Guild Wars 2

This is meant to group all the Reaper feedback.

My initial PvP impressions.

1- Damage just isnt there.
2- Chill might as well not be there. The combination of slow attack speed and its very short duration unless you go all in, makes it really weak. Even going you still can not keep it up.
3- You get kited to death. Little to no mobility combined with high gap closer CDs and a lack of base +25% move speed makes it very easy to stay away from the reaper.
4- Build up mechanics are a non starter in the world of blow you up meta. The same happens with Hammer and guardian, the hammer is simultaneously their hardest hitting and most defensive weapon and you never see it because the build up required for it to work makes it a non starter. GS on the Reaper is the same, but hits softer, is less defensive and does not sinergize well with Shroud. You end up better served by forgoing everything the reaper brings other than shroud.
5- Grasping darkness needs a MASSIVE and i do mean MASSIVE cooldown reduction, Guardians have 2, 10s CDs gap closers and a teleport. Warriors have 2 gap closers on a single weapon AND bull charge. Necros have neither +25% move speed and no gap closer under 30s CDs. GD needs to be base 10s, its easier to dodge and harder to aim than any of the mentioned above.

I agree with this.

Too slow, and dmg is way too low for how slow we are.

Apolo.5942:

This is meant to group all the Reaper feedback.

My initial PvP impressions.

1- Damage just isnt there.
2- Chill might as well not be there. The combination of slow attack speed and its very short duration unless you go all in, makes it really weak. Even going you still can not keep it up.
3- You get kited to death. Little to no mobility combined with high gap closer CDs and a lack of base +25% move speed makes it very easy to stay away from the reaper.
4- Build up mechanics are a non starter in the world of blow you up meta. The same happens with Hammer and guardian, the hammer is simultaneously their hardest hitting and most defensive weapon and you never see it because the build up required for it to work makes it a non starter. GS on the Reaper is the same, but hits softer, is less defensive and does not sinergize well with Shroud. You end up better served by forgoing everything the reaper brings other than shroud.
5- Grasping darkness needs a MASSIVE and i do mean MASSIVE cooldown reduction, Guardians have 2, 10s CDs gap closers and a teleport. Warriors have 2 gap closers on a single weapon AND bull charge. Necros have neither +25% move speed and no gap closer under 30s CDs. GD needs to be base 10s, its easier to dodge and harder to aim than any of the mentioned above.

3- LOL warriors always had this and we never complained

Omega Zoa.3859:

Apolo.5942:

This is meant to group all the Reaper feedback.

My initial PvP impressions.

1- Damage just isnt there.
2- Chill might as well not be there. The combination of slow attack speed and its very short duration unless you go all in, makes it really weak. Even going you still can not keep it up.
3- You get kited to death. Little to no mobility combined with high gap closer CDs and a lack of base +25% move speed makes it very easy to stay away from the reaper.
4- Build up mechanics are a non starter in the world of blow you up meta. The same happens with Hammer and guardian, the hammer is simultaneously their hardest hitting and most defensive weapon and you never see it because the build up required for it to work makes it a non starter. GS on the Reaper is the same, but hits softer, is less defensive and does not sinergize well with Shroud. You end up better served by forgoing everything the reaper brings other than shroud.
5- Grasping darkness needs a MASSIVE and i do mean MASSIVE cooldown reduction, Guardians have 2, 10s CDs gap closers and a teleport. Warriors have 2 gap closers on a single weapon AND bull charge. Necros have neither +25% move speed and no gap closer under 30s CDs. GD needs to be base 10s, its easier to dodge and harder to aim than any of the mentioned above.

3- LOL warriors always had this and we never complained

Warrior has, better sustain, better armor, more gap clossers on shorter cooldowns. They are nothing like this.

Omega Zoa.3859:

Apolo.5942:

This is meant to group all the Reaper feedback.

My initial PvP impressions.

1- Damage just isnt there.
2- Chill might as well not be there. The combination of slow attack speed and its very short duration unless you go all in, makes it really weak. Even going you still can not keep it up.
3- You get kited to death. Little to no mobility combined with high gap closer CDs and a lack of base +25% move speed makes it very easy to stay away from the reaper.
4- Build up mechanics are a non starter in the world of blow you up meta. The same happens with Hammer and guardian, the hammer is simultaneously their hardest hitting and most defensive weapon and you never see it because the build up required for it to work makes it a non starter. GS on the Reaper is the same, but hits softer, is less defensive and does not sinergize well with Shroud. You end up better served by forgoing everything the reaper brings other than shroud.
5- Grasping darkness needs a MASSIVE and i do mean MASSIVE cooldown reduction, Guardians have 2, 10s CDs gap closers and a teleport. Warriors have 2 gap closers on a single weapon AND bull charge. Necros have neither +25% move speed and no gap closer under 30s CDs. GD needs to be base 10s, its easier to dodge and harder to aim than any of the mentioned above.

3- LOL warriors always had this and we never complained

Dude you’re serious ?

Warriors have NOTHING in common with #3

I agree with this.

also, spectral grasp seems to always miss for me and don’t pull enemys. not sure if anyone else has this problem with reaper

Well, I can’t speak to PVP, but in PVE it seemed quite strong and was a lot of fun to play.

Also, what’s this about no 25% move speed boost? Signet of the Locust is a thing, right?

glehmann.9586:

Well, I can’t speak to PVP, but in PVE it seemed quite strong and was a lot of fun to play.

Also, what’s this about no 25% move speed boost? Signet of the Locust is a thing, right?

Not if you ever plan on using it.

Regarding pve, im certain the Reaper works in PVE, but just because literaly EVERYTHING works in PVE.

Seen a couple of streamers, everybody is bashing on the GS.

GS stinks, so toss it….reaper shroud does not, though, so equip/use dagger/warhorn for LF and get back into RS

I agree Reaper needs to be looked at, VERY under powered.little to no mobility and just lacks that raw reaper feel. So much for the “elite” description.

I think reaper is really really really great! But only if you use staff+D/WH with no GS and play celestial or soldiers and use blighter’s boon to help your overall sustain. In general reaper is designed to be a tanky bruiser like profession, I don’t see it doing well as a burst class in its current form.

Can we differentiate between reaper and GS. From what i red you are complaining about GS and not reaper.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Can we differentiate between reaper and GS. From what i red you are complaining about GS and not reaper.

On that i can get behind. The only real good thing about the REAPER is its shroud. Thus much like the Guardian, if you play something building towards Shroud, then The reaper is a direct upgrade much like the DH virtues are a direct upgrade over the guardian ones.

Other than that the Reaper is VERY underwhelming.

I’m not a fan of the number 5 skill in “reapers shroud”. i would rather still have tainted shackles. I like the GS not being Melee. To early to complain about the other things mentioned, i’ll wait for the release to see how everything goes with the gear and build i use. My necro’s are mainly Condi builds

Niyati.4215:

I’m not a fan of the number 5 skill in “reapers shroud”. i would rather still have tainted shackles. I like the GS not being Melee. To early to complain about the other things mentioned, i’ll wait for the release to see how everything goes with the gear and build i use. My necro’s are mainly Condi builds

The point of the Beta is exactly to provide feedback now, before release.

Loving the Reaper 10/10

The Reaper shroud is amazing, the greatsword, not so much. I wish the Skill 1 was just a cleaver with a 240 radius, same skill animation to revs hammer throw animation.

My first impressions of Reaper:
1. Gravedigger needs a slightly larger cool down reduction. 80% give you a tiny amount of time between, and with how slow all the GS attacks are, this is useless downtime. I would prefer a simple lowering of damage (if they feel that is necessary) for instant recharge.
2. Reapershoud can be very powerful and I like it, but the scythe is a little too big. I get it, they are making a big statement with a large scythe, and I like the thought, but it is too large. I feel like I am swinging an over sized inflatable toy.
3. Reapershoud 5 has some animation problems if the character moves while casting. It can look like you stopped casting altogether, then suddenly connect with the big frost field.

Haven’t played around with the shouts much yet, but enjoying having a non-transform non-minion elite.

idk I find that the Reaper is perfectly fine the way it is right now, you just gotta learn how to play it, and for those saying no gap closers you are definitely not playing reaper right, you have a weapon swap still so use it, and as for damage idk what you guys are talking about build it properly and reaper does really nice amounts of damage.

timRAR.2765:

My first impressions of Reaper:
1. Gravedigger needs a slightly larger cool down reduction. 80% give you a tiny amount of time between, and with how slow all the GS attacks are, this is useless downtime. I would prefer a simple lowering of damage (if they feel that is necessary) for instant recharge.
2. Reapershoud can be very powerful and I like it, but the scythe is a little too big. I get it, they are making a big statement with a large scythe, and I like the thought, but it is too large. I feel like I am swinging an over sized inflatable toy.
3. Reapershoud 5 has some animation problems if the character moves while casting. It can look like you stopped casting altogether, then suddenly connect with the big frost field.

Haven’t played around with the shouts much yet, but enjoying having a non-transform non-minion elite.

gravedigger is fine the way it is, it doesn’t do a lot of damage with anyone above 50% health a let alone it doesn’t do a lot even when they are 50% or lower.

I have to agree, having played the Reaper for a bit, my first impressions are not so great.

Maybe it was because I was playing an Asura, but Death’s Charge felt like it was going further than I was expecting each time. One of my two mains is a human D/F Ele, so I was basing my expectations on Burning Speed. I think it may simply be that Death’s charge is “floatier” than burning speed. Reaper Shroud itself feels incredibly strong, albeit, I didn’t consider using Soul Spiral, because skill 1 provides lifeforce, and Executioner’s Scythe had slightly too long a wind-up, even for PvE.

The Greatsword seems like an okay Necromancer weapon, if it was supporting normal Death Shroud. But for Reaper shroud I don’t really like the weapon. Both sets are trying to do the same thing, get in melee for huge pay-off skills, but Reaper Shroud provides the better pay-off skills. So for the most part, GS is left as a utility weapon for skills 3, 4 and 5. Death Spiral is easily my favourite animation on the reaper, while Gravedigger is just the worst. I keep interrupting my own Nightfall accidentally (which doesn’t happen with the Guardian animation it copies) and I don’t know how to describe it but Grasping darkness just feels weird to aim. Over the whole time I spent using the weapon, I tried Gravedigger to see if it had a decent pay-off, but the skill just wasn’t worth using over normal autos, especially when traited for lifesteal. Balance-wise, I would increase the Greatsword’s utility more. Possibly vulnerability on the the first hits of the skill chain, but most importantly an increase in the chill duration of the third hit in the chain. Gravedigger then definitely isn’t worth using over normal autos, perhaps just an increase in damage is what’s needed, I don’t know, I hate that skill.

Lastly, shouts. “Chilled to the Bone” is probably my favourite elite skill in the game, but Necros already have steep competition for it between the moving blind field and the repeatedly pointing finger of doom. I didn’t really want to slot the others and Valkyrie gear doesn’t give a good impression of any healing skill.

I’m pretty sure the animations on Death Spiral and Gravedigger are backwards.

My impression is that the animations are unsmooth. Especially the reapers shroud, it looks very ‘pixely’

My Feedback of the reaper is this.

Greatsword is great if you have the right build and right stats is highly useful, especially if you know what the skills do and use them properly. The damage output is good as I said if you know how to build into the right stats. The coolsdowns on the skills of the greatswords are well balanced thanks to the fact that our number 2 does not nuke the crap out of people’s health. Those who say the greatsword does not do enough damage and so on and so forth obviously are not building in the proper damage stat area as which would consist of zerker and knights.

The shroud is really nice and well done the skills feel effective and fluid, and the shroud design is a nice touch. The number 5 could use a slightly quicker cast timer however since its cooldown is quite lengthy but other than that its well designed.

But as I stated about the greatsword part look if your not building towards damage your not gonna get that high damage output you want, that’s just plan logic, don’t knock it until you build it right is what I always say.

Apolo.5942:

Niyati.4215:

I’m not a fan of the number 5 skill in “reapers shroud”. i would rather still have tainted shackles. I like the GS not being Melee. To early to complain about the other things mentioned, i’ll wait for the release to see how everything goes with the gear and build i use. My necro’s are mainly Condi builds

The point of the Beta is exactly to provide feedback now, before release.

I know how beta’s work. I’m not going to have any time saturday or sunday, i won’t be home. I’m going to test a few specializations and have fun while i can. There’s no sinister gear in beta, so i can’t test my builds. I did say i didn’t like the reapers shroud skill 5 and would rather have death shrouds skill 5. It just seems they gave a weaker skill 5 in reapers shroud and i don’t like it.

Here’s my 2 copper on Reaper so far:

GS – Damage is too weak and it really needs a gap closer of some sort. At least lower the cd on the pull.

Shouts – Hmm…the damage is pretty on AoE pulls, but overall pretty lackluster. I think wells still overshadow them.

Deathshroud – Beautiful. Don’t change it.

I’m fine with shouts sucking, but Greatsword at least needs to be improved for this specialization to really be something special.

1: Greatsword seems very lack luster.

If you would make gravedigger chill enemies it hits for say 3 -4 seconds then speed up the auto attack (adjust numbers) then it would be better.

Also reaper’s grasp is on far to long a CD, maybe reduce it to 15 seconds but lower the poison duration.

2: Shouts are extremely lack luster.
The fact that you have to hit multiple enemies to get any use out of the Cd reduction trait is also very bad.
Changing the trait Augury of Death to a flat 30% reduction and having it cause shouts to have an additional effect would be a major improvement.
(The additional effect could be anything from removal of a condition, an AOE heal, protection, torment on enemies etc..)

3: Reapers Shroud is alright but could still get a bit of love.
Deaths charge tends to be rather slow, making it a half second cast would be great.
The auto also seems to have low damage, especially for condition mancers, (perhaps Dhuumfire could last just a bit longer in addition to better scaling)

Quite enjoyed playing GS Reaper (knights gear, scholar runes), damage felt pretty solid but the chill was pointless as it didn’t seem to affect anything I was fighting … even bats were flapping out of range of me! Chill duration needs to be increased by quite a lot I think. At the moment, dagger/warhorn is a far superior combination than just using a greatsword; and that’s a crying shame because I really want to like greatsword.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Also reaper’s grasp is on far to long a CD, maybe reduce it to 15 seconds but lower the poison duration.

^ Very good suggestion.

Dahkeus.8243:

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Also reaper’s grasp is on far to long a CD, maybe reduce it to 15 seconds but lower the poison duration.

^ Very good suggestion.

I would rather they removed the poison alltoghether and put it at a 10 second CD, after unlike every other gap closer in the game, this one is dogeable.

Does the reaper shroud drain more quickly than death shroud? I’ve got vital persistence traited (thinking it would affect both shrouds) but, in comparison to when I run straight necro and its death shroud, my reaper shroud seems to disappear really quickly. Could be a perception issue but…

I’ve seen okay damage with the GS but mobility is a real issue. The only class that I seemed able to go toe-to-toe with was a warrior – and that’s because they wanted to get in melee range too. Everything else just kited around the edges while I attempted to land chills or pull them to me…

Resvon.9867:

Does the reaper shroud drain more quickly than death shroud? I’ve got vital persistence traited (thinking it would affect both shrouds) but, in comparison to when I run straight necro and its death shroud, my reaper shroud seems to disappear really quickly. Could be a perception issue but…

I’ve seen okay damage with the GS but mobility is a real issue. The only class that I seemed able to go toe-to-toe with was a warrior – and that’s because they wanted to get in melee range too. Everything else just kited around the edges while I attempted to land chills or pull them to me…

It feels that way, wonder if it doesn’t have the damage reduction that death shroud has.

Apolo.5942:

This is meant to group all the Reaper feedback.

My initial PvP impressions.

1- Damage just isnt there.
2- Chill might as well not be there. The combination of slow attack speed and its very short duration unless you go all in, makes it really weak. Even going you still can not keep it up.
3- You get kited to death. Little to no mobility combined with high gap closer CDs and a lack of base +25% move speed makes it very easy to stay away from the reaper.
4- Build up mechanics are a non starter in the world of blow you up meta. The same happens with Hammer and guardian, the hammer is simultaneously their hardest hitting and most defensive weapon and you never see it because the build up required for it to work makes it a non starter. GS on the Reaper is the same, but hits softer, is less defensive and does not sinergize well with Shroud. You end up better served by forgoing everything the reaper brings other than shroud.
5- Grasping darkness needs a MASSIVE and i do mean MASSIVE cooldown reduction, Guardians have 2, 10s CDs gap closers and a teleport. Warriors have 2 gap closers on a single weapon AND bull charge. Necros have neither +25% move speed and no gap closer under 30s CDs. GD needs to be base 10s, its easier to dodge and harder to aim than any of the mentioned above.

Agree with most u said. Just tried reaper with g/s, it was like playing a necro in slowmo. Most skills looked gimmicky to me, fancy but no substance. Dmg too low, attack/movement too slow. I even used traveler runes to get some speed, they didn’t seem to do anything at all. if reaper doesn’t get major buffs, i don’t think i’ll be playing it.

Apolo.5942:

This is meant to group all the Reaper feedback.

My initial PvP impressions.

1- Damage just isnt there.
2- Chill might as well not be there. The combination of slow attack speed and its very short duration unless you go all in, makes it really weak. Even going you still can not keep it up.
3- You get kited to death. Little to no mobility combined with high gap closer CDs and a lack of base +25% move speed makes it very easy to stay away from the reaper.
4- Build up mechanics are a non starter in the world of blow you up meta. The same happens with Hammer and guardian, the hammer is simultaneously their hardest hitting and most defensive weapon and you never see it because the build up required for it to work makes it a non starter. GS on the Reaper is the same, but hits softer, is less defensive and does not sinergize well with Shroud. You end up better served by forgoing everything the reaper brings other than shroud.
5- Grasping darkness needs a MASSIVE and i do mean MASSIVE cooldown reduction, Guardians have 2, 10s CDs gap closers and a teleport. Warriors have 2 gap closers on a single weapon AND bull charge. Necros have neither +25% move speed and no gap closer under 30s CDs. GD needs to be base 10s, its easier to dodge and harder to aim than any of the mentioned above.

I’m disappointed that even after Robert lee said they wanted to try something different with Chilling nova, making it a 3 per 10 sec proc, anet apparently gave up and went to the status quo b4 even the first Hot per-purchase beta test. I think they missed a huge opportuntity to make something grt.

That being said, except for some weird stuff that you’d expect in beta’s, I’M LOVING REAPER! I’d suggest op playing around more with spec’s. I Started using Gs/dagger, warhorn with spite, blood and of course reaper, with focus on power, life siphon, and chill. Currently plowing though 10 mobs at a time (which while challenging) is totally doable.

The one thing op posted I do agree with is grasping darkness def needs some work. Currently it fails to grab a high percentage of the time. Appears to be problems with terrain elevations and big problems with not grabbing enemies who leave pull cone while casting. Apparently grasp doesn’t track. between the initial cast time and the actual pull.

So after playing reaper for a while now my general feelings are as follows:

Reaper GS Skill 1 – Needs more damage considering the attack speed, in general comparitively the damage from Axe skill 1 has a longer range, hits faster and generally deals better damage over time from personal testing. Dagger is also in a similar position.
This skill I feel is not in a terrible state as it is, I generally feel that it only needs a slight tweak.

Reaper GS Skill 2 – Very slow, which in this case is fine however I would like an effect as well as the damage attached to this skill. A chill effect would be very welcome on this skill. The damage considering the wind up time is actually not great. The damage portion of this I feel doesn’t need a massive boost but it definately needs more utility.
The other option would be to allow lifeforce gain on this skill and take it from GS Skill 3. Either way, this skill lacks any utility as it is and found myself using auto attack and ignoring this skill.

Reaper GS Skill 3 – I would like to see 10% vulnerability here and extra lifeforce gain to compensate. Either that or move the lifeforce gain completely to Skill 2 and add a chill here.

Reaper GS Skill 4 – Great skill as it is, my only complaint here is that you cannot move whilst casting which is really really really annoying. This is by far the biggest annoyance with Reaper through my time testing and means I get hit by a lot of things I normally wouldn’t.

Reaper GS Skill 5 – As mentioned above this skill is very buggy, often it will not pull at all and sometimes it only pulls one target. The general feelings from people in map chat were they would prefer a larger range for the skill. I don’t really feel it needs much larger range if it was given it, however 800 would be the maximum I would see fine.

Reaper DS Skill 1 – Amazing – great as it is.

Reaper DS Skill 2 – Not sure if this one was just me, but the damage element of this skill seemed a bit haywire at times. Sometimes I would land a ton of damage on this skill, sometimes I wouldn’t even know if I hit. Again not sure if this was just me.

Reaper DS Skill 3 – Again brilliant as it is. No issues at all.

Reaper DS Skill 4 – Love it, awesome in every way except one… the cooldown seems a little excessive. 30s rather than 34s seems more acceptable to me.

Reaper DS Skill 5 – Would like more chill time on this skill but again great.
————————————

Overall

I feel Reaper will definately make necro a legit choice for dungeons now which is great but the damage/time ratio seems a little off. As well as this for a class focussed on chill, it doesn’t have many chills outside of utility skills which is disappointing.
As a necro main for a while now I am very happy with Reaper as it is but I do feel it needs very slight changes as mentioned above.

In an unrelated comment, the magumma difficulty is perfect right now for a single player, spawn times are a little fast though. I really needed to think about how I approached a PVE combat situation for the first time in this game which is amazing and I used utilities I never really needed before in order to avoid damage instead of pure dps.

Even better I could actually play my necro as I originally wanted and used it in a tankier build rather than straight zerker gear.

Well done ANet!
I wasn’t on the hype train before but I am now xD

Resvon.9867:

Does the reaper shroud drain more quickly than death shroud? I’ve got vital persistence traited (thinking it would affect both shrouds) but, in comparison to when I run straight necro and its death shroud, my reaper shroud seems to disappear really quickly. Could be a perception issue but…

I’ve seen okay damage with the GS but mobility is a real issue. The only class that I seemed able to go toe-to-toe with was a warrior – and that’s because they wanted to get in melee range too. Everything else just kited around the edges while I attempted to land chills or pull them to me…

That was the first thing I noticed while playing reaper. LF does seem to drain more quickly in reaper with untraited as baseline.

Niyati.4215:

Apolo.5942:

Niyati.4215:

I’m not a fan of the number 5 skill in “reapers shroud”. i would rather still have tainted shackles. I like the GS not being Melee. To early to complain about the other things mentioned, i’ll wait for the release to see how everything goes with the gear and build i use. My necro’s are mainly Condi builds

The point of the Beta is exactly to provide feedback now, before release.

I know how beta’s work. I’m not going to have any time saturday or sunday, i won’t be home. I’m going to test a few specializations and have fun while i can. There’s no sinister gear in beta, so i can’t test my builds. I did say i didn’t like the reapers shroud skill 5 and would rather have death shrouds skill 5. It just seems they gave a weaker skill 5 in reapers shroud and i don’t like it.

I’ve had the opposite experience with Executioner’s Scythe. A stun and chill that leaves a long lasting ice field. Drop in enemy group for control and spin to win, or jump back after cast and necro-copter back in for leap finisher. Either way u’ve got a bunch of enemies going ahhh. Great for chill stacking, and if used on low health group pretty much destroys them. Plus lets face it, it’s one very cool animation.

Massive drain in Reaper shroud, GS1 and G2 very underpowered. Reaper is by no means a fix to the Necro woes, at least not so far. I’m sick to death of these long cast times based on the ridiculous conception we have 2 health bars, sick of it! It still leaves us absurdly vulnerable and ineffective against most anything that moves. Please stop pigeonholing us because of the shrouds, it isn’t the fix for slow! Get it, too…slow!!!!!!!!!!

About that Greatsword:

1. AA chain needs to be sped up slightly and a 3% lifeforce per target added to final strike of the chain.
2. RNG on Gravedigger needs to go, make it sub 35% to gain 100% refresh. Also damage is a little low for such a big wind up.
3. Love the ability it could stand to have its range increased to 300.
4. Aftercast sucks but overall enjoy it.
5. OMFG where to begin, Should have an Immob or at least Chill attachted to the skill. The CD needs to be reduced to 20secs base. Cast Time INSTANT! As the scythes need to travel out and then back in order for the “Pull” to happen. With the current cast time plus travel time, AND it nut hugs the ground (ie obstructed alot) this skill fails far too often.

Reaper Shouts:

Why do these non-elite shouts have cast times? Seriously? Rework them to all be instant please. As for “Chilled to the Bone” this needs to be a 1 second cast with a 90 second recharge usuable underwater.

Reaper Traits:
I will only comment on GM tier; Blighter’s Boon excellent.

Deathly Chill, the damage is a joke even with full condi. Make this scale off power or condi damage whichever is greater. Then adjust the base damage upwards.

Reaper’s Onslaught, allow this trait to affect greatsword as well as reaper shroud attacks.

After playing with the reaper for about 10 minutes, I got the impression that it is EXTREMELY under-powered for what it is supposed to be (at least to me).

If the goal was to create a lightly-armored character that can enter the fray, deal lots of killing blows, and survive, then the reaper is a miserable failure in its current iteration. Its one thing on the livestream to beat up on some dummy golems and show decent numbers, but I was getting melted in the new zone running soldiers armor, trinkets, and runes which boosted toughness. Moreover, the damage output with staff is much better and I can easily avoid all the hits from a comfortable distance.

In short, the reaper needs a lot of work to get it to be a viable option.

I didn’t expect Godmode but wow once again so underwhelmed by the dps and absurd cast time. I’m trying the gambit of builds and gear tomorrow but frankly if they haven’t figured it out by now I’m pretty worried. It seems like they’ve crunched numbers based on static targets and once again we come up sloth like and underpowered, but kitten if we don’t look good spinning around with a scythe!

I put Rampager on my Reaper, just to try it out, and played a while in VB. Then I switched to my Rev, who was wearing Beserkers. Man, what a difference. The Rev was killing stuff so much easier and faster, and not dying. I’ll have to switch to zerker on my Reaper to see if that helps.

I played reaper for what was probably around ten hours today in PvE, WvW, and sPvP. I absolutely love the class in how it plays, and the synergy with the spectral skills is awesome. That said, I think it could use a little bit of love.

I played Berserker/Marauder, Soldier’s, Knights, Celestial, and Rabid stat mixtures. I found the most success on tankier builds focusing entirely on LF gain due to the rapid rate of LF degeneration during Reaper Shroud and the need to be in melee range causing a lot of damage to be dealt to me. I’ll talk about life force in a moment.

Design Review: Cool concept (Ha! I made a pun!), but it struggles in execution (Ha! Another!). LF gain is too weak on the greatsword, and the focus on the reaper only getting big benefits from its shouts when surrounded by enemies makes the class as a whole feel overly-situational for optimized performance within the spec. Wells are still better, and other classes are just better at the whole tons-of-mobs thing in regards to utility skill usage. Drop the CD-reduction-per-target concept or minimize it; give the reduction something like 2% per target and just lower the base cooldowns or buff the effects. I found myself running 2 spectral skills and a signet for LF maintenance purposes.

GS 1: This skill is weak across pretty much all formats. Out-DPS’ed, out-sustained, out-ranged, and simply out-done by pretty much every other weapon. I found myself finding much more success even with the lowly axe and scepter over the GS. As a specialization-exclusive weapon, one would want this to offer a lot of synergy and overall strong potential for the investment cost of an entire trait line. The Reaper needs a lot of life force and the ability to stick to its target. The mobility/movement skill changes and their interactions with chill make for this concept to feel overly-weak in regards to chase potential, and the GS’s poor life force gain makes it a poor choice in general as a melee option due to the general necessity of staff on the necromancer.
My fix: GS Auto chain provides 2% LF per swing (paired with below), bumped damage coefficients by around 15%, and a 2.5s base chill duration on the third attack OR a flat 2s with Reaper’s Onslaught also affecting the GS’s attack speed.

GS 2: Very inconsistent. Can be a total game-changer nuke if it lands, but in most cases, it doesn’t. It’s extremely easy to avoid, interrupt, blind, etc. and the range is short. With the above-mentioned issues pertaining to chill/mobility skills, this skill has limited potential in most matchups. In the event it lands on a target below half HP, however, it feels too rewarding in regards to its damage. This should be spammed as a finisher but also as a means of generating LF to pop back into shroud. Right now it feels not-worth spamming unless you’re in a safe scenario and don’t need the shroud.
My Fix: Bumped cooldown to 10s baseline, Reduced cast time to 1/2s, reduced damage by 25%, static 5% life force gained on use when hitting a target, additional 1% per target hit, if target under half HP is hit, reduced CD by 90%.

GS 3: All effects are fine, I could only suggest a 200 base range over 170 to make this skill feel more worthwhile.

GS 4: Feels good. No change needed. Perhaps small duration reduction (1/2 to 1s) for the field finisher with the GS 2 changes above to prevent abuse.

GS 5: Much like other pathed skills, this needs reliability adjustments. It fails. Often. This needs some serious terrain pathing fixes, similar to Spectral Grasp, Scorpion Wire, and S/S revenent skill 5. The cooldown seems overly-large for a midrange gap close that frequently fails. Again, more issues with the multi-target LF-gain concept.
My Fix: Drop the cooldown to 15s, reduced poision duration to 7s, 10% LF gained baseline with 2% per target hit.

Traits:
Augury of Death: Again, the whole per-target thing proving to only be mediocre. 20% reduction baseline and 3% per target hit would be preferable (or 15%/5%)..

Chilling Nova: The ICD is too long for this effect, especially when up against relentless pursuit.

Soul Eater: The amount of time saved from this trait is poor due to the chances of constantly cleaving 3 targets in a PvP environment being low. I’d prefer a 20% reduction base and 5% if Gravedigger hits at least one foe, causing the reaper to gain benefits from AOE’ing for reliability, but allowing him to not be punished for fighting one-on-one.

Deathly Chill: Poor damage that only really works well with GS autos, which are sub-par as mentioned above, and chill itself is a rather mediocre condition as a whole at the moment, making this entire trait feel terrible. This could be a means to solidly bolster GS auto-chain damage output, so I’d bump up the scaling by around 15% and allow it to crit.

Reaper Shroud feels great. Extremely well-done. No complaints from me in this regard. It literally needs nothing done to it.

Shouts suffer from ineffectiveness when hitting only one or two foes. While the intent of the reaper was to work optimally fighting many targets, the shouts themselves are easily-countered when against multiple targets to due their cast times, long cooldowns, and only mediocre effects as a whole. Dropping the cast time and improving the baseline effects and toning the per-target scaling down a notch would help the reaper across the board and make shouts feel more useful and impactful.

Just some day 1 observations.

Reaper seems slow… Great sword looks cool but swings slow and has low damage..just like guess what? Everything else for Necro. Par for the course?

It would be a really nice mechanic if the greatsword could make slow on enemys so if you hit enemys slow you force enemys to hit you slow too Then i would be ok if the greatsword is slow cause your opponents are slow vs you too

But overall just give greatsword 30 % more attackspeed 25 % less casttimes and 25% less dmg so you would do same amount of dmg like now but the gameplay just feels way more smooth. Just make the gameplay with GS more smoothly faster but let dmg maybe same or a little bit more.

First, my opinions.

GS, while slow, is not lacking in the damage department with the right build. I don’t do Zerker or Knight builds, usually opting for a Valk build with a Zerker weapon (decent attack power, crit damage and health pool), with a mix between Valk and Zerker on accessories. Gives me fairly good damage, while giving me some survivability. I can see swapping the Valk equipment with a Knight equipment for more survivability and higher crit chance working well there as well.

To me, the damage was fairly decent. Not spectacular, but this specialization is built around the shroud, where the damage is good. It does have weaknesses, the GS is purely a close combat weapon, meaning that the Reaper can be easily kited, it is slow, your biggest hitters in shroud have long CDs, and there are some mechanics that need to be tuned, but overall, not bad. Since you still have the weapon swap, just swap to something for the intermediate ranges, like axe or scepter, and your choice of offhand (warhorns and daggers tend to be favored by me). You also don’t need to use the GS, it’s simply another option for you to use.

Build it around surviving or hitting hard, however, and it is very damaging.

The attacks for the greatsword need to be increased in speed, Remember the Reaper is supposed to be an assassin you can refer to Thanatos Lore aka the Grim Reaper lore to figure that one out, his attacks are fast and swift they are not stupidly slow like the greatsword 1 and some of the abilities that are present are now, please increase the attack speed, the ideal behind the Reaper is that people are to fear him when they come across him and our attacks are no where near the true speed of a true Reaper, in which would inflict fear into our foes.

As a lot of other people have mentioned, reaper shroud is great!
gs is ok in pve, but in pvp i found it sorely lacking.
I found the chill concept to be pretty weak, as a condition in pvp its so easily removable and chill has fairly short duration’s , i feel like it might be better as immobilize or a buffed cripple effect. Deathly chill really does barely any damage IMO and also chill doesn’t stack in intensity so its really just this long term maybe you’l do a little more damage kinda thing should do additional damage on application so multiple chills deal a decent bit of damage. chilling nova has a way too big CD for it to be useful as well for a short damage and chill effect.
I had a lot of difficulties using the reaper cc’s effectively, with stun breaks and cond removers and stability they were just way too counterable compared to just having a gap closer which also helps so much with travel times across pvp maps, shroud 2 kind of helps but i found it very annoying that it traveled past your target rather then stopping at them so you can hit them. i found greatsword 5 pretty hard to land given the distance of it especialy compared to the pulls on other classes like gaurdians, the long cd was also pretty painful maybe drop the cd on it and and put the lf somewhere else like gravedigger?
As a lot of other people said, the shouts need a major rework the elite is great!
the heal is good in pve i found as damage+lf=shroud=more damage but in pve it suffers the scaling issue, vs 1 or 2 targets its so little life force gain, and your giving up consumes massive cond cleanse&heal, seriously it takes 6 uses of the shout heal to fully heal me.
“rise” the jaggeds are way too weak, either jaggeds need buffing or necros need a way to make hem useful, maybe if it summoned 5 jaggeds+1 per target?
“suffer” this just seems like a really weak version of plague signet.
“you are all weaklings” I found this pretty useful, especially in pve.
“nothing can save you”pretty useless necro already has a TON of boon CORRUPTION and removal, already lots of vulnerability skills and staff marks are unblockeable so this shout really does barely anything.
Augury of death just adds to the shouts weaknesses, i think it should have a base 20% reduction and like 3% steal life force from each target or something, maybe stability to cover their cast times, its weird its so easy to interrupt someone yelling stuff.
the whole scaling off multiple enemies concept doesn’t work well in pvp, the benefits are way too weak for them to help in group fights and 1v1 you get no scaling making them very weak. I feel like if they got buffed up tho then reaper would still be weak 1v1 and become op in group fights they need their base effects raised and their scaling tweaked maybe if they did their full effects and just their damage scaled or you gained life force against additional foes.

GS auto and #2 needs a cast time reduction, damage increase or more likely both.

GS #3 and #5 needs some tweaks with targeting. Very unreliable in tracking.

RS auto needs a slightly better LF generation.

RS #2 animation is too long.

RS #3 the stability should be active even when you exit shroud.

RS #4 if the LF generation on the auto didn’t work out well this should have some.

RS #5 single target for some reason and the damage isn’t that high enough.

Shouts cast times are too long.

Chill to the Bone is great but needs cast time reduction, CD reduction or both.

Chilling Nova has way too high ICD. 15 seconds is just too much.

Augury of Death (shout trait) still can’t compete with the two other adept traits. Relentless pursuit is a must against players and Chilling nova is still better to take since shouts overall doesn’t worth to equip.

Soul eater is still lackluster unless GS gets a buff.

Deathly chill scaling should be looked at. Damage seems low for a condi build.

All in all it’s exactly what i thought, GS is way too slow and underpowered LF burns way too fast in RS. Overall underwhelming experience.