REDSTRIKE REAPER F.A.Q/BEST REAPER GUIDE
1/16/16: Added additional discussion under section 7;) Final Notes regarding Powerlinks, my experience with Top line Enraged, and implications of Top line roll with talents.
2/1/16: Talent section voided. Servers outside of KR will not have the talent system.
I initially created this document to answer some F.A.Q on my YouTube Channel. However, as I kept writing, it slowly turned into a guide. For those who do not know me and for credibility sake, I am a Reaper named Redstrike from Mount Tyrannas (NA) and I am one of the main DPS in the highest ever score runs for SCHM (without any P2W buffs or Special event buffs)
Our score achievements before Knockout Patch:
Our score achievement after Knockout Patch:
Perimos and Darkan (Original videos here: Choons from Mount Tyrannas)
CHECK OUT THE GUIDE AT:
1/6/15 HIGHEST REAPER PERIMOS DPS 2.53M/S (13805 SCORE) CLICK ON ME
Actually image link can be found HERE
2/5/16 I hit the magic number again with Enrage top + Energetic III etching
Sections:
1;) Crystals
2;) Accesories
3;) Brooch
4;) Weapon Rolls
5;) Glyphs
6;) Rotation
7;) Final Notes
8;) Misc.
1;) What are your crystals?
Standard (From top to bottom: Enrage, Pounding, Bitter, Savage) // High Score (Pound -> Slay)
2;) What jewelries do you use?
With Mystic party (3 Corvette + 2 Galleon) // With Priest party (3 Corvette + 2 Edgetock)
Raw stats: Raw stats:
***(Belt is 4 Crit/6 Crit // Rings are all 4 Crit/4 Power // Quickcarve is 4 Crit / 6 Crit //
Necklace is 4 Power // Inner is 16 Crit //
Weapon and Glove are both Keen III Etching (+18 Crit))***
3;) What brooch do you use?
I use BOTH Quickcarve and Empowered.
If you can afford only one, then get a Superior Quickcarve and a Simple Empowered
3b;) Which brooch do I pop first?
Use Empowered in the beginning of a fight, then Quickcarve during Shadow Reaping
3c;) Why Quickcarve?
Quickcarve has better synergy with Shadow Reaping. Your goal during Shadow Reaping is to use as many skills as possible and crit as many skills as possible.
4a;) What are your weapon rolls?
Top line roll: 9% ATK Speed
Bottom rolls: 7.2% CDR
6% Damage
6.9% Back Damage
9.3% Enrage Monster Damage
***If you have Schisma/Dreadnaught, I suggest you roll Top line: Enrage or ASP // Bottom line: CDR (This is a must), Flat or Back, and Enrage.***
4b;) Is CDR Top line good for Reapers?
NEVER roll CDR topline on Reaper weapon. Here are the two reasons why you don’t roll CDR:
1;) Shadow Reaping is a crucial part of a Reaper’s DPS. CDR does absolutely NOTHING for Reapers during Shadow Reaping. Even with 9% Top line ATK Speed and ALL of the consumables popped including Lein’s Dark Root Beer (+20% ASP for 10 Seconds), you will never run into CD issues on your skills.
2;) With the new Glyphs during the Knockout Patch, you have essentially infinite rotation (with a single CDR roll at the bottom of your weapon which is crucial by the way. It’s a standard roll for all classes minus Berserkers). If you run out of CD on your main skills, Shadow Lash should ALWAYS be up which is a long enough buffer for your main skills to come off CD. Having Top line CDR actually hurts your DPS further because you won’t have enough ATK Speed to take advantage of the extra 7.2% CDR.
4c;) ATK Speed vs Enrage (Top line roll)
I think generally, ATK Speed is better than Enrage. Here are a couple reasons why:
1;) In the new dungeons, Kalivan’s Dreadnaught, Forsaken Island, and the upcoming Dreadspire 2, bosses are not permanently enraged. What this means is that you won’t benefit from top line Enrage roll 100% of the time.
2;) As mentioned in section 4b;), the new Glyphs for Reapers gave them infinite rotation. You will not get penalized for burning through your main skills faster because Shadow Lash will always be off CD (Of course, you need to have good management of your skills in order to have infinite rotation).
3;) In many situations, ATK Speed can help you finish casting a hard hitting skill like Sundering Strike, Grimstrike, Whipsaw, or Shadow Burst before a boss turns. This is especially relevant in the Knockout Patch as certain bosses turn as a part of their skill set (e.g. 1st and 2nd boss FI and even 2nd boss KD) or throw out a lot of secondary aggro (2nd boss SCHM, Perimos). In short, ATK Speed is better for bosses that require a lot of repositioning (3rd boss SCHM, Darkan) and for bosses in the upcoming Dreadspire 2.
4;) ATK Speed allows you to get more skills off. What I’ve found after a couple months of closely playing with Greenstrike from MT (Or as many of you might know him as the Reaper that solo’d Darkan and also probably the first Reaper than ever used Slaying in Score Runs) is that the damage disparity between you and a better reaper is how many more skills you are able to execute in a fight. Of course that is put simply because there are some aspects that come with “hitting more skills in a fight” (positioning for back time and skill management). What I’m getting at is that in a fully enraged boss, the damage loss from rolling ATK Speed top line vs Enrage top line will be made up from executing more skills. It’s important to remember that this is even more crucial in Shadow Reaping because that extra 9% will allow you to at least get 1 more Shadow Reaping rotation off compared to Enrage.
5a;) What are your glyphs?
Reaper Glyphs on Essential Mana
These glyphs are for all PVE purposes. You can use this for normal runs and high score runs
5b;) Why Blazing Double Shear and not Cable Step CD?
There are two reasons:
1;) Blazing Double Shear will give Double Shear a 20% boost in DPS. Generally, you will be able to utilize this glyph effectively in a run. This glyph is also crucial during the Slaying Shadow Reaping Combo (Spiral -> Grim -> Shear -> Sunder).
2;) Cable Step does not increase the attack speed of Shadow Lash. It only increases the initial cast time of Shadow Lash. In fact, casting Shadow Lash by itself might be as fast or even faster than Cable Step -> Shadow Lash depending on how far you travel with Cable Step. Watch below: (Or alternatively a side by side video)
*** People might argue that you can use Cable Step -> Shadow Lash for gap closer, but after running all of the dungeons, this scenario never really happens. Smite exist for this purpose; to gap close if for some reason everything is on CD. Smite -> Shadow Lash is actually not a bad thing to do.***
5c;) Why Shadow Lash CD and not Smite CD or Retribution or even Shadow Step for your last 5 points?
Here are a couple reasons why:
1;) Shadow Lash is actually not that bad of a DPS skill for a filler. If you ask me it is a REALLY good DPS skill for a filler. It does roughly 250k+ crit per hit with +15 VM5/VM6 in a party set up with just nostrums + crit scroll and around 400k+ crit with full consumables with VM6.
2;) Since Pendulum and Whipsaw CD have been lowered by 10%, it has become rare to use Smite as a filler. More often than not, a higher priority skill will be up before you have a chance to use Smite as a filler. More than ever Smite has become solely a utility skill for mobility. Shadow Lash has a longer buffer for CDs and does significantly more DPS than Smite, therefore glyphing Smite CD is by far a worse choice.
3;) In all of the dungeons that we have currently, it is unnecessary to glyph Retribution or Shadow Step CD for more survivability. With good skill management, you should be able to evade comfortably with an unglyph’d Retribution and Shadow Step (this is coming from a player who has done over hundreds and hundreds of resets on score runs with < 50% HP due to Slaying Crystal and where positioning is everything) . Although I cannot say for certain if Retribution CD or Shadow Step CD is necessary for the upcoming Dreadspire 2 as I do not have experience in Upper Dreadspire. If somebody can chime in on this I would appreciate it. ***Remember that Shrouded Escape is an iFrame!!! Use it for emergency situations!***
6a;) What is your rotation?
After reading many Reaper guides out there, this topic is what really grinds my gears. The reason why there are rarely any good Reapers out there is because right from the get go, these new Reapers read these guides that contain a lot of misinformation about what their rotation should be and continue to create bad habits. Every guide out there they spit out this following rotation:
Spiral -> Shear -> Grim -> Sunder -> Spiral -> Pend -> Whip -> Shear -> Grim -> Cable -> Shadow Burst
WRONG. If you play Reaper BASED off of this rotation, you are not maximizing your DPS output.
So what should your rotation be? The answer to that is:
It depends… In fact it’s actually pretty complicated to give a concrete answer because the rotation you use depends on what the boss is going to do. This is the reason why people often claim that Reapers have a high skill ceiling. However, I can give a few guidelines for those who want to improve their Reaper play.
6b;) Skill Priorities
Before giving a guideline on rotations, we have to talk about skill priorities so that the guideline makes sense. Here is the skill priority:
(Pend -> Whipsaw) > Grimstrike (and Grimstrike Resets) > Sundering Strike > Double Shear > (Cable -> Shadow B) > Shadow Lash > Death Spiral
Pendulum -> Whipsaw has to be the highest priority because it is the fastest application of one of your highest hitting skills due to its crit rate. Before the Knockout Patch, Grimstrike would have been lower in the priority list but ever since the Triple Crit Rate buff to Grimstrke, it is much more important to prioritize this skill. As a result, (Cable -> Shadow B) has also been pushed down on the priority list, however its use is a little bit more complex and will be discussed farther down in this section. I’ve been closely watching my breakdown with a DPS meter and in almost all my runs, Grimstrike has been the top damage dealt. Some may ask, “If Grimstrike resets and Sunder is off CD, is it better to spam Grimstrike or use Sundering Strike?”. I’ve always done the latter but after playing with one of my buddy, Sachino from MT who prioritizes Grimstrike out of all his skills, I think it is better to do the former even if Sundering Strike is up due to the buff that Grimstrike got. So yeah… Spam those resets.
6c;) Rotation Guidelines
With the priority list stated, it should be obvious why this rotation:
Spiral -> Shear -> Grim -> Sunder -> Spiral -> Pend -> Whip -> Shear -> Grim -> Cable -> Shadow Burst
is suboptimal. The wind up for your hardest hitting skill in this rotation is 3 skills long containing 2 low priority skills. So why don’t we just open up with Pend -> Whipsaw?! As stated above it is the fastest application of one of your highest hitting skill so it makes much more sense to open up with this combo. With that said, let’s create the guideline for your rotations.
Your rotation should always open up with one these two sets of skills:
- = Pend -> Whip // (b) = Cable Step -> Shadow Burst
Although (b) is lower on our priority list, it’s important to remember that Shadow Burst has a very high base damage and if it crits, it is one of the fastest application of a high damage skill. The reason why it’s low on the priority list is the fact that its crit rate is absolute crap due to the lack of any crit glyphs. Before completely elaborating on the (b) start, let’s begin discussing the (a) start
When should you open up with (a)?
Generally, you want to open up with (a) if you know the boss is not going to turn around in less than 5 seconds. For example, if you open up with (a) and the boss turns around, then you’re screwed because if you decide to do any other spells, you’re going to be front critting. If you decide to chase the back, then you’re in danger because you expended 2 stacks of Shadow Step (you have to use 2 because of Pendulum -> Whipsaw displacement).
So if you have enough back time, you will use this rotation:
(a.) -> Shear (only if you have enough time to hit a back crit Sunder) -> Grimstrike –
-> Sunder -> Cable -> Shadow Burst -> [Filler]
Here is an example of this case: Sample a.1 Sample a.2
After this initial rotation, you have to create your next few moves based off of the priority list.
When should you open up with (b)?
You want to open up with (b) if:
1;) The boss is going to turn around due to the boss’s natural attack pattern or an impending secondary aggro. Example of this case: Sample b.1 Sample b.2 ((a) start would have been acceptable on Sample b.2). I do not have a clip of this but (b) start would be good for 2nd Boss FI (Forsaken Island) and 1st boss TS (Timescape)
2;) Special cases in which you need to save pendulum strike to DPS while repositioning. Example of this case: Sample b.3
3;) Special cases in which bosses have a special mechanic that gives buffer to Shadow Burst. (Specifically Darkan and Yana due to Super Armor from Donuts after a certain percent). Example of this case Sample b.4 and Sample b.3 posted above.
4.) If you need to gap close in the beginning of the fight. Many applications for a (b) start where bosses are far away. For example, Kuma in 2nd boss TS, 1st and 2nd boss FI, and all the bosses in KD.
So if you open up with (b), you will follow this rotation:
(b.) -> Spiral -> Shear -> Grim -> Sunder -> Spiral -> Pend -> Whip -> [Filler]
To further elaborate on why this start is great for bosses that do early turns, if in fact you open up with (b) and you only got to Double Shear before the boss turns, then you still have 1 more stack of Death Spiral to re-initiate your rotation that leads to Sunder. Even if you do not have time to do Spiral -> Shear, then you have the option to Pend -> Whip after you have repositioned to the back. (b) opener is really good because of its flexibility. You can use this opener on (a) opener specific cases.
How about stationary bosses like 3rd boss FI?
In this case you are free to open up with either (a) or (b). If you choose a (b) start, your rotation will look something like this:
(b.) -> Pend -> Whip -> Shear / Spiral -> Spiral / Shear -> Grim -> Sunder -> Spiral -> Shear -> Shadow Lash -> Then continue according to priority list.
The difference between an (a) start and (b) start on stationary bosses are how early you are forced to use Shadow Lash (which is not a big deal).
The only acceptable time to use this famous rotation:
Spiral -> Shear -> Grim -> Sunder -> Spiral -> Pend -> Whip -> Shear -> Grim -> Cable -> Shadow Burst is for Ghost Phase in SCHM or during mobs in any of the dungeons.
***Edit: I take back this statement: “The only acceptable time to use this famous rotation…” because it is untrue. I realized right after I finished writing the guide that you do infact have to resort to a rotation SIMILAR to this in cases where everything else is on CD. DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND HOWEVER. As I stated in the beginning of the section, your rotations should NOT be based off of this rotation because it is not optimal. Your rotation should be based off of the tier list. Do not forget that you should never open up with this rotation as well (as I have argued on this opener already in this section).***
6d;) Shadow Reaping Rotation
Non-Slaying: Pend -> Whip -> Grim -> Sunder -> REPEAT
***Do not cancel Whipsaw to cast Grim -> Sunder Faster***
Slaying: (Shear -> Sunder (Opener)) -> Spiral -> Grim -> Shear -> Sunder -> Spiral -> REPEAT
If you have “Lein’s Dark Root Beer” (Gives 20% ASP for 10 sec) follow this rotation for the duration of the consumable:
Slaying: (Shear -> Sunder (Opener)) -> Spiral -> Grim -> Shear -> Grim -> Sunder -> Spiral -> REPEAT
7;) Final Notes
Although low on the priority list, Death Spiral has an important role on your rotation. It serves two purposes: To re-initiate combos and to cancel animations. Make sure you always have a skill that can cancel Shadow Burst and Sundering Strike Animation Lock. Cancelling the animation lock on these skills will give you a much more fluid rotation.
Shouldn’t I use Death Spiral to Powerlink Grimstrike?
As stated above, it is much more important that Death Spiral is used to serve for re-initiation for combos and to cancel animations. The only time I would suggest using Death Spiral for power links is when your Shadow Burst is on CD.
Powerlinks
I have gotten a couple of questions over the past couple weeks regarding powerlinks. Some people seem to have misunderstood some of my statements and assumed that I am not using my powerlinks to empower Grimstrike. That is not the case.
The reason why I did not touch upon Powerlinks too much (mainly Spiral and Shear) is because Powerlinks are naturally integrated within rotations. Due to the way skills are naturally chained, you’re always going to have a Powerlink active for Grimstrike. Not to mention the duration of the Powerlinks are quite lengthy. There are more important things to worry about and that is what I tried to emphasize on my guide: positioning and skill management. You’re not going to out-DPS another Reaper by pulling off more double Powerlinks on Grimstrike. You’re going to out-DPS another Reaper by getting more skills off which is based on how you position and how you manage your skills.
Decision Making
I also want to reiterate that although a priority list exists, there are some cases where you might have to use a different rotation depending on what the boss is doing. Here is an example:
At this point of the video, I have both Smite -> …. -> Sunder combo but I also have
Pendulum -> Whip up. Pend -> Whip has a higher priority, however Darkan sometimes has secondary aggros that changes the direction of his back. So instead, I used Smite -> … -> Sunder and saved my Pend -> Whip when I know I can back crit safely with the Whipsaw combo. (It is possible to have done a 180 degree turn to Pend -> Whipsaw at beginning of Sample x.1 but that would have been a riskier play. I could have totally missed the Whipsaw if I failed the execution).
This case is going to happen often. If you have a rotation into Sunder up and also Whipsaw but the boss might turn, it is sometimes smarter to use the a Spiral -> … -> Sunder combo. The reason why is similiar to the reasoning for the (b) start. Again, the reason why is because you can interrupt in between the Spiral -> … -> Sunder combo due to the ability to reinitiate into Sunder with a second stack of Death Spiral. Here is another example of this decision making:
I had the choice to end Shadow Lash with Double Shear, then Shadow Step -> Pend -> Whipsaw. But doing so would have created a farther distance between me and Perimos with a chance of my Grimstrike missing because the boss had charged forward. Instead, I did
Spiral -> Shear -> Shadow Step behind the boss. And as you can see, I was able to reinitiate the combo into Sunder that gave me better distance between me and the back of the boss.
Pendulum Strike’s displacement is something to constantly consider in these situations.
Top line roll: Enrage vs Attack Speed continued
So… About two weeks ago I created another fully geared Reaper and moved it to Tempest Reach to test out Top line Enrage on a +15 Lucid Reaper Weapon and… My points still stand. The biggest issue I had was getting skills of before the bosses turn. The thing is, you cannot really compare Enrage vs ASP with another player. The only way you can test Enrage vs ASP is against yourself. I managed to output more skills with Enrage against even the best Reaper in TR.
Again, for all intents and purposes, ASP has more advantage than Enraged. In fully Enraged boss, I would say they are even.
Top line roll after Talents 2/1/16 UPDATE: NO TALENT SYSTEM OUTSIDE OF KR
Please keep in mind that the arguments I’m going to make are based purely on speculations. The list of Reaper talents that I am going to be referring to are listed HERE. The main things that I’m going to referring to are the ASP talents on certain skills. So the skills that are going to have an ASP talents are:
Whipsaw
Sundering Strike
Shadow Lash
Shadow Burst
Shadow Burst (via chance to proc from Cable Step)
The ASP talents on these specific skills are actually REALLY good because they are on skills that have a considerably long animations. In my opinion, the Reaper talents are going to be a really good buff to reapers. So what are the implications of these talents on your Top line roll?
- Top line: CDR. The argument from the Weapon Section roll still stands. You still do not get any benefit from rolling CDR Top line during Shadow Reaping. Outside of Shadow Reaping, I’m 100% sure there will be no CD issues WITHOUT CDR Top line so this weapon roll is still inferior compared to the other two rolls (ASP and Enrage).
- Top line: Enrage. It is possible that the go-to top line roll with talents might be Enraged. The argument here is that the ASP talents will make up for the ASP that was missing (not exactly missing but ASP that was needed to give smoother gameplay and better back time with an Enrage top line).
- Top line: Attack Speed. The biggest concern with ASP top line with talents is that you might be burning through your cool downs too fast which means there might be cases where you might have to resort to auto attacks. If there are no CD issues with talents, then I would say ASP would still be the better choice. Otherwise Enrage is the roll to go. Once we get the talents, I will update the Weapon Roll section.
VM6 Starfall +13 to +15 6% Damage Bonus
Just a quick note that the value of 9.3% Top line Enrage on VM6 is diminished further due to the 6% Damage Bonus from +13 to +15. So definitely roll ASP before the talents come if you have a VM6 +15 Weapon
If you really want to improve, watch and learn. I have my own YouTube Channel where you can watch which rotations I do in certain situations. SCHM is probably the best place to practice positioning. However, I understand that the first phase can make players walk away from the dungeon. 1st and 2nd boss in FI are also great for practicing positioning. Although a little bit out dated, I would suggest checking out Kyang’s, A.K.A Greenstrike / Kiirofuji of MT Youtube Channel or his past broadcasts on Twitch for more valuable visual aids. I learned most of what I know about Reapers from him.
8;) Misc
8a;) How to Double Brooch
I’ve been getting a few questions lately and this has came up multiple times. First, you have to go to your Options -> Shortcuts and scroll all the way down until you find “Outfit 1” and “Outfit 2”:
Bind Outfit 1 and Outfit 2 to a key. In my setup, it is Alt +1 for Outfit 1 and Alt+2 is Outfit 2. What Outfit 1 and Outfit 2 refers to is your first 2 out of the 5 Profiles that you have for your character which can be found by pressing “P”:
<- This is Profile 1 / Outfit 1 (Quickcarve)
<- This is Profile 2 / Outfit 2 (Empowered)
Once you’ve set this up, you have to wear your Empowered brooch on one profile, and your Quickcarve on the other.
Before the fight starts, make sure you are in the profile that has your Empowered. In my case, Empowered is in Outfit 2:
Be in Outfit 2 -> Use Empowered Brooch -> Alt+1 (Or whatever key you set Outfit 1) -> Start the fight.
Once you’ve started the fight, you will be in the Outfit with your Quickcarve Brooch. All you need to do now is to use Quickcarve when you use your Shadow Reaping.
Remember that you don’t need superior brooches pull this off. If you cannot afford a superior brooch, you can still use the simple ones. It does not hurt to do this. Free stats!
8;b)
If you have any thoughts regarding my guide, you can drop me a parcel in game. Server is MT and IGN is Redstrike or send me a PM via reddit – VOTWarrior.
If you think my guide is dumb and think I do not know what I am talking about, hit me up in game. We can do DPS test and see if my conception of Reapers is shit.
If you do not have best in slot gear, it doesn’t matter. As long as you have a complete set of Tier 7+ Gear and a completed accessory set we should be able to compare skill breakdown. What matters is the skill breakdown. If somebody out there is actually playing Reaper at a higher level, I would love to learn from them.
Cheers
