Best Weapons For Reapers In Dragon Age The Veilguard

Key Takeaways

• Dark Shard boosts Reaper’s burst damage & AoE, changing combat dynamics.
• Fade Touched War-Axe aids DoT tactics, buffing against unarmored foes.
• Anvil Breaker compensates the Reaper’s lack of stagger build-up, effective for breaking guards.

Reapers operate in a very interesting niche in the widely acclaimedDragon Age: The Veilguard. While Slayers are focused on swift, agile attacks that hit hard and Champions are geared toward group buffs and defensive measures, the Reaper sits in a place not often touched by games that deal with the Warrior RPG type. The Reaper is an all-rounder, focused on shield-tossing but also debuffs and damage over time.

They’re an excellent complement to any of the companions in the game, with no companion really filling a Reaper Rook’s niche. Davrin is a reflection of the Champion with unique skills, and Taash fills the same role as Slayers, but the Reaper is a unique force of battlefield control unmatched by any other Warrior in the game. But it’s not enough for the Reaper to stand alone – and there are plenty of ways to augment the Reaper with some truly fantastic weapons.

1 The Dark Shard

Greatly Complements The Reaper Playstyle

• Uncommon: +15% Necrotic Resistance
• Rare: +15% Necrotic damage
• Epic: Critical hits apply Necrosis if not already applied
• Legendary: Whenever Necrosis is applied to a target, instead of an affliction, deal 100 necrotic damage in an area around them

The Dark Shard is an excellent tool for those looking to re-focus the Reaper from a debuff-oriented class into a full burst damage-oriented one. It’s a lethal and incredibly powerful weapon that’s vital to those running with companions like Lucanis or Emmerich.

This sword makes players more resistant to necrotic damage, and then more effective at dealing it, but its true power lies at the end of its upgrade tier, where it replaces the necrosis status effect with a huge burst of 100 necrotic damage as an AoE attack that greatly changes the dynamic between the Reaper and their skills, most of which are necrosis focused skills.

2 Fade Touched War-Axe

Great At Eating Through Enemy Health

• Uncommon: 15% damage vs health
• Rare: Gain Precision on kills with this weapon
• Epic: +50% damage vs enemies with Low Health while Precision is active
• Legendary: While Precision is active, Critical attacks vs. enemies with Low Health are lethal

One of the great things about The Veilguard’s gameplay is how the different debuff mechanics all work in tandem with one another. One example of this is how necrosis is a virulent force against a player or enemy’s health, chewing through it at a rapid pace. The fade-touched war axe presents unique utility to the player’s damage-over-time tactics.

This two-handed weapon is a great tool for destroying unarmored enemies, providing a +15% damage boost against enemies with no barriers or armor, and a slew of critical bonuses and buffs to enemies on low health. It’s an excellent piece of assurance against enemies slowly being whittled away by the Reaper’s necrosis damage, and incredibly stylish to boot.

3 The Anvil Breaker

Greatly Makes Up For A Reaper Shortfall

• Uncommon: +25% Stagger
• Rare: +20% damage with Charged Heavy attacks
• Epic: +50% damage vs Overwhelmed enemies
• Legendary: +50% Staggered duration

The Reaper build specializes in damage over time, debuffs, and burst damage. Stagger build-up does not fall into this equation, but luckily the Anvil Breaker is one of the best stagger-inducing items in the game, and its flat bonus to stagger build-up is an effective means of shoring up this Reaper weakness.

The Anvil Breaker’s huge stagger build-up means it compensates with lower damage, but as a Reaper, most damage will be done with shield throws, necrosis skills, and one-handed weapons anyway. The Reaper can charge in with Anvil Breaker, break enemies’ guards, and then swap to a higher damaging sword-and-shield combination to finish the job.

4 The Fade-Touched Bulwark

Perfect To Group Enemies

• Unique Effect: On Perfect Defense, nearby enemies are pulled toward you

This bulwark looks great and handles amazingly, a perfect contender for the iconic shield of a hero among Dragon Age‘s many stories. With incredibly high physical damage, this unique heater’s only ability is that it pulls enemies toward the player on a perfect defense, which is important for a few reasons.

Namely, the skills of the Reaper do impact areas as opposed to enemies directly, but only in a very limited capacity. As such, this item that groups enemies in tight clusters is perfect for making use of the health-draining skills of the Reaper and drastically increasing the player’s survivability.

5 Guard’s Broadaxe

A Powerful High-Risk High-Reward Weapon

• Uncommon: +20% damage while at Low Health
• Rare: Final attacks are Critical if you have no Potions
• Epic: Gain a Potion on defeating an enemy if you have none
• Legendary: Critical hits leech 10% of damage dealt

The Guard’s Broadaxe is perfect for Reaper players as it benefits from the player having low or no potions, which doesn’t impact the Reaper as much, as their skills grant them the ability to leech health off enemies. This means they can remain in high health while also getting the benefits of no potions, such as the final attack in a combo always being critical.

This weapon also rewards players fighting at low health, meaning that the more risk a player is willing to take on while fighting (i.e. fighting at low health with no potions) the greater the boon of this axe, which can easily outpace two-handed weapons if its conditions are met.

6 Bandit’s Bulwark

A Great Item For Augmenting Attack And Defense

• Uncommon: +20% Heavy attack damage
• Rare: +25% damage vs Armor
• Epic: Gain Immovable when breaking an enemy’s Armor
• Legendary: Gain 50% Penetration while Immovable is active

The Bandit’s Bulwark is the perfect way to shore up the Reaper into the ultimate fighting machine. It grants players a 20% heavy attack damage boost and also allows them to deal more damage against armor – perfect for tearing through enemy defenses to let necrosis do its work.

Breaking an enemy’s armor also grants the player immovable, which is a godsend when shield tossing or charging up attacks, as it’s extremely hard to stagger an immovable opponent or interrupt their attack at all.

7 Gravenstone

A Fearsome And Iconic Shield

• Unique effect: While Charging for a Shield Toss, all nearby enemies take periodic Necrotic damage

This item is the ultimate synthesis of the Reaper as a class, and while any Warrior specialization can make this weapon work, it’s a thematic and mechanical boon to Reapers in many ways. When charging for a shield throw, this shield causes consistent necrotic damage to any nearby enemies.

A deceptively simple effect that scales off Reaper necrotic damage boons and is overall an incredibly effective item, indicative of the kind of intricacy in gameplay that has made The Veilguard so popular.