How do you feel about Viper?

[Lyth]

I'm trying to think of a melee job in Dawntrail that doesn't tell you what your next base combo action is. DRG definitely does, on top of being one of the lowest APM melee jobs and being timer rather than resource dependent. Even current MNK tells you what your next combo action should be, both through the fury gauge and through dotted lines. Even more hilarious is the fact that modern day PB specifically highlights what possible actions under each form you could press next when generating Beast Chakra.

One of the things that I like about VPR's mudra-based combo system is that it does punish you for reading off your hotbar. You should generally have a mental map of at least the next few GCDs in your head in parallel with the next set of mechanics. These rotational guides are really designed for people just picking up jobs for the first time who are going to be staring at their hotbar and trying to make sense of it. You should ideally be able to play your chosen melee HUDless - it's a bit like typing without staring at your fingers. That way you can focus on the mechanics and anticipate your next series of GCDs in relation to the fight. In VPR's case, if you burst/dreadwinder/UF, at minimum you should be able to restart your combo and know your next three GCDs looking only at the NG timer and your current Venom buff. I think going forward, more combo-based jobs should go this 'mudra' route.

A big part of melee is execution at the end of the day. I'm sure if you asked the average forum member for a rough description of how each melee job is played, they probably could outline it in a few paragraphs. But pretty much every melee job has deliberate execution traps that cost you potency. The theory of making sound on a piano is really easy. Now play.

It's fairly common to undersell new melee jobs, and you'll get a lot of one-tricks copy-pasting reddit feelycraft impressions on comparative difficulty with zero personal experience to draw on (and without actually levelling the jobs that they are comparing, in a lot of cases, let alone using said jobs in practical content). It's a bit of that console wars/sour grapes effect, where people downplay the other choices just so that they feel like they haven't made the wrong choice or are missing out. Which they are, in this case.

It also seems to be the current standard to which all melee jobs are comparing themselves to, now, which is great.