Final Fantasy XIV: the complete Reaper guide for patch 7.x — rotation, opener, best-in-slot gear and positioning in Ultimate raids

Added to Endwalker in December 2021, the Reaper has established itself as one of the most popular melee DPS in Final Fantasy XIV. The job ticks all the right boxes: a dark scythe-and-voidsent avatar aesthetic, a signature dual-resource gauge, a spectacular burst window every two minutes. Three years later, under Dawntrail's patch 7.5, the Reaper remains a pillar of the meta alongside Ninja and Samurai, with notable additions such as Sacrificium and, above all, the new capstone Perfectio. Here is the complete guide to mastering its subtleties, from the very first opener all the way to the ultimate raid Futures Rewritten.

The Reaper's kit: Soul, Shroud, and the signature dual gauge

Where most melee DPS rely on a single gauge, the Reaper juggles two in parallel, which shapes its entire rotation. The Soul Gauge fills up through your slice combo (Slice → Waxing Slice → Infernal Slice) as well as through the AoE combo (Spinning Scythe → Nightmare Scythe). Every 50-point threshold lets you trigger a spender: Gibbet or Gallows on a single target, Guillotine in AoE.

The Shroud Gauge, meanwhile, fills up every time a Gibbet, Gallows, or Guillotine connects with its target. Once it's full at 50, it unlocks Enshroud, the signature transformation that puts you into a spectral state for 30 seconds. You then gain access to an alternate kit: Void Reaping and Cross Reaping in place of Gibbet/Gallows, plus one charge of Sacrificium (an oGCD video capability introduced with Dawntrail that deals heavy damage to the whole area) and two Lemure's Slice as an oGCD buffer.

The transformation ends with Communio, a cast with 1,100 potency that, under Arcane Circle, immediately unlocks Perfectio — the new capstone from patch 7.x, dealing 1,300 potency to the primary target. This is the building block that redefined the Reaper's burst window: every two-minute cycle now ends on this Communio + Perfectio combo under raid buffs.

The current patch 7.x opener: the sequence to memorize

The standard patch 7.5 opener, sanctioned by The Balance and adopted by the French-speaking community, goes as follows. It assumes you've cast Soulsow out of combat and that your Harpe is thrown roughly 1.7 seconds before the pull.

1. Soul Seed (pre-pull, out of combat)
2. Harpe (~1.7 s before pull)
3. Shadow of Death (applies Death's Design) + Gemdraught potion
4. Soul Slice (first charge)
5. Arcane Circle (weave — 20 s buff)
6. Gluttony (weave — generates Executioner)
7. Gibbet (flank positional)
8. Gallows (rear positional)
9. Soul Slice (second charge)
10. Plentiful Harvest (600 potency + 50 Shroud)
11. Enshroud (immediate weave — first transformation)
12. Void Reaping then Sacrificium (weave)
13. Cross Reaping then Lemure's Slice (weave)
14. Void Reaping then Cross Reaping
15. Communio (end of transformation)
16. Perfectio (weave — capstone at 1,300 potency)
17. Resume the combo: Slice → Shadow of Death → Waxing Slice → Infernal Slice

The subtlety of this opener lies in the double weave Arcane Circle + Gluttony right at the start: both abilities have to fit within the window between the first GCD and the second in order to align burst with the support buffs. Miss the timing and you lose either an Arcane Circle window (which buffs the whole party by 3%) or a Gluttony cycle — with both on 60 s and 60 s cooldowns respectively, the slightest drift comes at a steep cost.

The cyclical rotation: two Shrouds, burst window and Perfectio

Once past the opener, the Reaper runs on a model known as the Standard double-Shroud. Every two-minute window sees two consecutive Enshrouds, the first fueled by Gluttony and the second by Plentiful Harvest (which requires having stacked eight Immortal Sacrifice via Arcane Circle).

In practice, the structure looks like this:

• Even minutes (0, 2, 4…): the major burst window. Arcane Circle + Gluttony + double Enshroud + Communio + Perfectio. This is where you align everything with support buffs (Astrologian's Divination, Dragoon's Battle Litany, Dancer's Technical Finish).
• Odd minutes (1, 3, 5…): Enshroud alone, without Arcane Circle. You consume the second Gluttony and chain into Communio, but without Perfectio (which can only trigger via an active Arcane Circle).
• Minute 9: the famous intentional drift. The minute-9 Enshroud is delayed slightly to avoid a gauge misalignment at the 10-minute mark — a classic trap that costs a Perfectio on the following window.

Between each burst, you fill with the Slice → Waxing Slice → Infernal Slice combo (5 GCDs for a full cycle at 2.50 s GCD) and refresh Shadow of Death roughly every 30 GCDs to maintain Death's Design (10% additional damage).

Stat priority: Strength, Critical Hit and the skill speed debate

Reaper is a classic melee DPS in terms of attributes: it wears so-called maiming gear (the same as Dark Knight and Dragoon) and scales on Strength, never on Dexterity. The stat priority, updated by The Balance's theorycrafters for patch 7.5, is as follows:

1. Weapon damage — the main sinker, to be maximized via the best accessible BiS.
2. Strength — the main attribute, entirely provided by armor pieces.
3. Skill speed toward a GCD tier (2.49s, 2.43s or 2.37s). Most players stay at the default 2.50s GCD, which best aligns cooldowns.
4. Critical Hit — the best secondary stat in materia, the highest marginal gain.
5. Direct Hit and Determination — tied, favor whichever of the two is lower on the piece.

Reaper's big trap is melding too much Skill Speed. The job interacts very little with this stat (no procs, no tight window to optimize) and a GCD that's too fast shifts Arcane Circle, breaks Communio alignment under buffs, and costs more than it gains. Staying slow is almost always the right answer.

The 7.x BiS gear: Manderville, Occult Crescent and savage tier

Under patch 7.5, the BiS set combines three sources:

• Manderville weapons phase 4 (the Amazing Manderville Weapons): the relic scythe, upgraded through the Somnus Manderville content, offers an item level equivalent to the best savage weapon of the tier, with optimized Critical Hit / Determination substats.
• AAC Heavyweight savage armor (the 7.4 savage tier): the five Strength-gauged armor pieces, with Critical Hit X materia to cap slots.
• Occult Crescent accessories: the adventurer mode of South Horn introduced in patch 7.55 reshuffled the cards on the jewelry side, with item level 745 farm-friendly necklaces, earrings and bracelets that advantageously replace augmented tomestone pieces in several slots.

The full set targets roughly 3,200 Critical Hit, 2,000 Direct Hit, 1,400 Determination and a 2.50s GCD. For players who don't raid savage, the Pre-Savage set built from normal tier pieces plus 7.5 augmented tomestones remains very performant, within less than 3% of the optimal BiS on The Balance's benchmarks.

Raid positioning: Extreme, Savage and Ultimate

In Extreme, Reaper shines through its mobility: Hell's Ingress and Hell's Egress allow instant repositioning, very useful on the jump mechanics of Recollection or Everkeep. Reaper can also raise an ally via Arcane Crest and provides 3% raid-wide mitigation for 20 seconds with Arcane Circle, which matters on synchronized tank busters.

In Savage, Reaper is mainly required to never miss its positionals (flank for Gibbet, rear for Gallows), on pain of losing 60 potency per hit, roughly 3% of overall DPS across a full pull. Since the rotation is flexible (priority-based rather than a strict rotation), it handles mechanical downtimes fairly well: Harpe remains a usable ranged GCD while moving, and Soulsow can be cast during transition phases to recover a ranged Harvest Moon.

In Ultimate raids — notably Futures Rewritten (FRU), released at the end of Dawntrail, as well as The Omega Protocol or Dragonsong's Reprise — Reaper remains a solid choice without being the optimized pick: on world-first record comps, Ninja is often preferred for its Mug, which stacks 5% damage across the whole party. That said, Reaper forgives mechanic misalignments much more and its burst remains ultra readable, making it an excellent choice for semi-hardcore statics progging an Ultimate without aiming for a record clear.

Quick comparison with Ninja and Samurai

In the patch 7.5 meta, the three melee DPS of the meta break down as follows:

• Samurai — the pure selfish DPS. No party buff, but the highest personal rDPS of all melees. To be favored if your static is already well stocked with buffs.
• Ninja — the absolute utility pick. Party buff Mug (5%), Trick Attack aligned every 60s, very punishing positionals. The favored choice of record comps.
• Reaper — the comfortable middle-of-the-pack option. 3% party buff via Arcane Circle, spectacular and readable burst, superior mobility thanks to its two gates. The best choice for players who want a fun melee DPS without depending on flawless shroud execution.

Verdict: who should play Reaper in 2026?

Its strengths: a spectacular yet readable opener, a burst every two minutes that naturally syncs with support buffs, flawless mobility, a party buff that's useful without being mandatory. Its weaknesses: a very strong dependency on positionals (60% of damage lost if missed), a lower utility value than Ninja's in Ultimates, and a slightly lower technical ceiling than Samurai's. If you're looking for a versatile melee to start Dawntrail's endgame, roll Reaper without hesitation. If you're pushing for a world first on FRU, Ninja is probably still the most cost-effective pick — but a well-played Reaper has never cost a clear.