Reaper DPS Guide — Endwalker 6.1
Welcome to our Reaper DPS guide for Final Fantasy FFXIV: Endwalker (Patch 6.1). This guide will cover everything you need to know to play as a Reaper in PvE, from the absolute basics of the job, to high-end optimisation.
Reaper Overview
Reaper is a melee builder and spender job with a fast-paced and flexible burst window. Their weapon of choice is a scythe and they wear maiming-style armor focusing on Strength as a core stat. Reaper also comes to battle with a small raid buff and a powerful utility AoE healing ability. Their core gameplay is about using abilities and weaponskills to generate their two main resources: Soul and Shroud. Once they obtain enough Shroud they can enter a powerful and fast burst window that ends with a large AoE nuke. The job has an incredibly flexible burst window and most optimizations will be centered around placing more damage into party buffs. It is an easy to play but difficult to master-style job with a lot of minor gains from optimizations.
Reaper Strengths and Weaknesses
Flexible burst window
Fewest positionals out of all melee
Strong AoE healing tool
Easy-to-use disengage and re-engage tool
Odd timings make a perfect rotation impossible
Must maintain a debuff on enemies at all times
Ability cooldowns may drift due to resource generation
Leveling a Reaper
If you are not at max level, it is highly recommended that you check out the Reaper Leveling guide linked below.
Basics
Reaper has a good amount of resources available to it, and building and spending these resources will be the core of the gameplay. Here is a quick breakdown of these resources:
- Soul — Soul is the first Resource you will learn how to use as a
Reaper, represented by the red bar on your Job UI. You gain Soul by
performing your basic combo or by using
Soul Slice or
Soul Scythe and will spend it to obtain Reavers.
- Reavers — You will spend Soul on
Gluttony,
Blood Stalk,
Unveiled Gallows, or
Unveiled Gibbet to gain Reavers, which is a buff you obtain.
- Shroud — Shroud is the third resource you will have to juggle as a
Reaper, represented by the blue bar on your Job UI. You will gain 10 Shroud
from spending a Reaver on
Gibbet,
Gallows, and
Guillotine and can gain 50 shroud every 2 minutes from the ability
Plentiful Harvest. When you have 50 Shroud, you can spend it on the ability
Enshroud which will enter you into your burst phase. While Enshrouded you will lose access to a few abilities, others will change to upgraded abilities, and you will gain access to a powerful AoE nuke:
Communio. Your UI will update and you will enter another builder and spender phase using two new resources:
- Lemure Shroud — You immediately gain 5 of these and they are
represented by the blue orbs on the job UI. These will be spent by using
the upgraded abilities,
Void Reaping,
Cross Reaping, and
Grim Reaping.
Communio also requires one Lemure Shroud, but will end your
Enshroud phase once used. When spending a Lemure Shroud you will gain a Void Shroud.
- Void Shroud — Two Void Shrouds, represented by the pink/purple
orbs, can be spent on the off-global abilities
Lemure's Slice and
Lemure's Scythe.
- Lemure Shroud — You immediately gain 5 of these and they are
represented by the blue orbs on the job UI. These will be spent by using
the upgraded abilities,
Additionally, Reaper has a debuff called “Death's Design” that must be
maintained at all times in order to increase the Reaper's damage.
Shadow of Death and
Whorl of Death both apply this
debuff. A Reaper can also support their party through
Arcane Circle, which provides a 3% boost in raid damage or
Arcane Crest, a shield that, when popped, will heal the party a
large amount.
Below you can find the Reaper Rotational Guide that will give you a more in-depth look into the job.
Gearing as a Reaper
While leveling it is generally best to get whatever gear has the highest item level. Do not worry about what stats the gear gives you until you reach Level 90, as more item level will make you stronger. When you reach Level 90 there will be a few pieces of gear and melds that you can choose from. For a more in-depth look at how Reaper interacts with each stat you can check out the Reaper Melding and Gearing guide below:
If you are looking for the current best in slot sets you can find that in the Reaper BiS Guide below:
Improving as a Reaper
If you are looking at improving your Reaper gameplay, below are our frequently asked questions and a quick guide on how to improve.
Changelog
- 20 Apr. 2022: Updated for Patch 6.1
- 02 Dec. 2021: Guide added.
Guides from Other Classes
Ellunavi Sevald is a Veteran FFXIV player who was been theorycrafting since 1.0. He has cleared all three of the ultimate fights the game has to offer and has participated successfully in week one raid groups. He has also high parses for multiple jobs, across multiple raid tiers. He is currently a Reaper Mentor and Senior Moderator on the Balance Discord. He streams on Twitch, as well as leading some of the streams on Twitch for the Balance.
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