Gunbreaker Rotation, Openers, and Abilities (Patch 6.5) - FFXIV

Gunbreaker is possibly the most action-oriented of the four tank jobs in Final Fantasy XIV. An experienced Gunbreaker is responsible for keeping the enemy occupied while being a reliable source of damage, so knowing its rotation is vital to mastering the job.

Playing as a Gunbreaker can feel more akin to a sturdy DPS thanks to its flashy move set and high amount of actions per minute. While the main priority of tank jobs should be to hold the enemy's attention to protect the rest of the party, Gunbreaker's kit allows it to meaningfully contribute to the party's damage dealt with its fast-paced bursts.

The job focuses on building resources to lead into its burst, a high-speed, button-mashing combo of GCDs with oGCD follow-ups. Gunbreakers are responsible for juggling their general rotation alongside their bursts, oGCDs, buffs, and tank mitigations, making them a potentially intimidating job on the surface due to their sheer number of abilities.

This guide will break down and cover Gunbreaker's level 90 rotation to help give a better grasp of the job while maximizing your potential when playing as it. For those leveling their Gunbreakers, check out the full guide to get a better understanding of the job overall.

The basics of the Gunbreaker job

Their kit may feel geared more for a DPS job, but Gunbreakers are a tried and true tank at their core. Keeping the enemy's aggro is the main priority, and their high-speed attacks, combined with their Royal Guard tank stance, make this a relatively easy task. The complications lie in juggling damage mitigations while fluidly performing combos that include several oGCDs, which could present a problem for players with high ping.

Gunbreaker's rotation uses its core GCD Solid Barrel combo to build cartridges for the job's Powder Gauge. They expend these cartridges using specific single-target and AOE abilities that are only accessible once the charges are available. Combined with damage-over-time (DoT) effects and a buff that increases damage dealt, the Final Fantasy VIII-inspired job can contribute a healthy amount of damage with a more exciting combo compared to the other tanks in FFXIV.

Gunbreaker's rotation

The job's rotation can be broken down into the "burst" and "filler" phases. The burst phase focuses on unleashing as many hard-hitting attacks as possible during the 20-second window of the No Mercy buff that increases the damage dealt by each ability. The filler phase focuses on gaining cartridges while avoiding overcapping them during No Mercy's cooldown period. These two phases loop after the opener, moving to the burst phase after the filler phase resolves.

Filler Phase

Since Gunbreaker's opener, detailed further in the guide, uses both No Mercy and Bloodfest to gain and quickly spend cartridges, it will lead directly into the filler phase. The goal is to have three powder cartridges to spend once No Mercy is available. Start by performing the core GCD Solid Barrel combo of Keen Edge, Brutal Shell, and Solid Barrel. You'll repeat the combo continually to gain charges, but you'll encounter the issue where you'll most likely hit the cap of three cartridges before No Mercy is off cooldown. To avoid wasting charges, use the Gnashing Fang combo off cooldown once during the filler phase with Blasting Zone weaved in for extra damage. The best practice is to use Gnashing Fang after the first Solid Barrel combo to expend the first powder cartridge you earn, making your filler phase look like so:

1. Solid Barrel combo (earns one cartridge)
2. Gnashing Fang combo with Blasting Zone (spends one cartridge)
3. Solid Barrel combo (earns one cartridge)
4. Solid Barrel combo (earns one cartridge)
5. Solid Barrel combo (earns one cartridge)
6. No Mercy

It's possible that Gnashing Fang won't be available, or circumstances have you potentially wasting a cartridge due to already having the maximum amount before No Mercy is ready. You can expend a cartridge on Burst Strike and its Continuation follow-up, Hypervelocity, before finishing the Solid Barrel combo to spend a charge for a worthwhile attack, only to quickly earn it back. In this instance, your Solid Barrel combo will look like this:

1. Keen Edge
2. Brutal Shell
3. Burst Strike
4. Continuation/Hypervelocity (spends cartridge)
5. Solid Barrel (earns cartridge)

Burst phase

With No Mercy activated at the end of the filler phase, you immediately move into your rotation's burst phase. Here, you aim to get off as many high-impact attacks as possible within the 20 seconds that No Mercy is up. While the exact order of actions during this phase isn't necessarily important as long as you have the cartridges available, certain attacks do hold priority over others when they're available. The following abilities should be used within your burst phase:

1. Gnashing Fang combo
2. Double Down
3. Blasting Zone
4. Bow Shock
5. Sonic Break
6. Rough Divide
7. Bloodfest (if available)
8. Burst Strike

During your burst phase, both Gnashing Fang and Double Down should prioritized over Burst Strike when they're available since both deal more damage. The Gnashing Fang combo can be split by any non-combo actions, allowing you to begin the sequence, weave in as many oGCDs as possible in between, and finish the combo within No Mercy's window. Here's an example of what your burst phase can look like:

1. Gnashing Fang
2. Bow Shock
3. Continuation/Jugular Rip
4. Sonic Break
5. Blasting Zone
6. Rough Divide
7. Double Down
8. Bloodfest (if available)
9. Rough Divide
10. Savage Claw
11. Continuation/Abdomen Tear
12. Wicked Talon
13. Continuation/Eye Gouge
14. Burst Strike any remaining cartridges, otherwise Solid Barrel combo

Your first burst phase after the opener will have Bloodfest still on cooldown, making it unlikely for you to have remaining cartridges after the burst's Gnashing Fang combo. The following burst, however, will have Bloodfest prepared and grant you extra cartridges to end with multiple Burst Strikes. You'll return to the filler phase once your burst resolves and No Mercy's effect ends.

Gunbreaker opener

This version of the Gunbreaker's opener assumes you have a GCD speed of 2.5 seconds, though it can be used at faster speeds. It begins by starting your Solid Barrel combo, only to activate No Mercy and Bloodfest to move into your initial burst with three powder cartridges.

1. Lightning Shot (-1s)
2. Keen Edge
3. Pot
4. Brutal Shell
5. No Mercy
6. Bloodfest
7. Gnashing Fang
8. Jugular Rip
9. Sonic Break
10. Blasting Zone
11. Bow Shock
12. Double Down
13. Rough Divide
14. Savage Claw
15. Abdomen Tear
16. Rough Divide
17. Wicked Talon
18. Eye Gouge
19. Solid Barrel
20. Burst Strike
21. Hypervelocity
22. Keen Edge

After the opener is complete, you will cycle back and forth between the filler and burst phases of the job's rotation. Treat the last Keen Edge of the opener as the first GCD of your filler phase.

Gunbreaker's damage mitigations and other abilities

While Gunbreaker's kit is flashy and hard-hitting, they're still a tank through and through. The job wields several damage mitigation abilities through defensive buffs and healing effects. Rotating through your defensive cooldowns and knowing when to hold specific abilities until an instance's mechanics resolve will make you more effective when playing as a tank. Here are the Gunbreaker-specific skills you'll need to know when to incorporate into your defensive rotation and how they work:

• Camouflage: This ability reduces incoming damage taken by 10 percent for 20 seconds while providing a 50 percent increase to your parry rate. Parrying attacks applies a 15 percent damage reduction if the damage type is physical. Camouflage is best used against packs of trash mobs, as their auto-attacks are generally physical. Since it only increases your chance to parry physical attacks, you can stack Camouflage with the tank role's mitigation ability, Rampart, to give yourself powerful damage mitigation and a high parry rate. 
• Nebula: Gunbreaker's best defensive cooldown, Nebula reduces damage taken by 30 percent. When available, this ability should be used and prioritized against large packs in Dungeons, especially during wall-to-wall pulls.
• Aurora: This ability provides a heal-over-time (HoT) effect for 18 seconds, healing for 200 potency every three seconds. It can be used on yourself or a party member and has two charges. Aurora is good as a self-regen to keep yourself steady after tankbusters or hard-hitting packs, and it is excellent for saving a party member who is taking damage before the healer can get to them.
• Heart of Light: This ability reduces magic damage inflicted on the Gunbreaker and party members within a 30-yalm radius by 10 percent for 15 seconds. Heart of Light makes for a capable defensive ability against party-wide attacks.
• Heart of Corundum: Like Aurora, Heart of Corundum can be used on yourself or another party member. The core effect of this ability is its initial damage reduction of 30 percent for four seconds, dropping to 15 percent for another four seconds until the effect expires. Heart of Corundum provides a 900 potency cure after 20 seconds or when the target's HP dips beneath 50 percent, making it an effective solution against tankbusters or a powerful healing tool for other party members. The healing effect of Brutal Shell within the job's core GCD combo is also granted to the target of Heart of Corundum if used on someone other than yourself.
• Superbolide:  The one tank "panic button" that makes the healer panic, too. This ability reduces the tank to one HP while making it invincible against most attacks for 10 seconds. Since the tank's health will suddenly drop faster than taking the most vicious tankbuster, it's a good idea to announce that you're using Superbolide beforehand to save a panicking, inexperienced healer from wasting their best heals on you.

Being an efficient Gunbreaker requires juggling the job's fast-paced rotation while acting as the defensive juggernaut a party expects their tank to be. Combined with the general mitigation abilities given to every job in the tank role, like Rampart, Arm's Length and Reprisal, a Gunbreaker has plenty of tools to survive even the most dangerous packs of mobs and keep dealing an impressive amount of damage.