Hi
I have been messing around with a reaper build with the new expansion . Ive been searching all over the forums and the web for any ‘proper’ reaper builds.Currently im lvl 22 ( still early days I know ) but who else out there in the lvl 50+ iis doing the same build , I want to know what im in for and what kinda skills , gear etc etc … I need and should go for
The necromancer class is new, so for tried and tested build you will have to wait a bit more.
There are some sinergies, like the vitality damage and lifesteal on phantasmal blades with most of the abilities of the necromancer. You could even go for poison with ravenous earth. Maybe some cold/vitality build, could be something built around the soulrend weapon.
One thing that is sure is that the build will be very squishy. You have a very low health pool and no really good way to fix that. You’ll rely a lot on lifesteal and mark of torment, and the rng chance to avoid attacks from shadow dance on the pneumatic burst line, plus the heal from pneumatic burst itself.
So for skills mark of torment will definitely be a must, and so will be pneumatic burst + shadow dance, regardless of the build you’ll be going for.
Syphon souls can be a very good heal when you’re swarmed by mobs, especially if you choose a vitality build.
For items I don’t really know, I haven’t thought much about them yet; I’m trying a phantasmal blades build and I know there’s a set for that that I’ll need to farm somehow.
This is probably not a good class to start the game due to how squishy it is.
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/1NXllyXN
This is what I gave someone for a noobie friendly cold auto attack based build, includes some extra aoe/healing you can pass on once you become more powerful. I don’t think class is too squishy for new players if they are willing to put in even a little effort. Base HP/DA combined with a lot of heals/dodge, lifesteal, and earth’s powerful dmg reduction will make for some nice survivability. There will be points in leveling process where new people struggle, but imo that’s good learning experience for new players. Granted I am experienced, but had no problem with mine in ultimate wearing random self found shit/faction
Cold reaper and acid reaper (conversion item dependent) are both very very powerful on the high end btw
that’s my take on the reaper:
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GWmY52
my first character since expansion release. finished elite today and will start ultimate. don’t know how he’ll fare at level cap on ultimate, but elite was a walk in the park, so i expect ultimate to be at least doable.
as you can see from the build, i went with 2H weapon. 2H has fairly strong AoE damage and it’s really fun to mow down everything with that build.
i’m using lots of general +skill items (i think i have +5 to all NB and +4 to all necro skills in total) because there are quite a lot of skills thatare nice to have.
i think you filled the wrong exclusive in that build
What makes master the wrong choice here for you?
Master of Death massively boosts my OA/damage though the DA/vit res is certainly welcome. Harbinger boosts my vitality which I don’t care about at all and gives me lifesteal which I don’t need
He’s right though. That exclusives says to me " use in a minion build".
you get a pretty big chunk of flat aether and vitality damage (spectral binding, soul harvest), so the % bonus to those 2 types is hardly wasted. the decay damage isn’t too shabby, either. you’ll automatically apply it to a lot of mobs via bone harvest and ABB anyway and it can happily tick away in the background (on critters that survive that initial barrage, that is)
to me, the 12% life steal is the main selling point. OA and DA are common stats and there are many ways to get those. life steal is much rarer and i find it very useful.
the casting speed bonus isn’t terribly useful, but i think it did actually speed up the awkward casting animation of bone harvest a bit, so it’s not completely wasted.
Tried various ways to make a melee Reaper work, but I feel like Necromancer offers way too little for this. It needs at least 1 more skill that scales of weapon damage or a change to the auras or something.
Soul Harvest is very OP early mid game(No tested at lategame), you can build something around it. If you choose vitality instead cold/pierce, Necro is most armed with Vitalty stuff, and Nightblade can add to it very well. Is a fun thing than my first Transcedent relic was Scourge(cold and vitality damage), now with the expansion, make sense to the reaper 
Have you tried vitality mate? Reaper strike with necro buffs and debuffs around vitality plus vitality nightblade skills could be nice. Bone Harvest have Pierce, cold, vitality and wepon added damage(pretty OP in my humble opinion).
My mistake, the correct is “Bone Harvest”.
…im confused as to why you took dual weilding techniques…
i think DW or 2H reaper is mostly personal preference. 2H works fine, but i actually considered switching him to DW and it would probably also work fine.
more than half of the weapon damage of my 2H dude comes from lethal assault and sould harvest, so even the mainhand only skills should still do respectable damage with a onehand weapon, and of course the DW autoattacks scaling off both weapons would do a lot more dps than the autoswings of a twohander.
i mainly went with 2H on impulse when i saw that the necro WPS and bone harvest don’t use both weapons. i already have 4 other high level DW nightblades and always wanted a NB 2H build that actually uses ABB and ring of steel as actual damage skills and not just buff/debuff providers.
before i farmed that soulrend, i actually considered using a pair of crescent moons that i had laying around in my shared stash. i’m sure the build would work quite well with those, too. of course, i’d have to swap some skillpoints around and also get rid of kraken and use something else instead, but it would certainly be a viable build
I believe is fine for activate skill than active with default attacks(two weapons, double chance, If i’m not writing s***). Reaper Strike + Execution seems be interesting.
Lul they r WPS skills they cant activate with activate skills… Dualwield Reaper is interesting I think I will test it out a bit. I dont think these 2 classes have much synergy though Necro is a pure pet class with some buffs to melee but besides the 2 WPS skills it doesnt have a AA replacer so u will prolly need a mistborn talisman.
Hello guys.
I’ve also started a fresh Reaper (lvl 27), as this was the combo i was most eager to try out (my favorites are the Nightblade-classes).
I prefer dual wield melee, hoping a build utilizing mostly cold/vitality could be viable.
What do you think of something like this?
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWP85LZ
Edit: I’m not really sure how to distribute points in all the wps skills yet, except for maxing out execution.
take a look at bone harvest and the 2nd modifier (soul harvest). both are pretty strong.
i mean, technically it’s not really a melee skill, but that distinction isn’t really relevant, imo. it scales very well with weapon damage and the modifier adds a ton of flat damage, so it’s also a great addition for DW builds that use cold or vitality (or both).
i’ve seen bone harvest crits upwards of 100k damage on my 2H reaper, and that guy isn’t even at max level and doesn’t have any mythical items.
Sounds promising.
I guess I’ll just have to level up and try different set ups.
It’s actually not pure pet, it has really good stuff for any aether or vitality caster, it pairs well with occultist and arcanist and even nightblade (vitality phantasmal blades aren’t bad, they even have their own set that’s not too bad, and it’s specific for the skill and not for a class combination). My only complaint on the caster side, is that Drain Essence seems weak. It is certainly terrible for levelling, since it’s scaling before overcapping makes it’s damage really weak.
Ravenous Earth can even go acid/poison/vitality paired with occultist, with bloody pox and DEE.