Reaper DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.55

Reaper has two general openers that you will want to use depending on your level, play, or the encounter.

The objective of this opener is to use Gluttony as quickly as possible to make sure you do not lose a usage during a fight. After this opener you will want to play Reaper as a priority system to ensure that Gluttony is kept on cooldown. If you find that Plentiful Harvest isn't ready to be used in time, then use Arcane Circle after the first Shadow of Death and move the potion after the Gibbet.

1. Pre-cast Harpe when there are 2s left on the countdown
2. Shadow of Death → Potion* (see note below)
3. Soul Slice → Arcane Circle → Gluttony
4. Gibbet
5. Gallows
6. Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud
7. Void Reaping
8. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
9. Void Reaping
10. Cross Reaping→ Lemure's Slice
11. Communio
12. Soul Slice
13. Unveiled Gibbet
14. Gibbet

This opener uses Gluttony later but will pack more potency into raid buffs and synergizes better with more advanced Reaper gameplay. At high ping or high skillspeed the Plentiful Harvest may clip your GCD by a bit, if this clip feel likes half a GCD then use the Early Gluttony opener with the suggestion modification instead.

1. Pre-cast Harpe when there are 2s left on the countdown
2. Shadow of Death → Arcane Circle
3. Soul Slice
4. Soul Slice → Potion* (see note below)
5. Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud
6. Void Reaping
7. Cross Reaping > Lemure's Slice
8. Void Reaping
9. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
10. Communio → Gluttony
11. Gibbet
12. Gallows → Unveiled Gibbet
13. Gibbet

*Potion Note: Only use a potion in the opener if you are positive that it would gain you an extra potion usage. Ideally you want to potion at around the 2 minute mark when you have more resources.

Reaper can be played as a priority system and be an effective damage dealer in any party. Below is the basic priority system:

1. Use Gibbet or Gallows if you have a Reaver stack.
   • Use Gibbet if you have the “Enhanced Gibbet" buff
   • Use Gallows if you have the “Enhanced Gallows" buff
   • Use either if you have no buff.
2. Do not drop your combo. Combos last for 30 seconds, so make sure you use Waxing Slice or Infernal Slice if your combo will drop.
3. Maintain the Death's Design debuff at all times by using Shadow of Death.
4. Use Arcane Circle on cooldown.
5. Use Plentiful Harvest if you have 50 or less Shroud and you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks.
6. Use Soul Slice if you have 50 or less Soul.
7. Use Gluttony if you have 50 or more Soul and it is off cooldown.
8. Enter your Enshroud phase if you have 50 or more Shroud.
   • Start with Void Reaping or Cross Reaping
   • Alternate these two weapon skills four times.
   • Use Lemure's Slice in between every other weaponskill.
   • Use Communio to finish the phase.
   • Eg: Void Reaping → Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice → Void Reaping → Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice → Communio
9. Use Harvest Moon if the target is about to jump or die and you still have the Soul Sow buff up.
10. Use an Unveiled action variant if you have 50 or more Soul and 90 or less Shroud.
11. Use your combo actions ( Slice, Waxing Slice or Infernal Slice) as fillers.
12. Use Harvest Moon if you are not in melee range of the target and have the Soul Sow buff up
13. Use Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target.
14. Use Soulsow if the target is untargetable for 5 seconds or more.

1. Use Guillotine if you have a Reaver stack.
2. Do not drop your combo. Combos last 30 seconds, so make sure you use Nightmare Scythe if your combo will drop.
3. Maintain the Death's Design debuff at all times by using Whorl of Death.
4. Use Arcane Circle on cooldown.
5. Use Plentiful Harvest if you have 50 or less Shroud and you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks.
6. Use Soul Scythe if you have 50 or less Soul.
7. Use Gluttony if you have 50 or more Soul.
8. Enter your Enshroud phase if you have 50 or more Shroud.
   • Use Grim Reaping 4 times.
   • Use Lemure's Scythe in between every other Grim Reaping.
   • Use Communio to finish the phase.
   • Eg: Grim Reaping → Grim Reaping → Lemure's Scythe → Grim Reaping → Grim Reaping → Lemure's Scythe → Communio
9. Use Harvest Moon if you have the Soul Sow buff.
10. Use Grim Swathe if you have 50 or more Soul and 90 or less Shroud.
11. Use your combo actions( Spinning Scythe or Nightmare Scythe) as fillers.
12. Use Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target.
13. Use Soulsow if the target is untargetable for 5 seconds or more.

Whenever you obtain a Reaver, your next weaponskill must be one that spends a Reaver ( Gibbet, Gallows, and Guillotine). Using any other weaponskill will immediately cancel the Reaver buff.

Reaper has an odd-timed rotation so Gluttony will not always neatly fit into the same off-GCD slot. It drifts a little bit every minute.

You want to start using your AoE abilities / weaponskills when there are three targets or more.

You should use Whorl of Death to apply Death's Design on two targets if you are about to Enshroud as Communio, Gluttony, Harvest Moon and Plentiful Harvest all have splash damage.

As a Reaper you will want to use the highest Grade Tincture of Strength. Ideally you want to use it at your 2 minute burst but if the fight allows you three potions then you should use one on the opener instead.

Harvest Moon has a very long range making it best used whenever you are forced out of range. It also deals a good amount of AoE damage so hitting two or more targets with it is preferred aswell. If the fight is full uptime and single target then try to get a Harvest Moon under buffs for more damage.

When you use Arcane Circle you and your party will receive one stack of a buff called “Ceremony Circle” and you will receive a buff called “Bloodsown Circle”. Whenever someone uses a damaging spell or weaponskill while under the effects of Ceremony Circle the stack will be consumed and it will give the Reaper one stack of Immortal Sacrifices. You cannot use Plentiful Harvest until Bloodsown Circle has worn off, which means you only use it once for every cast of Arcane Circle.

Harpe has a cast time of 1.3 seconds and won't apply its damage until a few seconds after. This allows us to cast it pre-pull without sacrificing anything. If you are able to start directly on the boss then skip the pre-pull cast in the opener.

If you are looking to get the best damage out of Reaper you will want to look into squeezing as much damage into your party's buffs. You can do this by performing multiple Enshroud phases during the two-minute buff window. Normally, because of Enshroud's cooldown, it is difficult to get two uses in raid buffs but if you time your Shadow of Death refresh appropriately you can extend the duration of Enshroud and push all the heavy-hitting abilities into buffs. The best way to do this is by refreshing your Death's Design debuff near the end of its duration rather than letting it stack up to full in between burst phases.

Double shroud will be the more common and accessible burst sequence available to Reaper. There are a number of variants to this sequence and most of them will depend on your situation but below is an example of how the sequence could look:

1. There are less than 9s remaining on Arcane Circle's cooldown. If you used the Advanced Opener and this is your first two minute burst, you will want to wait until there are less than 7s remaining on Arcane Circle's cooldown.
2. Use Combo Action → Enshroud
3. Use Void Reaping
4. Use Shadow of Death → Potion if available
5. Use Cross Reaping
6. Use Shadow of Death → Arcane Circle
7. Use Void Reaping → Lemure's Slice
8. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
9. Use Communio
10. Use Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud
11. Use Void Reaping
12. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
13. Use Void Reaping
14. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
15. Use Communio → Gluttony (If not in a combo and you have enough Soul)
16. Priority System:
    • Combo Action if you are in a combo → Gluttony if you have enough Soul
    • Soul Slice if you do not have enough Soul → Gluttony
    • Gibbet / Gallows to consume Reavers from Gluttony.

Triple shroud is a powerful burst sequence that a Reaper can use if they have a potion available. This requires holding onto a lot of resources. The timing of your last combo action must also be perfect, because attempting this while in combo will result in a DPS loss. Below is how this sequence could look:

1. There are less than 9s remaining on Arcane Circle's cooldown. If you used the Advanced Opener and this is your first two minute burst, you will want to wait until there are less than 7s remaining on Arcane Circle's cooldown.
2. Use Infernal Slice → Enshroud
3. Use Void Reaping
4. Use Shadow of Death
5. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
6. Use Void Reaping → Arcane Circle
7. Use Shadow of Death → Late weave Potion
8. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
9. Use Communio
10. Use Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud
11. Use Void Reaping
12. Use Cross Reaping→ Lemure's Slice
13. Use Void Reaping
14. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
15. Use Communio → Gluttony
16. Use Gibbet / Gallows
17. Use Gibbet / Gallows
18. Use Soul Slice → Enshroud
19. Use Void Reaping
20. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
21. Use Void Reaping
22. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
23. Use Communio → Unveiled Action
24. Use Gibbet / Gallows
25. Use Soul Slice → Unveiled Action
26. Use Gibbet / Gallows

Planning an optimal usage for Harvest Moon will add a bit of extra DPS during a boss fight. When trying to figure out how to use it consider the following cases in order:

1. Multi-target situation in a fight, if you can hit 2 or more targets.
2. If you have to disconnect for more than one weaponskill, Harvest Moon can replace a Harpe
3. During buff windows

Given the flexible nature of Reaper, mapping out encounters is the best way to optimize: Linked below is a planner that can be used for such a reason: