Gunbreaker Tank Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.4

The Gunbreaker rotation can be boiled down to a priority system. They aim to build cartridges using weaponskills or Bloodfest, and spend them inside their main damage buff, No Mercy. After using it, they will build up cartridges again. Other weaponskills and abilities will be used as soon as they are available so that they fit inside No Mercy.

Gunbreakers gain cartridges by finishing either the Solid Barrel combo for single-target, or the Demon Slaughter combo for multi-target. They expend cartridges using Gnashing Fang and Burst Strike for single-target, Fated Circle for multi-target, and Double Down for both. Three cartridges are also instantly generated every two minutes through the use of Bloodfest, which at level 100 also grants Ready to Reign, allowing the use of the Lion Heart combo. Gunbreaker is a textbook example of a builder and spender class, and uses GCD weaponskills to do both.

Five Gunbreaker weaponskills will change the Continuation button into a new ability and allow you to use it until you use any other weaponskill. This is a large portion of your damage and you should always use these when available. In addition, Gnashing Fang will turn into Savage Claw when used, and that will turn into Wicked Talon. Using any other combo weaponskill will break this combo. The following skills can allow successive rounds with your gunblade.

1. Gnashing Fang allows the usage of Jugular Rip;
2. Savage Claw allows the usage of Abdomen Tear;
3. Wicked Talon allows the usage of Eye Gouge;
4. Burst Strike allows the usage of Hypervelocity.
5. Fated Circle allows the usage of Fated Brand

No Mercy is our personal damage buff on a 60s. As such, we want to align it with party buffs so that we do the most DPS that we can. This also means that we want to maximize the amount of high potency skills that we can put inside of the buff, both for our own personal damage, and for the damage that gets placed inside party buffs.

The way we want to use No Mercy changes based on your GCD speed. Ideally, being a 20s buff, we fit 9 GCD weaponskills into it. However, at some GCD speeds, this is not always possible. At 2.50 GCD, for example, it is not possible to fit 9 GCDs. We can only fit 8. At 2.40, we can comfortably fit 9, but we must late weave No Mercy in the second weave slot each time it comes up to do so. 2.45 is a bit of a middle ground where you can fit 9 GCDs in some windows, but only 8 in others, creating an alternating cycle. In order to fit the appropriate number of GCDs for a given speed, we should aim to:

• Always early weave No Mercy in the first weave slot on 2.50. This will happen naturally if pressed exactly when it is ready.
• Always late weave No Mercy in the second weave slot on 2.40. This may sometimes delay No Mercy by a small amount.
• Alternate between early and late weaving No Mercy each time it is used. This will happen naturally if pressed exactly when it is ready.

The period of time that we have No Mercy active is known as a "No Mercy Window," which is Gunbreaker's highest period of DPS (commonly called a "burst phase," not to be confused with Burst Strike). Each No Mercy window ideally contains all of our strongest skills in order to maximize our DPS. To do so, follow the below recommendations:

Bloodfest has been changed from a 120s to a 60s cooldown in Patch 7.4. This change removes the previously alternating pattern of even minute windows with Bloodfest and odd minute windows without it. Now, each No Mercy window includes Bloodfest. This patch also makes it so you get a buff that allows you to store up to six cartridges for 30s after pressing Bloodfest. This removes the need to ensure that you have zero cartridges remaining before pressing it, as now you are no longer able to overcap from using the skill.

Patch 7.4 also reverted the change made in Patch 7.1 reducing Double Down's cost to one cartridge. It again costs two cartridges to use. Gnashing Fang was also adjusted in this patch, no longer reducing its cooldown based on your skill speed, and instead having two charges.

Every No Mercy window, you will ideally have nine Weaponskills inside the buff:

• The Gnashing Fang combo:
  1. Gnashing Fang;
  2. Savage Claw;
  3. Wicked Talon;
• Sonic Break
• Double Down
• The Lion Heart combo:
  1. Reign of Beasts
  2. Noble Blood
  3. Lion Heart

This leaves us with one GCD remaining to place inside of No Mercy. Previously, we would use Burst Strike. However, with the 7.4 changes to Gnashing Fang, we can fit a second Wicked Talon, which is slightly higher potency. To do this, we want to use Gnashing Fang about 5 seconds before No Mercy is off cooldown. This should allow us to late weave No Mercy in the second weave slot after Savage Claw.

If you are playing on 2.5, you only have 8 GCDs to place inside, which means you cannot place two Wicked Talon casts inside the buff without pushing out something stronger. Instead, we should aim to use Gnashing Fang about 7 seconds before No Mercy is ready. This will allow us to early weave No Mercy in the first weave slot after Wicked Talon, which allows us to buff Eye Gouge with our damage buff without pushing a stronger GCD out of the buff. Please note that you cannot do this technique with Gnashing Fang if you have an active combo when you are supposed to start Gnashing Fang before No Mercy. You must manipulate your combos so that you are not in an active combo here by using a specific number of Burst Strike casts during the filler phase.

At 2.45, you will need to alternate using Gnashing Fang 5 seconds or 7 seconds before No Mercy, depending on if you will be getting eight or nine GCDs in the upcoming window. This cycle should be 9 GCDs in the opener and every even minute window, and 8 GCDs every odd minute window, making the cycle for Gnashing Fang use 5 seconds before No Mercy each even minute window after the opener, and 7 seconds before No Mercy each odd minute window.

In every No Mercy window, you should also use each of your oGCD abilities:

• Blasting Zone
• Bow Shock
• All usages of Continuation allowed

During the filler phase between usages of No Mercy, Gunbreakers need to build up their cartridges. They do this by using the Solid Barrel combo. In addition, Blasting Zone both has a 30 second cooldown, and should be used as soon as it is available. Pioritize building cartridges and only spend them on Burst Strike if you would otherwise overcap, or on Gnashing Fang, in order to prep for the next No Mercy window.

In multi-target situations, replace the Solid Barrel combo with the Demon Slaughter combo against three or more targets. Burst Strike should be replaced with Fated Circle at two or more targets. Replace the Gnashing Fang combo with Fated Circle at four targets or more. All other aspects of the rotation stay the same.

During the opener, we aim to align our weaponskills and abilities under No Mercy as well as our party member's raid buffs. You will find that execution of buff windows after the opener will be similar to that of the opener.

This opener aims to align with party buffs, which have been standardized to a target time of about X:06-X:07, at least on North American servers. Please note that on GCD speeds slower than 2.47, you must reverse the order of the Gemdraught of Strength and No Mercy. Always use the highest grade high quality gemdraught available. Currently, in 7.4, this is Grade 4 Gemdraught of Strength.

Now that we know each of our moving parts for the rotation, it is time to put them all together. As of 7.4, we no longer have an odd minute and even minute cycle alternating cycle, and instead only have a cycle that repeats every minute. That means the general flow of the rotation is as follows:

Opener -> Filler Phase -> No Mercy Window -> Filler Phase -> No Mercy Window -> Etc.

After the opener, we alternate between Filler Phase and No Mercy Window until the end of the fight. The opener is only done once, so you do not need to repeat this. With these things in mind, you are ready to perform the basic rotation of the job!

Gunbreaker has a plethora of defensive cooldowns to utilize in order to mitigate damage taken. This will allow you to survive heavy incoming damage in the form of tank busters, and relieve the healing burden placed on your healers in periods of heavy consistent damage such as boss auto-attacks and dungeon trash packs. Mitigation is calculated multiplicatively (i.e. two 30% reductions will result in 49% damage taken) and it is better to rotate cooldowns rather than use them all at once.

• Rampart and Great Nebula are your bread and butter cooldowns. You will want to rotate these on tank busters, auto-attacks if tank busters will not occur before they are back up, and trash packs.
• Camouflage is the Gunbreaker's unique cooldown. It can be used similar to Rampart, and is extra effective against instances of physical damage due to the increased parry chance.
• Heart of Corundum is your short cooldown mitigation ability. It grants two 15% damage reductions as well as a heal if your HP drops below 50% or if the effect expires, whichever occurs first. You will use this early and often on anything from auto-attacks to tank busters, and it can be used on a co-tank in trials and raids if they are taking a tank buster.
• Aurora is a targeted heal over time effect you can place on yourself or any party member. Use this on yourself, your co-tank, or both (it has two charges!) after taking heavy damage, or to heal up while taking consistent midrange damage.
• Reprisal and Heart of Light are your raid mitigation abilities. Use the former against casted instances of heavy damage, and use the latter if you need to mitigate heavy raidwide magic damage. As of Patch 7.1, Heart of Light now also applies 5% physical damage mitigation to the party, instead of only applying 10% magic damage mitigation.
• Superbolide is your invulnerability cooldown. As of 7.1, this ability no longer sets your HP to 1, and the responsiveness was improved to apply nearly instantly. Now, if above 50% of your max HP, your HP will be set to 50% and you become impervious to most attacks. If you are below 50% HP, your HP will not change, and you still gain the invulnerability.
• In raids and trials, Superbolide should be used on multi-hit tankbusters or shared tankbusters in order to save cooldowns.
• Arm's Length is a useful mitigation ability for dungeons, as the applied Slow effect will greatly reduce your damage taken by trash mobs.
• Low Blow can also be used to Stun trash mobs. Stuns have diminishing effects, so if you have a White Mage in your party the mobs will likely be Stun Immune due to their Holy.