Reaper PvP Guide for FFXIV

The Reaper is one of Six Melee DPS roles whose speciality focuses around Powerful Burst damage both to single targets and groups of enemy players. Reapers are the only role to have a action which builds in power as your gain kills and assists making them one of the strongest jobs to back up Dark Knights.

Since 7.1 has received numerous buffs most of which focused around animations throw in the new role actions skills and the Reaper can devastate in Frontline. A Good Reaper can terrify the Crystalline Conflict lobbies as two key factors stand out, one being the ability to force all enemies off the objectives during overtime and secondly Perfectio which will assassinate any target below 25% HP even when hiding behind their Guard.

Note: This guide is focused on PVP as a whole; Frontline, Crystalline Conflict and Rival wings all play differently to one another, however the fundamentals and understanding of a role translate across all game modes.

Strengths

• A Powerful 60s Limit Break Charge allowing you to take control of players actions for 2s after activation
• Amazing Burst rotations that can be adjusted to suit the situation
• The most powerful finisher ability in PvP with Death Warrant capable of KOing targets hiding behind Guard which can also now be manually triggered
• Great Mobility through Hell's Ingress allowing you to dive targets and quickly retreat back to your previous location
• Powerful Defensive with Arcane Crest which benefits your team once broken
• Able to instantly KO any player who is 25% HP or lower even behind Guard with Perfectio
• Strong ranged AoE with Harvest Moon which gets stronger as your targets weaken doubling as self sustain
• Plentiful Harvest massively increases in power as your earn KO's and Assists making reaper an exceptional pick for coordinated play

Weaknesses

• Your strongest Burst requires Limit Breaking meaning you can struggle at times against teams using strong healing, barriers and defensives
• Weak to Knockback as many engagements begin by dashing in leaving you out in the open should you get knocked away
• Dash is directional only which can easily be used incorrectly by jumping into enemies when you do not want to
• Communio during your Limit Break has a cast time meaning often your target either dies or gets out off range before you finish the cast
• Only one action generates Immortal Sacrifices stacks outside off KO's and Assists meaning passive teams make your life harder all stacks are also lost upon death

4.

Skill Selection

Every job has access to a few common actions, but their utility differs between jobs.

Recuperate Standard-issue Elixir Guard Purify Sprint

3.1.

Recuperate

Recuperate – This is your most important healing ability. MP in PVP is only used for this ability. With a max of 10,000 MP, recup will consume 2,000 and heals you for 15,000 HP. The amount of healing received can be increased and reduced by healing up or down status effects, such as Summon Seraph to increase or Biolysis to decrease. You gain 500 MP per 3 seconds passively, something to keep in mind!

3.2.

Standard-issue Elixir

Standard-issue Elixir – This is your second-most important healing ability. Elixir allows you to gain back all your HP and MP, resetting yourself for the next fight! The listed cast time is 4.5 seconds, which means the cast is actually snapshotted as complete after 4 seconds, after which you can move and opponents can no longer cancel your Elixir. You'll see moments where you get hit, and the position will still finish.

When not under pressure, make sure to top up your resources for the next fight. As with the animations counted in the death timer, you will be out for 20~ seconds instead vs a 4 second Elixir!

3.3.

Guard

Guard – Grants 90% damage reduction and immunity to most crowd-control debuffs for up to 4 seconds. Using another action cancels this guard early. Damage over Time effects that have been applied before Guard will always tick for the full amount and wont be negated with Guard!

Per Patch 7.1, there have been multiple abilities added that work against Guarded targets. Where Shield Smite and Chain Stratagem half the defensive bonus of Guard (90% → 45%), there are also abilities that simply ignore guard when dealing damage; Drill, Assassinate, Enchanted Riposte, Disesteem, Wreath of Fire, Serpent's Tail and Chaotic Spring

Damage per ability is now tight to animations, compared to pre-7.1 where the damage would register when pressed. This means Guard is more reactive than it has been before, but it's also possible now to start ability animations that will hit the moment your Guard ends. Beware of your surroundings and what the enemy is doing!

3.4.

Purify

Purify – Cleanses all common crowd-control debuffs and provides a 2-second immunity to further crowd control, draw in and knockback effects. Use this to prevent yourself from getting CC-chained to death. As of patch 7.35 Purify is now a cost of 2500 MP with every use and can be recast every 4s.

With the amount of crowd-control abilities, try not to be trigger-happy when using Purify. Taking a stun with no follow up from the enemy team, doesn't bring you in danger! If you have no defensives ready against a crowd-control heavy enemy team, it's recommended to play defensively before making another engage.

3.5.

Sprint

Sprint – Toggle for increased movement speed. This is a GCD and using any other action cancels the buff, so be smart in using it. Sage is a fragile job, as it has the lowest HP out of any job. If you are using off-global abilities repeatedly while running away or chasing, you should try to late-weave them if you can afford to, to avoid cancelling too much of the Sprint duration.

Your Slice rotations consists of Slice, Waxing Slice and Infernal Slice sharing a 5 yalm reach dealing 5,000, 6,000 and 7,000 damage in sequence. This combo serves as poke damage to save your stronger abilities and can even help boost the power of Death Warrant.

Harvest Moon is the Reapers go to ranged ability outside of your Limit break with a 25 yalm range dealing AoE damage within a 5 yalm radius. You deal a base damage of 8,000 to all struck which will increase up to 12,000 as the targets HP reaches 50% or less. The Bonus of harvest moon is that you will heal for 50% of all the damage you dealt.

Harvest Moon is extremely powerful into groups and it is not uncommon to steal kills in the process working best alongside a Dark Knights Salted Earth. Being able to hold up to 2 charges not only allows for amazing healing but for amazing Damage without needing to close the gap. Being AoE damage this helps in securing the Kills and Assists you require for your Plentiful Harvest which builds in strength with stacks of immortal Sacrifice.

Plentiful Harvest is your most powerful action in terms of raw damage which deals damage in a straight line hitting all within 15 yalms. Your base damage starts at 8,000 but will increase up to 24,000 as you earned Stacks of immortal Sacrifice. Stacks can be earned in three ways first with the action Executioner's Guillotine and by means of Kills and Assists in which you can hold up to 8 stacks.

This ability being able to deal 24,000 is a Burst Rotation behind one button press and is why they often duo with Dark Knights for Frontline, and is best utilise any time after earning 4 stacks, with at least 4 stacks you can steal deal some serious damage and you would avoid missing the opportunity as your team heavily engage. Salted Earth is your best friend for big damage but also works amazingly well with your own Death Warrant which can add up to another 12,000 damage to the compiled damage pool.

Grim Swathe is one of your most important abilities with a 8 yalm reach dealing AoE damage in a cone this action is easy to land on multiple targets, the more targets you damage the faster kills and assists role in meaning a fully powered Plentiful Harvest sooner.

Grim Swathe deals 4,000 damage to every player struck that will also apply a +75% heavy which under the new Purify changes of Patch 7.3 will forces players to burn through MP in order to cleanse the Heavy effect leaving them with less MP for healing.

Executioner's Guillotine is the follow up to Grim Swathe make sure to always land this action even when used against only a single target, as this is the only way outside of Kills and Assists to build immortal Sacrifice. Upon activation damage is dealt in the same 8 yalm AoE cone striking for 8,000 damage.

Cross Reaping and Void Reaping are one and the same accessed under your limit break you gain access to Void Reaping which becomes Cross Reaping before going back to Void Reaping. Both deal 10,000 single target damage with a 5 yalm reach which you want to combine alongside Death Warrant.

Lemure's Slice is the Upgraded Grim Swathe with the same 8 yalm AoE cone dealing 6,000 damage to all struck and applying Bind. Again works wonderful in a Burst Rotation to increase the power of Death Warrant but will also help in allowing you to land your Limit Breaks finisher the Communio as this comes with a 1.3s cast time.

Communio is your Heavy hitter during your Limit Break with a 25 yalm reach dealing 16,000 within a 5 yalm radius of your first target. Following us of your Communio you gain access to your final finisher Perfectio.

Communio is often used as the Final strike to combo with Death Warrant right before detonation for a second powerful Burst of Damage. Following a Dark Knights Salted earth often times you will Limit Break to instantly throw out the Communio as the fight will be over quickly with other times being worth throwing it out just to gain access to your Perfectio since this can clean-up targets even through Guard.

Perfectio the Final Action during your Limit Break with a 25 yalm reach dealing damage in a 5 yalm radius. This is a instant cast follow up to Communio dealing 12,000 to your Targets with the added Bonus any player who is struck whilst there HP is below 25% or lower those targets will be KO'd even should the player have Shields or Guard active.

Death Warrant is your Strongest ability as this catches players of Guard and will deal full damage to players hiding under Guard so long as this was applied before Guards usage. You can apply this onto a target from up to 25 yalms with a 8s timer that can be manually triggered at any time. Once applied any damage you deal to that target will also be compiled.

Death Warrant will automatically go off after 8s or can be manually triggered as the action upgrades to Fate Sealed dealing a base damage of 2,000 plus 50% of all compiled damage you dealt within the time frame. For example if you dealt 80,000 damage to your target during your Burst Window Fate Sealed would deal 40,000 damage.

Death Warrant is to be applied first no matter the length of your Burst Rotation with your Burst changing Depending on the Target you are going for, the reason to apply Death Warrant right away is because at some point your target will use Guard but should Warrant be applied before Guards usage you will still deal 100% of the damage you compiled with no defensive reduction from Guard which is amazing to prevent players from escaping.

Arcane Crest is your Defensive which you would mainly use as part of your open engage before diving in. Upon us you gain a 12,000 barrier for the next 10s should this barrier be broken you gain the effect of Time Returned. Time Returned applies Regen to yourself and all party members within 15 yalms healing 6,000 with each tic over the next 6s.

Most common uses are during aggressive team dives as there are no downsides you gain shields and should they break it benefits your team, you can also hold onto your Arcane crest to bait out Samurai limit Breaks surviving the One Shot Kill and even combine with Guard to stall and survive longer.

Hell's Ingress is your movement ability allowing you to dash 15 yalm in the direction you are facing which leaves behind a portal you can return to through Regress which can be used from 30 yalm from your portal. Hell's Ingress will also apply a 25% movement speed boost which helps in giving chase and escape.

Tenebrae Lemurum is your Limit Break with a fast 60s charge time which deals its effects within 10 yalm around yourself. The first effect is all enemies with 10 yalm are afflicted with Hysteria which takes control of those players forcing them to walk for the next 2s. Hysteria is a amazing combo with Dark Knights using Salted earth as Hysteria forces player to drop there Guards.

Upon use you will also gain 5 stacks of Enshrouded giving access to the following skills Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, Lemure's Slice, Communio and Perfectio allowing you to rapidly setup a powerful Death Warrant.

In Frontlines your role actions of choice are Bloodbath, Swift and Smite. Swift grants you a 100% speed boost and CC immunity to Stun, Heavy, Bind, Silence, Deep Freeze, Knockbacks and Draw-in effects for the next 4s, you can however still be effected by Reapers, Dancers and Monk Limit breaks. Swift is a great choice for chasing down players and for diving in to avoid CC during your burst windows. Since your Dash also provides a speed boost you can become almost uncatchable.

Bloodbath is a solid pick as not only do you gain a 10% damage boost making your Burst far more lethal you can sustain through heavy damage healing for 100% of the damage you deal, with Harvest Moon also being a sustain option you can rotate between ranged healing and close ranged healing whilst keeping damage uptime.

If your looking for Raw damage and Kill potential your choice will be Smite as not only will this increase how easily you can snag kills, you can throw this in to any Burst rotations making Death Warrant even more deadly. Following your Burst rotations ending with Plentiful Harvest Smite ensures you finish that target.

This first Rotation is designed as your shortest Burst combo which can be done quickly and is typically all you require when jumping squishy targets.

1. Death Warrant
2. Grim Swathe
3. Executioner's Guillotine
4. Smite
5. Death Warrant - Fate Sealed

Option two is a means of increasing the damage by first engaging from range before jumping onto your target.

1. Death Warrant
2. Harvest Moon
3. Harvest Moon
4. Hell's Ingress
5. Grim Swathe
6. Executioner's Guillotine
7. Smite
8. Death Warrant - Fate Sealed

There are 2 big combos involving the Limit break this first one is best when going for a single target when you can stick to them without giving space.

1. Tenebrae Lemurum
2. Death Warrant
3. Void Reaping
4. Lemure's Slice
5. Cross Reaping
6. Void Reaping
7. Cross Reaping
8. Smite
9. Death Warrant - Fate Sealed

This second version takes advantage of dealing damage into a large group whilst burning down that main focus target.

1. Tenebrae Lemurum
2. Death Warrant
3. Void Reaping
4. Lemure's Slice
5. Cross Reaping
6. Communio
7. Plentiful Harvest - 4 to 8 stacks
8. Grim Swathe
9. Death Warrant - Fate Sealed
10. Perfectio
11. Executioner's Guillotine
12. Smite - At any stage when targets is 50% HP or lower

This final combo follows the same theme of hitting multiple targets but works best when a Dark Knight pulls the group together.

1. Tenebrae Lemurum
2. Death Warrant
3. Communio
4. Plentiful Harvest - 8 stacks
5. Grim Swathe
6. Executioner's Guillotine
7. Harvest Moon
8. Death Warrant - Fate Sealed
9. Perfectio

Here are two useful Macros for the Reaper this first version allows you to dash either to the enemy you are target, or will dash to the player you set as the focus target. For this macro to work be sure to be moving when activating for the lock-on to work correctly.

/merror off
/micon "Hell's Ingress" pvpaction
/target <f>
/lockon
/pvpaction "Hell's Ingress"
/lockon  <0>

This second Macro is a simple yell to announce your Limit Break is ready useful when playing as a solo to combo with others.

/merror off
/micon "Limit Break"
/y Limit Break Ready [<job>] <0>