Guild Wars 2

Hi all,
I’ve quite a lot of tomes and i wanted to try reaper and/or tempest in raid and fractals (I’ve never been much of a pve guy).
Anyway I’ve never crafted a set of ascended light armor and i’ve mats only to craft 1 set right now, so of course my best option would be berserker set that I could use with both ele and necro.
Not knowing much about the necro (i’ve leveled one to 80 but never really used him) of course I jumped to metabattle to see what build are considered good these days, there are a couple of good ones (offensive blood support and Greatsword/X) that should work well in fractals/raids, they are worth it or I shouldn’t waist time with power necro and go Viper?
I also kind of like GS necro so that would be a plus

Thanks

I’d say craft the zerker gear any way, you get to use it on 2 characters and if you’re OK to not raid on reaper you can use it on your ele for raids

So raiding with a power build is a no-go?

thanks for the input

You could, but it’s not exactly recommended as condi is, sadly, superior in every way. Pugs most likely wouldn’t even touch you with a 10-foot-pole as long as you run power.

^ Can confirm. Got a full ascended valk set (Wanted to maximize my damage) balanced perfectly to hit 100% crit chance with massive amounts of power and ferocity. Was set to be in melee 100% of the time due to the massive healthpool so I would have 0 downtime on damage. Second they saw I wasn’t condi I got the boot.

So I have pretty much decided I was never going to raid since I don’t like condi builds and my other class is only viable on a playstyle I dont enjoy playing.

I would also go Viper’s on ascended. You can change the stat’s in the forge but Viper’s is a much more expensive insignia. On ascended, you can move it around between light armor professions. There is much less cost to Berserker exotic, which you can get for all your characters.

Anchoku.8142:

I would also go Viper’s on ascended. You can change the stat’s in the forge but Viper’s is a much more expensive insignia. On ascended, you can move it around between light armor professions. There is much less cost to Berserker exotic, which you can get for all your characters.

Plus, black diamonds are waaaay cheaper than a month or two ago. I made my set when they were like 2g each , now they are 25-30s ;_;

Thank you all guys, I’m gonna try necro a little bit but i think I’m crafting first viper and maybe use exotic berserker when i want to run power GS (until I can’t get enough dragonite ore to craft a new set).

One thing to think about if you do decide to try power. Beserker isn’t actually the best way to go for power reaper. Reaper gets almost 100% crit chance SUPER easily with 0 investment into precision. (50% from decimate defenses nearly 20% from valk trinkets 20% from fury). If you really want 100% you could swap in one maybe two zerk trinkets and reach it easily.

Because of that valk is actually the more efficient choice for reaper. As you get more health meaning that for you there are MANY attacks even in raids that you simply don’t have to dodge because you can soak. For the chip damage that often occurs in raid/high level fractals its less likely to drop you below 90% so you don’t lose the effect of scholar runes as easily. You get more benefit from things like furious maintenance oils.

In other words youl have more reliable dps uptime and uptime on scholar runes = more dps in valk than zerk. And its much more reliable in the situations where something goes wrong and your party needs heals. Quite often youl be able to just go into shroud and heal yourself to max before you come even close to running out of life force (or just soak it with life force in the first place saving your scholar runes proc while every else loses theirs) all while maintaining dps.

Brazil recently released a video on valk power reaper as well you can probably check out on youtube. He goes over it pretty well on its strengths and how it compares to things like condi viper reaper. (Edit: Infact That video was what got me to start playing my reaper again in PvE. Condi Builds are pretty unfun to play for me (just a matter of different playstyles) so I had given up on doing any form of serious content until I saw his video)

So if your gonna go power reaper and go so far as crafting an ascended set for it. Consider valk as well when your looking at gear types.

I’ve found the video on youtube, i’m going to check it out tonight at home.
Thanks

You need both, unless you really really dont wanna play one of the play stiles, which will be is stupid

Valk is only good in organized groups where you can expect the important buffs. Otherwise it’ll fall off fast as you’re going to be lacking crit chance from Decimate (when less than 25 stacks of vuln, which will happen often in PvE when just running around solo), not exactly good access to fury and lack of buffs such as spotter. The funny though is that most organized groups wouldn’t bring a power reaper anyway.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Valk is only good in organized groups where you can expect the important buffs. Otherwise it’ll fall off fast as you’re going to be lacking crit chance from Decimate (when less than 25 stacks of vuln, which will happen often in PvE when just running around solo), not exactly good access to fury and lack of buffs such as spotter. The funny though is that most organized groups wouldn’t bring a power reaper anyway.

Psss, dude, want some Death Spiral?

Seriously. Between GS3 and WoS any power reaper can instantly pump out 20+ vulnerability out of his kitten when needed, and after some time support it with Spite. Do people actually think when they say such things, or just let Metabattle do it for them? And don’t even get into Unyielding blast or Rending shroud.

And running around. Solo. As necro. Is somehow problematic.

I do a lot of solo and small group stuff. Try a shout shroud build wearing berserker equipment and trade Decimate Defenses for Chilling Victory and Blighter’s Boon. Trait Augury of Death and add Speed of Shadows, Vital Persistence, and FitG.

Shadelang.3012:

So if your gonna go power reaper and go so far as crafting an ascended set for it. Consider valk as well when your looking at gear types.

I’ve been looking into that myself, it’s pretty interesting.

You can get loads of health, and also the worm runes are very tempting if you expect to lose your scholar’s bonus. The DPS with no external buffs is also excellent in the dual shroud version, because you’re getting 20-25 might/vuln and 100% crit so no need for fury.

On the downside, once you go valk you find that any time you are without most of fury/banners/spotter you must take soul reaping + reaper and camp shroud. That means no speed from traits, so you will want signet of the locust for running (which won’t work in shroud).

A set of berserker gear gives you more choices. But you may not need the choices, depends how much your circumstances vary.

I am somewhat inclined to say that you should go berzerker first and see what you think, how you feel about camping shroud etc, before committing to valk.

But yes, it is a very attractive and interesting option and it will be better for many people for much of the time.

Morte.5916:

Shadelang.3012:

So if your gonna go power reaper and go so far as crafting an ascended set for it. Consider valk as well when your looking at gear types.

I’ve been looking into that myself, it’s pretty interesting.

You can get loads of health, and also the worm runes are very tempting if you expect to lose your scholar’s bonus. The DPS with no external buffs is also excellent in the dual shroud version, because you’re getting 20-25 might/vuln and 100% crit so no need for fury.

On the downside, once you go valk you find that any time you are without most of fury/banners/spotter you must take soul reaping + reaper and camp shroud. That means no speed from traits, so you will want signet of the locust for running (which won’t work in shroud).

A set of berserker gear gives you more choices. But you may not need the choices, depends how much your circumstances vary.

I am somewhat inclined to say that you should go berzerker first and see what you think, how you feel about camping shroud etc, before committing to valk.

But yes, it is a very attractive and interesting option and it will be better for many people for much of the time.

I see what you mean. My main thought process on that though is if your in a situation where your not capping out on vuln/fury. Your going to want to camp shroud ANYWAY because odds are your the only reliable vulnerability source your group has. And youl provide more dps by keeping vuln up than you will be using other attacks. If vuln IS capped then your crit chance is going to be a minimum of 70ish percent in full valk (Valk accessories give some percision.) Which is actually more than enough for unorganized content.

Its the same thing with might. If the might source isn’t reliable then youd be using shroud anyway to generate might for yourself.

Ive never had any issue with mobility in most forms of content. Reaper shroud 2 is usually enough to get you to the next target. So you would only need it when your absolutely solo and just running from one location to the other in open world.

So while I understand your point and see your logic as solid. I feel that due to how the gameplay actually turns out you wouldn’t notice the faults your suggessting. Because your gameplay would automatically be forced to change to cover for those weaknesses anyway.

If theres no vuln youl be camping shroud anyway to generate vuln for other players until the enemy is low enough to start popping vuln from traits.

If theres no might youl be generating might for yourself as well.

In combat mobility as a reaper is enough to get from target to target quite reliably. Out of combat doesn’t matter too much as far as what were discussing here goes.

In organized play the weaknesses themselves won’t exist so valk will win by default.

Atleast thats how I have experienced it so far. I by no means am going to claim to be an expert.

Valks armor is silly. You’re not always going to be hitting things with 25 vuln stacks and having a super specialized armor stat combination on ascended can mess up you potentially being able to play ele/mesmer as well.

Berserker is a much better choice overall.

Shiyo.3578:

Valks armor is silly. You’re not always going to be hitting things with 25 vuln stacks and having a super specialized armor stat combination on ascended can mess up you potentially being able to play ele/mesmer as well.

Berserker is a much better choice overall.

Not silly just not your playstyle. I use it with berserker weapon and valk/zerk trinkets. With decimate defenses and rage runes I crit almost constantly, and can do that regardless of what zone I’m in (precision gets lowered, taking your crit chance with it, but not with this build!)

And that’s without camping shroud. I have a separate build for that using the SR line to get death perception, and i use staff to maximize my lifeforce production. Reaper Shroud almost constant.

What’s good depends on your playstyle. Berserker isn’t the only valid stat set.

Edit: I will say that berserker works with other classes better, as does viper, as almost every class has good options for both of those. Valkyrie is specific to a power reaper, reaper shroud, or death shroud build because of the massive boost those get to crit chance. (No idea if other classes have a good build for Valk.)

You’re min/maxing for more survivability in a game you should never do that in for PvE.

Berserker’s is optimal damage, valks is not always optimal damage because things don’t always have 25 vuln, adds exist, etc.

It’s not worth sacrificing damage for survivaiblity, it’s always been a thing people odn’t do because you can dodge and max DPS is the most important thing – which zerker armor gives you.

Anyone have any tests of power Reaper with standard raid builds vs. test golem in the special forces arena? I’m curious what it comes to these days.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Anyone have any tests of power Reaper with standard raid builds vs. test golem in the special forces arena? I’m curious what it comes to these days.

this is a link to brazils video that I mentioned before where he discusses valk reaper. He discusses comparisons to condi reaper and zerk reaper as well I believe.

Edit: He goes over dps numbers near the end. His conclusion atleast is that the DPS compared to the condi variant NOT counting the massive swarms of jagged horrors or epidemic isn’t MASSIVELY different. But condi still pulls ahead on high health mobs (just not enough to truly worry about unless your failing by 1% in my opinion.)

He goes on to say that valk typically does more damage in environments where vuln is capped and fury is constant than the zerk version. Which I believe is thanks to the increased conversion from vitality to ferocity from furious maintanence oil and the higher likelyhood of being in scholar runes range (massive health pool makes it less likely random aoe dmg #357 will take you outside of the threshold.)

Shiyo.3578:

You’re min/maxing for more survivability in a game you should never do that in for PvE.

Berserker’s is optimal damage, valks is not always optimal damage because things don’t always have 25 vuln, adds exist, etc.

It’s not worth sacrificing damage for survivaiblity, it’s always been a thing people odn’t do because you can dodge and max DPS is the most important thing – which zerker armor gives you.

I’m sorry but this is just wrong. With a zerk staff/GS and valk armor+rune of wurm+valk/zerk trinkets (on every peice), my crit chance is 30%. I get 50% crit chance in shroud, and fury in shroud, and GS 3 can apply 12 stack of vuln (24% crit) instantly. Therefore you always have 100% crit chance in shroud. So berzerker gear is a waste of stats that you can use on survivability. And probably should, as there is no where else to put it. On top of the fact if you use rune of wurm, and toxic crystals, you can turn that extra vit, into more power dps. Which means your power damage will be high period. Zerker gear is in fact not optimal for reaper, because of traits.

Saying it’s ‘not worth it’ when the crit chance stats are going to be wasted anyway is extremely foolish.

Shiyo.3578:

You’re min/maxing for more survivability

Now that’s not fair. Valk does more damage to a single target in a long fight than berserker, because vuln does cap (the necro caps it single handed), crit rate does hit 100, and sharpening stones convert vitality to damage. I spent far too long attacking innocent golems, and counting the vuln on real world dungeon bosses, to have any doubt about this.

If people want to optimise for that part of the game, fair enough.

FrostDraco.8306:

I’m sorry but this is just wrong. With a zerk staff/GS and valk armor+rune of wurm+valk/zerk trinkets (on every peice), my crit chance is 30%. I get 50% crit chance in shroud, and fury in shroud, and GS 3 can apply 12 stack of vuln (24% crit) instantly. Therefore you always have 100% crit chance in shroud. So berzerker gear is a waste of stats that you can use on survivability. And probably should, as there is no where else to put it. On top of the fact if you use rune of wurm, and toxic crystals, you can turn that extra vit, into more power dps. Which means your power damage will be high period. Zerker gear is in fact not optimal for reaper, because of traits.

Saying it’s ‘not worth it’ when the crit chance stats are going to be wasted anyway is extremely foolish.

As I understand he is stating Valkyrie armor set has very low usability aside from this one necro build. On the other side Zerker set is optimal for both other light classes.

As for the necro traits and waste of stats in Zerker – it is not completely true – you just cannot use same traits
- you will take Decimate Defences as 25stacks of vuln is auto in group and even solo you have 15+
- you do NOT take Death Perception though as you would be wasting stats indeed – you take Dhuumfire instead for nice 1000+ fire ticks while still heaving 80%-100% crit chance all the time

ie answer for OP of this thread:
- if you would be asking “I am crafting my 4th ascended set – is it good idea to get Valkyria set for my necro” answer would be definitely yes.
- if the question is though “I am crafting my first ascended set – which stats should I get” answer is 100% Zerker – all 3 light classes can use it as optimal or 90% optimal set.

You absolutely need an ascended power weapon as it adds i think 10% with the attack points. The rest of the stat points you get is neglectible.

If you do need a pick i would go for exotic vipers and ascended berserker.

a) Vipers asc vs Vipers exo is another exception, where the difference is again neglectible. The only stat that matters is condi duration, which you can get to 100% with exotics. The condition damage stat scalles very poorly so again, its only a 2% dmg difference in full asc vs full exo.

b) Berserkers ascended you can use on both your necro and on ele.

You basically get 3x fully geared characters with this spread, the trinkets i asume you can make duplicate so you just switch 6x armors around from power necro to ele if needed. And yu can easily take strength over scholar runes.

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

FrostDraco.8306:

I’m sorry but this is just wrong. With a zerk staff/GS and valk armor+rune of wurm+valk/zerk trinkets (on every peice), my crit chance is 30%. I get 50% crit chance in shroud, and fury in shroud, and GS 3 can apply 12 stack of vuln (24% crit) instantly. Therefore you always have 100% crit chance in shroud. So berzerker gear is a waste of stats that you can use on survivability. And probably should, as there is no where else to put it. On top of the fact if you use rune of wurm, and toxic crystals, you can turn that extra vit, into more power dps. Which means your power damage will be high period. Zerker gear is in fact not optimal for reaper, because of traits.

Saying it’s ‘not worth it’ when the crit chance stats are going to be wasted anyway is extremely foolish.

As I understand he is stating Valkyrie armor set has very low usability aside from this one necro build. On the other side Zerker set is optimal for both other light classes.

As for the necro traits and waste of stats in Zerker – it is not completely true – you just cannot use same traits
- you will take Decimate Defences as 25stacks of vuln is auto in group and even solo you have 15+
- you do NOT take Death Perception though as you would be wasting stats indeed – you take Dhuumfire instead for nice 1000+ fire ticks while still heaving 80%-100% crit chance all the time

ie answer for OP of this thread:
- if you would be asking “I am crafting my 4th ascended set – is it good idea to get Valkyria set for my necro” answer would be definitely yes.
- if the question is though “I am crafting my first ascended set – which stats should I get” answer is 100% Zerker – all 3 light classes can use it as optimal or 90% optimal set.

That’s what he was saying in his initial post, and that I agreed with. If you are looking for a set of armor to use with multiple classes, Valk isn’kitten However, if he is just looking to use it for Reaper, it’s definitely the better choice, as several people pointed out. And while I know everyone tends to this “go zerk or go home” mentality towards PVE, I feel that’s just some elitist sentiment, and people can play what they want, and as several people have pointed out for you (you included), Valk is very viable for necro, between those two traits for a good number of builds. You still get high, even 100% crit, and you gain an even larger life pool to boot.

bearshaman.3421

Valk is very viable for necro

To labour a point that sems to go straight past a lot of people (not necessarily you)…

Valk is not just viable, under many circumstances it’s optimal.

Valk can do more dps than beserker.

Valk can do more dps than berserker, because utility consumables that convert vitality to power etc will have a larger effect. This is most likely to work out well in an organised group (fury/spotter/banners mean you can use one crit trait and a Dps trait). And most likely in fractals, since you would likely use condi for raids and specific potions for dungeons and nothing expensive for open world.

However, as a few people said, I wouldn’t buy valk for your first ascended set, because it’s only useful on one class for some of the time. And when it’s better, it’s not that much better.