Necro Fractal Builds
Viper minions is a very common build for high level fractals. They removed toughness scaling which gives power builds some more credibility, but the meta is still to stack conditions and epidemic bounce. Condi builds have better condi cleanse, and you can get condi bombed in certain high level fractals.
Most fractals are pretty hostile to melee except in certain fights, typically bosses like old tom.
For tier 1 fractals your standard power reaper will work perfectly fine. But starting from tier 2 fractals I’d 200% agree with Hesacon. Viper condi build all the way. Some of the fractal instabilities such as last laugh and social awkwardness are annoying as all get out (if not dangerous) if you’re playing a melee build. Viper condi build guarantees that you stay at range most of the time and also does much more damage than power reaper. Viper reaper is also a class whose potency increases exponentially the more viper reapers you have in the party. Having multiple viper condi reapers in the party creates this immense synergy because they can just bounce epidemic and shred down mobs in seconds. It is common to see high level fractal parties with 2+ viper reapers in them.
I normally run Viperhorror with Blood instead of Death Magic…
Only real variant is if I’m in a particular bad pug in late t3/early t4 with the Afflicted instability, I’ll swap to Death/Blood/Reaper and run passive Plague Signet to handle the group cleanse. Noticeable loss of dps, but my group doesn’t just wipe themselves to torment and confusion and my pets can handle some dps while I’m running around res’ing the downed people.
(It’s also a pretty solid build for Thermanova Reactor’s last boss, as running from beams/bombs usually leaves me out of scepter range for a good chuck of the fight.)