New Job: Viper

[SeverianLyonesse]

Why are we reaching this far when Kiss of the Viper was a literal FFXIV Rogue ability.

As for the name, Viper, more generally... it tends to pop up in fiction as a name for orders of assassins or enforcers of a sort that, once disturbed, are lethal in a quick and "no witnesses" sort of way (by stealth or by comprehensiveness), usually either per some sort of peasant militia, a professional guild, or a part of organized crime.

Well if it was a Rogue ability, that just makes me further wonder why they are poaching from Ninja's history and not designing something completely distinct. More to the point, I am not trying to find sources to justify it as a Rogue class when virtually nothing about it communicates "Rogue" other than technically being related to Zidane, and being an insufferable edgelord with the cringey snake motifs.

And yeah, I still am not buying it. Firstly, Viper tends to be the name of orders, not archetypal classes. I don't believe it exists as its own archetype in the fantasy lexicon, nor does its name popping up one of any number of animals make it any more or less appropriate as the indisputable best name for an assassin class. And secondly, I don't even really see much in this class as being an "Assassin", and think that those parts that could even be construed as Assassin-ish overlap too heavily with Ninja. I don't think the game needed or wanted an Assassin class when Ninja existed, and I think the most natural way to implement Zidane's job fantasy and overall vibe was as a Hunter. The design of this job screams "Hunter" to me, or "Would-Be-Hunter-If-We-Hadn't-Insisted-On-Retrodding-Ninja's-Edginess".

I'm bored by it. But you are correct about one thing. This job does feel like they carved out "Kiss of the Viper" and tried to make an entire class out of it. And that's just so flippin' boring and uninspired to me. We already have the assassin class. It was Ninja all along. We wanted a SCOUTING class, something to complement Ninja while adding *new* dimensions to scouting, not repeat it.