Problem with playing Reaper with the frontline is that when things get bad, and things always get bad when well bombs & cc’s start dropping, Reapers lack the invulns, blocks, evades, teleports/leaps, etc.. to survive the heat. So to play a Reaper frontline, you have to get out of dodge before well bombs & cc’s start dropping. In doing so, you lose out on dps and kind of miss the point of rolling with the melee train. This is assuming you’re fighting competent zerg groups, not just 1 pushing them.
If you’re ok with being the melee with least defensive abilities, then ok. Soldiers is your best bet, you want to be as tanky as possible without sacrificing power.
Alternative route which is what I prefer, is to play a mid-line necro. Gear up zerker + valk, mostly zerker but you slot enough vitality to hit 20k’ish lifeforce. You’ll end up with just as much power and almost as much ferocity as a current meta wellmancer. Load double wells, drop the wells as commanders call them. Then leap in and chop things up when you see an opportunity to do so, because we all know zergs in WvW inevitably clash. The extra lifeforce will help you out when you leap in and get within melee range to dish some pain. And Reapers wearing zerker + valk can dish some serious melee cleave damage.
Hope this helps, cheers.
