Guide on Balance Guides

Basic Guide

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 05:31:02 +0000

Introduction

Welcome to the Basic Guide for Reaper, which will cover everything you need to know to get started with becoming a Reaper! Included are an overview of the job’s playstyle, basic priority, abilities and core concepts.

Whether you’re a fresh level 100, a returning player, or just need a refresh, this guide will give you the tools you need to feel comfortable playing Reaper.

This guide is intended to be relatively basic and doesn’t go into huge explanations of specific situations or small nuances. If you’re looking for something specific, check out the more detailed guides below:

Leveling Guide

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 05:30:15 +0000

Introduction

This guide is targeted at players looking to play and understand Reaper as they level up. It will cover some basic priorities for each level tier and will also serve as a priority list for playing Reaper at lower levels (for ultimates and such). If you are level 100 and looking to explore other guides please visit the following links:

Basic Guide

Advanced Guide

Skill Details

How to Unlock

To unlock Reaper, you must first have these prerequisites met:

Skills Overview

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:49:05 +0000

Single-Target Actions

Action	Abbreviation	Level	Type	Recast	Description
Heated Split Shot	HS1	54	Weaponskill	2.5 seconds	The first skill in your main combo. Delivers an attack with a potency of 220. Generates 5 Heat. Upgraded from Split Shot.
Heated Slug Shot	HS2	60	Weaponskill	2.5 seconds	The second skill in your main combo. Delivers an attack with a combo potency of 320. Generates 5 Heat. Upgraded from Slug Shot.
Heated Clean Shot	HS3	64	Weaponskill	2.5 seconds	The third skill in your main combo. Delivers an attack with a combo potency of 420. Generates 5 Heat and 10 Battery. Upgraded from Clean Shot.
Drill	DR	58	Weaponskill	20 seconds	Delivers an attack with a potency of 660. Maximum Charges: 2 (Gained at Level 94). Shares a recast timer with Bioblaster
Air Anchor	AA	76	Weaponskill	40 seconds	Delivers an attack with a potency of 660. Generates 20 Battery.
Chain Saw	CS	90	Weaponskill	60 seconds	Delivers an attack with a potency of 660. Generates 20 Battery. Damage fall-off of 25% for all other enemies in a line to the target. Grants Excavator Ready.
Reassemble	REA	10	Ability	55 seconds	Guarantees the next weaponskill is a critical direct hit. Can hold up to 2 stacks.
Hypercharge	HC	30	Ability	10 seconds	Enables the usage of Blazing Shot. Grants five stacks of Overheat to buff single-target weaponskills for the next 10 seconds. Costs 50 Heat, free use under the effect of Hypercharged.
Blazing Shot	HB	68	Weaponskill	1.5 seconds	Only usable under the effect of Hypercharge. Delivers an attack with a potency of 240. Reduces the cooldown of Double Check and Checkmate by 15 seconds each. Upgraded from Heat Blast
Checkmate	CM	92	Ability	30 seconds	Delivers an attack to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 180 for the first enemy, and 30% less for all remaining enemies. Upgraded from Ricochet.
Double Check	DC	92	Ability	30 seconds	Delivers an attack to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 180 for the first enemy, and 30% less for all remaining enemies. Upgraded from Gauss Round.
Wildfire	WF	45	Ability	120 seconds	Deals 240 potency for each weaponskill delivered over a duration of 10 seconds. Wildfire deals its damage when the timer ends. Can be manually detonated early by using Detonator.
Barrel Stabilizer	BS	66	Ability	120 seconds	Grants Hypercharged & Full Metal Machinist for 30 seconds.
Excavator	EXC	96	Weaponskill	2.5 seconds	Delivers an attack with a potency of 660. Generates 20 Battery. Damage fall-off of 25% for all other enemies in a line to the target. Can only be used under the effect of Excavator Ready.
Full Metal Field	FMF	100	Weaponskill	2.5 seconds	Delivers a critical direct hit to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 900 for the first enemy, and 25% less for all remaining enemies. Damage dealt is increased when under an effect that raises critical/direct hit rate. This action is not affected by Reassemble. Can only be used under the effect of Full Metal Machinist.

Multi-Target Actions

Action	Abbreviation	Level	Type	Recast	Description
Bioblaster	BB	72	Weaponskill	20 seconds	Delivers an attack with a potency of 50 to all enemies in a cone in front of the player. Also places a DoT on all enemies for 15 seconds which ticks for another 50 potency. Full duration of Bioblaster is 300 potency on all enemies. Maximum Charges: 2 (Gained at Level 94). Shares a recast with Drill.
Scattergun	SG	82	Weaponskill	2.5 seconds	Delivers an attack with a potency of 130 potency in a cone in front of the player. Generates 10 Heat.
Auto-Crossbow	ACB	52	Weaponskill	1.5 seconds	Only usable under the effect of Hypercharge. Delivers an attack with a potency of 180 in a cone in front of the player.
Flamethrower	FT	70	Ability	60 seconds	A channeled ability. Deals 120 potency once per second over 11 seconds. Effect ends upon using another action or moving.

Pet Actions

Action	Abbreviation	Level	Type	Recast	Description
Automaton Queen	AQ	80	Ability	6 seconds	Summons your robot. While active, Queen will deal damage in the form of Arm Punches, Roller Dashes, Pile Bunker, and Crowned Collider. Duration is set to 12 seconds regardless of Battery at which she was summoned. Maximum potency is 2660 at 100 Battery gauge.
Queen Overdrive	QO	80	Ability	15 seconds	Commands Queen to perform Pile Bunker and Crowned Collider.
Arm Punch	AP	80	Weaponskill	1.5 seconds	Melee distance attack dealing 240 potency at 100 maximum Battery gauge.
Roller Dash	RD	80	Weaponskill	3 seconds	Gap closer dealing 480 potency at maximum Battery gauge.
Pile Bunker	PB	80	Weaponskill	-	Queen’s first finisher. Delivers an attack of 680 potency at maximum Battery gauge.
Crowned Collider	CC	90	Ability	-	Queen’s second finisher. Delivers an attack of 780 potency at maximum Battery Gauge.

Role Abilities/Support

Action	Abbreviation	Level	Type	Recast	Description
Tactician	Tact	56	Ability	90 seconds	Reduces damage taken by self and nearby party members by 15% for 15 seconds. This can not be stacked with Troubadour or Shield Samba.
Dismantle	-	62	Ability	120 seconds	10% damage reduction on a single target for 10 seconds.
Leg Graze	-	6	Ability	30 seconds	Afflicts target with a 40% heavy.
Foot Graze	-	10	Ability	30 seconds	Binds target for 10 seconds.
Head Graze	-	24	Ability	30 seconds	Interrupt.
Arm’s Length	AL	32	Ability	120 seconds	Anti-knockback. Slows the target upon taking physical damage.
Second Wind	SW	8	Ability	120 seconds	Regenerates HP worth 500 potency.
Peloton	-	20	Ability	5 seconds	Increases movement speed for self and nearby party members.

Advanced Guide

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:27:42 +0000

by Tomcat Frost (Faerie)

FOREWORD

One of the biggest requests I have had is a more concise document on what people “need to know” before jumping into more difficult content. This is not meant to be a replacement for a general guide to Dancer; please see Ringabel’s extensive write-up instead, which will be linked at the end of the document in the appendix.

This guide will be broken down into three sections: Basics, Intermediate, and Advanced. I am hopeful that even some of the more experienced players may learn something new from this document.

Frequent Questions

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:26:54 +0000

DANCE PARTNER PRIORITY

This list is made in a gear/skill vacuum. This is the recommended partner priority list.
Special Note: some fights may favor certain Dance Partners over others based on phases/mechanics or ability to hit multiple targets.

Updated: January 19, 2021 to account for balance changes in patch 5.4.

SAM
NIN
MNK / BLM (crit build)*
DRG / SMN
RDM
MCH
BRD
DNC

*Data on BLM SpS build as a dance partner is not available due to length in time to reach BiS with this build as of this update, but value as a dance partner is believed to drop significantly between the two builds due to under utilization of Devilment.

Advanced Guide

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 02:44:58 +0000

This guide will be updated for Dawntrail at a later date.

Non-Standard Guide

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 22:45:15 +0000

Placeholder

Test page.

Advanced Guide

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 03:36:15 +0000

Introduction

This guide will cover some Endwalker Red Mage optimization concepts and principles that aren’t fully covered in the basic job guide. The intended audience includes:

Red Mage players who have the fundamentals mostly down and are familiar with all the concepts in the basic job guide, but are trying to improve.
High performing Red Mage players who get good logs through good GCD uptime, intuitive sense and repetition but wish to augment their theoretical understanding.
Players who have experience optimizing other jobs but are trying out Red Mage.

Some of the content here will cover concepts that are obvious to people who have experience playing other jobs at a high level. Other aspects will be unique to Red Mage.