Reaper DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.15

Reaper has two general openers.

This opener will more-or-less be our running standard. It will align us with 3rd GCD buffs across the raid. Gemdraught (Tincture) is still optional here, as we get a better Gemdraught window at the 2 minute mark.

1. Soulsow anytime before the pull.
2. Pre-cast Harpe when there is 1.7s left on the countdown.
3. Use Hell's Ingress if the boss is out of melee range after the cast goes off.
4. Shadow of Death → Late Weave Gemdraught(Tincture) *
5. Soul Slice → .5s Delay* → Arcane Circle → Gluttony
6. Executioner's Gibbet
7. Executioner's Gallows
8. Soul Slice
9. Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud
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
16. Gibbet
17. Shadow of Death
18. Slice → Gemdraught(Tincture) will end here
19. Soul Slice → Unveiled Gallows
20. Gallows

If you have high skillspeed or high ping and find that Plentiful Harvest clips your GCD, you can move the Soul Slice that happens after Perfectio to before Plentiful Harvest at minimal loss.

*Delay the Arcane Circle about .5s; if this would cause you to clip your GCD then don't delay it here, it can be corrected more easily at the 2-minute burst.

*Gemdraughts (Tinctures) are preferred at the 2-minute mark, but shorter fights may not allow for two gemdraughts if you use it that late. You can optimize your gemdraught in the opener by doing one of the following:

• If you can triple weave, using gemdraught between Arcane Circle and Gluttony is better.
• If your party doesn't have a lot of raid buffs, you can move the second Shadow of Death to after the Soul Slice. When you do this you only use Arcane Circle after Soul Slice and double weave gemdraught into Gluttony after the second Shadow of Death.
• You can also use the gemdraught as recommended in the priority above at minimal gemdraught efficiency loss.

Reaper can be played as a priority system and be an effective damage dealer in any party. This isn't the recommend style of play, as optimizing your 2 minute burst window is better. Below is the basic priority system:

1. Use Executioner's Gibbet or Executioner's Gallows if you have an Executioner stack.
   • Use Executioner's Gibbet if you have the “Enhanced Gibbet" buff.
   • Use Executioner's Gallows if you have the “Enhanced Gallows" buff.
   • Use either if you have no buff.
   • These are positionals, please check the tooltip to hit the right positional or use True North when executing them.
2. 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.
   • These are positionals, please check the tooltip to hit the right positional or use True North when executing them.
3. Do not let Ideal Host fall off without using Enshroud.
4. Do not let Perfectio Parata fall off without casting Perfectio.
5. 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.
6. Maintain the Death's Design debuff at all times by using Shadow of Death.
7. Use Arcane Circle on cooldown.
8. Use Plentiful Harvest if you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks.
9. Use Soul Slice if you have 50 or less Soul.
10. Use Gluttony if you have 50 or more Soul and it is off cooldown.
11. Enter your Enshroud phase if you have 50 or more Shroud or have the Ideal Host buff.
    • Start with Void Reaping or Cross Reaping followed by Sacrificium.
    • 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 → Sacrificium → Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice → Void Reaping → Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice → Communio
12. Use Harvest Moon if the target is about to jump or die and you still have the Soul Sow buff up.
13. Use an Unveiled action variant if you have 50 or more Soul and 90 or less Shroud.
14. Use your combo actions ( Slice, Waxing Slice or Infernal Slice) as fillers.
15. Use Harvest Moon if you are not in melee range of the target and have the Soul Sow buff up
16. Use Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target.
17. Use Soulsow if the target is untargetable for 5 seconds or more.

1. Use Executioner's Guillotine if you have an Executioner stack.
2. Use Guillotine if you have a Reaver stack.
3. Do not let Ideal Host fall off without using Enshroud.
4. Do not let Perfectio Parata fall off without casting Perfectio.
5. Do not drop your combo. Combos last 30 seconds, so make sure you use Nightmare Scythe if your combo will drop.
6. Maintain the Death's Design debuff at all times by using Whorl of Death.
7. Use Arcane Circle on cooldown.
8. Use Plentiful Harvest if you have Immortal Sacrifice stacks.
9. Use Soul Scythe if you have 50 or less Soul.
10. Use Gluttony if you have 50 or more Soul.
11. Enter your Enshroud phase if you have 50 or more Shroud.
    • Use Grim Reaping 4 times.
    • Use Sacrificium once.
    • Use Lemure's Scythe in between every other Grim Reaping.
    • Use Communio to finish the phase.
    • Eg: Grim Reaping → Sacrificium → Grim Reaping → Lemure's Scythe → Grim Reaping → Grim Reaping → Lemure's Scythe → Communio
12. Use Harvest Moon if you have the Soul Sow buff.
13. Use Grim Swathe if you have 50 or more Soul and 90 or less Shroud.
14. Use your combo actions( Spinning Scythe or Nightmare Scythe) as fillers.
15. Use Harpe if you are not in melee range of the target.
16. 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. The same applies to the Executioners granted by Gluttony and their respective skills.

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. If you are using an optimized Double Enshourd burst, It will be forcefully drifted. If this would cost you a Gluttony usage it is better to do Single Enshroud bursts and keep Gluttony on cooldown.

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, Sacrificium, Gluttony, Harvest Moon, Perfectio and Plentiful Harvest all have splash damage.

As a Reaper you will want to use Grade 1 Gemdraught of Strength. Ideally you want to use it at your 2 minute burst, but if the fight allows you three gemdraughts 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 you will want to use it before the fight ends.

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, weaponskill or ability 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.

Plentiful Harvest also grants you two buffs called Ideal Host and Perfectio Occulta. Ideal Host allows your next Enshroud to be used without consuming gauge. Perfectio Occulta will change into Perfectio Parata after your next Communio. Allowing access to Perfectio.

Harpe has a cast time of 1.3 seconds and won't apply its damage until a few milliseconds after. This allows us to cast it pre-pull without sacrificing anything or early pulling the boss.

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 standard sequence will look:

1. There are less than 7-8s remaining on Arcane Circle's cooldown.
2. Use Combo Action** → Enshroud
3. Use Shadow of Death
4. Use Void Reaping
5. Use Shadow of Death → Gemdraught(Tincture) → Arcane Circle*
6. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
7. Use Void Reaping → Sacrificium
8. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
9. Use Communio
10. Use Plentiful Harvest → Enshroud
11. Use Void Reaping → Sacrificium
12. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
13. Use Void Reaping
14. Use Cross Reaping → Lemure's Slice
15. Use Communio
16. Priority System:
    1. If the you are in combo and the action you use before starting this burst sequence was NOT a combo action, you will need to use Combo next.
    2. Perfectio.
    3. If you are in combo, and you didn't have to use the above combo action in the Priority, use your combo action here. If you are not in combo then you can skip this step.
    4. If you have less than 50 soul and/or Gluttony is not up, use Soul Slice.
    5. Gluttony
    6. Executioner's Gibbet / Executioner's Gallows to consume Executioners from Gluttony.

Don't be intimidated by the Priority above, it is simple in execution once you do it enough times. The biggest thing to look out for is if you have to start the burst on a non-combo action. In a full up-time fight this happens at the 8 minute burst where we have to start our burst after a Reaver spender. Always prioritize maintaining your combo, if you delay at any point in this burst it is better to finish it with your combo action than Perfectio, as the combo timer will be really tight otherwise.

Even if you do not use a Gemdraught(Tincture), it is important that Arcane Circle falls into the second oGCD slot. If you are having trouble timing that without the gemdraught, then just replace the gemdraught usage with Leg Sweep or Arcane Crest to help you get the timing right.

If you are fight timings cause you to lose GCDs or you will hit the 10 minute window of a fight, it is recommended to not use the odd minute enshroud and bank gauge for the above burst. IE don't use the 50 Shroud gauge you get at the 9th minute and use it in the 10th to do the same burst as above. If you feel uncomfortable holding onto gauge that long because of potential deaths, then you will need to play Reaper as priority when resources don't allow for the above burst.

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 if it would replace a Slice.

Perfectio is another ranged tool at our disposal. Not utilizing it in the buff window in order to replace a use of Harpe will almost always be a DPS gain. There are further optimizations you can do such as planning a single Enshroud window and using Plentiful Harvest after. This will allow you to carry Perfectio Occulta for 30s which will in turn let you carry Perfectio Parata for another 30s, granting you an extended window to use Perfectio as a ranged GCD. This require meticulous mapping and should only be done after careful considerations.

Due to Gluttony being stronger, if it would cost us a usage before the 8 minute mark in a fight, it is recommend to play Reaper as a priority and ignore the Double Enshroud burst windows. This comes at a big net DPS loss if not utililzed in situations where Gluttony and its subsequent Executioners would be lost. We recommend consulting the Balance Discord for fight specific optimizations that would force this change.

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: