Don't Fear the Reaper - The Necro Elite Specialization

The third in a series of articles designed to reveal the Elite Specializations coming to all classes with the Heart of Thorns expansion has debuted on the official site. This time, the Necromancer's specialization is revealed. Called The Reaper, Necros will have the ability to wield a two-handed greatsword to become a devastating melee brawler facing off against as many foes as can be gathered.

According to the blog post, the Reaper was designed around unstoppable monsters from horror movies "like Pyramid Head and Jason Voorhees" to give the feeling of endless pursuit, boundless energy and terrifying attacks. To provide the right sense of dread, developers assigned the Reaper a greatsword to inspire fear.

Using Shroud Knight, necros gain a melee set of skills and equip a shadow scythe, truly becoming the Grim Reaper embodied.

Death's Charge propels the Reaper forward through enemies damaging them with a spinning attack and as the attack ends, erupting into a poison cloud. Death's Charge is a movement skill closes distances between the necro and the enemy and will gain more power while Path of Corruption is active.

Many of the Reaper's skills will take on the cold of the grave and apply chill effects. Shivers of Dread inflicts fear and chill on foes. Chill slows enemies to enable the Reaper to chase them down more easily.

Cold Shoulder allows cold skills to last longer and protects the caster from a certain percentage of damage.

The Reaper's signature is, however, the greatsword. To evoke the sense of dread and impending doom, Reaper skills have a bit longer cast time, though with greater effect once landed. The heart of this is seen in Gravedigger where the Reaper accesses dark energy that will hit all enemies in the vicinity with a strong blow. Enemies below 50% health will reduce the cast time of the next Gravedigger.

Reapers will also have new shouts that are considered attack skills that hit up to five enemies with significant damage rather than buff party members as with Guardian or Warrior shouts.

The Guild Wars 2 team will be on hand during a special live stream event to show off The Reaper on Friday, May 15th at 12:00 Pacific / 3:00 Eastern in the GW2 Twitch.tv channel.

Read more on the Guild Wars 2 site.