How is the Reaper doing in dps?

[Rainydayz]

This is a sincere question. I thought the reaper class was holding its own, but apparently, "in the dancer world", the reaper class is the bottom of the barrel, and the only class higher than a healer to partner with. I did a run of Aglaia earlier, which had two dancers in the party. There was a tank, the two healers, two dancers, a samurai, a ninja, and me as a reaper. My ilvl is 600 atm, only because I don't get to raid hard core, as I am going through a master's program, and that takes a lot of my time.

At first, both dancers dogpiled on the samurai. Then they separated with only one on the samurai. The other dancer chose to partner with the ninja. The ninja was dead at every fight, sometimes more than once, and my health pool was well over 5k more than the ninjas was. Finally, because the ninja died so many times, the dancer pulled the partnership off of him and didn't partner with anyone else from the Lions in the raid, to the end. It doesn't feel like I am swinging and hitting with a plastic knife, but maybe I am?? Maybe the dancers are far wiser than I am and I am existing in an illusional bubble or something, still having fun on the reaper. But in the real world, the reaper is really crap, and not viable in a group anymore for anything.

So, is the reaper really that bad?? I didn't think the reaper was that horrible. I know for sure I was doing more dps than that dead dps.

[CKNovel]

Max ilvl is 600.

RPR isn't bad, it's a bit lower than other melees and could use a few buffs here and there, but it remains a good job that brings value.
Don't pay attention to who the dancer is partnering, they may be friend or the DNC could simply make a wrong choice. They may have removed partner by mistake and forgot to re-enable it.
Especially in Aglaia, it really doesn't matter as players could play in the worst ways possible and still clear. Many people don't care about how they play.

[Powercow]

How often a job gets selected for dance partner in a 24man isn't an accurate reflection of a job's effectiveness.

Honestly the fact they even remembered to put it on someone is kind of impressive in a 24man; I wouldn't read too much into not being selected.

[Bloodthrone]

I main Reaper and it definitely needs some buffs and changes in PvP but overall it's pretty good. The only thing that I see that needs buffed is are the Shroud abilities and add 2 seconds to arcane crest.

[ThorneDynasty]

Dancer partner job selection is minor optimization anyway (at least between those you mentiond) and/or based how burst based the job is. Most Dancers in normal content never bother to switch after the start of the instance let alone mid-fight. It's the content where you are happy as long as your party can tie their own shoelaces, going above and beyond is mostly done out of boredom.

All the melees are in a couple percent margin anyway, stressing out over meta (let alone viability) in job selection is ridiculous. You don't need to feel insecure because you don't get picked among first for a video game buff, it's not a high school gym class.

[Ruminous]

Dancer partner job selection is minor optimization anyway (at least between those you mentiond) and/or based how burst based the job is. Most Dancers in normal content never bother to switch after the start of the instance let alone mid-fight. It's the content where you are happy as long as your party can tie their own shoelaces, going above and beyond is mostly done out of boredom.

All the melees are in a couple percent margin anyway, stressing out over meta (let alone viability) in job selection is ridiculous. You don't need to feel insecure because you don't get picked among first for a video game buff, it's not a high school gym class.

Says you! High school is serious content!

But seriously, most dancers couldn't find their ass if you handed them a map and a mirror, so don't worry too much about who gets partners. Or they intentionally troll and give it to someone silly.

[CelestiCer]

At first, both dancers dogpiled on the samurai. Then they separated with only one on the samurai. The other dancer chose to partner with the ninja.

I feel this on whole another level...

The Balance discord can provide optimized DP (Dance Partner) choices. Off the top of my head since I haven't checked it in a while it's probably as followed from top to bottom

• Ninja/Reaper
• Monk
• Dragoon/Samurai
• Summoner/Blackmage
• Redmage
• Machinist/Bard
• Dancer

PS: Do correct if I am wrong please.

In reality? On average, Dancers do not care about what's optimal, because your average content doesn't require optimization.

To know what's best you will need something like ACT which is a 3rd party tool, or FFlogs and choosing the one with the best track record that on average players won't use.


Here's a more realistic list on the Dance Partner priority based on personal experience from top to bottom

• Husband/Wife
• Their friend
• Their Static member
• FC member
• Their RPing Dom which could be a Paladin or Sage
• The hottest most revealing glamour player
• F/M Miqo'te
• The one with a very sexualized search info and adventure plate
• The most flirty person chatting in party/alliance chat
• Bun Girl
• Bun Boy
• BiS iLvl Melee player
• A very edgy Blackmage
• The player with probably the most experience doing the content they are in
• Streamer
• The DPS that so happens to be the danger dorito
• Ninja Reaper
• BIS Samurai
• Every other Melee with any iLvl
• Then the Ninja that is 9 levels below you
• DarkKnight for opener
• Mentor player
• Dying Mentor player
• Then BiS Samurai Lala

Scientific research done by totally just me, big nods.
I would type /s but... you know it kinda feels this way xD

[Kolsykol]

Tbh I get the feeling that most DNC just throws it at a random dps.

Edit: Or a Tank lol.
I've even seen DNC throw it at Healers before...

[Lyth]

I think players are gradually becoming aware that Reaper is the weakest melee dps in terms of output at present. That being said, the job was overwhelmingly popular at launch on account of it having fantastic aesthetics, the single best movement ability in the game, and just being all around good fun. They'll probably keep it on the lower end at least until the FotM players finish saturating SAM/NIN next tier. It's better for the job in the long run. Let them beg for buffs, as long as the margins between jobs remains relatively small it's just motivation to beat them by being smarter about uptime and solid on your fundamentals.

[MagiusNecros]

Reaper is fine IMO. Only caveats the class has is niche Harvest Moon use. Which if you wanted a single target gain in the same time it takes to charge up you can just Harpe 3 times for 900 pot.

It's utilities are Arcane Crest/Circle and requires liberal use of the Death Design debuff to maintain a 10% self damage buff akin to OG DRG Heavy Thrust. Not sure if stacking a truckload of Det boosts your passive damage further to get a permanent 15%-20% increase.

And your burst is primarily during Enshroud phases. So build up 100 Shroud and you can go Unga Bunga with your Shroud Skills, throw out Harvest Moon and 1 Harpe and use Communio and then re-enter Shroud and do the same thing except replace HM with 3 Harpes and if you did this during Arcane Circle you can use PH after your 2nd Communio to get 50 gauge for another Enshroud phase and do your Unga Bunga a 3rd time and you are pumping out a lot of damage in a minute once you build it up.

And the HM and Harpe and possible Death Design attacks should only be used to let the Enshroud recast end it's CD which when that happens you use Communio and re-enter shroud immediately.

TLDR : Reaper damage is primarily Soul Reaver stacks and Enshroud.