Viper Changes Thread - Share your thoughts

[einschwartz]

Oh bummer!
My VPR may only be Lv92 before patch, and I'm never great at playing melee myself; but the changes sucks. It's even more disgusting that now it even highlights the first button as you alternate between combos. There's no thought process needed while playing apart from positionals. Just press the glowing button and have zero worries about buff upkeep.

I dislike it. 1 month is really so short to be changing a NEW job like this.

[Zytoryu]

Very disappointed in these changes myself. I don't dislike Viper without Noxious Gnash by any means but I do think it was a very cruel rug pull when everyone was expecting to lose Dreadwinder Positionals instead. Absolutely awful communication on their part.
Would hope to see it reversed personally.

[Phlurg]

Job complexity in the future? The Lies of (yoshi) P

[Amh_Wilzuun]

This change is terrible. I’d say it’s even worse than the kaiten removal.

I think it’s pretty messed up that they said they would remove positionals and busyness only to remove buff management. The feedback they have been getting was for the former and we didn’t even know removing the latter was on the table so we weren’t even able to express that we wanted to keep NG

[Colt47]

Oh bummer!
My VPR may only be Lv92 before patch, and I'm never great at playing melee myself; but the changes sucks. It's even more disgusting that now it even highlights the first button as you alternate between combos. There's no thought process needed while playing apart from positionals. Just press the glowing button and have zero worries about buff upkeep.

I dislike it. 1 month is really so short to be changing a NEW job like this.

No! It's not working the way you think! The highlighting does NOT tell you what to use next. The highlighting states what has a potency buff or what limited skill is available to use! That is why the change is bad because it is deliberately sabotaging the learning experience on how to dps on viper. The fundamental rule of DPS jobs is to use limited resources first ahead of common resources. If I have an ability with two charges and it has double the potency of a primary GCD, the idea is to use that skill first. However, once someone is in the throw of the main GCD cycle, that information gets lost because the highlighting is going to keep highlighting one or another skill on the main GCD plus the OGCD attached to them. So what happens is that people miss using the important skills. That was my experience going through the target dummy test and the expert roulette. On top of which, forcing myself around that problem by actively paying attention to cooldown buttons and changing the layout of the hot bars to compensate resulted in getting hit by easily dodge-able attacks. If the job were a bit slower paced this might work okay: An example would be dancer since they generally have a slower pattern except on the dance steps. But it is pretty clear Viper wasn't designed for this current iteration.

[SeaJae]

Viper had one status effect to watch. The two buffs come automatically when played right, focusing on the GCD one on fight initiation.

Funny you're calling be the beginner here lol, been playing the game for some time now.

Idk where people get off on acting like they are an authority on a job when there's receipts available on the internet that show, that in fact, they are far from it.
All job mechanics are simple when you don't play the job correctly.

[Komarimono]

Idk where people get off on acting like they are an authority on a job when there's receipts available on the internet that show, that in fact, they are far from it.
All job mechanics are simple when you don't play the job correctly.

And the job was never hard, ever. Implying keeping up a debuff took skill can be seen in many ways, most not good.

[KooriGraywolf]

Reapplying a debuff is an unnecessary mechanic. I prefer Viper without Noxious Gnash

[Nathavin]

I really hope they revert these changes. Gnash was one of the few choices this job had, a very small but fun optimization.

[W00by]

A lot of people are saying that "this change didn't do much" to the job, and I'd like to take a moment to dispel that opinion.

On a training dummy, yes, you are mostly just alternating between Steel Fangs and Reaving Fangs, and in a full-uptime fight situation, Noxious Gash was just something you applied and kept up without thinking about.

But this world doesn't exist in a full-uptime situation. In fights where the boss would leave, or new additional enemies would appear, Noxious Gash became very interesting. For instance, take Valigarmanda's phase before ult, where he summons the additional enemies that must be DPS'd down. The Viper now has some new problems they must face:

1. How do I apply Noxious Gash to the first add I'm fighting?

2. How do I apply Noxious Gash to a second add if the one I'm fighting dies first?

3. How do I reapply Noxious Gash to Valigarmanda when he reappers?

It was possible to do all of these things without hitting an enemy that didn't have Noxious Gash. You could save a Dreadwinder charge for the start of the phase, and use Dreadwinder on the first add you hit. Then, you could finish 1 combo, and use Uncoiled Fury on your add so you don't have to start another combo until your add is dead. Since you are on a fresh combo for the next add, you could start with Dread Fangs, and DPS the last add down. And, at this point you had another Dreadwinder charge, so when Valigarmanda came back, no matter where you were in your combo, you could immediately reapply Noxious Gash to prepare for the 2 minute window.

Interesting choice. Optimization. Skill expression. Saying "Noxious Gash did nothing for the job, these changes are meaningless" is a bold-faced lie. Imagine how interesting Viper could have been, planning Noxious Gash around Ultimate trios, downtime phases, two-target bosses. . .

Now we have a sterile rotation that is decided for you the moment you pick your first GCD. What do I do when Valigarmanda summons his Nails? Just keep pressing the flashing buttons, I guess. Just like before, and just like every other time, ad infinitum.

PLEASE listen to the experienced Vipers here, we know what we're talking about. . .