So delving into PVP due to the ESL and leagues I’ve found my reaper MM getting absolutely decimated. I really hate to have to switch, but grinding out this rank and my League achieves shouldn’t be this painful, so it looks like I’ll be switching over to the cookiecutter reaper build. I will be cruising over to meta-battle to look at those builds, but I’d also like to hear anyone’s success stories with their own reaper builds and hopefully get a decent idea on where they stand.
Seems like even the worst players are staving off my minion’s attacks, bone minions explosion has barely chewed off 25% of an enemies HP and most of these players are just standing in my damage and eating it like twinkies. Safe for thieves, they seem to be the only ones that take dents from my minions. And with how much passive AoE is being pumped out, my clerics MM is on constant defensive healing duty for my minions and 90% of the time I’m just prolonging the inevitable. God forbid I’m up against a dragonhunter as his traps pretty much devour every minion I have leaving me… And all be it, him complete defenseless for a time.
This is what I’ve been using at the moment.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhZ6kjGopGsbTwvGg9GsMNYTPgXWFQaAUACAxjwT4KE-TZRDwAUOEAaLDwb/BAnAAJPBAA
I ran somthing close to this during the beta weekends. Not the most refined build but it had alot of staying and stopping power.
Well, if i’m a necro going up against you running a condition heavy build, I could roll in, executioner’s scythe your minions, then spiral them to death pretty quick since that can drop in almost 9-12k condition damage. once your “Rise!” mobs are gone, which in 1v1’s only 1-2 spawn, it’s almost nothing to fight against. Those condi necros are almost always running plague signet, and waiting to drop staff4 on you when you drop out of shroud when low.
Your build doesn’t have a lot of offensive pressure traits, and minion builds i’ve seen that have been decent have had reaper traited GS to help compliment the toughness coverage. gravedigger helps pin down the offensive when minions can’t get the full 100%
So check out the minion build I have in my sig, that’s what I use (haven’t done ranked since the league but it worked very well before) and it works well. Its important to balance offense and defense, if you go too much in either direction the build becomes ineffective. Hydro/Leeching is a really important sigil combo, its a huge burst on swap that insta procs the leeching plus adds chilling and sets up chilling victory. Energy is even less useful now that we have stab coverage. Also, staff as a weapon doesn’t work with reaper MM imo. You lose all offensive pressure to swap to it, and unlike the SR MM build you don’t have soul marks or the ability to just tank everything. You should go Axe/Dagger, which gives you improved offensive pressure, keeps the transfer, better quickening thirst synergy, and is a better 1v1 weapon set than GS. The build itself is basically fine though, its just staff/sigils that are going to hold you back from a build point of view. Otherwise its just a lot of learning the build, and especially setting up good fights, MM is harder to play than people think.
Well, if i’m a necro going up against you running a condition heavy build, I could roll in, executioner’s scythe your minions, then spiral them to death pretty quick since that can drop in almost 9-12k condition damage. once your “Rise!” mobs are gone, which in 1v1’s only 1-2 spawn, it’s almost nothing to fight against. Those condi necros are almost always running plague signet, and waiting to drop staff4 on you when you drop out of shroud when low.
Necro v Necro you match Soul Spirals which basically invalidates the cleave, minions return all the conditions which forces the enemy Necro to transfer, and you go through the ping pong until one of you cleanses with heal (should be MM, won’t have enough transfers) or can’t transfer anymore. Its a skill matchup, really comes down to managing transfers and CC.
So I took your advice Bhawb, usually always do and it’s a night and day difference. I can chalk a bit up to randomness against players and teams, but allowing myself to put up constant pressure has made a serious dent. Axe is alot better then I thought it was.
I did supplement Bone Minions for Fiend which is working really well when fiend decides to stay at range.
Glad to hear its working!
I did supplement Bone Minions for Fiend which is working really well when fiend decides to stay at range.
Interesting idea, this is something I need to test out myself. Rise! might reduce the need for Bone Minions, plus the removal of the self combo was a wee nerf, and I really miss the crazy long immobilize chain Fiend gives. Only thing I’d be wary of is the loss of on-demand burst/poison, but I’m not sure how important that is now.
Glad to hear its working!
I did supplement Bone Minions for Fiend which is working really well when fiend decides to stay at range.
Interesting idea, this is something I need to test out myself. Rise! might reduce the need for Bone Minions, plus the removal of the self combo was a wee nerf, and I really miss the crazy long immobilize chain Fiend gives. Only thing I’d be wary of is the loss of on-demand burst/poison, but I’m not sure how important that is now.
I was finding the burst a bit tricky to pull off. In the heavy AoE cleave that was being pushed out Bone minions were the first thing to go down. On the other side with spawn detonating I found them popping out randomly, which was odd, I can usually predict where they spawn and if the spawn was off with people moving away from me it was easy to miss a bone pop. Fiend tends to stay at least out of the main AoE and survives a bit longer applying a decent pressure… And of course his amazing root.
People are quite speedy at the moment. I usually have to lure them into a melee fight to let fleshy and the shamblings get some decent damage on a target, range is quite nice atm.
This what I have been using:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhF6kZTopGsbTw2GgeTsMNYSDgCQAI+DeCfhUngbQKA-TZxHABBcKAE4BAo++DLVGAgjAAA
Its not perfect, and it still needs tweaking, but I do ok. Still juggling which rune I like.
100% real talk in sPvP you’re fighting uphill playing a Reaper. I’m not gonna get into a big huge diatribe but play a better bunker class if actually advancing leagues is your aim. There are classes that you don’t even have to know how to play that well (given you have a good grasp on the game in general) and can advance through the first 4 Divisions pretty easily, even as solo Q. I did that, first 25 games as class X and I rose 2 entire divisions. I mean I didn’t know the spell names really. But I digress.
MM in this meta doesn’t stand a chance and I think you’re finding that out.
Try a spite/soul/reaper build. If you like condi or power. Just swap a few traits/rune/ammy and you can roll with either focus with this build.
If you like might stacking and want to play with Blighter’s Boon for instance try the strength runes, boon duration specifically will help. Try out a marauder ammy if you want straight pew pew. Undead/rabid for super bunker type.
My real deal advice though is in PvP Reapers aren’t what they’re made out to be, unless being undisputed ruler in hotjoins is your thing.
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