Seems like there are a few camps that are complaining about viper.

1. The casual player who likes viper's aesthetic (two swords, leather fantasy) - but finds it very difficult to play the job comfortably. They're staring at their hot bars + wondering about positional + high Actions per minute.

2. People who enjoy playing jobs at midcore to higher levels but have a habit of "memorizing" where they are in their rotation by which button they're pressing. (if my 1-2-3 combo is spread into different buttons, I know exactly where I am in my rotation without looking at anything else other than the boss and mechanics)

Viper's consolidation of the basic combo to 2 buttons that branch out to multiple combos means you're probably going to pay attention to either your buff icons/vipersight/hotbars to know where you are for your positionals/pre-burst window.

the consolidation gives them less ability to "memorize" where they are and that's uncomfortable.

3. a subset of players who just have general issues with trying to map hotbar/crosshotbar setup that makes their OLD logic of "oh this is how my logic is of hotbars/controller is setup for ALL my melee jobs -- then suddenly they have to do things a bit differently for viper and that makes them feel uncomfortable.

It is also the poster job of Dawntrail, so these subgroups want the job to match them because they're attracted to the job.

Given that Viper is the MOST PLAYED DPS JOB by a HUGE margin, it is natural that higher players = more complaints.

but alas:

"A JOB for everyone is a job for NO ONE"

We can always say they just need to get better at the game, but it doesn't change the fact that if so many of your players LOVE a job, that means they're playing the game and paying $$$$$ because they love the job.

so there's business pressure to do something about it if it's the most popular job you have or else you risk a buttload of people getting disappointed.

Talk about suffering from your marketing success at selling a game by selling a job fantasy.

No one is going to win this. They will make changes somehow to the job to make it more accessible to retain $$$$ subscribers.

it's a business decision ultimately.