Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie

[Aodlop.1907]

I know ideally you want to be a living God, dodge every single mechanic and go full Zerg to smash hard.

But reality is: I'm not flawless and I'll probably get hit or fail to do a mechanic sometimes. So, the extra vitality helps I assume.

 

Now I've seen builds that go for Berserker armor and then all the trinkets are either Marauder or Valkyrie. I feel like I can pick one of those, I just don't know which and I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding this whole situation.

I'll only have one set because I'm poor so I'd really like to make the right decision and not regret it later on.

 

Thanks for your help.

[LuRkEr.9462]

Depends on what content you want to do.  

 

Fractals / raids = berserker gear.

Open World / WvW = Marauder gear

 

You can run open world just fine in berserker gear, I do it, but it can be a little punishing at times if you mess up mechanics. Necro is naturally high HP class so having that extra vitality isn't quite as important (though it does increase your shroud hp)

 

Oh, and honestly you can get away in beginner fractals as marauder, no one will notice as the DPS difference isn't that extreme.

 

I would say go for marauders.  (valkyrie is not needed)

Edited May 18, 2021 by LuRkEr.9462

[Aodlop.1907]

Thanks, that's what I was considering. 

In raids, would the drop in performance really be that noticeable if I went gear zerk + marauder trinkets in your opinion?

Because I'm somewhat casual and I can't really afford to have multiple sets. I'd like a one size fits all kind of gear.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Aodlop.1907

[Khisanth.2948]

You could just use berserker and switch to more defensive traits when solo.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Valkyrie would give you more Life Force, which means you'll say in shroud longer while things hit you.

 

You can cap Crit chance via traits, runes, and sigils so precision from gear completely wasted.

 

If you are Reaper then you are taking things like Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught. With a Sigil of Accuracy you're looking at 45% crit rate in shroud baseline there. Decimate Defenses will put that at 95% at full Vulnerability stacks.

 

That said you can run full Berserker + Death Perception and Soul Eater for the highest possible DPS, you'll just run the risk of getting knocked out of shroud more easily.

[Cuks.8241]

Dont use valkyre, mix of zerk and marauder should get you more stat points. 

[Boh.4568]

I speak as a mostly solo player.

I like to use marauder trinkets + zerk armor/weapons because in addition to the extra HP (let's say 3k HP + 2.4k LF) they give me enough extra precision to cap crit chance without traiting both DP and DD, and without slotting a sigil of accuracy. The extra damage sigil I can use (force or similar) and the Soul Eater trait I can use instead of DD somewhat make up for the loss of power and ferocity from not-zerk trinkets.

Plus trinkets are easily farmable and replaceable if you have LW episodes, so I can switch to full zerk for organized content with supporters in my party.

I also made marauder weapons for WvW, mainly because I wanted to use different sigils as well. Armor stays zerk because I'm too poor to craft an entire marauder set at the moment (altough I want to use different runes for WvW so I might end up making a full marauder set someday).

[Jijimuge.4675]

A slight tangent, but if you're planning to go for one of the more defensive setups like Valkyrie because you're relying on stuff like Death Perception to boost your crit chance, you'll want to stay in Reaper Shroud as much as you can.

If so, then Signet of Undeath skill plus "Signets of Suffering" trait in Spite provides a lot of lifeforce to help keep you in in Reaper shroud - it also makes the other signets much better in shroud.

[Black Storm.6974]

On 5/18/2021 at 5:47 PM, Aodlop.1907 said:

I know ideally you want to be a living God, dodge every single mechanic and go full Zerg to smash hard.

But reality is: I'm not flawless and I'll probably get hit or fail to do a mechanic sometimes. So, the extra vitality helps I assume.

 

Now I've seen builds that go for Berserker armor and then all the trinkets are either Marauder or Valkyrie. I feel like I can pick one of those, I just don't know which and I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding this whole situation.

I'll only have one set because I'm poor so I'd really like to make the right decision and not regret it later on.

 

Thanks for your help.

Just use Berserker and change one trait and one skill from the current “““META””” (so called) build.
 

Spite: take Signets of Suffering instead of Awaken the Pain.

 

Heal: take Signet of Vampirism

 

Utility: take Signet of Undeath instead of Well of Darkness.

 

Enjoy far better survivability and Life Force generation at no cost damage wise (about 6% less potential DPS under an optimal scenario that could never happen and is literally impossible in most fights, but in practice you will do almost always more DPS with the changes I proposed). This is far more effective than using other stats, and you will have what you asked for. You can use that build in Raids too, you will have better performances.

 

Reaper can be very tanky with Berserker equipment, there is really no need to consider other gear (for PvE). Just use efficient builds.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Black Storm.6974

[KrHome.1920]

Poor players in PvE pick zerk.

Poor players in WvW pick soldier.

 

Valkyre isn't a good idea in any of these two game modes.

 

Marauder is the standard open world gear, but won't let you pass any gearcheck in PvE and makes you are freekill in WvW.

[Obtena.7952]

There is some misinformation out there. You shouldn't use marauders IMO. You typically build to cap your crit (with as much berserker as you need to do it), then fill out with Valkryies. If you are putting any mauraders in there, you are giving up some power stat to achieve more vitality which no one should be doing. 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Do not use decimate defences. With souleater and two aoe blind sources, you can easily top off you health melleeing a group of mobs. With gs5 interupting mob, gs 4 and well of shadows keeping constant blind, that is around 5 sec of free dps that is also healing you. Higher the dps, the more healing.  Just go full zerker, it is actually more survivable.

[Aigleborgne.2981]

8 hours ago, Shadowmoon.7986 said:

Do not use decimate defences. With souleater and two aoe blind sources, you can easily top off you health melleeing a group of mobs. With gs5 interupting mob, gs 4 and well of shadows keeping constant blind, that is around 5 sec of free dps that is also healing you. Higher the dps, the more healing.  Just go full zerker, it is actually more survivable.

 

Blind only work vs trash mobs. This is a major issue when facing blind immune foes like champions. On my experience, vitality along with good LF regeneration work better. I would pick marauder or valkyrie along with decimate defense. 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Reaper is a formidable spec spamming Chill, Cripple, Blind, Fear, pull/cc; your survival comes from your hability to chain these utilities to avoid damage.

Nightfall, well of darkness, grasping darkness, DS#3 #2 #5, axe #2 ... Plus we don't forget the 2 life bars, one you can fill extremely fast in OW with skills, traits, and just killing mobs.

 

So, you don't need vitality toughness, you need to understand your spec.  Play berserker.

 

Then comes the "But what if you want to solo champions ?".

Why would you want to solo champions ? Why should you sacrifice your efficiency in 98% of situations only to solo champions you could do in groups ?

Plus why could you not do it with berserker ? It works too. Like, with minions to tank, breaking defiance bar ...

 

berserker

Edited May 20, 2021 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[Jijimuge.4675]

Lots of advice above.  However, if you're still agonising you could try....

• Getting rare equipment of the relevant type and playtest it - that'll be really cheap (though weapon strength is very important for a power build, so I'd strongly recommend a main hand exotic or ascended weapon - presumably greatsword and/or axe).  The added advantage is that you'll learn to make this kind of judgement yourself and find what works for you/your playstyle/your gaming goals.
• The Itzel vendor in Verdant Brink (requires Airship tokens and a little progress in the Itzel mastery track) sells pieces of exotic bladed armour (except the chest) that you can customise to the stat you want.  Exotic berserker's armour ("Zhed's") shouldn't be too pricey on the tradepost - they should be 50-ish silver or less per item.
• Blood Rubies from Bloodstone Fen can buy an ascended back, amulet and ring, all of which are stat-selectable, and which can be reset with a Bloodstone Capacitor
• Once you know what stats you want, you should find it easier to choose runes & sigils - these will have a large impact on your build

[Obtena.7952]

5 hours ago, Aigleborgne.2981 said:

 

Blind only work vs trash mobs. This is a major issue when facing blind immune foes like champions. On my experience, vitality along with good LF regeneration work better. I would pick marauder or valkyrie along with decimate defense. 

Definitely on zerged mobs, DD is the way to go because other people apply 25 vuln in no time but for general running around trash/OW content where it's very hard to get 25 vuln stacks ... Soul Eater is better. I mean, no reason to not have  builds for both situations since can swap them with a hot key. 

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Marauder gear.

Here's my build:
My open world + fractals build.

Long story short - no other power oriented stat gives so much build freedom and versatility!
Zerk and Assasin users can't build tanky with their stats. That's a self-shaming act. You went full glass cannon and now you seek more resilience? Walk of shame right there...
Tanky power builds on the other hand are ball & chained to free crit chance traits, like decimate defenses, Deathly Perception and curses line. That brutally lowers their build options and flexibility.

Marauder has no such issues. The built-in vitality helps survive if you're a glass cannon, or serves as solid foundation for tanky variants since necro is much better at getting more toughness and damage mitigation via traits than he is at getting more health. While the huge precision stat ensures you can get even 80% crit chance via gear (with slight help from food or infusions) alone, leaving the remaining 20% to fury boon, that you can provide for self with Dread trait in Spite, or from a support in organized groups, lettting you go for close to death trait for moar dps.

This results in only Spite and Reaper being the core lines here, while the third line is whatever you want it to be, and that makes this build a winner.

Death magic gives you major tankyness  - stacking carapace is super easy with your chill -> vulni trait from spite, and you get 600 extra tougness and pulsing protection for you effort. Plus 300 power from stacks to somewhat compensate the dps loss by picking this line up. Couple that with Rise! and soul eater and only the hardest hitters in PvE will force you to be even more defensive...

Soul Reaping is when you want to go full damage. Deathly perception + soul barbs are the obvious choices. You won't hit as hard as a berserker necro, mostly due to ferocity gap, not power one, but in exchange you have better health and life force pool and when you want to build tanky, you've a much better starting point.

Blood Magic is when you're in a group and the "legendary" 40k+ dpsers aren't as good as they thought... Obviously mass reaper resses are not something ppl here will praise (as that's admitting that you suck and need frequent ressing), but I've saved many fractal runs by going blood magic on reaper. And here marauder shines  once again. Tankier than pure glass cannon builds, helping you be the last guy standing and ressing. While not causing a huge dip to dps, like tankier power options (Valkyrie, Cavalier, Crusader) who need the last line to be providing them with crit chance to function as a dps..

Curses are a line I don't really venture into on this build. They do however provide very solid crit chance boosts, ability to inflict weakness on crits and ability to transfer 2 condies with first attack after shrouding.


 

Edited May 20, 2021 by ZeftheWicked.3076

[Aigleborgne.2981]

2 hours ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

Why would you want to solo champions ? Why should you sacrifice your efficiency in 98% of situations only to solo champions you could do in groups ?

Plus why could you not do it with berserker ? It works too. Like, with minions to tank, breaking defiance bar ...

 

berserker

 

Waiting some minutes to get a group to solo one champion is a long time. And if it doesn't provide a chest, it is most likely that nobody comes at all because it is a waste of time. 

Let's say you follow my suggestion, yes you will do less damage than zerk, maybe 20% less. But against veterans or less, that difference won't be really noticed in time to kill. 

Berserker and minions can work, for sure. Just I hate those minions and never use them. Gw1 necro minions were something but here they are just damage sponge with terrible AI. 

[Aigleborgne.2981]

30 minutes ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

Soul Reaping is when you want to go full damage. Deathly perception + soul barbs are the obvious choices. You won't hit as hard as a berserker necro, mostly due to ferocity gap, not power one, but in exchange you have better health and life force pool and when you want to build tanky, you've a much better starting point.

 

While soul barbs is definitly a good choice. I would still choose fear of death because of its synergy with dread. I find RS3 invaluable as a defensive tool, as well as offensive one thanks to 15% LF each cast. RS3 stability overcome one of reaper main issues : vulnerable to chain CC. 

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Even for soloing champs there is alot of bad advice. Again full dps is the best defence on champs. Instead of aoe blind, its a issue of break bars and kiting while thr break bar is recharging. Blood fiend is good for kiting because the mob is put into a catch 22. Chase you with axe and  you get healed slowly with fiends passive attacks doing 1k of healing or attack the fiend and allow you to free dps and heal for more with souleater. 

Decimate defences is an awful trait outside of pvp. 

[KrHome.1920]

You can not kill champs that burst in full zerk gear because you can not sustain the bursts. Between the bursts you are overhealing (wasting heals) and during the bursts you are kicked out of shroud with two hits and killed with another.

 

While the core game lacks these kind of champ mechanics, they are pretty common in the expansions and living story.

 

This is basically the same as trying to roam on necro in WvW in full zerk gear. Everything that does not die in a few hits (because of blocks, invuln, counterattacking while avoiding your damage) will outsustain and faceroll you.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by KrHome.1920

[Obtena.7952]

2 hours ago, KrHome.1920 said:

You can not kill champs that burst in full zerk gear because you can not sustain the bursts. Between the bursts you are overhealing (wasting heals) and during the bursts you are kicked out of shroud with two hits and killed with another.

 

While the core game lacks these kind of champ mechanics, they are pretty common in the expansions and living story.

 

This is basically the same as trying to roam on necro in WvW in full zerk gear. Everything that does not die in a few hits (because of blocks, invuln, counterattacking while avoiding your damage) will outsustain and faceroll you.

 

 

True. We should also consider the OP isn't asking about soloing champs either. The advice that was given about using DD in a DPS build is given assuming zerg events like BH trains and such since the zerg will contribute all the vuln needed to cap crit. Anyone that turns up their nose at a 50% crit boost in that situation (much more of a DPS increase than Soul Eater would EVER give) that allows a player to equip more Valks (which is ALSO a DPS boost by extension of LF) has some questionable PVE experience and advise IMO. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[Black Storm.6974]

Full Berserker gear can totally sustain Champion’s damage in solo fights, all is needed is tweaking the build a bit. Necromancer (which include Reaper and Scourge) can drastically reduce damage taken with Skills and Traits, and also have high healing and Life Force generation.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Black Storm.6974

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

You can totally sustain champions with berserker.

I did all heros points on Auric Basin everyday in <10minutes with reaper berserker without any issue. You have utility skills you can change in 2 clicks, it really helps :  2 minions to take aggro if needed, you also have "Rise";  signet and spectrals skills for LF, axe for range  ... Reaper isn't naked.

 

Obvisoulsy it depends of champions; but the champions you can't do with berserker this isn't only 4k hp that will help you, plus I don't believe they deserve you gear specifically to kill them with your "OW" equipement.

 

I think, for Reaper, its pernicious to sacrifice gear and traits for sustain, while reaper has already all the tools for each situations in OW.

You'll lose time, but mostly you'll miss practice, on an already easy class to play.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[Obtena.7952]

Again guys ... we aren't talking about if YOU can solo champs in zerker. I'm pretty sure if the OP is asking what gear he should be using ... he's not turning around and going and soloing HoT MP's right after with it, especially in a DPS heavy setup.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Obtena.7952