What is Reaper’s rotation in Final Fantasy XIV?

Grab your scythe, put on your grim face, and get ready to play the Reaper in Final Fantasy XIV‘s newest expansion, Endwalker.

The Reaper isn’t that easy to pick up and it can be confusing when you unlock classes and see over a dozen new abilities to use. At first, he’ll have one Gauge, the Soul Gauge, which will have to be filled to unlock more abilities by the Reaper’s dark avatar. Then, two other Gauges will unlock to give more complexity to the Reaper’s playstyle.

Related: Endwalker’s job guides updated on FFXIV website, Sage and Reaper added

Here’s a quick guide on how to execute the Reaper’s rotation at levels 70, 80, and 90.

Reaper’s rotation at level 70

The Reaper’s abilities aren’t hard to use at level 70, the base level of the job. You’ll have two combos to learn, as well as other useful spells such as the DoT effect and the dashes. Here’s the basic rotation for a Reaper at level 70.

Mono-target:

• Shadow of Death as opener (DoT spell)
• Soul Slice
• Gallows (position to the rear) or Gibbet (position to the flank)
• Slice, Waxing Slice, Infernal Slice
• Blood Stalk after the previous combo is done two or more times (using 50 Soul Gauge)
• The ability you didn’t use before between Gallows and Gibbet
• Repeat. Reapply the DoT when it expires, use True North when you can’t make the positionals.

If you’re doing this combo on trash mobs, you might get the Blood Stalk ability after doing your combo once because the DoT effect gives 10 Soul Gauge points when enemies hit are KO’d.

The combo is the same for AoE damage, but you can fill the Soul Gauge even more quickly thanks to the DoT effect stacking on enemies:

• Whirl of Death as opener (DoT spell)
• Soul Scythe
• Guillotine
• Spinning Scythe, Nightmare Scythe
• Grim Swathe when 50 Soul Gauge are reached
• Guillotine
• Repeat.

In the video, you can see it’s more optimal to be on the side rather than at the center of the group because most AoE abilities deal damage in a cone form.

In addition, it’s worth mentioning your Arcane Crest, which grants you a shield, also grants a 100 potency heal to all your allies if it’s broken. It’s recommended to use it as much as possible in trials and raids especially, to ease your healers’ burden.

Reaper’s changes at level 80

The DPS rotation mostly remains the same at level 80, with three main adjustments to keep track of. You’ll unlock a group-wide damage buff, Arcane Circle, to use at best during your new level 80 combo. In addition to increasing damage, it grants the buff Circle of Sacrifice to the whole party, which gives you stacks when your allies use weaponskills or spells.

You’ll also be able to speed up your gauge fill with Gluttony, which instantly grants two Gallows/Gibbet/Guillotine stacks. You’ll have to get used to that new pace, though, since it’ll be essentially the same but faster with Gluttony.

Finally, your level 80 combo will be enhanced thanks to Enshroud, another avatar buff that can be used when your newly-unlocked Shroud Gauge reaches 50 points. It doesn’t change your Gallows/Gibbet/Guillotine use but enhances them with more damage (except for Guillotine) and shorter cooldowns. It lasts 30 seconds but ends upon four uses of those abilities and you can’t use your primary ones during the Enshroud effect. Here’s a video of its use.

In this video, the Arcane Circle buff is used right before the activation of Enshroud, but it’s not the most optimal strategy since no other abilities are on cooldown during their activation. It can be a good idea to activate those right after executing your last ability before activating Enshroud to gain a little more time and maximize your damage output. True North was also activated, but it was useless in this case since your abilities, when Enshrouded, lose their positionals.

Reaper’s rotation at level 90

Level 90 is when the Reaper’s mechanics become more challenging. At max level, the job gains new abilities and a new enhancement, the Lemure stacks. They’re two OGCD that can be used in between Reapings. It’ll also unlock the Reaper’s most powerful attack, Communio, which has a potency of 1,000 and uses those Lemure stacks. In your level 90 rotation, the objective is to use Communio two times within the duration of your Arcane Circle damage buff.

To pile up Communios in one buffed rotation, you’ll need to prepare it in advance and then do your first Lemure combo without activating it right away. Prepare Arcane Circle by filling your Shroud Gauge up to 50 points to enter Enshrouded state six to 10 seconds before your buff becomes available.

Then, execute your classic level 80 combo, enhanced with Lemure’s Slice that you’ll use after two Reaping attacks. You’ll notice that Communio will become available after four Reaping uses. Activate your Arcane Circle buff at that moment and then Communio.

The Arcane Circle buff offers one Immortal Sacrifice stack that will allow you to start your Lemure combo again right afterward and to end it with a second Communio roughly one second before the buff ends. Here’s the order of attacks used in this combo:

• Enshroud, Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, Lemure’s Slice (OGCD)
• Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, Lemure’s Slice
• Shadow of Death (or other GCD ability used as filler), Arcane Circle (OGCD)
• Communio
• Soul Slice, Glutonny, Plentiful Harvest (you might need to use Glutonny and Gallows/Gibbet before to charge it up)
• Enshroud, Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, Lemure’s Slice
• Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, Lemure’s Slice, Communio.

Practice this combo’s execution until you succeed in ending it before your Arcane Circle buff expires to maximize your damage output.

Level 90 opener

The Discord community The Balance, which focuses on FFXIV strategy, has determined an ideal opener for the Reaper. It’s the one shown in the video below, except for the Gluttony part that was used before Plentiful Harvest instead. It doesn’t change anything provided Communio is still used before the buff ends, though. Here’s the opener’s graphical representation.

After your opener, you can use your Lemure combo normally while waiting for the Arcane Circle buff to become available again, provided you still have 50 points in Soul Gauge to prepare the double-Communio combo.

The opener can be adjusted according to your playstyle, party, and encounter, so it’s only one possibility among numerous others. You can join The Balance’s Discord server to access other resources on the job, including its best gear and stats, which will be updated with upcoming patches.