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Path of Exile 2 continues to redefine what a modern ARPG can be — merging deep character customization, POE 2 Chaos Orbs, and intricate build design into something that rewards both mechanical precision and creative experimentation. Among its many new archetypes, few builds capture the fantasy of raw power and gothic spectacle quite like the Bloody Reaper.

This is not your average caster. The Reaper blends the brutality of melee combat with the scaling of a spellcaster, wielding a staff that channels devastating physical energy into sweeping, blood-soaked scythe attacks. Its unique mechanics, reliance on critical strikes, and life-based sustain system make it one of the most distinct and rewarding builds in Path of Exile 2.

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the Bloody Reaper — from its core skill interactions and gearing strategy to passive tree priorities, bossing approach, and leveling recommendations.

The Core Skill — Reap

At the center of the build lies Reap, a weapon-specific spell found exclusively on Reaping Staves. Though classified as a spell, its animation and play style are unmistakably melee-inspired: a sweeping scythe motion that cleaves through enemies in a bloody arc.

Despite its melee appearance, Reap scales entirely from spell damage and cast speed, making it a fascinating hybrid between a melee and a caster archetype. The skill deals heavy physical damage in a small area in front of the caster, while also applying a Critical Weakness debuff — increasing your critical strike chance significantly against affected targets.

Unlike traditional spells, Reap has zero mana cost, allowing for incredibly smooth gameplay without resource management interruptions. It’s efficient, responsive, and visually spectacular — the perfect centerpiece for a blood mage archetype.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The Reaper’s main strength lies in high single-target damage and guaranteed critical scaling. It’s a boss-melting powerhouse when properly geared and tuned. However, its base clear speed can be underwhelming due to the skill’s limited area of effect and short range.

Fortunately, that problem is elegantly solved with the right gear — particularly the Trampletoe boots. These boots cause overkill explosions, dealing additional area damage whenever you kill enemies with excess damage. Since Reap hits extremely hard, the resulting chain explosions can wipe entire packs instantly, transforming the build into a rapid-clearing monster.

The only drawback is that Trampletoe’s movement speed penalty can make your character feel sluggish between packs, but the sheer killing efficiency more than compensates for it.

Critical Strikes and the Blood Mage Ascendancy

The Blood Mage Ascendancy perfectly complements the Reaper playstyle. It allows you to set your base critical strike chance for all spells to 15%, a massive upgrade from standard spell bases. Combined with Reap’s Critical Weakness debuff (which adds another 10%), you can easily scale your total crit chance to a guaranteed 100% with proper investment.

This synergy is the heart of the build — every swing of your spectral scythe becomes a guaranteed crit, fueling explosive overkills and reliable life leech from every strike.

Defensively, Blood Mage focuses on maximum life as its primary mitigation layer. You’ll rely on fast recovery mechanics and Life Remnants, a unique ascendancy mechanic that allows your hits to create remnants which restore and even overflow your life pool. Additionally, 25% of all incoming damage is delayed over four seconds, smoothing out spikes and giving you a window to recover.

The more maximum life you stack, the more critical damage multiplier you gain, making life investment both a defensive and offensive priority.

Gear Choices and Uniques

The Reaper’s gear defines its performance more than most builds. Here are the key item slots and their priorities:

Mandatory Unique: Trampletoe

Provides overkill explosions that chain and clear packs instantly.

Converts overkill damage into area explosions that can inherit elemental damage modifiers, allowing you to ignite, shock, or chill enemies depending on your secondary damage type.

Comes at the cost of reduced movement speed, but this trade-off is well worth it for the build’s mapping potential.

Weapon: Rare Reaping Staff

The staff is the soul of your build. You’ll need one that includes:

+Gem Levels to Reap and all Spell Skills

Increased Spell Damage

Cast Speed and Critical Strike Multiplier

High Base Critical Strike Chance

Since Reap is a weapon-bound spell, gem levels on your staff have a huge impact — aim for at least level 20 to unlock its full potential. The best staffs also roll added Lightning Damage to Spells to help shock enemies, improving clear speed even further.

Armor Options

Cha’s Hard Armor: Grants an enormous boost to maximum life and can even be corrupted for more. It prevents the use of spirit skills, but given that the build doesn’t rely on them, it’s a minimal downside.

Darkness Enthroned Belt: A strong offensive alternative that amplifies your cast speed, though it sacrifices some defenses.

Ingenuity Belt: Great if you already have strong rings — adds precious cast speed that’s hard to obtain elsewhere.

Helmet of Welljul’s Heart: Offers elemental damage bonuses and instant leech, letting you recover life instantly with every critical hit.

Rings and Amulet

Your rings should prioritize:

Cast Speed

Life and Resistances

Attributes (Dexterity for Voltaic Mark)

Applying a Caster Catalyst can further enhance cast speed modifiers.

Your amulet serves as another major source of +Gem Levels, critical strike multiplier, and resistances. If possible, look for one with both spell crit multiplier and cast speed, as this amplifies both your single-target burst and your clear consistency.

Jewels and Time-Lost Jewels

Jewels play a massive role in amplifying critical damage. You can find ones with:

+Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells (up to two suffixes)

Life or Resistances as Prefixes

If you can afford them, Time-Lost Jewels provide even higher value — especially when socketed into specific nodes that enhance their effects. If your crit chance isn’t yet capped, swapping in Critical Strike Chance instead of multiplier can smooth out consistency during gearing.

Skill Setup and Supports

Your main skill setup revolves around Reap, and you’ll pair it with powerful support gems like:

Zenith Support — grants a large damage bonus as long as you keep your mana high. Since Reap has no mana cost, it’s a perfect match.

Magnified Effect or Rapid Casting — for improved area or smoother gameplay.

Ambush Support (early game) — ensures strong overkill explosions until your crit chance is capped.

For range coverage and crowd control, you’ll use Bone Cage — a physical spell that creates a deadly nova and pins enemies in place. Pair it with Astral Projection to cast it at long range. Be cautious though: its life cost is high and can leave you vulnerable if spammed recklessly.

To sustain resources efficiently, avoid mana supports — instead, use Ataloise Bloodletting or Life Tap so your primary setup consumes life rather than mana. This ensures Zenith remains active and fully effective.

Utility and Secondary Skills

Sigil of Power — another staff-only spell that boosts your spell damage. Even at stage one (since you don’t spend mana), it adds meaningful DPS against bosses.

Voltaic Mark — lets you shock enemies and break armor, stacking multiplicative damage. Pair it with Mark for Death to ensure all your hits apply armor break.

Temporal Chains — slows enemies and extends the duration of Critical Weakness, improving both safety and damage uptime.

Bind these secondary spells to your second weapon set for efficient casting during boss fights.

Leveling Tips

Reap is not obtainable early in the campaign and even when found, it’s underwhelming without its scaling tools. Therefore, it’s best to level with other physical spells such as Bone Storm or Bone Cage, or even use a Chaos-based Essence Drain and Contagion setup until you unlock your Reaping Staff.

Once your build transitions to Reap, prioritize:

Critical Strike Nodes

Life and Leech Nodes

Cast Speed and Area of Effect Nodes

Many nodes on the passive tree also grant defensive side benefits such as stunning enemies or amplifying armor break — perfect for smoothing gameplay in both mapping and bossing.

Bossing Strategy

Reap shines brightest in boss encounters. Its high single-hit damage, guaranteed crits, and instant life leech make you a relentless duelist.

Start by placing your Sigil of Power beneath the boss and applying Voltaic Mark to lower its defenses. Then alternate Reap casts with Bone Cage to lock the boss in place and trigger overkill explosions if minions are present.

Thanks to life overflow from your ascendancy and delayed damage intake, you can tank moderate hits safely — but avoid stacking too many life-costing spells at once. Proper rhythm is key: attack, recover through leech, and repeat.

Defensive Layers and Resistances

Your primary defense is massive life recovery combined with 25% delayed damage intake. You should always cap Elemental and Chaos Resistances, as these mitigate spikes that bypass your sustain mechanics.

If you choose to drop Cha’s Heart for a rare chest, prioritize one with life, energy shield, and resistances. Gloves can add Critical Damage Multiplier or even Arcane Surge on Hit for more cast speed.

Endgame Power Scaling

Once your gear reaches higher tiers — roughly 30 Divine Orbs worth of investment — the build transforms dramatically. Upgraded gem levels and high-tier critical damage jewels push your Reap to one-shot almost anything that isn’t a boss.

At endgame, the Bloody Reaper feels fluid and powerful, sweeping through maps in bloody arcs while exploding packs from across the screen. Bosses melt in seconds as critical strikes trigger life leech chains that keep you topped off even under heavy pressure.

Final Thoughts

The Bloody Reaper stands as one of Path of Exile 2’s most distinctive and satisfying builds. It’s a rare fusion of melee aesthetics and spell mechanics, wrapped in the dark thematic flair that defines PoE’s world. With 100% crit reliability, explosive overkill clearing, and poe2 rmt, it embodies both power and style.

While it demands a substantial gear investment and precise scaling, the reward is immense: a build that not only dominates the battlefield but looks spectacular doing it.

If you’re searching for a build that captures the essence of the Blood Mage fantasy — a crimson whirlwind of destruction that thrives in chaos and turns death itself into power — the Bloody Reaper is your calling.

Prepare your staff, sharpen your scythe, and reap the battlefield. Sanctuary awaits your harvest.