Gunbreaker Tank Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.1
On this page, you will learn how to optimise your opener and rotation in both single-target and multi-target situations. We also cover the use of your cooldowns, to ensure you can achieve the best use of them every time as a Gunbreaker Tank in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (Patch 7.1).
Gunbreaker Rotation Overview
The Gunbreaker rotation can be boiled down to a priority system. They aim to
build cartridges using weaponskills or Bloodfest, and spend
them inside their main damage buff,
No Mercy. After using it,
they will build up cartridges again. Other weaponskills and abilities will be
used as soon as they are available so that they fit inside
No Mercy.
Powder Gauge
Gunbreakers gain cartridges by finishing either the Solid Barrel
combo for single-target, or the
Demon Slaughter combo for
multi-target. They expend cartridges using
Gnashing Fang and
Burst Strike for single-target,
Fated Circle
for multi-target, and
Double Down for both. Three cartridges are also instantly
generated every two minutes through the use of
Bloodfest, which at level 100 also
grants Ready to Reign, allowing the use of the
Lion Heart combo. Gunbreaker is a
textbook example of a builder and spender class, and uses GCD weaponskills to do
both.
Continuation
Five Gunbreaker weaponskills will change the Continuation
button into a new ability and allow you to use it until you use any other
weaponskill. This is a large portion of your damage and you should always use
these when available. In addition,
Gnashing Fang will turn into
Savage Claw when used, and that will turn into
Wicked Talon.
Using any other combo weaponskill will break this combo. The following skills
can allow successive rounds with your gunblade.
Gnashing Fang allows the usage of
Jugular Rip;
Savage Claw allows the usage of
Abdomen Tear;
Wicked Talon allows the usage of
Eye Gouge;
Burst Strike allows the usage of
Hypervelocity.
Fated Circle allows the usage of
Fated Brand
No Mercy
Inside No Mercy, you should aim to use 9 GCD weaponskills
and all of your abilities, though with some GCD tiers you will only be able to get
8. The order of which you use them depends on the
opener you use. In every single window, you should
use every one of your oGCD abilities.
Blasting Zone
Bow Shock
- All usages of
Continuation allowed
As of Dawntrail, Trajectory replaces Rough Divide as our gap closer ability.
This ability does not do damage, unlike Rough Divide,
and therefore can be freely saved for movement instead of needing to ever use it for DPS.
Even-Minute Windows
Every even minute, you will ideally use these 9 weaponskills, using Bloodfest
once you have 0 cartridges to gain 3 more and proc Ready to Reign.
- The
Gnashing Fang combo:
Gnashing Fang;
Savage Claw;
Wicked Talon;
Sonic Break
Double Down
Burst Strike
- The
Lion Heart combo:
Reign of Beasts
Noble Blood
Lion Heart
Due to the No Mercy buff lasting 20 seconds, you will not be able to fit the
Burst Strike
in the buff if playing at 2.50 GCD speed. With the
Lion Heart combo at level 100, we now have
three extra Cartriges that we can freely spend outside of
No Mercy as long as we retain a cartridge for
Gnashing Fang and still enter
the next
No Mercy window with three cartridges.
Bloodfest has been changed to have a 2 minute cooldown in
Patch 6.2. Always use it when available as long as you have 0 cartridges. If you
have cartridges available and it is about to come off cooldown, expend those
cartridges immediately.
As of Patch 7.1, Double Down now only costs one cartridge instead of two. This means that spending
Burst Strike before entering a
No Mercy window where
Bloodfest
will be used is now required to avoid delaying
Bloodfest or overcapping on cartridges.
Odd-Minute Windows
Every odd minute, Bloodfest is not available. You should aim to use
these 9 weaponskills during
No Mercy.
- The
Gnashing Fang combo:
Gnashing Fang;
Savage Claw;
Wicked Talon;
Sonic Break
Double Down
Burst Strike
Keen Edge
Brutal Shell
Solid Barrel
Due to the No Mercy buff lasting 20 seconds, you will not be able to fit the
Burst Strike
in the buff if playing at 2.50 GCD speed.
Filler Phase
During the filler phase between usages of No Mercy, Gunbreakers
need to build up their cartridges. They do this by using the
Solid Barrel
combo. In addition, the
Gnashing Fang combo and
Blasting Zone both have a 30 second cooldown, and should be
used as soon as they are available. Pioritize building cartridges and only spend them
if you would otherwise overcap, or on
Gnashing Fang, in order to prep for the next
No Mercy window.
Multi-target Priorities
In multi-target situations, replace the Solid Barrel
combo with the
Demon Slaughter combo against three or more targets.
Burst Strike should be replaced with
Fated Circle
at two or more targets. Replace the
Gnashing Fang combo with
Fated Circle at four targets or more. All other aspects of
the rotation stay the same.
Gunbreaker Opener
During the opener, we aim to align our weaponskills and abilities under
No Mercy as well as our party member's raid buffs. You will
find that execution of buff windows after the opener will be similar to that
of the opener.
The Standard Opener
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This opener is intended for use on GCD speeds that can fit 9 GCDs inside of the No Mercy buff, and will be a loss to use if playing Gunbreaker at 2.50.
Some abilities in this opener were moved around compared to the previously posted opener in order to align better with party buffs, which have been standardized to a target time of about X:06-X:07, at least on North American servers.
2.50 Gunbreaker rotation for Dawntrail can be found here.
Gunbreaker Defensive Cooldowns
Gunbreaker has a plethora of defensive cooldowns to utilize in order to mitigate damage taken. This will allow you to survive heavy incoming damage in the form of tank busters, and relieve the healing burden placed on your healers in periods of heavy consistent damage such as boss auto-attacks and dungeon trash packs. Mitigation is calculated multiplicatively (i.e. two 30% reductions will result in 49% damage taken) and it is better to rotate cooldowns rather than use them all at once.
Rampart and
Great Nebula are your bread and butter cooldowns. You will want to rotate these on tank busters, auto-attacks if tank busters will not occur before they are back up, and trash packs.
Camouflage is the Gunbreaker's unique cooldown. It can be used similar to
Rampart, and is extra effective against instances of physical damage due to the increased parry chance.
Heart of Corundum is your short cooldown mitigation ability. It grants two 15% damage reductions as well as a heal if your HP drops below 50% or if the effect expires, whichever occurs first. You will use this early and often on anything from auto-attacks to tank busters, and it can be used on a co-tank in trials and raids if they are taking a tank buster.
Aurora is a targeted heal over time effect you can place on yourself or any party member. Use this on yourself, your co-tank, or both (it has two charges!) after taking heavy damage, or to heal up while taking consistent midrange damage.
Reprisal and
Heart of Light are your raid mitigation abilities. Use the former against casted instances of heavy damage, and use the latter if you need to mitigate heavy raidwide magic damage. As of Patch 7.1,
Heart of Light now also applies 5% physical damage mitigation to the party, instead of only applying 10% magic damage mitigation.
Superbolide is your invulnerability cooldown. As of 7.1, this ability no longer sets your HP to 1, and the responsiveness was improved to apply nearly instantly. Now, if above 50% of your max HP, your HP will be set to 50% and you become impervious to most attacks. If you are below 50% HP, your HP will not change, and you still gain the invulnerability.
- In raids and trials,
Superbolide should be used on multi-hit tankbusters or shared tankbusters in order to save cooldowns.
Arm's Length is a useful mitigation ability for dungeons, as the applied Slow effect will greatly reduce your damage taken by trash mobs.
Low Blow can also be used to Stun trash mobs. Stuns have diminishing effects, so if you have a White Mage in your party the mobs will likely be Stun Immune due to their
Holy.
Changelog
- 13 Nov. 2024: Updated for Patch 7.1.
- 20 Aug. 2024: Updated the opener to better align with standardized raid buff target timings.
- 11 Jul. 2024: Updated opener image.
- 28 Jun. 2024: Updated for patch 7.0.
- 18 Jan. 2024: Updated for patch 6.55.
- 13 Oct. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.5
- 29 May 2023: Updated for Patch 6.4
- 12 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.3
- 09 Sep. 2022: Updated for Patch 6.2
- 20 Apr. 2022: Updated for Patch 6.1
- 16 Feb. 2022: Page added.
Guides from Other Classes
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Torael Valdis, or Tor for short, is an experienced raider in FFXIV who has been playing the game since the tail end of the Heavensward expansion. His experience includes multiple Week 1 Savage Tier kills as well as completion of each Ultimate Raid in the patch they were released. You can find him in The Balance Discord where he currently is active as a melee DPS mentor. He also occasionally streams early prog on his Twitch.
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