The Reaper is a melee DPS class released in the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker expansion. It is the fifth melee DPS to be released, and shares armor with the Dragoon. The Reaper’s playstyle is unlike any melee class before it, focusing on generating and spending Soul Gauge and Shroud Gauge to change its abilities and enter massive DPS windows. To make better sense of the Reapers slightly complicated build, we wrote up this Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Reaper Guide to help you.
How to unlock the FFXIV Endwalker Reaper Class
The Reaper class can be unlocked by finishing the quest “The Killer Instinct”, which can be started by talking to the Flustered Attendant found in Ul’dah – The Steps of Nald (X:12.8 Y:8.6).
Job Overview
To start off our Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Reaper Guide, we talk about its kit. The Reaper’s kit revolves around generating and spending two major resources: Soul Gauge and Shroud Gauge, as well as the uptime of a debuff called Death’s Design. The Soul Gauge is used to cast off global cooldown skills that damage and generate Shroud Gauge. Shroud Gauge can be utilized to execute Enshroud, an ability that lowers your GCD to 1.5 seconds, and changes many of your attacks.
Death’s Design grants the Reaper 10% increased damage against enemies affected. It is the cornerstone Reaper’s damage, and should ideally have 100% uptime. It can be applied for 30 seconds through the GCD weaponskills Shadow of Death, and Whorl of Death. Additionally, whenever an enemy dies while under the effect of Death’s Design, the Reaper gains 10 Soul Gauge.
The Reaper’s basic GCD combo comes in the form of Slice, Waxing Slice, and Infernal Slice, with their AoE counterparts being Spinning Scythe and Nightmare Scythe. These weaponskills are your basic means of generating Soul Gauge. On top of these, the Reaper has the GCD weaponskills Soul Slice, and Soul Scythe, which instantly generate 50 Soul Gauge. These two skills have up to two shared charges, each with a 30 second cooldown.
Blood Stalk and Grim Swathe are OGCD abilities that cost 50 Soul Gauge, and grants a single stack of Soul Reaver. Gluttony is an ability that costs 50 Soul Gauge, has a 60 second cooldown, and grants 2 charges of Soul Reaver. Soul Reaver is a buff which allows for the execution of Gibbet, Gallows, and Guillotine. Gibbet and Gallows are functionally similar, save for their positional requirement. Guillotine is the AoE version of these weaponskills. Using any of these weaponskills increases the Shroud Gauge by 10.
Enshroud costs 50 Shroud Gauge and grants the Reaper 5 stacks of Lemure Shroud. While in this state Gibbet, Gallows, and Guillotine are replaced by stronger potency skills called Void Reaping, Cross Reaping, and Grim Reaping. Furthermore, Blood Stalk and Grim Swathe are replaced by Lemure Slice and Lemure Scythe.
This state lasts for 30 seconds, or until you spend all your Lemure Shroud.
Each cast of Void Reaping and its combo skills cost one stack of Lemure Shroud. Spending Lemure Shroud grants stacks of Void Shroud equal to the amount of Lemure Shroud consumed. Void Shroud is used to cast the OGCD skills Lemure Slice and Lemure Scythe.
The final ability while under the effects of Enshroud is Communio. It’s an AoE spell that deals massive damage after a short cast, immediately ends Enshroud, and requires at least one stack of Lemure Shroud.
Reaper also has movement abilities called Hell’s Ingress, and Hell’s Egress. These cause you to teleport a set distance forwards or backwards, while leaving a portal in your last position. The Reaper can teleport back to the portal using Regress.
Arcane Circle is an OGCD which increases the damage dealt by your party by 3% for 20 seconds. Additionally, party members are granted the effect of Circle of Sacrifice which causes their next cast to grant a stack of Immortal Sacrifice, up to a maximum of 8. These stacks can be consumed to cast Plentiful Harvest, which grants 50 Shroud Gauge.
Finally, Soulsow is a spell which grants access to Harvest Moon, which is an instant damaging spell. While outside combat, Soulsow has an instant cast time, but takes 5 seconds while in combat.
Damage Rotation
Reaper’s damage rotation comes can be broken up into four categories:
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- The filler phase, where you make use of your basic combo as well Shadow of Death
- The Soul Gauge phase, where you cast abilities that build and spend Soul Gauge
- The Shroud Gauge phase, where you build Shroud Gauge through Gibbet, Gallows, and Plentiful Harvest
- The Enshroud Phase where you are under the effect of Enshroud and spend Lemure Gauge, Void Gauge, and end with Communio.
Outside of Arcane Circle and Gluttony, very few of the Reaper’s skills are on a very strict timer for use, so a priority system should be followed when it comes to building and consuming resources.
Your top priority should be to have Death’s Design up on your opponents at all times. Arcane Circle and Gluttony should take priority among skills, and shouldn’t be allowed to drift past their timings. You should never overcap any of your gauges, or allow yourself to hold on to two charges of Soul Slice. Enshroud should ideally be used during a party buff window, and Communio should always be the finisher when either at one Lemure Shroud stack, or if the enemy will become untargetable before the Enshroud phase finishes. Soulsow should be cast before the fight, and whenever 5 seconds of downtime is available to you.
The Reaper is the first of its kind for a melee DPS, offering a complex, unique, yet intuitive playstyle that sits between the Monk’s fast priority system, and the Dragoon’s long rotation.
We do hope that this Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Reaper Guide can help you fully master this exciting new class. If you're also interested in mastering the other new class, then you can also check out our Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Sage Guide.
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