Guild Wars 2

I just came back and am slowly learning all the new changes, been playing a warrior and I feel the ones that give me the most trouble are necros and druids. I can do damage to them, but once reaper shroud is up it can turn the fight pretty fast.

What would you say is the best way to combat a necro on mesmer/warrior?

The only way to beat reaper on a warrior is using gunflame and berserker amulet, kill him really fast or start running especially after berserker stance nerf.

Don’t let him freeze you with his Shroud #5 skill and don’t fight inside the ice field because the chill will destroy you. Try to stun him because he doesn’t have lot of stability or stun breakes.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Don’t let him freeze you with his Shroud #5 skill and don’t fight inside the ice field because the chill will destroy you. Try to stun him because he doesn’t have lot of stability or stun breakes.

Reaper Shroud doesn’t have a lot of stability?

We playing the same class ?

Hexalot.8194:

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Don’t let him freeze you with his Shroud #5 skill and don’t fight inside the ice field because the chill will destroy you. Try to stun him because he doesn’t have lot of stability or stun breakes.

Reaper Shroud doesn’t have a lot of stability?

We playing the same class ?

For a warrior, it seems like a ton. For a Mesmer, they won’t care, you’re still going to get interrupted.

Stability on Shroud 3 and Elite. Very little stability access compared to what others crap out.

It just feels like alot to us since we managed for so long with practically no stability.

Not only that but Shroud 3 and Elite are not stun breakers.

Hard CC has always been Necromancer’s weakness. Try stun-locking.

I don’t recommend 1v1ing a necromancer at all. They were built to be conditionally the best 1v1ers in the game with life force stacking, but now their pressure is so strong that I don’t think anything other than maybe a dash specced S/D or staff thief could take on 1v1 and win.

Yeah hard CC, it’s always been necro’s weakness and fortunately warriors got more than enough of hard CC to threaten a necro. Remember that most of the necro’s skill have a cast time.

I don’t have enough (any :P) experience playing a warrior to give more specific advice, just general stuff:

The two most important things to not get hit by are RS4 and 5. RS4 can drain half of your health if you let all the hits connect, and RS5 can deal a lot of chill damage + the CC. Luckily they are both really well telegraphed.

It’s hard to kite a reaper while in shroud because of the 5s CD gap closer on RS2, but its your only real chance to kite them since you can’t kite the scepter or staff, so try and make the most of it. A reaper going into RS can either be an opportunity to catch your breath if you have a very evasive build (ranger, thief, mesmer with blink or staff, etc.) or it can be a death sentence if you aren’t (guardian, etc.).

The staff and scepter animations are much harder to tell apart so its not really realistic to be able to dodge them in the heat of battle, you can only hope for the best and bring ample amounts of condi clear. If I see a team with 3 or more reapers I’ll switch to rune of the svanir before the match, which is most optimal if you are also a reaper, but still worth using in any case unless you’re using a very “build-centric” rune like soldier or guardian, etc.

Reaper has only two ways of getting stability, but it’s very long duration, so watch their bar before you CC; you really can’t afford to waste it.

I try to avoid popping stability while fighting a reaper since they’ll just corrupt it into fear (and chill!). The only boons I really feel comfortable having up are fury (corrupts to blindness, easy to take care of), might (if I’m a condi build because it corrupts to weakness, who cares), and protection (corrupts to vuln, not a big deal). If you are traited to deal with movement impairing conditions, having your swiftness or resistance corrupted is also an acceptable loss.

If I follow my own advice and I’m playing a reaper, I usually kill other reapers 1v1 (somewhere >50- 70% chance, who knows). If I’m playing a different spec (I frequently play base condi ranger, for example), I feel lucky if the fight ends and we’re both downed. Chances of killing a reaper 1v1 vary widely just because their performance is tied to how much LF they have going into the fight.

Unfortunately Reaper is OP right now because Deathly Chill damage has been overtuned since the Nov. 4 patch which removed the “executioner-style” 50% health barrier, and the Jan . 26 patch introduced an overkill of boon corrupts.

Source: Reaper main.

I mean, the only way you’ll ever beat a Necro is by knowing Necro better than your opponent. I have never lost a fight to someone who didn’t know about Necro skills.

But yeah, like people said; full damage warrior, then CC / damage burst them. Mesmer, blow your combo rotation, then dip out and wait for your combo again. ALWAYS save your interrupts for their heal. I can’t stress this enough, we WILL lose fights if we don’t get this off.

Also, don’t feel bad if you lose against a full-shroud Necros. This has always been a favorable match for the Necro, even before the buffs, no matter the match up.

Shaogin.2679:

Stability on Shroud 3 and Elite. Very little stability access compared to what others crap out.

No.

You’re being quite hyperbolic, Reaper has extremely impressive stability uptime with no require trait/ability investment beyond selecting the Reaper line.

Do play other professions if you would like to experience the truth of the matter.

DrDivine.5378:

I just came back and am slowly learning all the new changes, been playing a warrior and I feel the ones that give me the most trouble are necros and druids. I can do damage to them, but once reaper shroud is up it can turn the fight pretty fast.

What would you say is the best way to combat a necro on mesmer/warrior?

try this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAU5OnMdgdhAmkCEliFlADZDMCGev92fby9ILEA+dA-TpBCAB+t/wwHBAAOIAVcBAu4BAAWZAA
skill 7 it’s optional,depends on your opponents..hard cc and sustain you will be able to fight in a team fight and win most of your 1v1
rune of traveler are there just for mobility since you don’t have gs..but you can run it,work pretty well with gs too..just pick up dodged march and change runes, runes of leadership,hoelbrak or strenght work well.
have fun

DrDivine.5378:

I just came back and am slowly learning all the new changes, been playing a warrior and I feel the ones that give me the most trouble are necros and druids. I can do damage to them, but once reaper shroud is up it can turn the fight pretty fast.

What would you say is the best way to combat a necro on mesmer/warrior?

I’m sorry but….if you’re struggling with necro/reaper shroud NOW you have been struggling with them before the patch as well.

As far as I know not a single thing was done to RS in terms of nerfing or buffing.

Or have I not read the right patch notes guys?

insaneseagull.7063:

DrDivine.5378:

I just came back and am slowly learning all the new changes, been playing a warrior and I feel the ones that give me the most trouble are necros and druids. I can do damage to them, but once reaper shroud is up it can turn the fight pretty fast.

What would you say is the best way to combat a necro on mesmer/warrior?

I’m sorry but….if you’re struggling with necro/reaper shroud NOW you have been struggling with them before the patch as well.

As far as I know not a single thing was done to RS in terms of nerfing or buffing.

Or have I not read the right patch notes guys?

It’s not that shroud has changed but shroud is the culmination of a lot of skills and traits. The patch removed the reliance on signets and spite, allowing the option of going curses for instance which means shroud #2 corrupts boons now. The patch also allows the reaper to take spectral armor which means much more life force → a strionger shroud.

Tim.6450:

insaneseagull.7063:

DrDivine.5378:

I just came back and am slowly learning all the new changes, been playing a warrior and I feel the ones that give me the most trouble are necros and druids. I can do damage to them, but once reaper shroud is up it can turn the fight pretty fast.

What would you say is the best way to combat a necro on mesmer/warrior?

I’m sorry but….if you’re struggling with necro/reaper shroud NOW you have been struggling with them before the patch as well.

As far as I know not a single thing was done to RS in terms of nerfing or buffing.

Or have I not read the right patch notes guys?

It’s not that shroud has changed but shroud is the culmination of a lot of skills and traits. The patch removed the reliance on signets and spite, allowing the option of going curses for instance which means shroud #2 corrupts boons now. The patch also allows the reaper to take spectral armor which means much more life force -> a strionger shroud.

Shroud 2 always did corrupt boons before this patch,didn’kitten :O How did this patch allow reapers to take spectral armor more efficiently than before? :O

insaneseagull.7063:

Shroud 2 always did corrupt boons before this patch,didn’kitten :O

Only if you took a trait in curses what a lot of people didn’t since they took spite for the traited signets.

insaneseagull.7063:

How did this patch allow reapers to take spectral armor more efficiently than before? :O

Well, the need for traited signets in the previous meta was incredibly strong due to its reliable boon corruption. With the addition of the additional boon corruption you are not “forced” to take signets allowing people to take other skills like spctral armor.

In short the necessaity of traited signet prevented people taking other options. With the patch this necessaity is gone allowing these other options some play.

Tim.6450:

insaneseagull.7063:

Shroud 2 always did corrupt boons before this patch,didn’kitten :O

Only if you took a trait in curses what a lot of people didn’t since they took spite for the traited signets.

insaneseagull.7063:

How did this patch allow reapers to take spectral armor more efficiently than before? :O

Well, the need for traited signets in the previous meta was incredibly strong due to its reliable boon corruption. With the addition of the additional boon corruption you are not “forced” to take signets allowing people to take other skills like spctral armor.

In short the necessaity of traited signet prevented people taking other options. With the patch this necessaity is gone allowing these other options some play.

Ahh I see what you meant now. But I still don’t believe we’re THAT much more harder to defeat now. I mean,if you don’t go with Soul Reaping for the boosted RS our shrouds will still be as squishy as before if focused

But yeah,I think I get the point of the OP now.

Reapers have plenty of stun breaks in utilities, you cen even make entering the shroud form into a stun break.

Majestic Concupiscence.4521:

Reapers have plenty of stun breaks in utilities, you cen even make entering the shroud form into a stun break.

That trait is in the Soul Reaping line,it has always been there.
Stun breaks:
-Granted you have your minion out and it isn’t dead,when you tele though it will die https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necrotic_Traversal
-Plague signet https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Plague_Signet
-Spectral armor https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Armor
-Spectral walk https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Walk
-Well of Power https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Power
-Shout https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22You_Are_All_Weaklings!%22

We have plenty alright but you’ll have to take into consideration builds as well. Noone I’ve see has ever used all three slots for a stunbreak utility.

I don’t think stunlocking will be a problem for a warrior granted he doens’t blow all his stuns like a madman and wastes them all.

EDIT: Typo

You fight necros the same way you always fight them. The patch did not change them that much.

The patch changed them in the sense that its difficult to defeat them with classes that relies on boons, such as ele/rev/maybe guard because of the large amount of boon corrupt they now have. Resistance now has no counterplay value at all anymore. Also, seeing the way that the meta is going, you cant rely on teammates to cure condis for you since tempest is all but taboo in pvp due to reapers themselves, so youll need to bring high cleanse on yourself. For this patch, id say if you want to beat a reaper you should probably going reaper yourself.

DrDivine.5378:

I just came back and am slowly learning all the new changes, been playing a warrior and I feel the ones that give me the most trouble are necros and druids. I can do damage to them, but once reaper shroud is up it can turn the fight pretty fast.

What would you say is the best way to combat a necro on mesmer/warrior?

That´s easy, don´t play for six month. After that the GW2 “balancing” team nerfed the necro to the ground once again and found some other class to make stupid OP. The FOTM carousel will keep moving……………

And maybe if your a real lucky dude, the “balancing” wizards decide to make the warrior the lucky one, then you can enjoy the following six months.

LastLetter.7938:

The patch changed them in the sense that its difficult to defeat them with classes that relies on boons, such as ele/rev/maybe guard because of the large amount of boon corrupt they now have. Resistance now has no counterplay value at all anymore. Also, seeing the way that the meta is going, you cant rely on teammates to cure condis for you since tempest is all but taboo in pvp due to reapers themselves, so youll need to bring high cleanse on yourself. For this patch, id say if you want to beat a reaper you should probably going reaper yourself.

Because they got 1-2 new boon removal? Sorry to tell you, necros were carrying a lot of boon removal well before the patch. And then there were a lot of complaints about too many boons.

Your best bet is to engage the Reaper as early on as you can, the more life force a reaper has, the less of a chance you have of beating one, but if it’s a reaper who knows what he’s doing, he’ll be able to throw down his staff skills and conjure up enough LF to get into it before he goes down.

But like everyone says, CC will crap on a Reaper, we don’t really have stunlocks.

It seems that people just want easy victories against necromancers: “the sense that its difficult to defeat them with classes that relies on boons.”

Hey, if you think that necro didn’t get a ton more access to boon corrupt with the change to corrupt boon alone, that’s not my problem.
@DaShi
Sorry, I didn’t mean “difficult” to defeat; I meant that it’s almost immposible. I want there to be a slight chance to be able to get a victory against a necro 1 on 1, which isn’t possible on guard/ele in reapers current state.

Here it comes. Now it’s “almost impossible.” :lol: What’s next? It’s not possible at all?

There’s a perfectly good chance to win. The strategies that work against necros have not changed. They are not going to balance the game around you alone.

I suggest you look carefully at the builds that necros used before the patch and what is actually available to them afterward. You’ll find that your concerns are unwarranted.

Impossible? Of course not, a significant difference and skill can make up for not choosing necro in the character creation screen.
But to the point, strategies to fight necro have indeed changed. As I stated above, resistance has no value anymore due to now overwhelming amounts of corrupts, and tempest can no longer defend your team let alone themselves due to but their own nerfs and reapers buffs.
If anything, the game seems to be balanced around reapers being powerful, them having a plethora of boon corrupts and strips compared to other classes while the others cant have a boon without it being a liability. Condi reapers were already strong with the 800 damage per tick deathly chill, this patch pushed them over the top.

Think. Think. Think. A lot of the players complaining are probably ones that relied on bunker builds that had to much sustain from things like Celestial or Durability. The people who’ve complained to me the most are all players who relied on Celestial based builds.

Reapers had excellent boon corruption before the balance patch. Yes it was slightly buffed, but players are still finding their feet with the new ammys.

There is one thing to do three times when fighting one: RUN! The first time is when they pop the elite shout. You’ll need to dodge this or pop a stun breaker/stability if you’re low hp. He’ll shout “Chilled to the Bone!” while casting. It gives the Reaper stability, and uncontrollable Reapers are deadly.

The second time to run is when Spectral Armor procs. The Soul Reaping traitline has a passive trait that procs Spectral Armor when struck below 50% hp on a 50 second CD (40 seconds traited). Though you can control the reaper (unless of course they just used the shout elite), you should still stay away from him because he’ll get 8% of his life force back every time you hit (on a 1 second ICD I believe), so there’s no point in staying close. Some Reapers may take the actual utility as well, so be ready for two!

The third time is during Reaper’s Shroud. This is the most deadly state the Reaper can be in, but it’s also one of the best times to pressure them. However, they can pop skill 3 for stability again. And if you thought a Reaper without shroud was deadly with stability, you should see them in shroud with stability! They might try using skill 5 on you in this state. Do not try to interrupt it. Just dodge/stunbreak and run the kitten away!

If you’re caught in a teamfight and you have enemies locking you down while the reaper is pounding on you, you’ll need to pop a lot of CDs probably. Just do what you can to stay away from them if you’re under focus fire.

Lastly, learn their shroud animations. They have long cast times and are easily dodgable. The absolute biggest thing to stay away from in shroud is skill 4. It spins the Reaper around and applies 12 stacks of poison that tick for well over 1k in addition to the power damage. Outside of shroud, watch out for condi bombs and try to LoS and survive until you can lock them down.

That’s all I have. It’s probably not the best advice but it should help you in the end. I don’t main a reaper but I have one and am familiar with their skills.

Drood Ranger with LB and ancient seed really makes a Reaper’s life a pain. They out-range you and can kite you for ever.

Honestly the boon corrupt via traits and off hand dagger is fine.

Its the boon corrupt on scepter AA that just seems broken.

Whenever I play my necro it just feels like cheese now to fight anything with any boons because of that AA, especially anything with stability or resistance.

Given all the other ways to corrupt boons I can honestly say that I don’t want or need it on the AA & that it even makes me afraid of what Anet will do when the eventual nerf comes.

Honestly corrupt on Scepter AA is over the top.

For that matter resistance and stability could likely receive a change in what they are corrupted into.
Having them corrupted into chill & fear tends to be a little too much.

Brew Pinch.5731:

Shaogin.2679:

Stability on Shroud 3 and Elite. Very little stability access compared to what others crap out.

No.

You’re being quite hyperbolic, Reaper has extremely impressive stability uptime with no require trait/ability investment beyond selecting the Reaper line.

Do play other professions if you would like to experience the truth of the matter.

Played other classes, opinion still the same. No exaggerations, it really is just a moderate amount of stability.

If your class is boon heavy and/or weak to conditions, Reaper will be very hard to fight. 1v1, it is the strongest profession, but only at full life force.
If you are a Revenant, don’t even try. Revenant is unreasonably bad vs conditions, and the fact that the Reaper can kill boons makes things worse for the Revenant.
The best medicine for Reaper is to use the other four people on your team to blast through his shallow stability and melt him. It really only takes two people to beat a great Reaper. Of course, a Reaper who isn’t top tier PvP is going to lose vs people that outplay him.

As mesmer/warrior, you want to +1 reaper or do surprise gank when they are low.
Mesmer has one of the most useful tool to combat reaper that is moa.

You can 1v1 reaper who doesn’t have life force(i.e. start of the game) relatively easily with a druid or scrapper as well. However, against a reaper with close to full life force is almost impossible unless you completely outplays him.

The scepter aa corrupt isn’t a big deal.

The nerfs other classes received this last patch are the big deal.

With warrior or mesmer (expecially mesmer) you’re in a good spot to kill a Reaper.

Chose a dps build, then burst the enemy down.

How to: (example on warrior)

Use the Rifle, take the necro from range and inflict a lot of damage before he come in range to active the RS and be dangerous. But at first stay Always in Range (lose the point if needed, you will take it back later). With the warrior you wil more or less don’t obtain boons, then the necro can’t corrupt them into conditions, reducing the necro strategy power by more or less 30%. And use some CC to take the necro down or away.
Then when the necro taked enough damage and charged to enter the Reaper Shroud is your moment to Burst him Down.
When the necro use the RS he lose all his corrupt skills (only few use the RS2 corruption trait why 90% use Spite and not Course) and all his heal and defensive skills.
Then active the Berserker to obtain stability, active Berserker Stance to be immune to condition damage/effects and start to burst him down with the Rifle and the GS F1 attacks. You only have to evade the RS5 and active the Berserker Stance to be immune to poison damage and effects, then when you hit with your F1 you will clean 3 conditions (if traited! Then is better if it is traited), also when you swap weapon (1 condi clean).
If you burst the necro out of the RS (I fought warriors able to inflict me 9k of damage with Rifle F1 in Berserker) you will find him totally exposed to your damage.
Near to you, without any defence, use your F1 skills and your weapon skills to take him down.

Is only a problem of Timing to when active your skills and when he active his Reaper Shroud.

learn to burst the necro while in RS (that is more vulnerable) and you will find him easy to kill.

cant

General answer would be: Don’t try to 1v1 Reaper unless you are good Scrapper maybe. Druids do all right in that 1v1 as long as Reaper doesn’t have too much life force at start. Thieves do okay.

In teamfights it hasn’t changed much. Old focus Necro strat.

I’d say best counter to Reaper is another Reaper and it revolves around Plague Signet use and who opens first.

Corrupt on scepter auto isn’t even a big deal, tbh.

Rym.1469:

General answer would be: Don’t try to 1v1 Reaper unless you are good Scrapper maybe. Druids do all right in that 1v1 as long as Reaper doesn’t have too much life force at start. Thieves do okay.

In teamfights it hasn’t changed much. Old focus Necro strat.

I’d say best counter to Reaper is another Reaper and it revolves around Plague Signet use and who opens first.

Corrupt on scepter auto isn’t even a big deal, tbh.

Thieves on a tanky condi reaper is funny. It makes me want to laugh when I see one trying to kill me alone. Yet, a thief working with anyone to fight me would be annoying in WvW and almost a definite win for them.

And in sPvP, the focus on necro first makes it so that I prefer going to a point last things. Just to avoid that initial focus, yet I often use spectral armor when focused on just to refill life force fast. Thanks all that do that you really help me recharge reaper shroud uber fast.

And as for Reaper vs Reaper, its a matter of who starts in reaper shroud first and how much life force both reapers have and if the Reaper using death magic and minions to increase armor if a power reaper is fighting them. In my case, I run a chill condi tank based one in WvW and well, keeping my sPvP one secret… Lets just say, I find that if the reaper goes to RS before I do, I will likely kill them. If I go before they do, they will likely win against me. Its been the case in WvW and some sPvP matches over the last 10 to 20 reaper encounters I’ve had.

Note: I’m not a big sPvP player, so most of my dueling and all come from fighting in WvW.