Reaper DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.4
On this page, you will learn how to optimise your opener and rotation in both single-target and multi-target situations. We also cover the use of your cooldowns, to ensure you can achieve the best use of them every time as a Reaper DPS in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (Patch 6.4).
Opener
Reaper has two general openers that you will want to use depending on your level, play, or the encounter.
Basic Opener: Early Gluttony
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.
-
Pre-cast
Harpe when there are 2s left on the countdown
Shadow of Death → Potion* (see note below)
-
Soul Slice →
Arcane Circle →
Gluttony
Gibbet
Gallows
Plentiful Harvest →
Enshroud
Void Reaping
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
Void Reaping
Cross Reaping→
Lemure's Slice
Communio
Soul Slice
Unveiled Gibbet
Gibbet
Advanced Opener: Late Gluttony
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.
-
Pre-cast
Harpe when there are 2s left on the countdown
Shadow of Death →
Arcane Circle
Soul Slice
Soul Slice → Potion* (see note below)
Plentiful Harvest →
Enshroud
Void Reaping
Cross Reaping >
Lemure's Slice
Void Reaping
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
Communio →
Gluttony
Gibbet
Gallows →
Unveiled Gibbet
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.
Priority System
Reaper can be played as a priority system and be an effective damage dealer in any party. Below is the basic priority system:
Single-Target Priority
-
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.
-
Use
-
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.
-
Maintain the Death's Design debuff at all times by using
Shadow of Death.
- Use
Arcane Circle on cooldown.
-
Use
Plentiful Harvest if you have 50 or less Shroud and you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks.
- Use
Soul Slice if you have 50 or less Soul.
-
Use
Gluttony if you have 50 or more Soul and it is off cooldown.
-
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
-
Start with
-
Use
Harvest Moon if the target is about to jump or die and you still have the Soul Sow buff up.
- Use an Unveiled action variant if you have 50 or more Soul and 90 or less Shroud.
-
Use your combo actions (
Slice,
Waxing Slice or
Infernal Slice) as fillers.
-
Use
Harvest Moon if you are not in melee range of the target and have the Soul Sow buff up
-
Use
Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target.
-
Use
Soulsow if the target is untargetable for 5 seconds or more.
Multi-Target, 3+ Targets
- Use
Guillotine if you have a Reaver stack.
-
Do not drop your combo. Combos last 30 seconds, so make sure you use
Nightmare Scythe if your combo will drop.
-
Maintain the Death's Design debuff at all times by using
Whorl of Death.
- Use
Arcane Circle on cooldown.
-
Use
Plentiful Harvest if you have 50 or less Shroud and you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks.
- Use
Soul Scythe if you have 50 or less Soul.
- Use
Gluttony if you have 50 or more Soul.
-
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
- Use
- Use
Harvest Moon if you have the Soul Sow buff.
-
Use
Grim Swathe if you have 50 or more Soul and 90 or less Shroud.
-
Use your combo actions(
Spinning Scythe or
Nightmare Scythe) as fillers.
-
Use
Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target.
-
Use
Soulsow if the target is untargetable for 5 seconds or more.
Reaper Basics
Soul Reavers Dropping
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.
Gluttony Drift
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.
Reaper AoE Priority
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.
What type of potion do I use and when?
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
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.
Arcane Circle and Plentiful Harvest
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.
Pre-pull Harpe
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.
Advanced Rotations
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
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:
-
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.
- Use Combo Action →
Enshroud
- Use
Void Reaping
- Use
Shadow of Death → Potion if available
- Use
Cross Reaping
-
Use
Shadow of Death →
Arcane Circle
- Use
Void Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Communio
-
Use
Plentiful Harvest →
Enshroud
- Use
Void Reaping
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Void Reaping
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
-
Use
Communio →
Gluttony (If not in a combo and you have enough Soul)
-
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.
-
Combo Action if you are in a combo →
Triple Shroud
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:
-
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.
- Use
Infernal Slice →
Enshroud
- Use
Void Reaping
- Use
Shadow of Death
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Void Reaping →
Arcane Circle
- Use
Shadow of Death → Late weave Potion
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Communio
-
Use
Plentiful Harvest →
Enshroud
- Use
Void Reaping
- Use
Cross Reaping→
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Void Reaping
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Communio →
Gluttony
- Use
Gibbet /
Gallows
- Use
Gibbet /
Gallows
- Use
Soul Slice →
Enshroud
- Use
Void Reaping
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Void Reaping
-
Use
Cross Reaping →
Lemure's Slice
- Use
Communio → Unveiled Action
- Use
Gibbet /
Gallows
- Use
Soul Slice → Unveiled Action
- Use
Gibbet /
Gallows
Other Optimizations
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:
- Multi-target situation in a fight, if you can hit 2 or more targets.
-
If you have to disconnect for more than one weaponskill,
Harvest Moon can replace a
Harpe
- During buff windows
Fight Mapping
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:
Changelog
- 27 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 6.4.
- 11 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.3.
- 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.
- Icy Veins is Getting a New Look
- FFXIV PLL #76 Recap - 6.4 Live Letter Part 1
- FFXIV PLL #75 Recap - 6.3 Live Letter Part 2
- Join Us Live on Twitch for the Icy Veins Podcast
- FFXIV PLL #74 Recap - 6.3 Live Letter Part 1
- Final Fantasy XIV will be in AGDQ2023 on Friday, January 13th
- FFXIV Announces Return to PAX AUS
- "Tales from the Dawn": Final Story Released