I've also considered requesting that Nightfall apply chill instead of crippling but I feel at that point I might just be getting greedy.Seeing as I disagreed with most of your suggestions I'd say that this one is a good one though. Gives more synergy with the traitline and its weapon. That and Nightfall becomes a condi skill with Deathly Chill. Overall this is a very great suggestion and if I were you I would constantly pound on the WvW and PvP forums until CMC or the Dev team hears you and changes it.