Question for main Necro - Reaper build...

Would like to know for OPEN WORLD/PVE general content what is better for POWER build, assassin, zerker or marauder? pros and cons please. Most solo play.

Preferable with runes suggestions as well.

Most will direct you to a zerker build because it gives you the highest DPS. You do have to be careful because if you take certain traits and play a certain way, you don't want to exceed the crit cap (100%) ... so you MIGHT find some builds that has a small amount of Valkryies in there as well.

I run something close to this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAEd3lRw8YOsLWJOWXlNbA-zRQYRUzxNBNeINJEiQCUhKQxTigZA-e

The vitality boosts are actually good DPS related buffs on Reaper because they give your more LF and potentially allow you to be in Reaper shroud for longer, giving you more of that DPS increase from the Reaper Onslaught and Death Perception.

Obtena has the right of it. Berserker Reaper's power damage burst potential will make fast work of trash mobs and shorten encounter time in open world PvE.

@"Obtena.7952" said:Most will direct you to a zerker build because it gives you the highest DPS. You do have to be careful because if you take certain traits and play a certain way, you don't want to exceed the crit cap (100%) ... so you MIGHT find some builds that has a small amount of Valkryies in there as well.

I run something close to this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAEd3lRw8YOsLWJOWXlNbA-zRQYRUzxNBNeINJEiQCUhKQxTigZA-e

The vitality boosts are actually good DPS related buffs on Reaper because they give your more LF and potentially allow you to be in Reaper shroud for longer, giving you more of that DPS increase from the Reaper Onslaught and Death Perception.

I see, so the marauder and berserker would be a better choice right? zerker better dmg and marauder better survavility? What abt runes? eagle, vamp, streng etc etc? or any good rune will do?

I wouldn't touch Marauders ... because when you cap crit rate, you want as much ferocity that you can get. That build I posted is designed to cap crit in Shroud with Fury while soloing around OW and stuff. I wouldn't know what mix of armor using Marauder would look like but I don't recommend it. Are you wanting to use marauders because you have some already?

Runes I use are Fireworks because it's a very reliable way to get Fury and gives you some might and personally, I like having the +25% movement.

If you are doing group content, you might be in a situation where you may get Fury from other people and be fighting a mob with full Vulnerability stacks ... in that case, I would run this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAEd3lRw8YOsLWJOWXnNfA-zRQYRUTDmQ8HGVVQWKoOJCmBA-e

and just to be clear, I'm not giving you meta builds here. It's what I like to play and what I'm familiar with. Maybe someone else can post you more commonly used builds for any specific content you want to do.

Do remember you can swap easilly between builds now. I have a reaper minionmaster build for soloing. Flipping it to traditional reaper zerker in groups. Works like a charm. No more need for an one size fits all build, with the hassle of swapping done away with.

Hmm I see, thanks for the tips...

I run my Reaper with Valkyrie armour, while the Trinkets and Weapons are Berserker.With Death Perception (Soul Reaping) and Decimate Defences + Death Spiral (Reaper), my Reaper doesn't need more Precision.

Do not worry if your build is not perfectly tuned. As long as the stat's, upgrades and consumables are aggressive enough, that is fine for open world PvE.

Trait and utility selection can change your build a lot. Sustain is easy to come by in Necro and its elites so go ahead and get peaky equipment. Need a helper to hold aggro; summon a minion. Died from soloing a champion and want revenge; Death Magic or Blood Magic and/or minions are free ways to add sustain. With this profession in open world, do not hold back on equipment aggressiveness. There are many ways to detune for sustain but peak dps takes gold and training.

@Fueki.4753 said:I run my Reaper with Valkyrie armour, while the Trinkets and Weapons are Berserker.With Death Perception (Soul Reaping) and Decimate Defences + Death Spiral (Reaper), my Reaper doesn't need more Precision.

True, though both will overcap you in shroud if you're maxing Decimate with 25 VunDecimate alone provides 50% crit chance on max vun and DP provides 33% in shroud, then there is Fury to consider too when you have it which already overcaps you again.

It's fine I guess for open world stuff but when you're around other players and can rely on regular fury, as well as banners and maybe even spotter.. Decimate isn't useful unless you're giving up precision entirely and running pure Valkyrie.Even then in shroud your crits will still probably be over caped.Necro's really don't need any precision investment in group content at all tbh, they get everything they need and more from traits and common utilities run by allies like Banners and Fury.So I would say buffing your Power and Ferocity as much as possible is far more important than investing in Precision on Necros.. as long as you are close to the crit cap it's enough imo.

As long as you only plan to kill trash mobs berserker is fine. The moment you plan to solo a champ or a few veterans at once it becomes lacklustre.

Additionally argumenting that overcapping crit chance as a result of combining marauder with decimate defenses might be a problem, is irrelevant for trash mobs. You kill a trash mob before you can stack any significant vulnerability on it. Soul Eater is the skill to go in PvE. It's an instant dps multiplier and this alone compensates for the lower damage of marauder compared to berserker against targets that die with 3 hits.

Marauder makes you a lot more flexible in your build choices and the mobs you can solo effectively and you lose only about 10% of damage against trash mobs, which is irrelevant as it doesn't matter whether a trash mob dies in 3 or 2.7 seconds.

Marauder is the best for open world: go full Marauder or Marauder Trinkets and Weapon + Beresrker Armor. You will only do around 7% to 10% less dmg than full Berserker but you will get much better survivability in return. You don't need superior dps for open world: survivability also matters a lot. Don't worry about crit cap: when not in Reaper Shroud your crit won't pass 60% in full ascended Marauder gear anyway. It's not all about doing dmg in Reaper Shroud. Crit is also needed out of Shroud and 60% is not much at all. I usually play with full Marauder + 7% crit on Weapon Sigil, that gives me around 66% to 67% base crit or 100% crit in RS (Death Perception Trait).I use Superior rune of the Dolyak for extra Toughness and Vitality + healing every second. On Weapons i use Sigil of Accuracy for extra 7% crit and Sigil of Blood for life stealing or sigil or Air.

@Sifu.9745 said:Marauder is the best for open world: go full Marauder or Marauder Trinkets and Weapon + Beresrker Armor. You will only do around 7% to 10% less dmg than full Berserker but you will get much better survivability in return. You don't need superior dps for open world: survivability also matters a lot. Don't worry about crit cap: when not in Reaper Shroud your crit won't pass 60% in full ascended Marauder gear anyway. It's not all about doing dmg in Reaper Shroud. Crit is also needed out of Shroud and 60% is not much at all. I usually play with full Marauder + 7% crit on Weapon Sigil, that gives me around 66% to 67% base crit or 100% crit in RS (Death Perception Trait).I use Superior rune of the Dolyak for extra Toughness and Vitality + healing every second. On Weapons i use Sigil of Accuracy for extra 7% crit and Sigil of Blood for life stealing or sigil or Air.

Thanks for the tip, and about the rune yes i forgot that one...

I use this build for Open World:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAEd3lJwUYHsL2IOSXltaA-zRRYBRNTM4SppIo2Eo3QoiCwkB-e

Skills: signet of spite is for general purpose, it's the one I switch to Spectral Grasp or Rise!! when there are a lot of enemies, or locust when I gotta run.

Traits: I don't like DD because of the required vuln ramp-up, mobs die too quickly for that. I'd rather have insta 97% crit as soon as I enter shroud with DP, plus the nice 10% damage bonus from soul eater and the slight autoheal when I'm on greatsword outside of shroud.

Equipment: Marauder on trinkets is easily swappable to full berserk if you have some LW3/4 episodes, as opposed to armor which need at least a mystic forge conversion every time. And trinkets make up for a big chunk of stats, giving me 3k more HP and 2,5k more life force, and better crit rate close to cap (97% without food and external boons).Eagle runes works really well for the crit cap + ferocity and they are cheap. With this you basically don't need support from anyone. You enter shroud and you instantly spam crits with onslaught's permaquickness. Quick shroud crit also helps for ticks from Wells and Nightfall.For the sigil I like to build up bloodlust with axe, and then switch to GS to do the well-well-nightfall-shroud-whirl burst, with full damage sigil (accuracy sigil would overcap me here).

This melts any trash mobs in 0.1 seconds, groups of veterans in a couple seconds, and even group of elites with minimum effort.Easier champs are definitely doable with little effort, harder ones can be tricky if you don't manage your life force well.

Use maurauder if you're not skillful with the game, differents enemies and their patterns, attacks, but maurauder isn't "the best" option, it's just a timid option.

Reaper has powerful utilities to tank and avoid damage. Obviously DS, but I don't know, people tend to forget or don't mention it : you have CHILL, BLINDNESS, CRIPPLE, FEAR, and some others ccNightfall, well of darkness, Grasping darkness, DS #5 #3 #2, unholy feast, Chilled to the bones ... If you manage to rotate between these skills; you don't get hit, you chain packs of mobs.

About the "solo champions", what do you prefer ? Lose time against packs of mobs, which will be most of your content, or lose time against a single champion you'll do alone sometimes ?Still you can easily solo some Hero points with Minions or a blood magic build.

@"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:Still you can easily solo some Hero points with Minions or a blood magic build.

Or both lolI've had a Soldiers MM for many years, one of my favourite builds for soloing strong stuff.Can still cut your way through trash mobs quickly enough since it's power based and minion damage does not change based on your stats either which contributes nicely to your overall damage output for a tank.But the survivability it gives is insane, practically invincible in the open world.

It's the ultimate "safe" build I would say for open world stuff, it's pretty great for helping people as well.. I use it in fractals and dungeons to basically play the safety net role as I like to call it.. I can keep everyone alive pretty easily until they hit the DP cap and run out of downstate's, but I can't say I recall many times i've seen that happen in my groups.

I see thanks for the feedback guys, I played reaper b4 on my other acc I was just wondering which build would 'be better' zerker or marauder. In few words marauder will give some more survavility and zerker DPS. I'll try the marauder first my other was zerker. Just one more question..

I guess Viper is out of question for reaper since most of skills focus on power build right?

@forevergamer.7653 said:I see thanks for the feedback guys, I played reaper b4 on my other acc I was just wondering which build would 'be better' zerker or marauder. In few words marauder will give some more survavility and zerker DPS. I'll try the marauder first my other was zerker. Just one more question..

I guess Viper is out of question for reaper since most of skills focus on power build right?

yes, viper is for condi builds, which reaper isnt.

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@forevergamer.7653 said:I see thanks for the feedback guys, I played reaper b4 on my other acc I was just wondering which build would 'be better' zerker or marauder. In few words marauder will give some more survavility and zerker DPS. I'll try the marauder first my other was zerker. Just one more question..

I guess

Viper

is out of question for reaper since most of skills focus on power build right?

Viper's is not optimum for Reaper in Open World but it is far better than most other options. If you have Viper's already on Necro or another toon, try it out.

In PvE, trash mobs are extremely susceptible to chill. Viper's expertise can combine with upgrades to cap chill duration for a lot of sustain... a lot and you can make up some of the lost power dps with Deathly Chill. Rune of the Reaper and a chill-build with shouts works well on trash mobs whether power or hybrid power-condition.

Like I said, there are many worse options than Viper's so, if you already have it or want it for another toon, it will not be an equipment set you never use.

Edit: It is kind of a gimmick but you can do things like what I described with Reaper that core Necro simply cannot compete with. Core is really sad in a lot of ways but Arenanet cannot change core much outside of Death Shroud because the changes would carry over to its elite spec's and mess up their balance.

This same Rune of the Reaper + Expertise equipment trick is at least interesting on other professions with shouts.

@forevergamer.7653 said:I see thanks for the feedback guys, I played reaper b4 on my other acc I was just wondering which build would 'be better' zerker or marauder. In few words marauder will give some more survavility and zerker DPS. I'll try the marauder first my other was zerker. Just one more question..

I guess Viper is out of question for reaper since most of skills focus on power build right?

I think you have to be careful here ... the question isn't about zerker vs. marauder for 'being better'. It's more complicated than that. The truth is that if you build to cap crit, it makes sense to maximize your power and your ferocity as well. To do that, you are loading up on zerkers to your crit cap, then filling the rest with Valks. If you are looking at marauders, you aren't maximizing your power or ferocity. The bottomline ... there is no optimized solution that uses marauders if you aim to cap your crit.

I would also be weary of advise that tells you getting high DPS in OW content isn't necessary. There are various levels of OW mob difficulty but the one constant in ANY OW content is that maximum power stat is ALWAYS going to be the best choice, from the easiest core maps where your crit is massively scaled down to the hardest OW content in places like Tangled Depths because power scales best in the damage equation of all offensive stats. That's not going to be marauders.

Vipers is usually the optimal condi DPS option ... but it's damage over time ... and that's usually NOT optimal for OW content.

@"Obtena.7952" said:If you are looking at marauders, you aren't maximizing your power or ferocity. The bottomline ... there is no optimized solution that uses marauders if you aim to cap your crit.

OP question is too vague. "Better" means nothing.Berserker is the most DPS but is it necessarily better? If you struggle to survive or like to solo champions, it is definitely not the best option.I play my reaper minionless and I can say it is difficult to solo strong champions with full DPS stats no matter what traitlines I am using.

Most people are referring trash mobs, but are we playing the same game? Those mobs die almost as quickly whereas you use assasin, berserker, or marauder. What matters (to me) is staying alive when things become tough (chain cc foes, champions...). It is indeed a matter of preference anyway.

@forevergamer.7653 said:I guess Viper is out of question for reaper since most of skills focus on power build right?

Personally I use viper on reaper because I find it to be the most flexible stat set and I like playing hybrid. But your initial post ask for power specifically so, I guess berserker is probably your best option.

If you don't want to take Decimate Defenses, and want Chilling Victory or Soul Eater instead, then go Berserker. Otherwise Valkyrie is a strong set for Reaper since Vitality increases your Life Force pool.

In general though for any class Berserkers is the set to use to maximize your power dps unless your traits give you 100% chance without precision, at which you can then run Valkyrie gear for the same DPS but higher survivability.

@Aigleborgne.2981 said:

@"Obtena.7952" said:If you are looking at marauders, you aren't maximizing your power or ferocity. The bottomline ... there is no optimized solution that uses marauders if you aim to cap your crit.

I agree, it's not specific enough to provide a definitive answer, though we can say that when considering a mix of zerk. valk and marauders, marauders is not optimal for anything. And yes, we are talking about trash mobs as well, which is why we want to have the MOST power possible for all zones since crit scales down in non-80 zones and the power stat gives you the most DPS boost for it's assignment on any piece of gear.

Really, the build to solo champs is a different build than ripping through OW trash mobs. That's a whole different discussion and none of the builds I posted would be suitable for that. Perhaps some of the other builds people posted are.

By the way my Necro's casual PvE equipment is currently...

• Berserker, Scholar, Force+Bloodlust
• Viper, Nightmare, Bursting+Corruption/Malice+Earth
• about 7 other sets, including healing

The first two sets might be over-tuned but they let me mess around with traits and skills. I also use consumables, often random selections, because I have way too much of it.

Don't worry too much about dying. If you attempt to solo a champ and end up downed or waypointing, think of it as a learning experience or refresher in how to "Necro." This profession has some different sustain mechanics and, like with other professions, if you are not dying sometimes, then you are not pushing hard enough.

Also, if you challenge a champion, you may get help from another passing player so relax and focus on how to survive with really aggressive equipment.