ADHD player asking for advices for 1st non-mage, melee DPS job

[aereniil]

for positionals keep in mind that you dont have to walk the entire 90 degree from the middle of the back to the middle of th side and then back again.

when you target enemies the circle you see on the ground around them helps you. there where its open is the back area. you can just stand where the circle starts and only do a few steps to reach the necessary position.

if enemies dont have that open area in the circle you don't have to care about positionals at all.

Ooooh, thanks a lot ! Didn't know these circles worked that way (especially the 'open area' I sometimes see). Will try it asap

[VeyaAkemi]

I also have ADHD, and for positionals, to remember them I do two things, one is try to memorize the pattern, if any, that the positionals have, like taking MNK for example, MNK is always 1 rear 2 flank, while some Jobs like VPR are alternating with a small degree of freeform immediately after Vicewinder, so on, another is to literally place a hotbar smack dab in the middle of my screen, set it to 3x4 in your settings, and place all the buttons for your positionals, with rear on one side, and flank on the other, since combo buttons light up when that combo button is next, you can be quickly reminded of which positional is next should you lose track.

[Shistar]

when you target enemies the circle you see on the ground around them helps you.

If you don't have this circle for whatever reason, you can find it in Character Configuration -> Control Settings -> Target -> Scroll down until you find "target ring" in one of the checkboxes.

[Catwho]

Fellow ADHDer here. Like everyone else, I suggest Viper.

It's possible to set it up to essentially have a primary 2 button single target rotation, with only the extras during the burst windows. The buttons get sparkly when it's the correct time to hit them.

[RedLolly]

I'm an ADHD-er that hasn't tried Viper long enough to call it. My favorite melee right now is Samurai, and I like Reaper, too.

I play cross-hotbar and always have since ARR. What's helped me with dealing with focus and consistency is laying out my hotbars in the same relative fashion for similar skills. If that job has a dash skill, it's the same button for every job (L2+Y on page 1. I always put them there). My 1-2-3 combo is in the same place. For healer, same thing, same type of skill is on the same location, with job unique skills laid out as needed that makes personal sense.

Since the rule of thumb is the ABC of Always Be Casting, I can always reliably hit keep damage going while doing mechanics because muscle-memory kicks in.


(When you get to tank, I suggest Gunbreaker.)

[aereniil]

After some delay, I finally gathered the courage to start Viper just a few moments ago. (I was right, the cutscene showing skills is already so cool - as i'm a big fan of anime Kirito )



Thank you so much for all your advice, especially since I couldn’t really understand the in-game guide that popped up when it was unlocked. All the information you shared will definitely help me during practice

It may sound silly, but I’m so excited - it already feels like I’m starting a brand-new adventure (just like when I first began playing the game) !

To begin with, I think I’ll start from the very basics (because my first melee ever in a game):

- Hall of the Novice (update: my bad, I just discovered I can't even access it with Viper lmao)
- Hotbars
- ARR dungeons
- See if I need a gamepad - and if so, finally try to get used to it
- And so on

Update : humble, but just tanked Shinryu at 8% left (both tanks + 1 healer+1 dps died), launched Bloodbath+combos+my first melee LB3 in Trial (4% left), mates killed the tail ==> we got through it !! It was sooooo exciting and satisfying. Hands still shaking x)

Big love

[RedLolly]

Glad to hear it! Enjoy it!!

[Valence]

VPR is like the SMN of melee. Obnoxiously complicated Actions & Traits menu to make sense of, but in reality it's on rails. VPR is essentially a glorified combo filler, just press what lights up next and you'll be good. Then find the couple of skills that have positionals (the 3rd final step of the combo), and weave in your two handed longer cooldowns at your leisure.

[Raikai]

As someone who probably also has ADHD; Viper's rotation is quite simple and very forgiving compared to something like Ninja - both in terms of making mistakes and uptime, thanks to being able to store up to three GCD's worth of high-damage ranged attacks. I admittedly haven't tried Monk, or played much of Dawntrail's gutted version of Dragoon, but I'm pretty sure Viper is the easiest melee DPS.

I agree with this.

VPR's rotation is based on following how the gauge is being lit. If you arrange the keybinds somehow to help you differentiate 'left side actions' from 'right side actions', you can perform the rotation just by looking at the gauge.

VPR is like the SMN of melee. Obnoxiously complicated Actions & Traits menu to make sense of

Classical problem of XIV - they don't know how to format and write tooltips in a way that is clear and direct. You often need to cross reference multiple tooltips in different menus (actions x traits) to understand what stuff does and then you realize "Wait... that's it?!".

I remember when I first played Ninja, trying to make sense of what TCJ actually did took me a good while.

[Jaltaer]

ADHD person who's leveled everything to 100 and therefore has tried all the melees - I gave Viper a shot but IMO it's too simple. Probably not a bad starting point, but I personally found I got bored with pressing 2 buttons very quickly. My go-to melee is Monk, I would definitely recommend giving it a try, especially if you're already comfortable with/enjoy the amount of plates you have to keep spinning on BLM and RDM. Especially now in DT, MNK is a lot more straightforward now and I think not too hard to pick up.

I will say also, the fact that you're asking and clearly willing to learn already puts you ahead of... many, many people I have encountered in DF and PF. And if you're still concerned about performance, give the jobs a shot with Duty Support so you can get in practice in actual fights without having to worry about other people.