Guild Wars 2

You might actually find that Blood/Reaper works out (pick Spite or Soul Reaping, Spite for better Blighter’s Boon synergy, Soul Reaping for Vital Persistance and crit rate), mainly due to the insanity that is a Reaper Transfusion (8364 total AoE heal with Cleric’s amulet when the Necro is above 75% health, Runes and sigils not accounted for).

It would be a weird build, but consider also running Ritual of Life. One of your allies goes down in a 3vX teamfight, you jump into Reaper’s Shroud and start the Transfusion. Transfusion does actually proc the Well of Blood on Ritual of Life, so now you add in an AoE 4100 heal on top of the 8364. But, Well of Blood being a Light Field and Soul Spiral being a Whirl Finisher means you are also throwing out tons of condition cleanse while this is going on.

40 second cooldown on the well, but that’s basically a reset for your team. I would not suggest running support Reaper without an organized team, though. Don’t forget Runes of the Trooper for high group condi cleanse in teamfights.

It’s not gonna fit into any DPS Reaper build; Soul Reaping and Spite have just far too much more damage to offer. That said, Blood/Soul Reaping/Reaper could be incredibly tanky. If HoT content is designed in such a way that tanky builds have more usefulness, I could see the Reaper getting some niche use out of Blood.

It will, of course, continue to be useful for non-Reaper builds.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

You might actually find that Blood/Reaper works out (pick Spite or Soul Reaping, Spite for better Blighter’s Boon synergy, Soul Reaping for Vital Persistance and crit rate), mainly due to the insanity that is a Reaper Transfusion (8364 total AoE heal with Cleric’s amulet when the Necro is above 75% health, Runes and sigils not accounted for).

It would be a weird build, but consider also running Ritual of Life. One of your allies goes down in a 3vX teamfight, you jump into Reaper’s Shroud and start the Transfusion. Transfusion does actually proc the Well of Blood on Ritual of Life, so now you add in an AoE 4100 heal on top of the 8364. But, Well of Blood being a Light Field and Soul Spiral being a Whirl Finisher means you are also throwing out tons of condition cleanse while this is going on.

40 second cooldown on the well, but that’s basically a reset for your team. I would not suggest running support Reaper without an organized team, though. Don’t forget Runes of the Trooper for high group condi cleanse in teamfights.

Shhhh dranor or you’ll get us nerfed! You make it sound like reaper will be the new shout now! Dear god this does sound great though, got an Ele buddy who PvP’s so I might have to try this out!

I’m actually wondering if nether would be a viable option really. With blood magic + reaper, there is a possibility that curses or death magic would actually be the better option.

With curses, we would get some boon hate, weakness up time, a crit chance modifier, and the ever so wonderful plague sending as well as the ability to use blood bond reliably. With the play style you mentioned, this would be a good option for trying to reduce the impact of your build’s short comings.

With death magic, we have putrid defense (reduced damage while casting transfusion!!!!), deadly strength (you mentioned crusader amulet), and your choice of unholy sanctuary (safety net) or corruptor’s favor (even more reduced damage while casting transfusion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Death magic might be the best option with what you are trying to achieve.

You might say that we need reaper’s might to synergize with blighter’s boon, but if you can get in a good group and avoid dueling too much, you might get all the healing you need. Also, since reaper shroud forces you into melee, spamming auto attack to heal off of might stacks might not be the best idea. Remember, infusing terror will also heal us.

Vital persistence sounds good, but again, we are forced into melee range and as such, we will be taking heavy damage to our life force anyways. Death magic and curses also offer ways to reduce damage (plague sending, weakening shroud, putrid defense, and corrupter’s fervor) while also making your build more versatile. Reduced cooldown also sounds nice, but reaper shroud cooldowns are pretty low anyways. Life transfer is 34 seconds with VP while soul spiral is 30 seconds without VP.

This is not to say that soul reaping and spite aren’t bad with the reaper, but I think it’s an all or nothing deal with these two when it comes to using them with reaper. Use both or none of them as it might be the only way they can be truly powerful with the reaper.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

You might actually find that Blood/Reaper works out (pick Spite or Soul Reaping, Spite for better Blighter’s Boon synergy, Soul Reaping for Vital Persistance and crit rate), mainly due to the insanity that is a Reaper Transfusion (8364 total AoE heal with Cleric’s amulet when the Necro is above 75% health, Runes and sigils not accounted for).

It would be a weird build, but consider also running Ritual of Life. One of your allies goes down in a 3vX teamfight, you jump into Reaper’s Shroud and start the Transfusion. Transfusion does actually proc the Well of Blood on Ritual of Life, so now you add in an AoE 4100 heal on top of the 8364. But, Well of Blood being a Light Field and Soul Spiral being a Whirl Finisher means you are also throwing out tons of condition cleanse while this is going on.

40 second cooldown on the well, but that’s basically a reset for your team. I would not suggest running support Reaper without an organized team, though. Don’t forget Runes of the Trooper for high group condi cleanse in teamfights.

I’ve been running my Necromancer Support build after the spec patch and I believe that it’s not really worth trading Curses Weakness/Corruption CDR for Reaper. Only really major thing you’re getting is better Stability in Shroud and 2 more ticks of Transfusion you most likely want to time right. I’m also not sure if Spinning2Win allows to teleport allies to such weird places as stationary Transfusion (since you might just wander off it).

Blood Magic is good “part-time job” for Necromancer and after about 100h with my support Necro spent in PvP Rankeds I have to agree that lack of good MH Support weapon holds it back.
It performs good, often excellent and might get better over time as others get nerfs (D/D Ele…).

Now, if we got Renewing Blast back however, things with Reaper would’ve been really different.

Transfusion on Reaper actually has 3 more ticks and the pull range is is the same regardless. The heal radius is smaller, though.

But folks are probably right in that Curses might be a better fit than either Spite or Soul Reaping for support Reaper builds.

Renewing Blast would be too good to be true with reaper but can really push support builds into the spot light

Blood Magic is still usable with reaper but Death magic…ugh

I… completely forgot about Renewing Blast. Now I’m a little sad. : (

Pregnantman.8259:

Simply put, what will happen to Blood Magic in PvP after Reaper comes? With Blighter’s Boon, Reaper can put out seemingly higher sustain and higher damage than Blood Magic can hope to achieve (with 0 healing power investment mind you), and that leaves only Transfusion going for Blood Magic – likely will not be enough to compete with Reaper/Spite/Soul Reaping power comps.

I love Blood Magic, and so far it has done wonders in my Crusader Spite/Soul Reaping/Blood build – but I am afraid it will be obsolete.

Blood magic gives a LOT more AoE healing and party sustain style support (last rite, ritual of life, and of course transfution) while also having better synergy with dagger 2 and healing power. Cleric style MM builds will still use it as well as vampirism builds and well builds.

Blighter’s Boon does not give as much sustain as the vampiric comboes, especially if you use dagger/warhorn. Blighter’s Boon is at best supplementary sustain for builds focused on building might for damage.

As another comparison, between vampirism and vampirism aura, that’s an additional 100ish damage and 100ish health per hit, which is more of a total health difference created that 1% life force or 135 health.

Mind you, on a power necromancer without healing power, yeah reaper will be better. Minion masters, corruption necromancers, signet necromancers, and we’ll necromancers can all make good use of the tree without healing power.