Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to figure out a reaper condition based build that takes advantage of the new damaging chill. The problem seems to be sources of chill. Currently condition necros get chill from staff 3, DS 2, and Chill of death trait. Unfortunately a reaper build will lose out on Chill of death and DS2 chill. However we do gain the new RS chill.

So my question is, what is the best way to maximize condition damage with a reaper build? The best possibility is to take chilling darkness and use our blind field and dagger 4 to help generate chill. This of course takes the place of corruption CD reduction and removes a spot for corrosive poison cloud on our utilities, meaning no group support via weakness. Is the blind field more useful than weakness? Doesn’t seem like it since it has less than half the uptime of the weakness.

There is also the possibility of Sigil of Ice to give us ~40% chill uptime. Does this stack with sigil of earth or do they share a CD? Depending on damage it may be better DPS to have Ice over Earth.

With lingering curses, and 20% chill duration, sigil of ice and RS 5 can maintain 100% chill uptime in PvE I believe. Strategic use of epidemic should allow AoE uptime of >100% as well.

No sigils share cooldowns anymore, so no worries there.

On Reapers, you actually have combo potential or generating a lot of chill in RS. Executioner’s Scythe generates an ice field, which you can then whirl through in RS4, then Leap through for Frost Armor using Death’s Charge.

I’m assuming this is for PvE?
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQC9AVsBqg~
With lingering curse capping at 100% (they did mention that they “might” remove the cap on the live stream), chilling nova will be 3x 6 second AOE chills on a 10 second CD. That alone is enough to keep aoe perma chill with no need for epidemic.

Scepter main with dagger/warhorn offhand. Dagger for the blind to chill and warhorn to help sustain life force in RS. RS#3 can also aoe chill from an aoe fear to start the combo. Warhorn cripple will means enemies will barely move or the new break bar system won’t even have bosses move from fear. If you don’t have enough blinds to make that trait worth it, blood is power, “suffer” DS auto will also work. Trait corruptions instead.

That + sinister gear and probably runes of aristocracy are going to be my PvE build. Not sure on the damage from chill as more life force from boons/faster dhumfire might be better.

Current chill sources I used. My duration sat at 100 percent Wvw. Power build.

Runes of Ice . This gives an Ice Nova every 30 seconds on being hit.This ends as being 6 second chill. 7 percent more damage against Chilled foes along with that vitality. I think a lot of reapers will use these runes. The Nova also has a built in damage component to it. It adds 30 percent duration to chill.

Chilling darkness. A one second chill is two on blind due to high duration.

Staff and Axe/focus/dagger combo. I went back and forth between the two. Spinal shivers got me 10 seconds chill off focus but this can be hard to land. The dagger got chill off deathly swarm as I was traited for Chilling darkness. The blind was handy along with that condition transfer.

Sigil of mischief one on weapon. This gives blind and 2 second chill to five enemies on swap.

Sigil of hydromancy. 4 second chill on swap. this gets me 6 seconds on weapon swap.

Note I found that using a mischief sigil and hydromancy sigil works better then the sigil of ice in this build . This is because I have more control over when I use the chill. using sigil of ice I only have a 30 percent chance on a crit which then triggers the 10 second cooldown. I may not want to that crit to proc at a given time or want it but not get a crit.

Well of darkness. Pulsating blind and chill.

I am thinking i will have to drop the axe/focus combo for reaper and go GS/Staff. I will likely keep existing runes and then have to test the reaper to see what sort of sigils to use.Like as not hydromancy will remain on each weapon as a base and I will go from there to decide whether to add mischief or sigil of ice.

Sources of Chill for Necromancer:

- Any Heal Skill with Runes of Grenth
- Being hit with Runes of Grenth (Better than the Nova because it can even chill the Ranger 1500 Units away unlike Rune of Ice)
- Well of Darkness, Signet of Spite, Plague, Dagger #4 with Chilling Darkness Trait
- Focus #5
- Critting a Chilled Enemy in Reaper’s Shroud
- Reaper Shout + Elite Shout
- Spectral Grasp

For Duration you can go with:
Lingering Curse (100%)
Rune of Ice/Grenth (30%)
Givers Weapon or Sigil of Chilling (20%)
Spectral Attunement (50% Spectral Grasp Only)

So in the End you look at +200% on SG and +150% on every other Chill. That’s the Setup i am going to use with my Reaper, for me Chilling is not about the possible damage but more about the huge possible Duration.

EDIT: Totally forgot about the Cold Shoulder Trait which gives (+20% to Chill). So if you get a Givers Weapon, The +10% Condi Duration Sigil and the Rest i wrote, you can get +200% on generic Chill and +250% on Spectral Grasp Chill, that’s huge.

NapTooN.6283:

Sources of Chill for Necromancer:

- Any Heal Skill with Runes of Grenth
- Being hit with Runes of Grenth (Better than the Nova because it can even chill the Ranger 1500 Units away unlike Rune of Ice)
- Well of Darkness, Signet of Spite, Plague, Dagger #4 with Chilling Darkness Trait
- Focus #5
- Critting a Chilled Enemy in Reaper’s Shroud
- Reaper Shout + Elite Shout
- Spectral Grasp

For Duration you can go with:
Lingering Curse (100%)
Rune of Ice/Grenth (30%)
Givers Weapon or Sigil of Chilling (20%)
Spectral Attunement (50% Spectral Grasp Only)

So in the End you look at +200% on SG and +150% on every other Chill. That’s the Setup i am going to use with my Reaper, for me Chilling is not about the possible damage but more about the huge possible Duration.

EDIT: Totally forgot about the Cold Shoulder Trait which gives (+20% to Chill). So if you get a Givers Weapon, The +10% Condi Duration Sigil and the Rest i wrote, you can get +200% on generic Chill and +250% on Spectral Grasp Chill, that’s huge.

You are assuming they are going to remove the cap. Currently all conditions are capped at 100% duration increase. I haven’t heard one way or another on this yet.

Yes there is a cap but:

1. There is Condition Reduction for up to 93% IIRC, so you will still be at 100% whereas others are just at 7% Duration.

2. I am pretty sure Lingering Curse will adjust the base Duration and not count towards the cap. If it does, i will throw it away and have a free Spec for my Reaper, or keep it in the rare case of a 93% Reduction Enemy.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I’m trying to figure out a reaper condition based build that takes advantage of the new damaging chill. The problem seems to be sources of chill. Currently condition necros get chill from staff 3, DS 2, and Chill of death trait. Unfortunately a reaper build will lose out on Chill of death and DS2 chill. However we do gain the new RS chill.

So my question is, what is the best way to maximize condition damage with a reaper build? The best possibility is to take chilling darkness and use our blind field and dagger 4 to help generate chill. This of course takes the place of corruption CD reduction and removes a spot for corrosive poison cloud on our utilities, meaning no group support via weakness. Is the blind field more useful than weakness? Doesn’t seem like it since it has less than half the uptime of the weakness.

There is also the possibility of Sigil of Ice to give us ~40% chill uptime. Does this stack with sigil of earth or do they share a CD? Depending on damage it may be better DPS to have Ice over Earth.

With lingering curses, and 20% chill duration, sigil of ice and RS 5 can maintain 100% chill uptime in PvE I believe. Strategic use of epidemic should allow AoE uptime of >100% as well.

Why would a reaper build lose Chill of death?