RPR in 7.0

With job changes for DRG and AST coming, it got me thinking about how SE can expand on my new fav job - RPR. Honestly, as it is now it feels very complete. It's my favorite job by far thematically and it flows very well.

There's not much I'd change about it currently. I don't think Arcane Crest is much to write home about, I see it as more useful to us as a shield than to the team as a heal but it's still nice to have. I also wish Harvest Moon was an oGCD (though not sure how that'd affect balancing) but other than that the job to me is very well designed.

Come 7.0 we're bound to see some new abilities and changes in our rotation. I'm curious what other players want in 7.0 RPR. Personally I think it'd be cool to expand on our Enshroud phase. Either give us more fast-paced attacks to stretch out Enshroud or some utility like our Voidsent coming out to take hits for us for a short time. I really like the idea of us working in tandem with it.

What do you guys think? Have any ideas for what RPR could get in 7.0? (Also PLEASE give us that pose in the trailer with the Voidsent coming out and surrounding us)

Harvest Moon is fine as a GCD, planning its use around movement downtimes is the only strategy element of the job right now. If you make it an oGCD it's just yet another strictly 120s burst skill.

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Originally Posted by ThorneDynasty

Harvest Moon is fine as a GCD, planning its use around movement downtimes is the only strategy element of the job right now. If you make it an oGCD it's just yet another strictly 120s burst skill.

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Yeah not everything needs to be a ogcd.
I mean I wouldn't necessarily be against SSS having some other use for MNK too but it's fine as it is too.
Having tools that aren't actively just used on cd is fine, and I think downtime skills are good too.

Harvest Moon isn't meant to be just another damage skill like any other making it an ogcd would kinda just defeat its purpose.

RPR definitely needs some changes in PVP it's the worst dps at the moment.

Maybe more additions to its single target and aoe combo chains? Personally, I feel it just needs a few more attacks so the job doesn't feel like its going in circles so much with how you perform your attacks.

Like how Samurai has different branches for combo attacks, maybe a little bit of that could be added to Reaper.

At present, the main thing that RPR could currently benefit from is about a 5 second shorter recast on Enshroud (i.e. 10 seconds instead of 15). They could also probably merge the Communio keybind down with Harpe sometime between now and next expansion. There are times where I wish that Threshold lasted about 5 seconds longer as well.

New expansions typically introduce about three new actions. The first thing that I'd add in is an additional movement tool, given how portal manipulation features in Void Magic. One way of doing this is to simply let the player step into a portal and temporarily disappear. During this time, attacks still register, perhaps at reduced damage, but draw-in and knockback effects do not. On clicking on a desired location, you reappear and perform a weaponskill as you emerge. Another option is to just add in a movement passive that lets you double jump and glide at a faster movement speed with your Voidsent. Another variant approach would to have a simple 'Return' ability, where you place a permanent duration marker somewhere on the map and can return to it simply by executing the ability a second time, although an alternative to this is just to increase Threshold's duration, as above. I've considered the idea of a party portal between two points with say 'x uses', but the devs tend to be very conservative with party movement actions.

As far as new offensive abilities are concerned, I'd like to see something similar to the recurring 'Spell-in-Waiting' Void Magic ability that shows up in association with a certain character in Eden. Essentially, you'd queue up a sequence of actions in sequence, either pre-pull or during downtime, and then have your Voidsent companion execute them after either the timer elapses or you press the ability again. Ideally, you wouldn't need an active target to queue the sequence, and it executes when you perform the attack. It would be nice if this was a way to get an early 50 gauge specifically on your opener on top of Plentiful Harvest.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

One way of doing this is to simply let the player step into a portal and temporarily disappear. During this time, attacks still register, perhaps at reduced damage, but draw-in and knockback effects do not.

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This is actually a really cool idea, I do think that utility needs to be diversified a little, in a way Thunderclap sorta acts as anti-knockback too if you can make skillful and reactive use of it and without sacrificing damage ( altho probably not a good idea to try unless you have some distance to work with ).
Same with Feint I think it's a tad boring how it's just the same for everyone.

I like the '' Spell-in-Waiting '' idea too.

-Buff communio. After they brought the rest of the dps up to where rpr was at, it feels so meh in comparison. make it like 2000 potency with 60% reduced for other targets. Its our big attack but feels like I'm throwing a wet paper ball.

-Make Harpe a regular range attack like shinpu or kunai. Why pair the movement abilities with it in the first place.

-Give us another path to harvest moon. Make it so we can spend 50 of the red bar to use it. Cause outside of transitions in boss fights, I'm never using soulsow ever so a nice hitting single/aoe is just sitting there collecting dust.

-Personally I would love it if enshroud was a transformation like what demon hunters can do in wow with metamorphosis. A transformation that just lets us go batshit insane for like a full minute before we are forced to use communio or a new big finisher.

-Get rid of the positionals too. Why does enhance void/cross reaping get no positionals yet we still have to for gibbet and gallows. Get rid of the positionals and keep the enhance trait for both.

-Lastly make death design automatic on your 1,2,3 and aoe 1,2. Free up up those 2 buttons for something else. or just increase the potencies to reflect the 10% dmg boost.

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Originally Posted by JisKing98

-Get rid of the positionals too. Why does enhance void/cross reaping get no positionals yet we still have to for gibbet and gallows. Get rid of the positionals and keep the enhance trait for both.

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This is a slippery slope you don't want to go down; get rid of the positionals then it quickly starts the argument of "why does Gibbet/Gallows exist as two separate buttons when it does the same potency" and then that quickly becomes "get rid of one its button bloat the job will be just as fun with only one" etc etc. Reaper is already pretty braindead IMO, as tacked on as the positionals feel I think the job would feel worse without them. Death's Design should be an AoE drop off button though IMO, Reaper is kinda fat with all the AoE buttons it has.

I’m liking the responses! I admit, I was wrong about Harvest Moon. Still, I’m not sure if RPR should go more utility or more damage in the future.

I kinda assumed they’d be a very strong/selfish damage dealer - I don’t see our Voidsent caring about anyone else but our own damage. Then again, it’d make sense for us to have more support for others since we bonded with a demon to support us.

I hope at least at some point we see an extended time with our Voidsent out. Maybe protecting us/buffing us a la Kingdom Hearts’ Ansem and his Heartess, coming out of our shadow and looking over our backs.

I think the free answers are going to be trait upgrades (eg Melee Mastery), a new oGCD that isn't gauge locked and instead runs on a timer (like Gluttony, only I expect this one to give gauge rather than consume it) and a GCD follow-up to Communio (ala Paladin swords after Request Cat).

The base is already pretty streamlined as is, but there are a lot of spaces they could add in a new oGCD. Having it generate gauge would also help prep you for the Circle window since your GCDs in there are going to have to be Communio-follow up and Bountiful Harvest. I say 'have to' because I doubt they'll let you just build up stacks of the follow up, it'll likely be use it or lose it. This kills the Triple Communio meme but I don't think SE was ever fond of that in the first place.

As for what I'd like to see? The Communio follow up, it can be either GCD or oGCD. I like the hit visually and want to see it expanded on. From there it depends on whether they want RPR to be on the utility scale. I'd be fine with being the lowest damage melee if it meant having some interesting utility. For example, it would be cool to have a larger shield like Crest that you plop down around you, and it absorbs damage dealt to anyone inside up to a cap. That's a pipe dream, though. It would be brokenly overpowered for the way this game is designed concerning mit if it was actually useful. And if they want it to be higher on the dps scale, well we don't really need new abilities for that. That's just number changing.

You actually don't want to increase the length of the Enshroud window with additional actions at all. Right now, there's room for two Enshroud windows under Arcane Circle (if you use two filler SoDs between Enshroud and Arcane Circle to start the Enshroud recast early, which in turn requires you to start your burst with 9 or less seconds on Death's Design) and three under your potion. Adding more steps to this will likely make this more awkward than it already is. The best thing to do is just reduce the recast of Enshroud by 5 seconds to remove the need for filler GCDs, while leaving the Enshroud sequence itself untouched.

Adjustments to Harvest Moon to recharge it more easily, likewise, are not a good idea because GCD space within Arcane Circle is at a premium. You end up just delaying a GCD of similar potency that actually generates Shroud. It's primary function is to deal with forced disconnects from the boss. You'd have to buff Harvest Moon itself by attaching some gauge gain to it, which in turn would probably create a bigger performance gap on the job.

On the subject of buffs, the one unique flavor that RPR brings to the table is that it uses other players actions during Arcane Circle to charge up Plentiful Harvest. I think if you want to add utility effects to the job, it's important to remember that while the RPR provides a benefit to others, the job also uses everyone else's power to benefit themselves. It's much like making a deal with Voidsent - it needs to go both ways.

Overall, I'd like to see RPR really excel in mobility, and that's where I'd like to see the bulk of the focus go for new actions.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

Overall, I'd like to see RPR really excel in mobility, and that's where I'd like to see the bulk of the focus go for new actions.

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This. (In addition to the warnings above.)

Build on oGCDs and what nuance they can provide, including towards GCDs, rather than the frequency (or worse, number) of GCDs you'd want to fall into already tight windows.



Sidenote: If you want utility without being taxed universally for it, you make it an at-cost option. Can do that with a second, optional step of Arcane Crest.

Here's what I'd like: Let us use enshroud whenever we have shroud gauge and the number of enshrouded GCD's we get is dependent on how much gauge we used. IE if you have 70 shroud gauge you enter enshroud and you have 7 lemure shroud stacks (blue orbs). You must have at least 30 gauge to use communio so you can't just spam it. This would make enshroud much more flexible and could help with things like alignment and could let reaper have more use in low uptime scenarios. Also you would be able to save up for pot/buff windows with a double or triple enshroud. And enshroud's cooldown should be lowered to around 10 seconds.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

You actually don't want to increase the length of the Enshroud window with additional actions at all. Right now, there's room for two Enshroud windows under Arcane Circle (if you use two filler SoDs between Enshroud and Arcane Circle to start the Enshroud recast early, which in turn requires you to start your burst with 9 or less seconds on Death's Design) and three under your potion. Adding more steps to this will likely make this more awkward than it already is. The best thing to do is just reduce the recast of Enshroud by 5 seconds to remove the need for filler GCDs, while leaving the Enshroud sequence itself untouched.

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This is why I expect it to be a GCD follow-up, because it's a simple change that'll break everything.

Delete Soulsow, and just have Harvest Moon be a 60 second cooldown. :D

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Originally Posted by Super_Smiley

Delete Soulsow, and just have Harvest Moon be a 60 second cooldown. :D

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Which ultimately then means remove any and all Reaper downtime potency recovery and give Reaper 1 more apm (at ultimately no increase to their rDPS, as the rest of the kit will just be tuned back by the same ppm in balance to its addition, in the end just faintly increasing their portion of damage dealt under raid buffs as to better pad others' numbers).

RPR will either go the stormblood to shadowbringer SAM route (fun to perfect)

or it'll go the GNB route shb to ew (fun af to hot garbage)


The big issue square has created for all classes, is introducing burst rotations for every class. Which unfortunately, has created a massive skill drift issue with most, if not all classes.


if they're smart, they'll either fine tune gcds so everything lines up smoothly or they'll revert back to shb where its up to the player to make sure everything flows correctly. (shb combat was the pinnacle)