Reaper DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.3

Reaper's flexibility is remarkable. However, with gauges, cooldowns and different recasts timers to manage, that same strength can easily lead to alignment issues or bursts windows with several conditions that cannot always be met. Balancing overall damage output, raid alignment, and — above all — consistency across the most various encounters gives rise to the so-called "Standard" rotation.

1. Soulsow anytime before the pull;
2. Harpe when there is ~1.7s left on the countdown;
   • Do not skip Harpe even if the boss allows you to start on melee range.* Additionally, do not cast it in melee range, as it may cause an auto-attack to early pull the boss.
3. Hell's Ingress if needed;
4. Shadow of Death → Gemdraught;
   • Gemdraught is optional here, as we get a better window at the 2 minute mark if a fight's timeline allows it without losing Gemdraught usages.
5. Soul Slice → 0.5s wait* → Arcane Circle → Gluttony;
   • Wait before weaving Arcane Circle as much as possible without clipping your GCD, not doing so will lead to worse alignment with the raid and cause Unveiled Gibbet to go unbuffed.
6. Executioner's Gibbet;
7. Executioner's Gallows;
8. Soul Slice;
9. Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud;
   • There's no restrict order for Enshroud oGCDs ( Sacrificium and Lemure's Slice), as long as they're used and double-weaves are avoided;
10. Void Reaping → Sacrificium;
11. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice;
12. Void Reaping;
13. Cross Reaping→ Lemure's Slice;
14. Communio;
15. Perfectio → Unveiled Gibbet [Arcane Circle will end here!];
16. Gibbet;
17. Shadow of Death;
18. Slice [Gemdraught will end here!]
19. Soul Slice → Unveiled Gallows;
20. Gallows.

*Because of its cast and damage delay, the pre-pull Harpe effectively acts as a GCD with only a 0.8-second recast once the boss is engaged, giving it a high PPS (potency-per-second) value. While skipping it may lead to potency gains, doing so requires rotational adjustments to avoid misalignment with your own and your party's rotations.

Furthermore, you can optimize slightly your Gemdraught in the opener by doing one of the following:

• If you can triple-weave, using the Gemdraught between Arcane Circle and Gluttony is better, at the cost of not buffing the Unveiled Gibbet and a slightly earlier timer on Arcane Circle.
• If there's neither melee downtime nor adds within the first uptime phase of a given fight, Harvest Moon can replace the Slice in the opener for extra potency.

To improve your damage as Reaper, you will want to squeeze as much damage into your party's buffs as possible without compromising your own rotation. This can be achieved by performing multiple Enshroud phases within each two-minute windows. Among the many ways of doing this, the approach described here — known as the Standard double-Shroud — is one of the most consistent options, even if not always the absolute strongest.

1. Once there is less than 9s remaining on Arcane Circle's cooldown, make sure the timer on Death's Design is between 10 and 40 seconds;
   • If lower than 10s, Shadow of Death must be used in the following step.
2. Two non-Shroud GCDs → Enshroud;
   • Do not go into the next step with an active combo without using a combo action ( Waxing Slice or Infernal Slice) as one of these two GCDs.
3. Void Reaping;
4. Shadow of Death → Gemdraught → Arcane Circle;
   • For the first 2min, make sure Arcane Circle is a late-weave;
   • For other windows, it should be used on cooldown, which will cause the double-weave to swap its order when Gemdraught is used again.
5. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice;
   • Use Lemure's Slice first to ensure that Sacrificium is caught by any later buffs.
6. Void Reaping → Sacrificium;
7. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice;
8. Communio;
9. Use Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud;
   • For the second Enshroud window, there's no restrict order for oGCDs ( Sacrificium and Lemure's Slice), as long as they're used and double-weaves are avoided;
10. Void Reaping → Sacrificium;
11. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice;
12. Void Reaping;
13. Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice;
14. Communio;
15. From here, follow the priority system:
    1. Use Perfectio;
       • If there's a melee downtime that will require Harpe within the next 30s, save Perfectio for it and move on the priority.
    2. Use your active combo ( Waxing Slice or Infernal Slice) if there's one;
    3. Use Gluttony if it's available and there's 50 or more Soul;
    4. Use Executioners ( Executioner's Gibbet and Executioner's Gallows) from Gluttony;
    5. Use Soul Slice;

The consistency and low requirements for this burst window come with two drawbacks that may seem weird to new players:

• Gluttony will be drifted in about 20s in the first time that this double-Shroud is used, and up to two GCDs total afterwards;
• Soul Slice will overcap by one GCD if the first two minutes of a given encounter is full uptime.

In full uptime scenarios, Reaper generates enough Shroud for one Enshroud window per minute. Including the one given by Plentiful Harvest, this amounts to three burst phases per two minutes. However, this pattern spends 20 more Soul than it generates, creating the effect known as gauge negativity and, ultimately, leading to a gauge breakpoint.

Reaper's standard rotation will reach the 2 minutes burst window with 60 Soul and 50 Shroud. Consequently, due to the gauge balance aforementioned, the 10 minutes burst window will only have 50 Soul and 40 Shroud. At this point, since the Standard double-Shroud requires 50 Shroud, we cannot do it without misaligning our rotation with the rest of the raid. This depicts the gauge breakpoint.

While the description may sound dire, the solution for the breakpoint is simple: just hold the odd minute Enshroud window before the breakpoint — a process commonly known as Deadzone. In full uptime, this refers to the 9 minutes Enshroud. It's important to not do it sooner than needed, as doing so may lead to alignment issues as well. If a fight forces downtime or if GCDs are lost throughout it, the gauge breakpoint will be pushed earlier. Therefore, a Reaper needs to be careful about its gauges and learn the specifics for each encounter.

Reaper can be played as a priority system, albeit it isn't recommended as optimizing your 2 minute burst window is better. This playstyle is only recommended for those that are getting used to the job or do not plan to raid.

1. Keep Arcane Circle on cooldown;
2. Use Gibbet or Gallows if you have a Soul Reaver, or their Executioner counterparts if you have Executioner stacks;
   • Opt for Gibbet (or Executioner's Gibbet) if you are under Enhanced Gibbet;
   • Opt for Gallows (or Executioner's Gallows) if you are under Enhanced Gallows;
   • Use either if you have no enhancement buff.
     • These are positionals, please check the tooltip to hit the right positional or use True North when executing them.
3. Do not let Immortal Sacrifices, Ideal Host, Perfectio Occulta or Perfectio Parata fall off.
4. Do not drop your combo. Combos last for 30 seconds, so make sure you use Waxing Slice and Infernal Slice before they expire;
5. Maintain Death's Design at all times by using Shadow of Death;
6. Avoid overcapping Soul Slice charges or drifting Gluttony — manage your Soul gauge as necessary;
7. Use Plentiful Harvest if you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks and are not affected by Bloodsown;
8. Enter your Enshroud phase if you have 50 or more Shroud or have the Ideal Host buff;
   • Start with Void Reaping or Cross Reaping, and then alternate three times;
   • Use Sacrificium before finishing the window and Lemure's Slice when available;
   • Use Communio to finish the phase.
     • Eg: Void Reaping → Sacrificium → Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice → Void Reaping → Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice → Communio.
9. Use Soul Slice if available and if you have 50 or less Soul;
10. Use Harvest Moon if the target is about to jump or die and you still have the Soulsow buff;
11. Use Blood Stalk or an Unveiled variant ( Unveiled Gibbet, Unveiled Gallows) if you have 50 or more Soul;
12. Use your combo actions ( Slice, Waxing Slice, Infernal Slice) as fillers;
13. Use Harvest Moon if you are not in melee range of the target and have the Soulsow buff;
14. Use Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target;
15. Use Soulsow if the target is untargetable for 5 seconds or more.

In multi-target situations, the rotation follows the same general priority as the single-target one, but in a mirrored and simplified form and with the extra care of avoiding Soul overcap if multiple enemies under Death's Design die simultaneously.

On three targets, make the following replacements:

• Use Grim Reaping instead of Void Reaping and Cross Reaping;
• Use Lemure's Scythe instead of Lemure's Slice;
• Use Grim Swathe instead of Blood Stalk, but not its variants ( Unveiled Gibbet, Unveiled Gallows);
• Use Soul Scythe instead of Soul Slice;
• Use Whorl of Death instead of Shadow of Death if there's no target already under Death's Design.*

On four or more targets, apply all of the above and also:

• Use Grim Swathe instead of Blood Stalk's variants;
• Use Guillotine instead of Gibbet and Gallows;
  • Even without enhancement buffs, Gibbet and Gallows remain optimal in three-target scenarios, as they buff subsequent uses;
  • The same logic applies to their Executioner counterparts.
• Use the AoE combo ( Spinning Scythe, Nightmare Scythe) instead of the single-target combo;
• Use Whorl of Death instead of Shadow of Death even if there are targets already under Death's Design.*

*You may still use Whorl of Death on fewer targets — disregarding the rules above — if:

• there is enough upcoming natural cleave damage from Gluttony, Harvest Moon, Plentiful Harvest, Sacrificium, Communio, or Perfectio;
• it will cause additional enemies to die under Death's Design, thus generating extra Soul;
• it prevents the need for an extra Shadow of Death in encounters with unavoidable target swaps.

For seasoned players, Reaper offers plenty of room for optimization beyond what’s covered in this guide. However, so-called “non-Standard” rotations are highly fight-specific and require careful planning. Certain encounters may even demand a non-Standard approach when the Standard rotation become misaligned or non-viable. We recommend checking The Balance Discord server for guidance on these cases.

Below, you’ll find a rotation planner created by Ellunavi from The Balance Discord server. Feel free to use it for encounter mapping and for a more hands-on approach to non-Standard rotations!