TERA - Reaper PvE - Skills
Every class in TERA has its own unique set of skills, and to be proficient at playing any class, you need to know your skills inside-out.
Reapers have relatively few skills compared to most other classes, but despite this lesser number, you have a lot of options when it comes to chaining them together. Our skillset is built around fluidity and consistency, with almost every piece being utilised efficiently within rotations.
Every skill has a use, and most have multiple potential ways in which you can utilise them for situational effects, such as casting while moving for extra range, dodging out of incoming attacks, or interrupting the animations of other skills.
The in-game description of skills is fairly accurate and will give you most of the information you need. However, the more you know about every skill you possess, the stronger you are likely to be as a Reaper. Therefore, this section will provide an in-depth look at the usage of every skill in our arsenal, complete with range, distance travelled, and my own rankings as to their effectiveness and importance. Green shows that the skill is particularly strong in that regard, yellow shows that it is nothing special, but commendable, and red shows that the skill is not at all noteworthy in the given area.
For a spreadsheet of base skill damage and cooldowns, along with ranges and movement, click here (downloads .xlsx spreadsheet). These figures may not be 100% accurate but it should be close enough to give you an idea of what to expect, try them yourselves.
Spiral Barrage
Damage: Low
Utility: Low
Importance: Low
Think of this as a fancily named combo attack. It’s an MP regen mechanic, but one that is seldom necessary to use while you have capable healers around.
The skill has 5 consecutive casts with separate ranges and damage, but the majority of the time you will use at most 3 casts, as this allows you to chain into other skills.
Chain Options:
After the 3rd, 4th or 5th casts, you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
Grim Strike
Damage: High
Utility: Low
Importance: High
While it does act as a connecter - like Double Shear - Grim Strike is juuust a bit more important than its counterpart due to the fact that it does a megaton of damage.
With crit rate and reset glyphs, along with the ability to be powerlinked for 40% extra damage, it has pretty much everything you’d want.
Suffice to say you basically use this skill every single time you can, the only requirement really being that you chain it from something to speed it up, you can interrupt the end of the animation with a skill chain or Death Spiral/Cable Step/Pendulum Strike to greatly speed up your combos.
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike (yes - it can chain into itself if it resets)
- Sundering Strike
This will activate faster when cast in a chain after:
- Spiral Barrage
- Double Shear
- Pendulum Strike
- Whipsaw
- Death Spiral
- Smite
- Shadow Lash
Death Spiral
Damage: Low
Utility: High
Importance: Medium
In and of itself Death Spiral is of limited usefulness. Its strength comes from its ability to chain, and the powerlinks it consistently provides to both Double Shear and Grim Strike.
In most cases you will start your rotations here as it provides excellent utility and decent damage.
Note the 6 second window in which it can be cast again, allowing for the powerlinks to be utilised very effectively, and makes it ideal for cancelling Sundering's long animation.
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
Whipsaw
Damage: High
Utility: Low
Importance: High
Along with Grim Strike, Whipsaw is an insane source of damage. It is only sometimes beaten by Grim Strike because of its longer cooldown, else, due to its crit consistency and high base damage Whipsaw would easily trump it.
Whipsaw is a bit of an unsung hero, and certainly not simply a gimmick that restores a little HP. It’s also pretty good for staggering or interrupting bosses during KD phases.
What’s not to love?
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
Shadow Burst
Damage: High
Utility: Low
Importance: Medium
Shadow Burst is, in numbers, our second hardest hitting skill. Having a massive aoe range makes it even stronger, both on single targets and large groups.
However, with a very high cooldown and long cast time, the actual dps of Shadow Burst is severely lacking compared to skills such as Whipsaw and Grim Strike.
The high damage potential makes Shadow Burst a really important skill to cast when you can, but it's not as vital as it may look at first glance, and certainly you don't want to cast it unless you've sped it up using cable step beforehand.
As a final note, you're immune to knockdown while casting this skill, and the second hit of the burst is a knockdown itself.
Chain Options:
None
Smite
Damage: Low
Utility: Medium
Importance: Low
A very quick stun, Smite hits a large area in front of you on cast, giving it great utility. It doesn’t hit very hard, but does have a few chaining options so it can be utilised effectively as a gap-filler or a good way to position yourself if required.
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
Retribution
Damage: Low
Utility: Medium
Importance: Medium
Even with it’s close to 100% crit nature, Retribution doesn't hit hard enough to really be considered a dps skill. It's okay but not great in that department.
Retribution is best saved for emergencies, but also a viable way to sustain rotations when bosses turn or simply add a good source of extra damage when you feel comfortable enough with a given fight.
Note that there are a number of ranged attacks Retribution does not work on, and if you use it to block a large or distanced attack you may stay still and not deal any damage, better to Shadow Step if you can, less down-time.
Chain Options:
None
Retaliate
Damage: Low
Utility: Low
Importance: Low
Retaliate is Retaliate. It has a unique icon for Reapers ‘cause Reapers are speshul an’ all but it’s still just Retaliate.
Truthfully it is a very useful skill whenever you do get knocked down, but this shouldn’t be happening very often. Use it when you need to but its damage and utility are negligible and not a point of much interest.
Chain Options:
None
Shrouded Escape
Damage: None
Utility: Medium
Importance: Low
Okay, this skill is actually really nice, but not particularly important in most cases.
First of all, if you're skilled and well geared, a proper Shadow Reaping will take aggro from a lot of tanks, so this can be used to drop all that aggro afterwards.
Secondly, this skill is an iframe. Actually a really good one, as the animation is fairly long. Albeit an iframe on a 3 minute cooldown, but it still can save your life.
Lastly, invisibility is really cool, so this skill is really cool. That one might be a little bias, but hey, I like it.
Chain Options:
None
Double Shear
Damage: Medium
Utility: Low
Importance: Medium
For the most part Double Shear is a connector. You will use this to build powerlinks and chain into other skills, very seldom using it by itself.
It’s an important note that Double Shear deals 10% extra damage when it is chained from a viable skill, so try to always do this.
It’s also fairly easy to accidentally interrupt the second hit of Double Shear by using another skill, so watch out for that, and try to pick up the timings.
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Grim Strike
- Sundering Strike
- Whipsaw
This will deal 10% extra damage when cast in a chain after:
- Spiral Barrage
- Grim Strike
- Pendulum Strike
- Whipsaw
- Death Spiral
- Smite
- Shadow Lash
Sundering Strike
Damage: High
Utility: Low
Importance: High
Asyour hardest hitting skill, it’s important to use Sundering Strike as often as you can, especially since - when chained - the cast time is relatively low. Don’t cast the skill without chaining unless you absolutely have nothing else to do.
This also has one of the few crit rate glyphs available, so expect to get consistent damage from this skill.
It is sort of a combo finisher too - as nothing chains from it - as well as a knockdown, though most often you’ll want to use other skills for this purpose.
Note that you can use Death Spiral, Pendulum Strike or Cable Step to interrupt the animation lock at the end of this skill, do this whenever you can.
Chain Options:
This will activate faster when cast in a chain after:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
Pendulum Strike
Damage: Low
Utility: High
Importance: High
The main use of Pendulum Strike is simply for the crit rate powerlink it provides for Whipsaw. That thing is op, ‘nuff said.
Other than that, this immobilises mobs....... sometimes.
It is however worth noting that while casting pendulum strike you lose your hitbox, allowing you to pass through mobs or players, something that can work akin to an iframe (really useful on Darkan in SC!).
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
- Whipsaw
Cable Step
Damage: Low
Utility: High
Importance: Medium
Effectively a reverse-leash, this is a very useful skill for keeping within DPS range of your target. It provides a stun effect, but gives far more utility through a certain glyph which boosts the attack speed of the next skill you use.
This glyph mitigates the long cast time of Shadow Burst, allowing it to be far more effective.
Chain Options:
Technically nothing, but given the glyphs available on the skill, it effectively chains into:
- Shadow Burst
Shadow Lash
Damage: High
Utility: High
Importance: High
Without Shadow Lash or a Glistening Dyad, Reapers' consistency would be stuffed. You’d need a large reserve of MP potions and very good healers to keep you afloat on mana.
Not only does this skill provide you with the MP regen so definitely needed, it also hits pretty damn hard if you get a full set of casts off, which you should always be doing.
You can even interrupt the skill with Shadow Step, Double Shear or Grim Strike and continue afterwards.
Like Whipsaw, this is a good skill for staggering bosses during KD phases, especially since they are normally stationary during these times.
Chain Options:
After casting this you can chain into:
- Double Shear
- Grim Strike
Soul Reversal
Damage: Useless
Utility: Low
Importance: Low
Within a PvE environment, this skill is more of a gimmick than anything else. The damage is poor, and the stun effect is very slow to utilise, though not useless by any stretch (can help a lot in SC for example).
Even so, it can fit as a filler skill if you need to outrange something a boss is doing and can't reach with literally anything else, so it has some uses.
Chain Options:
None
Shadow Step
Damage: None
Utility: High
Importance: High
This incredible iframe is what gives Reapers the majority of their manoeuvrability. The ability to use it once for positioning without sacrificing your chance to dodge an incoming attack gives this skill incredible utility.
If possible, you should aim never to put Shadow Step on cooldown, and if you do, try to have one of Retribution or Pendulum Strike available for use in case you need to dodge an imminent attack.
Mastering use of Shadow Step is vital to your success as a Reaper, unless you have aggro, you should never really be taking damage, and even then you can mostly avoid everything.
Chain Options:
None
Shadow Reaping
Damage: None
Utility: High
Importance: High
Shadow Reaping is an incredible source of DPS. An efficient and successful cast can allow you to cast Sundering Strike and Whipsaw at least 5 times apiece before the effect wears off (if glyphed with enough attack speed).
You should never skimp on using Shadow Reaping, though in most fights this will only be once.
It should be clear given the effect of casting so many skills in a short period of time that your MP will suffer, so it's worth investing in some strong mana pots to accompany this skill.
Chain Options:
None
Veil of Shadows
Damage: None
Utility: Low
Importance: Low
This is a nice passive that will save your life every now and then when you or your party screw up. Useful, but not something you should ever be relying on. Also yes I'm making this description short on purpose so the boxes line up.
Chain Options:
None