Necro/Scourge/Reaper enlighten me

[Yeldo.4576]

I've just started the game not long ago but I have tried all these in pve as I have the expansions.

I keep being told to not use Reaper pve/PvP or necro only scourge?

 

Is this really the case? Can't I do well with reaper or necro rotations in over/PvP?

[Nimon.7840]

Depends on what exactly you want to do.

 

Open world pve?

Engame pve (fraktals and raids)

Spvp?

WvW?

[Yeldo.4576]

All of that I know it sounds...stupid.

 

My friends and I will play pve and then PvP together so I kind of need a class that will keep up with them as they have very strong classes like guardian and mesmer :/

 

I was really keen for reaper but then I was told it really isn't good anywhere and only scourge is viable and awkwardly..

[Axl.8924]

You are going to need quite a lot of practice in pve for fractals.

 

Reaper can be really good if you know how to use it, because its very tanky and forgiving and helpfull vs bosses.

If for an instance your doing fractals and play as a ele, you gotta use your defensives and heal yourself constantly, but you got defensives and stuff like that.

 

I recommend using wells, even if it has a long cd to corrupt condis into boons.I like to take boon corrupt and condi corrupts for fractals, because when you are facing later levels, those condi corrupts become so useful.It has relatively long cd though, and positioning is a problem, so scourge is going to be better probably.

 

You also want to use greatsword for build up of power, as those attacks got some nice melee ranged aoes.Before scourge came out i was a condi reaper, so that is something i know a little about, since i used that for raids.

 

Reaper can tank some stuff and also can corrupt boons.Because of boon corrupt, its one of the most important things you got for fractals.Both scourge and reaper have a said metric ton, but they play very differently.

 

Reaper is tankier and more melee ranged attacks that are very slow.

Scourge is still pretty slow but has aoe ranged attacks that hurt a lot and can offer barriers to the group and corrupt more boons at a distance.

 

For pvp and wvw, necro has been better for WVW at least in blob modes because of being vulnerable.You will need to practice spvp and get a friend to survive longer.Scourge i heard is quite necessary for barrier and boon corrupts from ranged which reaper doesn't have(offer) and reapers shroud also goes down faster because there was a change to increase dmg but decrease duration of shroud and life force you gotta kill stuff to get lots of life force and use staff and armor buff spell.

 

For pve:You can pretty much solo anything, and open world events are good for all sorts of builds.Because reaper is so tanky, and becase you can have pets, it makes dying hard.

 

For raids:I haven't played in a long time so i won't comment here, but last time i played, scourge was wanted for raids, at least some stuff.

 

[Ralkuth.1456]

If you love a class, stick to it and learn the ins and outs. Bring the player not the class. Determine if you like Scourge's style or Reaper's style more, climb forums or discord for useful information on how to play it well, and try to emulate that.

 

Unless you and your friend run an elitist mafia of sorts and only do the most difficult PvX content there's no need to conform to the strict meta PvE builds. Though this is opposite for PvP because you want to start from the good meta builds to learn why they work that way and how they build for a role.

 

This is PvP stuff:

 

[Frostball's Discord, go to meta builds section for the correct stuff.](https://discord.gg/5ByHsaw "Frostball's Discord, go to meta builds section for the correct stuff.")

 

[Vallun's Reaper guide for PoF.](

"Vallun's Reaper guide for PoF.") On Youtube.

[Sephylon.4938]

> @"Ralkuth.1456" said:

> If you love a class, stick to it and learn the ins and outs. Bring the player not the class. Determine if you like Scourge's style or Reaper's style more, climb forums or discord for useful information on how to play it well, and try to emulate that.

>

> Unless you and your friend run an elitist mafia of sorts and only do the most difficult PvX content there's no need to conform to the strict meta PvE builds. Though this is opposite for PvP because you want to start from the good meta builds to learn why they work that way and how they build for a role.

>

> This is PvP stuff:

>

> [Frostball's Discord, go to meta builds section for the correct stuff.](https://discord.gg/5ByHsaw "Frostball's Discord, go to meta builds section for the correct stuff.")

>

> [Vallun's Reaper guide for PoF.](

"Vallun's Reaper guide for PoF.") On Youtube.

 

I'd have to disagree, starting with a good meta build and learning how it works, then going off meta is how one should go about things in pve as well. Otherwise a person will become too used to face/minion tankink in pve, and not develop the habit of dodging or using active defences for when they get to instanced content.

[Axl.8924]

Best way to learn is to do low level fractals with a build and keep doing it till you learn, thats how i learned how to do ele.If you want to pvp, you should look up some videos of the best necros doing pvp learn the way they are using moves and also practice.Make sure to do some keybinds for abilities as well.

 

Also there are 2 more sites i know of for info on builds if you ever decide to raid as necro.Its also good for other classes.

 

[Yeldo.4576]

Thank you, I just don't want to end up gearing up a class and then it be completely useless.

I love reaper theme style but it's damage looked to be on the low side

[pah.4931]

Reaper can succeed in PvP just fine. Especially if you'r eplaying with friends (i.e., you won't be playing in Ranked because Anet is really dumb and have designed a terrible, terrible PvP experience... wait, I'm editorializing, sorry).

 

There are folks who even do well with Reaper in ranked as solo-q. You just have to know the class well, know your role, and don't over-extend (have 1 - 2 deaths per match be your goal). Reaper has 1 disengage ability and it's in shroud and you have to make sure you don't have auto-target enabled and youhave to be good at dropping target quickly, etc. But you are a great team fighter with good CC and damage and tankiness.

 

Problem, scourge is so poorly designed, it will always be better than Reaper in pvp unless nerfed to uselessness.

 

I play for fun. So I play Reaper. It works!

[Nimon.7840]

Reaper is fine in PvP.

Same goes for small-scale wvw if you want to be the guy who gets focussed (well every necro-spec is in that spot) But for zerging it's pretty bad.

 

In open world pve you can play what you want. Anything works there.

 

Fractals: power reaper and Condi reaper both okayish. But scourge is much more useful for the group and i never ever saw a good power reaper there.

I myself feel like power reaper isn't working good in fractals but there are other people who will tell you the opposite.

For raids. We'll you almost have to play scourge. It offers so much more than reaper.

You can even play with only one heal if you have 4 scourges because of Condi cleanses and barriers and epi bounce is very good in a premade group.

 

However. Sometimes it play Condi reaper. We'll to be honest. Only for trip to do mortars.

 

Power reaper is just complete crap. It offers nothing. No boon support, no real dmg...

And only little access to cc. Sure reaper has theoretically a lot of usable cc. But as power reaper you have to sacrifice much more to do these cc's than other classes. Which will make you loose even more DPS and set you far behind other classes.

Not to mention that reaper rotation is much harder than holo or Dragonhunters.

A ele player told me that he cannot manage to do perfect reaper rotation, while he got benchmarks on his ele 2-5% off from snowcrows benchmarks

[Axl.8924]

I thought power reaper was nearly on lvl of condi scourge?

 

I mean i know power reaper got some buffs in the past for the shroud and greatsword.

 

[Yeldo.4576]

Is there a way to close this gap with better gear? Between scourge and power reaper?

[Sephylon.4938]

That's not how gear works in gw2, the only way to get what you're asking for is to ask the scourge to use a lower tier gear than you, while using a bad build. Also gear is irrelevant in pvp since they use the amulet system to determine the stats you get.

[Yeldo.4576]

So legendary sets or highest rank wouldn't matter? That's weird

[Sinful.2165]

I main reaper. Berserker stats and wells. It works great for every game mode.

 

This is my 2nd season in plat playing reaper exclusively.

 

The only time I struggled was after killing Vale Guardian raid boss and attempting Gorseval after. I just didn’t know my rotation well enough to pull my weight in DPS but I practiced on the golem and got my rotation down getting my numbers up significantly.

 

It’s true that reaper struggles in raw damage output compared to top benchmarks from other builds and classes. Their rotation is basically greatsword 2 after 50%. Super simple to pull okay numbers but leading up to that point needs to be spot on to pull anything decent.

 

These hard DPS checks aren’t such a problem in fractals as long as you know your class and the mechanics of the fight. Reaper brings good utility in the form of protection and good bar break with golem elite. You also bring boon strip which makes fights so much quicker when every monster you’re fighting has protection and a stack of might. Plus if you’re bringing wells you should be traited for speed revive and your heal will also pulse revive % to downed team mates.

[Axl.8924]

> @"Sinful.2165" said:

> I main reaper. Berserker stats and wells. It works great for every game mode.

>

> This is my 2nd season in plat playing reaper exclusively.

>

> The only time I struggled was after killing Vale Guardian raid boss and attempting Gorseval after. I just didn’t know my rotation well enough to pull my weight in DPS but I practiced on the golem and got my rotation down getting my numbers up significantly.

>

> It’s true that reaper struggles in raw damage output compared to top benchmarks from other builds and classes. Their rotation is basically greatsword 2 after 50%. Super simple to pull okay numbers but leading up to that point needs to be spot on to pull anything decent.

>

> These hard DPS checks aren’t such a problem in fractals as long as you know your class and the mechanics of the fight. Reaper brings good utility in the form of protection and good bar break with golem elite. You also bring boon strip which makes fights so much quicker when every monster you’re fighting has protection and a stack of might. Plus if you’re bringing wells you should be traited for speed revive and your heal will also pulse revive % to downed team mates.

 

Thats what i thought.greatsword has some decent melee dmg for close ranged attacks and is nice for meleee dmg.On top of that:being able to survive everyone helps a lot, becuase a dead necro is zero dps.

 

As for gear yeldo:Ascended gear has better stats than rare sure, and its needed for getting AR(agony resist) because you cannot do fractals without it, or you die.AR is a dot thing that constantly ticks, and will kill you.Having as much ar as required or more will save you.

 

The most important thing besides the build and the right stats, is the right runes and sigils to combine with your build.

 

 

 

[Sephylon.4938]

> @"Yeldo.4576" said:

> So legendary sets or highest rank wouldn't matter? That's weird

 

Legendary is just ascended you can stat swap on the fly. Asc is only a 1% stat gain from exotics and translates to a little less than 10% dps gain for power builds. And assuming similar tier of gear, reaper would still be slightly behind scourge in terms of dps and group utility. Aditionally, if you take bad traits, utils and rotation, you'll end up getting out dpsed by a person in green gear taking proper ones. These only apply to pve though as pvp uses the amulet system.

[trueanimus.4085]

minions suck (so regular necro is out) Reaper got nerfed to the ground (65% nerf on shroud skills.. so when you enter shroud your lucky to get one full rotation off) and right now scourge is great.... good aoe and very tanky... BUT there seems to have been a stealth nerf yesterday... getting a lot less dps than i was last night and i cant figure out why... they changed something... not sure what though.

[trueanimus.4085]

> @"Sephylon.4938" said:

> > @"Yeldo.4576" said:

> > So legendary sets or highest rank wouldn't matter? That's weird

>

> Legendary is just ascended you can stat swap on the fly. Asc is only a 1% stat gain from exotics and translates to a little less than 10% dps gain for power builds. And assuming similar tier of gear, reaper would still be slightly behind scourge in terms of dps and group utility. Aditionally, if you take bad traits, utils and rotation, you'll end up getting out dpsed by a person in green gear taking proper ones. These only apply to pve though as pvp uses the amulet system.

 

Legendarys are the same as ascended stat wise... you just cant swap out stats on the fly, you have to use the forge.. but with the price of globs almost dirt cheap... and the ease at which you can get ascended now... legendaries just arent worth it.

[Lahmia.2193]

> @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > @"Sephylon.4938" said:

> > > @"Yeldo.4576" said:

> > > So legendary sets or highest rank wouldn't matter? That's weird

> >

> > Legendary is just ascended you can stat swap on the fly. Asc is only a 1% stat gain from exotics and translates to a little less than 10% dps gain for power builds. And assuming similar tier of gear, reaper would still be slightly behind scourge in terms of dps and group utility. Aditionally, if you take bad traits, utils and rotation, you'll end up getting out dpsed by a person in green gear taking proper ones. These only apply to pve though as pvp uses the amulet system.

>

> Legendarys are the same as ascended stat wise... you just cant swap out stats on the fly, you have to use the forge.. but with the price of globs almost dirt cheap... and the ease at which you can get ascended now... legendaries just arent worth it.

 

The way I see it is that they are a great investment for the future, as they will always gain all new stats added.

[Dace.8173]

> @"Yeldo.4576" said:

> So legendary sets or highest rank wouldn't matter? That's weird

 

Maybe, but I find it better. The de-emphasis on gear means that you pretty much get to play the End game content your way. You are not forced to do Fractals, or Dungeons, or Raids or anything. You can get a set of exotics and call it a day. That allows you to focus on what you find fun insteand of spending time grinding out gear. For PvP it's brilliant as PvP really turns into a contest of skill as opposed to a contest on who grinded out the best armor. Ascended and Legendary gear are an investment but they are not a required investment and so people who don't focus on them aren't at a major disadvantage to those who do. You just don't look as cool. You may want to keep extra sets of gear with stats for a specific build (ie a set for condi, a set for DPS etc etc) but those extra sets won't break you as they do in other games.

 

Fashion is more important. You need to look good while winning.

[Yeldo.4576]

I understand the emphasis on the fashion wars. I like it, not as much gear progression it's just diferent but I love it. I do hope for a new patch with new elites coming it would create even more variety :)

[ProtoGunner.4953]

> @"Yeldo.4576" said:

> I've just started the game not long ago but I have tried all these in pve as I have the expansions.

> I keep being told to not use Reaper pve/PvP or necro only scourge?

>

> Is this really the case? Can't I do well with reaper or necro rotations in over/PvP?

 

It's foulmouth talking from spoiled kids who are butthurt by every little crap with first world problems. Playing scourge is super fun, effective and very easy. There is just the question if you want to play in groups or parties which are very picky to squish out the most effective gameplay if you play high level content like t4 fractals or raids. But it's ridiculous anyway. And mostly a problem of PUG groups with idealistic conception of a party composition.

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

> @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> minions suck (so regular necro is out)

 

I kinda felt the same way, but I like core necro, so I use a Power core necro. I primarily play OW PVE but I've also used it in PvP (Maurader amulet? can't recall) and did well, especially considering I was only doing it for the daily and didn't have any PvP experience.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQRAnY4Yn0ICN2gl2Au0A0uhjchaOELxUADgGIBolxa0sA-jBDBwAy0IE5IAAVZWhHAgDzAp0HUb/Bdq/cUpxElgAOJAPM9RKg8UGB-e

 

For events. I sometimes switch gear/traits for support to something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQNAnYWlk0gSbYPNwlGQ7GH5CFtMWjmdeFLxUADgGIBA-jRDBABpoHom9H0R9HHMDckSDoUm9gpvLOCA7fIAK4BAIjmgJUCCwJAgUA5pMC-e

or

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQNAnYWlk0geaYpNwlGQ7GH5C18KWipAGANQCQLj1oZB-jRjAABCcCASSpBNaCAw+jKUCChZApUmlxRAICTfH8AA6/QAsieghU/hUA5pMC-e

 

[Scarran.9845]

With the mid-season balance patch being stated that it will be arriving soon. It was stated in a recent discussion on massively that they are still looking to tune down Scourge even more in PvP and WvW. So I wouldn't get too used to using Scourge in at least sPvP as I imagine its going to be a bumpy ride for the class, I would like for them to just concentrate on making us the heavy support spec that they touted it was, rather than nerfing everything and leaving the spec gutted.

 

From the very start I knew this spec was badly thought out and I knew it was going to end up hurting the class overall, because unless they plan splitting traits out even more to be specific for Scourge its just turning a clusterf* of a class into an even more mess.