OK, so I don’t know if it’s only me but every other night I queue up for PvP I find myself in odd condi-fest matches, with the opposing team carrying 2-3 Reapers. They scurry around like filthy pests!
It got so annoying I decided to custom craft this hard counter, pest remover (Reap-be-gone) for trolling pleasure, of course.
Has anyone else found a nice hard counter for these pests? Please share!
I’m new; can you please explain how this is a hard counter? Is CAF and melandru runes enough condi clear/mitigation? Or is the large healthpool and perm regen enough to counter them? I think I get how it works, just want to be sure. Thanks
Just kite them. Burst em, get em in your roots, go invis/dodge the transfer/los while pet does damage. When they go into death shroud stop damaging and just run away. When they leave death shroud hit them hard again and interrupt their heal. Seriously, just literally turning around and running away when they go into death shroud works wonders, oh yeah and dodge their elite shout. After those tips and even builda without condi clear can win. As long as you are power and have decent damage.
My friend said Reaper’s are weak to kiting. That’s what I do. I finnaly got around to making a condi longbow druid vid and it’s got I think 2 Reapers, 1 good 1 mediocre, where I just kite them to death. If this thread active in the next day or so I will link it here with time markers.
on second thought, it probably wouldn’t help as roaming in wvw is different than spvp.
In pvp i generally do what eurantien says. It means i give up the point but can keep it neutral. And really save interrupts for after deathshroud, played a fw games on necro and i noticed how kitten that moment is when you leave shroud and not being able to heal or do anything really
I’m new; can you please explain how this is a hard counter? Is CAF and melandru runes enough condi clear/mitigation? Or is the large healthpool and perm regen enough to counter them? I think I get how it works, just want to be sure. Thanks
Yeah, it’s pretty much exactly how you said. The large health pool makes it so you can make quite a few mistakes and not suffer much. If two or more are focusing you at the same time, you have enough health to make a getaway or to revive an ally.
The shouts are nice because they give swiftness and regen which make it easier to kite them and charge CAF. A good reaper will constantly corrupt your boons, but you can just keep reapplying them.
Save CAF and your dodge rolls for when you get bombed. Save your dodge for if/when they get more than 8 stacks of poison on you. Other the that, just let your pets eat them, bounce them around with LB 4, and just keep pelting them with low powered attacks from a distance. Nothing sexy, but quite effective.
Jade Quarry – Esparie
Illustrious Exhausted Primordial Legendary Druid, and Mesmer for fun
PvE | PvP (1500)| WvW | Fractals | Dungeons
Seens like an Inferior version of menders shoutbow, which is a better counter to reaper than this
Oh nice, I’ll give menders shoutbow a try next time, and add it to the list. Mender’s seem like less of a hard counter and more of an ordinary meta style build though, right? A mistake or two and you are toast?
Jade Quarry – Esparie
Illustrious Exhausted Primordial Legendary Druid, and Mesmer for fun
PvE | PvP (1500)| WvW | Fractals | Dungeons
In pvp i generally do what eurantien says. It means i give up the point but can keep it neutral. And really save interrupts for after deathshroud, played a fw games on necro and i noticed how kitten that moment is when you leave shroud and not being able to heal or do anything really
Yeah, I agree. I generally think Reaper is on the short end of the stick in a 1v1 against a decent Druid build and bit of skill. If you end up loosing this match-up it’s most likely because you made a mistake.
It’s always been highly risky to engage a Ranger 1v1. Even when we were hopelessly outclassed and under-powered.
Jade Quarry – Esparie
Illustrious Exhausted Primordial Legendary Druid, and Mesmer for fun
PvE | PvP (1500)| WvW | Fractals | Dungeons
Actually Shoutbow is not enough against decent condi specs.
The shout only remove 1 conditions at a time. 2 wells will give you 4 conditions so you wanna blow off all those shouts?
Another thing is, Druidic Clarity. I just find this trait on a wrong spot, so basically you wanna blow off your AF just because you have conditions on you. So if you play on a team, you will not AF when your team needs it because you blew it off way too early.
Emphatic Bond needs to be moved to Nature Magic and let it be Conditions Converted to Boons (PET ONLY) So it does not necessarily kill your pet.
Seens like an Inferior version of menders shoutbow, which is a better counter to reaper than this
Oh nice, I’ll give menders shoutbow a try next time, and add it to the list. Mender’s seem like less of a hard counter and more of an ordinary meta style build though, right? A mistake or two and you are toast?
menders has +560 to vitality, but offers a more vast amount of “soft” vitality through healing power and how well regen scales with it, in addition to CAF skills. Provided you can dodge roll poison off with menders purity, or cleanse it with your shouts, your healing will go unhindered.
free full condi clear every 10 seconds and a stun break with Druidic Clarity, full heal up with #3 and #4 and stealth away with superspeed/ancestral grace. In my mind this is THE combo that makes the Druid strong right now, and is certainly enough of a counter to reapers, whether or not you want to call it a hard counter or not.
Regardless of whether you are a druid or something else, as others have said, the REAL counter to a reaper is kiting/movement.
Actually Shoutbow is not enough against decent condi specs.
The shout only remove 1 conditions at a time. 2 wells will give you 4 conditions so you wanna blow off all those shouts?
Another thing is, Druidic Clarity. I just find this trait on a wrong spot, so basically you wanna blow off your AF just because you have conditions on you. So if you play on a team, you will not AF when your team needs it because you blew it off way too early.
Emphatic Bond needs to be moved to Nature Magic and let it be Conditions Converted to Boons (PET ONLY) So it does not necessarily kill your pet.
though you are technically correct that a cleanse on the shouts alone is not enough to deal with condi specs, as I mentioned above, if you are playing correctly, you should have no issues keeping condis off you with proper use of Druidic Clarity with Celestial Shadow every 10 seconds, giving you opportunities to escape/heal up/buy time for another Druidic Clarity while supporting your team immensely. Shout cleanse , in addition to evasive purity, is meant to keep poison off you so your heals go unhindered
Actually Shoutbow is not enough against decent condi specs.
The shout only remove 1 conditions at a time. 2 wells will give you 4 conditions so you wanna blow off all those shouts?
Another thing is, Druidic Clarity. I just find this trait on a wrong spot, so basically you wanna blow off your AF just because you have conditions on you. So if you play on a team, you will not AF when your team needs it because you blew it off way too early.
Emphatic Bond needs to be moved to Nature Magic and let it be Conditions Converted to Boons (PET ONLY) So it does not necessarily kill your pet.
though you are technically correct that a cleanse on the shouts alone is not enough to deal with condi specs, as I mentioned above, if you are playing correctly, you should have no issues keeping condis off you with proper use of Druidic Clarity with Celestial Shadow every 10 seconds, giving you opportunities to escape/heal up/buy time for another Druidic Clarity while supporting your team immensely. Shout cleanse , in addition to evasive purity, is meant to keep poison off you so your heals go unhindered
What if we are talking about good players here like highly coordinated duos, etc.
Actually Shoutbow is not enough against decent condi specs.
The shout only remove 1 conditions at a time. 2 wells will give you 4 conditions so you wanna blow off all those shouts?
Another thing is, Druidic Clarity. I just find this trait on a wrong spot, so basically you wanna blow off your AF just because you have conditions on you. So if you play on a team, you will not AF when your team needs it because you blew it off way too early.
Emphatic Bond needs to be moved to Nature Magic and let it be Conditions Converted to Boons (PET ONLY) So it does not necessarily kill your pet.
though you are technically correct that a cleanse on the shouts alone is not enough to deal with condi specs, as I mentioned above, if you are playing correctly, you should have no issues keeping condis off you with proper use of Druidic Clarity with Celestial Shadow every 10 seconds, giving you opportunities to escape/heal up/buy time for another Druidic Clarity while supporting your team immensely. Shout cleanse , in addition to evasive purity, is meant to keep poison off you so your heals go unhindered
What if we are talking about good players here like highly coordinated duos, etc.
Druid isn’t really equipped to last super long in a 2v1, unless they arent coordinated. Druid are kings of 1v1 and team fights. In a 2v1, Best to use your escape tools to disengage and move on to an area with teammates and do ur job as a supporter, or try ur best to keep a node decappedd til support arives.
LB vs reaper is a murder fest. They stand no chance and never have. LB hard counters necro 100% of the time if you have room to move.
In WvW tonight I killed this poor reaper several times in a row, so he apparently called in (it looked like the were communicating, I could be wrong, whatever) a second reaper and they both died. I can brag because LB did the work, not me.
In PvP it’s better to lose the cap of the point and win the fight rather than hold it and die.
