Viper Changes Thread - Share your thoughts

[GartredZW]

I only really tried viper in one level 80 trial before 7.05, and I just finished leveling it to 100 yesterday. And I got a couple runs of the first EX trial in too just to see how it plays when in something high end, even if it's one that I've farmed a lot.
I really like Viper right now. It's still probably going to stay my Melee main, in no small part due to the aesthetic of the job gear, and how cool the weapons are. (I've been hoping for a dual wielding sword user for kind of a while now)
At this point though, I feel as though I've pretty much squeezed as much optimization as I can get out of it. With Reawaken lasting about 12 seconds each, all you need to do to maximize burst windows is to just have 50 gauge before the 2 minute mark, Unless you have a pot buff you want to fully max out too. And even then, all it takes is just having one Rattling coil saved before Serpent's Ire. (I'm no raid buff wizard though, so tell me if I'm off-base on this. I'm a Black Mage main, I don't pay attention to those.)
It does feel nice to have Vicewinder combos interspersed between the standard 1 and 2 combos. I feel like they could have done something more creative than just making it a 40 second cooldown though. It works though, and I'm not about to start complaining about that when there's something else to complain about in the room.

Noxious Gnash was something I never really got the hang of, but as I already stated, I only tried it in actual combat against a level 80 trial. It's all just an hour total on a striking dummy besides that. Even as someone who never learned to properly use it, and especially not in between Reawakens, I thought it would be really fun to optimize. Knowing now what I know, that Dreadwinder doesn't really need to be saved for bursts, I liked what kinds of decisions it would encourage.
Each of your three part main combo had a different use. The first part was different depending on how much Noxious Gnash you had left, and whether Dreadwinder was coming off cooldown soon. The second determined which buff you got re-applied, and foreshadowed what positional the next part would have, and the third part did the most damage while giving you a boost to a different finisher in sequence. Now there's no reason to not just pair 1 with 1 or 2 with 2 for the first two hits of every combo. It's to the point where I'll intentionally take the DPS loss when I hit the buttons wrong just to not have to do any 1-2-1 or 2-1-2. Not that I'm suggesting anything other than an all out reversal of these changes, but they could have at least made Vicewinder swap your Honed Steel for Reaving Steel so you'd have to occasionally alter the carefully laid out pattern.

The loss of Noxious Gnash also just makes Vicewinder feel weird. It just does damage, and re-applies the buffs that you most definitely still have up. There's no reason to not just chain two of them together every 80 seconds, and spend Ratts to not overcap.

I find it really funny how they went "we're going to be making positionals on Viper easier" and were met with overwhelming "What the heck. That's a terrible idea. Don't." and they went "oh, ok I guess." Then in the same breath just gave us a whole ass rework on a class that has existed for less than a month without any chance for us to even play it in a savage tier to give informed feedback on.
Let's all collectively pray for 7.08 so hard that we summon an Eikon to fix this situation.