Reaper or Scourge for open world

[Quisquous.7480]

Not really sure which to go for

[Teratus.2859]

Open world PvE?

I'd say Reaper personally, it's more power focused which is just better for most PvE content plus the Shroud mechanic gives you a fair bit of survivability.

I'm not all that experienced with Scourges though, so i'll leave their promotion to others who enjoy the scourge spec and know how to play it far better than I do.

[Taril.8619]

Reaper for general purpose OW content and solo stuff.

Scourge for big Meta Events because better ranged damage to tag enemies and attack Elites/Champs/Legos without being glomped by AoE's that are scaled to large playercounts.

[Xelara.9132]

I never played Reaper much and I use condi-scourge for pretty much everything. I wouldn't complain.. . You kill a bit slow when undergeared but have high survivability. With my gear however (full ascended viper gear + trinkets, scepter and torch and the respective runes/sigils) everything dies fast and easy.

[aspirine.6852]

What is your experience with Reaper or Scourge? If you have none Condi Scourge might be easier since it is not right in the face of the enemies.

[Tinker.6924]

Solo Open world, Power Reaper Minion build is best imo. you kill mobs twice as fast with a great aoe, burst, decent defense and cleanse and very easy rotation.

Scourge is better suited for long fights and it's ranged dps style, flexibility, always accessible utility translates into being more group friendly and survivable.

[Antycypator.9874]

Reaper is more like: hit 2 buttons to kill everything instantly.Scourge (condi) is like: hit every skill you can and cripple/poison/weak/bleed/torment yourself to kill something.

So... it depends on your playstyle. I would go reaper because it's faster and you can see the damage.

[Excursion.9752]

@Xelara.9132 said:I never played Reaper much and I use condi-scourge for pretty much everything. I wouldn't complain.. . You kill a bit slow when undergeared but have high survivability. With my gear however (full ascended viper gear + trinkets, scepter and torch and the respective runes/sigils) everything dies fast and easy.

This.My Necro has three builds Heal Scourge, Power Reaper, Condi Scourge each have their uses. Condi Scourge is able to be top DPS in most cases.

[smoker.6731]

@Excursion.9752 said:

@Xelara.9132 said:I never played Reaper much and I use condi-scourge for pretty much everything. I wouldn't complain.. . You kill a bit slow when undergeared but have high survivability. With my gear however (full ascended viper gear + trinkets, scepter and torch and the respective runes/sigils) everything dies fast and easy.

This.My Necro has three builds Heal Scourge, Power Reaper, Condi Scourge each have their uses. Condi Scourge is able to be top DPS in most cases.

I have a question for you. Did you build 3 sets of ascended gear for necro, heal, condi and power.? If you have legendary sets, then its fine, for someone who don't have legendary and is far far away from crafting one, what would you recommend. Craft 3 sets of ascended?

[Turkeyspit.3965]

For a while I did Power Scourge for OW, but that was before they reworked how your F2-F5 skills work only on you or your shade. At the time I noted it had exceptional AoE burst (great for typical core NPCs) but terrible sustained DPS (bad for metas, bounties, champs, etc).

If you want to solo HP Champs and bounties, a tanky Condi Scourge is likely your best bet, but for anything else I would heartily recommend Power Reaper. I've been playing it almost exclusively past 6 months, and must say, it has an extensive toolkit for dealing with anything you have in OW, be it condi cleanse, pulls, ports, boon strip/corrupt, and shroud gives you insane burst, cleave, and provides might, swiftness, some stability and quickness.

[mindcircus.1506]

@Quisquous.7480 said:Not really sure which to go forReaper is straight out busted in PvE currently.Few specs come close in OW content.But you have two equipment slots and three template spots, and the game is currently showering us in stat selectable exotic boxes.

There's no reason you cannot play both.

[Ashantara.8731]

I prefer the Scourge's mechanics and style, but the damage is a joke in open world compared to the Reaper's.

[Excursion.9752]

@smoker.6731 said:

@Excursion.9752 said:

@"Xelara.9132" said:I never played Reaper much and I use condi-scourge for pretty much everything. I wouldn't complain.. . You kill a bit slow when undergeared but have high survivability. With my gear however (full ascended viper gear + trinkets, scepter and torch and the respective runes/sigils) everything dies fast and easy.

This.My Necro has three builds Heal Scourge, Power Reaper, Condi Scourge each have their uses. Condi Scourge is able to be top DPS in most cases.

I have a question for you. Did you build 3 sets of ascended gear for necro, heal, condi and power.? If you have legendary sets, then its fine, for someone who don't have legendary and is far far away from crafting one, what would you recommend. Craft 3 sets of ascended?

I made three sets of ascended. Two of the sets are fairly easy to make. Notice I didn't say cheap.

• Heal Scourge - I went All Magi gear (No damage but can carry a group)
• Power Reaper - All Berserker
• Condi Scourge - I went all Viper (hardest to get in my opinion) I just made the exotic runes and sigils and and stat swapped some other ascended items I had laying around in the bank. You could also craft the cheapest set of ascended stuff and stat swap yourself if you didn't want to make the Viper Ascended using its recipe.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@smoker.6731 said:

@Excursion.9752 said:

@Xelara.9132 said:I never played Reaper much and I use condi-scourge for pretty much everything. I wouldn't complain.. . You kill a bit slow when undergeared but have high survivability. With my gear however (full ascended viper gear + trinkets, scepter and torch and the respective runes/sigils) everything dies fast and easy.

This.My Necro has three builds Heal Scourge, Power Reaper, Condi Scourge each have their uses. Condi Scourge is able to be top DPS in most cases.

I have a question for you. Did you build 3 sets of ascended gear for necro, heal, condi and power.? If you have legendary sets, then its fine, for someone who don't have legendary and is far far away from crafting one, what would you recommend. Craft 3 sets of ascended?

Why would you need ascended armor though? For fractals? If you're looking to gear up for OW PvE, WvW or even Raiding, exotic armor is all you need, and there are several methods of obtaining stat selectable exotic armor these days. (check the wiki).

If your intent is for fractals, I wouldn't worry overmuch about getting a Heal Scourge set. I just recently finished my light legendary armor, but before that I had a full set of Power DPS asc armor and heal support asc armor for Scourge (I went with combo of Marshal/Shaman, as in fractals it helps to contribute some DPS), and since I've had it, I might have played Heal Scourge in a T4 about a half-dozen times. Almost always someone would join or swap to a Healbrand.

Point of fact it wasn't until Strike Missions that I started to see a lot of play on Heal Scourge, so I'm thankful for that hehe.

As you only need full ascended armor for entering tiers T2+, if that is your intent, my recommendation would be to pick 1 built (I suggest Power Reaper), and as you advance into T4s, you'll start getting ascended armor chests to drop, which makes gearing up your alternate build much easier. You can also start accumulating the Fractal Research Pages from recommended dailies and buy stat selectable ascended armor, but I believe it remains cheaper to just crarft it.

Also Strike Missions can be a method of farming up ascended gear, as the Red shards can be exchanged for Armor chests, while the Green ones can be used to purchase Weapon Chests (core stats only though I believe)

[thehipone.6812]

My vote goes to reaper with the usual berserker/scholar gear setup. You can run the usual snowcrows/other guide site power reaper raid build for group content. Open world, I often run a lazy blood-variant with all wells (blood, suffering, power, and darkness) that, while not the highest benchmark dps, has big AoE and is basically indestructible due to the siphon, two pulsing blind fields, and enough cc to reliably break bars. You can support through the well of blood rez trait for meta events where people are likely to die and use the double well of blood to AoE rez really quick, and also well of power to cleanse allies.

I personally don't enjoy the scourge playstyle - feels clunky and IMO none of the abilities deliver the satisfying impact of, say, gravedigger finishing off a djinn after you just broke its bar and it is kneeling on the ground.

[Xelara.9132]

@smoker.6731 said:

@Excursion.9752 said:

@Xelara.9132 said:I never played Reaper much and I use condi-scourge for pretty much everything. I wouldn't complain.. . You kill a bit slow when undergeared but have high survivability. With my gear however (full ascended viper gear + trinkets, scepter and torch and the respective runes/sigils) everything dies fast and easy.

This.My Necro has three builds Heal Scourge, Power Reaper, Condi Scourge each have their uses. Condi Scourge is able to be top DPS in most cases.

I have a question for you. Did you build 3 sets of ascended gear for necro, heal, condi and power.? If you have legendary sets, then its fine, for someone who don't have legendary and is far far away from crafting one, what would you recommend. Craft 3 sets of ascended?

This is one of the biggest problems of this game, that you cannot easily swap between builds because you need the required ascended gear and legendary is so hard to craft. The game would benefit alot from the upcoming legendary armour slot for the whole account if they make one for ascended armour, too.

As for me I have full viper ascended gear. 3 sets of accessories for all purposes and 1 berserk set for my elementalist that I can swap to necro to use there as well. Then I have 4/6 pieces of marshal's armour set and working on completing it.

Best is to practise at low level what playstyle you prefer, test all the weapons out and learn how they work and what they do then make your first ascended according to your personal inclination. If you chose to boost to lvl 80 then settle for exotic first and play a little bit before deciding. However the healer set is something you should get later on, not as your first. Unless you make your character only for that purpose and don't do any open world or map completing etc.

[Josiah.2967]

Do what you like.

If you like melee play Reaper. If you like range play Scourge .

Scourge minion build is way over powered for PVE. It is so easy to solo champions it's not even funny. Scourge is better at tagging mobs in events for more xp.Reaper can't solo all the champs Scourge can, but it still very effective. Reaper kills normal minions faster.

They are both fine options for Open World PVE.