Guild Wars 2

Howdy!

I created a Necro at launch, and she’s been my mule until about a month ago, when I finally got my thumb out of my butt and started focusing more on this game.

I’ve played a Mesmer since launch, and running through the open world as a Minionmancer reaper with full Zerker gear has been absolutely phenomenal. I love this class, and the Reaper has been upgraded from bank mule to co-main.

I’ve recently thrown myself into the gear grind, and I’ve learned the hard way that though they’re both light armour classes with a few overlapping weapons, I’m going to need to craft vastly different ascended gear sets for my Reaper and my Chronomancer.

I’m focusing on my Chronomancer for light armour right now, and I estimate that it’ll take a month or two before I can start decking out my Reaper in Viper’s armour. I’ve noted that HoT stat exotics seem ridiculously expensive, compared to their core-game counterparts. I’m not willing to shell out the time and effort for an exotic Viper’s set that I’m going to replace in the near future anyways.

So I guess my questions are as follows:

1) If I have a long-term goal to gear up my Reaper in Vipers ascended, is there a cheaper, exotic alternative I can use during the transition? Would Rampagers work, for instance?

2) Can I be a Zerker reaper in fractals until further notice? How far would I be able to go as a Minionmancer? (I have ascended zerker trinkets with AR, so that won’t be an issue).

3) Is there any room for the Greatsword in a fractal vipers build?

4) Am I right to assume that the crafting priority ought to go somewhere along the lines of Dagger, Scepter, Warhorn, trinkets, legs, chest > the rest?

5) I’m a rather casual player. I don’t intend to do much raiding, and I’d rather have gear cover as much condition duration as possible, and not have expensive food with me at all times. With this in mind, is it better to go full Viper or should I be looking at crafting some Sinister things as well?

I’d be grateful for any input you may have!

- Morgan Fay, Saladmancer.

Malice.8439:

1) If I have a long-term goal to gear up my Reaper in Vipers ascended, is there a cheaper, exotic alternative I can use during the transition? Would Rampagers work, for instance?

Viper is optimal, Sinister is good, Rampager is fine. I suggest you to take ascended Viper trinkets wih the currency of Bloodstone Fen, Ember Bay, Bitterfrost Frontier or Lake Doric, while taking exotics Rampager armor with karma from https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tactician_Deathstrider or with Verdant Brink currency/meta event https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bladed_armor before goint to full ascended viper.

2) Can I be a Zerker reaper in fractals until further notice? How far would I be able to go as a Minionmancer? (I have ascended zerker trinkets with AR, so that won’t be an issue).

You can but i fear that every utility minion slot will make your already poor dps drop as a power reaper..

3) Is there any room for the Greatsword in a fractal vipers build?

Viper Greatsword is a meta weapon for raids and i can’t see why that build can’t be used in fractals. You only have to adjust your rotation when you don’t have quickness.

4) Am I right to assume that the crafting priority ought to go somewhere along the lines of Dagger, Scepter, Warhorn, trinkets, legs, chest > the rest?

For condi: Scepter, Dagger, Greatsword, trinkets, armor
For power: Greatsword, trinkets, armor, other weapons

Malice.8439:

5) I’m a rather casual player. I don’t intend to do much raiding, and I’d rather have gear cover as much condition duration as possible, and not have expensive food with me at all times. With this in mind, is it better to go full Viper or should I be looking at crafting some Sinister things as well?

Duration > All
Expecially if you don’t want to make use of food you should have the more duration possible.

Malice.8439:

Howdy!

I created a Necro at launch, and she’s been my mule until about a month ago, when I finally got my thumb out of my butt and started focusing more on this game.

I’ve played a Mesmer since launch, and running through the open world as a Minionmancer reaper with full Zerker gear has been absolutely phenomenal. I love this class, and the Reaper has been upgraded from bank mule to co-main.

I’ve recently thrown myself into the gear grind, and I’ve learned the hard way that though they’re both light armour classes with a few overlapping weapons, I’m going to need to craft vastly different ascended gear sets for my Reaper and my Chronomancer.

I’m focusing on my Chronomancer for light armour right now, and I estimate that it’ll take a month or two before I can start decking out my Reaper in Viper’s armour. I’ve noted that HoT stat exotics seem ridiculously expensive, compared to their core-game counterparts. I’m not willing to shell out the time and effort for an exotic Viper’s set that I’m going to replace in the near future anyways.

So I guess my questions are as follows:

1) If I have a long-term goal to gear up my Reaper in Vipers ascended, is there a cheaper, exotic alternative I can use during the transition? Would Rampagers work, for instance?

2) Can I be a Zerker reaper in fractals until further notice? How far would I be able to go as a Minionmancer? (I have ascended zerker trinkets with AR, so that won’t be an issue).

3) Is there any room for the Greatsword in a fractal vipers build?

4) Am I right to assume that the crafting priority ought to go somewhere along the lines of Dagger, Scepter, Warhorn, trinkets, legs, chest > the rest?

5) I’m a rather casual player. I don’t intend to do much raiding, and I’d rather have gear cover as much condition duration as possible, and not have expensive food with me at all times. With this in mind, is it better to go full Viper or should I be looking at crafting some Sinister things as well?

I’d be grateful for any input you may have!

- Morgan Fay, Saladmancer.

1) Yes, use rampagers would work, sinister is better (but I think it is much more expensive than rampagers), carrion is also okay but it doesn’t offer precision, except you get vitality.

2)zerker is fine, are you talking about just minions and death magic trait? T1 anything works, t2 is also fine, you may have some trouble in t3 and t4 is just nop

3) current meta build (and the one I use) is scepter/dagger and greatsword

4)get scepter first, however you don’t need to craft it as you can get one for free via the current events (the caladbolg quest), hence you don’t even need to get artificing to 500. I got an exotic viper’s dagger for free from the HoT quest chain, so I decided to craft GS next and lastly I got my dagger. You may find yourself spending more time in the scepter/dagger set, since ranged is just easier to play casually. As for the armor, it’s up to you. I just decided to get the cheapest parts first to have quick access to infusion slots, and I got lucky from fractal dailies when I ended up getting the chest piece for free, the rest I crafted from the cheapest to most expensive.

5) No need for sinister, especially if you don’t plan on using foods (the previous meta build used a few sinister trinkets, but the current one uses everything vipers), as for the runes and sigils, you want krait runes to max out bleeding and malice/geo on weapons, the meta build uses berserkers (thorns if you raid) runes, however this gives no condi duration so you will have to use expensive food every time.

1) Sinister, you have to craft it yourself but it’s better than Rampager. You will need Sinister accessories too for a good Viper build eventually, so as you’re still getting the Viper gears you can gradually get these accessories from the Living World quests.

2) Yes, until T3 or something you can definitely go Zerker. You could also go a hybird build and use Dhuumfire, you’ll get the best of both and it’s really easy in fractals.

3) You can use Greatsword, but personally I think Staff is better. Greatsword requires a more perfect rotation for the same damage output.

4) As I said, get the accessories gradually, not like me (finding out you need Living Story and then grinding your ass off to get them all asap, 10/10)
Aside of that, I would get scepter first because when using a Viper build you get most of your bleed stacks from scepter, then dagger & staff.

5) The food is not so expensive as you think, I wouldn’t recommend a full Viper build because you will go over your required Expertise, and you don’t know if you’ll still use the food in the future.. and then you will still need to get Sinister anyway.

The thing is, you want 70% Expertise, then with Sigils you get your bleed to 100%.
There are more ways to get 70% Expertise though, but none of them are as good as the combination of: Viper, Sinister + food to get 70% Expertise and 100% bleed, so nothing is wasted.

Don’t forget you probably want Rune of Thorns aswell, this also increases your Poison duration and increases your condi dmg, switching this rune for another one to still get 100% bleed is also a loss.

Thank you all very much for your answers

@Sun Lian: What combination of Viper and Sinister would you personally aim for? Or rather, which pieces of equipment would you prefer to have as Sinister over Viper? I’m assuming weapons, back piece and maybe one accessory?

Malice.8439:

Thank you all very much for your answers

@Sun Lian: What combination of Viper and Sinister would you personally aim for? Or rather, which pieces of equipment would you prefer to have as Sinister over Viper? I’m assuming weapons, back piece and maybe one accessory?

I use 2 Sinister earrings, 1 ring and backpack, everything else Viper. My set is full ascended and the build I use will give you 100% bleed and 95% poison duration.

Sun Lian.4075:

Malice.8439:

Thank you all very much for your answers

@Sun Lian: What combination of Viper and Sinister would you personally aim for? Or rather, which pieces of equipment would you prefer to have as Sinister over Viper? I’m assuming weapons, back piece and maybe one accessory?

I use 2 Sinister earrings, 1 ring and backpack, everything else Viper. My set is full ascended and the build I use will give you 100% bleed and 95% poison duration.

This sounds great. Would you mind sharing your build?

1) If I have a long-term goal to gear up my Reaper in Vipers ascended, is there a cheaper, exotic alternative I can use during the transition? Would Rampagers work, for instance?

i would go with sinister (rabid if u broke or rly new) rampager isn’t main condi stat.

2) Can I be a Zerker reaper in fractals until further notice? How far would I be able to go as a Minionmancer? (I have ascended zerker trinkets with AR, so that won’t be an issue).

only minions u need on power is the healing and elite one. yes you can do t4 on power reaper but viper is better

3) Is there any room for the Greatsword in a fractal vipers build?

yes it’s absolutely a must for the dps rotation!

4) Am I right to assume that the crafting priority ought to go somewhere along the lines of Dagger, Scepter, Warhorn, trinkets, legs, chest > the rest?

greatsword, scepter, dagger, trinkets, armor. you dont need warhorn, it’s only for swiftness out of combat.

5) I’m a rather casual player. I don’t intend to do much raiding, and I’d rather have gear cover as much condition duration as possible, and not have expensive food with me at all times. With this in mind, is it better to go full Viper or should I be looking at crafting some Sinister things as well?

current meta build requires 100% viper pieces even with the expensive food. use superior runes of berserker, sigils: malice and geomancy on both weapon sets

http://qtfy.eu/build/Necromancer – use guide here (the “condition reaper” one, don’t look at the “fractal reaper” as it’s outdated)

Thanks for all your advice, guys and girls.

Am I to understand that the raiding reaper translates directly into fractals, then?

yes

Excellent! I now have a direction.

Is there any reason to keep my exotic zerker gear around? I wouldn’t mind freeing up the bagspace, and I could use the dark matters for ascended crafting, but perhaps there are areas in the game where power necros excel over condi ones?

Malice.8439:

Excellent! I now have a direction.

Is there any reason to keep my exotic zerker gear around? I wouldn’t mind freeing up the bagspace, and I could use the dark matters for ascended crafting, but perhaps there are areas in the game where power necros excel over condi ones?

You can purchase exotic (but not salvagable) temple armor if you want an exotic zerker build again in future. OTOH, you already have the stuff, so … I’d personally let it sit in the bank, at least until I was on point for the dark matter. I get enough random exotics that I still have plenty left after a couple of full sets of ascended.