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

Reaper is one of the easier melee DPS jobs to learn in Final Fantasy XIV due to their low barrier of entry. Reapers are a welcome addition to any party for casual content, even if the player has only a basic understanding of the job. However, a Reaper well-acquainted with their kit can be responsible for dealing a sizeable chunk of the party's damage in both casual and high-end content.

The main focus of Reaper is to maintain the upkeep of the debuff that increases its damage dealt to the enemy while building job gauges that lead into their burst window. With a fast-paced burst that deals massive damage when executed correctly, you'll need to know how to properly lead your rotation towards it and which skills to use when.

Reapers have a "flexible" rotation, meaning they can be played loosely and freely by prioritizing specific abilities over others when available or aligning with boss mechanics. When starting, you can also follow a fixed rotation that focuses on the job's fundamentals, giving you a basic understanding of how the job works and allowing you to experiment with shifting the order of abilities within it.

This guide will outline Reaper's level 90 rotation and the priority of its weaponskills, along with some tips to maintain and maximize damage dealt during unique situations. For a full overview on Reaper, take a look at the Reaper Guide for more details.

The basics of the Reaper job

The job mechanic that Reapers should prioritize tracking during content is the Death's Design debuff applied by the single-target ability Shadow of Death and multiple-target Whorl of Death. Without it, you'll be missing out on a 10 percent damage increase throughout the fight and lose the full potential of your rotation. Keeping the ability active is incredibly important to maximize the damage dealt in each encounter.

Reaper has a general "one-two-three" single-target rotation that builds upon the job gauge, allowing the use of oGCDs followed by hard-hitting positional attacks, adding to the job's secondary gauge. When it comes to performing well as a Reaper, you'll need to watch your footing and make sure you're using abilities like Gallows from the target's rear and Gibbet from their flank.

Outside of combat, Reapers should use the Soulsow ability before each encounter if its buff is no longer active after being used to cast Harvest Moon. Having Harvest Moon available means you can upkeep damage during mechanics where you're out of melee range from your target. After using Harvest Moon, Harpe is the preferred ranged option, as Soulsow has a cast-time of five seconds in combat, costing you precious time you could be dealing damage.

Reaper's rotation

As described in the previous section, the first ability that a Reaper should use in combat is either Shadow of Death or Whorl of Death to apply Death's Design to any targets. With the debuff active on the enemy, you can move into your single-target or multi-target rotation.

For single-target encounters, begin with either Soul Slice or the base GCD combo of Slice, Waxing Slice, and Infernal Slice, followed by using the oGCD buff Arcane Circle, whose benefits are described later. Soul Scythe and the GCD combo both add to the job's Soul Gauge, which allows the use of Blood Stalk or Gluttony after reaching 50 souls. Blood Stalk grants one stack of Soul Reaver, with Gluttony providing two. The abilities Gallows and Gibbet require one stack of Soul Reaver to use, meaning you chain one after the other if following Gluttony. Using either of the two attacks will add to the Shroud Gauge responsible for your burst and upgrade Blood Stalk to either Unveiled Gibbet or Unveiled Gallows, making the following combo of the ability deal heavier damage than its base version. This rotation repeats as you build your Shroud Gauge to 50, prioritizing Soul Slice whenever it is available.

The multiple-target rotation follows a similar structure to its single-target counterpart. Open the encounter with either Soul Scythe or the AoE combo of Spinning Scythe and Nightmare Scythe, weaving Arcane Circle between if available. With the Soul Gauge at 50, Gluttony and Grim Swathe are your two options for gaining Soul Reaver while damaging multiple enemies. After gaining stacks of Soul Reaver, they should be spent on Guillotine, the AoE equivalent of Gibbet and Gallows, to build your Shroud Gauge and lead to your burst.

With a cooldown time of two minutes, Arcane Circle may not be available during each pass of your rotation but should be used off cooldown to build your Shroud Gauge quickly. It provides a nice damage buff to everyone within its range, and any party members under its effect will accumulate stacks of Immortal Sacrifice required by the attack Plentiful Harvest. Immortal Sacrifice lasts for only 30 seconds, meaning you must use Plentiful Harvest within that window or the ability is lost until the next use of Arcane Circle. Plentiful Harvest adds 50 to the Shroud Gauge, regardless of how many stacks of Immortal Sacrifice your party may earn you, allowing immediate use of your Enshroud burst.

Reaper's burst window

Whether through the use of Plentiful Harvest or a combination of Gibbet, Gallows, and Guillotine, your burst becomes available once the Shroud Gauge reaches 50. Your burst begins by using Enshroud, which grants five stacks of Lemure Shroud to use on abilities specific to the avatar form. Blood Stalk and Blood Swathe become Lemure's Slice and Lemure's Scythe while in this form, and Gibbet, Gallows, and Guillotine become Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, and Grim Reaping. You'll also gain access to the ability Communio, which is only available during this burst window. 

For single-target situations, the order of abilities for your burst should be:

1. Void Reaping
2. Cross Reaping
3. Lemure's Slice
4. Void Reaping
5. Cross Reaping
6. Lemure's Slice
7. Communio

The multi-target burst, like the general rotation, is similar to the single-target, instead using AOE versions of similar abilities. It should look like:

1. Grim Reaping
2. Grim Reaping
3. Lemure's Scythe
4. Grim Reaping
5. Grim Reaping
6. Lemure's Scythe
7. Communio

Players with a higher ping may struggle when trying not to clip abilities, as both burst variations are incredibly fast-paced, weaving in either Lemure's Slice or Lemure's Scythe between two uses of shortened 1.5-second GCD attacks. Other than attempting to gain a better connection or lowering graphic settings for better performance, you may have to adjust your rotation to avoid clipping. Using Shadow of Death or Whorl of Death's longer GCD timer mid-Enshroud can help weave Lemure's Slice or Lemure's Scythe if necessary.

Reaper opener

Reaper's opener follows the general structure of the job's rotation: apply Death's Design, then work on building toward your burst. The opener below focuses on using Gluttony early to get in two Soul Reaver attacks before Enshroud.

1. Soul Soul (pre-pull)
2. Harpe (-2 seconds)
3. Shadow of Death
4. Tincture of Strength
5. Soul Slice
6. Arcane Circle
7. Gluttony
8. Gibbet
9. Gallows
10. Plentiful Harvest
11. Enshroud
12. Void Reaping
13. Cross Reaping
14. Lemure's Slice
15. Void Reaping
16. Cross Reaping
17. Lemure's Slice
18. Communio
19. Soul Slice
20. Unveiled Gibbet
21. Gibbet

With the opener complete, you can continue the rotation of building the Soul Gauge to attack with Gibbet and Gallows, prioritizing Soul Slice over the general combo and using Arcane Circle off-cooldown.

Reaper tips

Reaper has a few extra tools within its kit that allow you to avoid close-range danger and get back into the battle quickly, as well as shield damage and provide a minor healing-over-time (HoT) effect to nearby party members.

• Arcane Crest: Using this ability before a boss dishes out a party-wide attack will nullify damage up to 10 percent of your HP. When the barrier is absorbed, nearby party members are granted a small HoT effect for 15 seconds.
• Hell's Ingress/Hell's Egress: These two abilities will teleport you forward or backward, creating a portal at your original position. Using the ability again will pull you back to the portal's position. This can be used to quickly avoid AoE attacks and jump back into the fight, not wasting any time.
• True North: Gibbet and Gallows both having positional requirements to deal their maximum amount of damage, but some boss mechanics can ruin your placement and lead to downtime. True North negates any ability's positional placement for 10 seconds, allowing you to upkeep your damage as you properly reposition yourself.

Part of playing Reaper well is knowing the content and how to adjust your rotation accordingly. Make sure to hold your burst if there are any upcoming phase changes or periods where a boss is untargetable. Adjust your rotation to fill in the space as needed. Otherwise, you'll look like a voidsent-powered amateur as the boss moves away and you've wasted precious time of your burst.