Why VPR has no defensive skill?

[lilmoon]

Viper is a selfish DPS job that has nothing to offer to the party. But unlike Samurai, VPR doesn\\'t even have a self-defensive skill.
I am curious to know S.E.’s decision behind it.
S.E. could have given VPR a passive movement speed buff like NIN at least, which doesn\\'t break the lore as they both wear the same armor type too.

[W00by]

My guess is that they think Viper doesn't really have a good place to use a defensive skill. Viper is the highest APM job in the game at the moment, with long periods where the entirety of your oGCD weave space is occupied by oGCDS (namely the Reawaken bursts and the Vicewinder followups). If Viper had a defensive skill that could be used on the oGCD, players might use it in the middle of a period like their Reawaken burst and end up clipping their GCDs, leading them to playing suboptimally. And unlike other jobs, Viper can't just move its oGCDs to another place or hold them for later. After Hunter's Coil, you MUST Twinfang and Twinblood, or you're strictly losing a use, so you just can't really defensive there.

It can already be kind of tricky not weave-locking yourself out of Feint or True North at times, and oGCDs on Viper already require more careful planning than other weaponskill based jobs because of these inflexible weaves. Perhaps they thought one more oGCD would break the bank and cause Viper players to play poorly? We already know from the 7.05 changes that they think Viper is the hardest job in the world and needs to be simplified more and more each patch, so it doesn't surprise me they wouldn't trust the playerbase with some kind of defensive. I don't necessarily agree with that, but we've seen how they've been designing the class lately. . .

[CKNovel]

My guess is that since VPR can strike from afar without losing damages, it's compensated by a lack of personal defensive.
Which is pointless since you can simply have a heal/tank throwing single target mitigation on them to compensate.

[ovIm]

I would argue that Uncoiled Fury could technically count as a pseudo defensive, as you can safely disengage while keeping your GCD rolling at no cost of personal DPS. So its more of a job that evades damage rather than tank it outright.

[nguyentri11]

More likely situations that urge melees to press their self-defensives are when unavoidable damage seem like they're going to kill them because their HP seems low. Avoidable attacks that force you to disengage(and probably give Damage Downs in Savage) seem like the less likely scenario to use them unless you realize you're going to be too late in dodging it.

[AvoSturmfaust]

Because Bloodbath is straight up absolutly busted compared to other Melees, Viper hits fast and hard, everything is physical press RA and bloodbath, watch your hp and dont forget you got the most broken range melee skill in the game guess its some kind of tradeoff

[Ayan_Calvesse]

Viper is a selfish DPS job that has nothing to offer to the party. But unlike Samurai, VPR doesn\\'t even have a self-defensive skill.
I am curious to know S.E.’s decision behind it.
S.E. could have given VPR a passive movement speed buff like NIN at least, which doesn\\'t break the lore as they both wear the same armor type too.

Viper does have 3 slither charges which is really good for avoiding mechanics I guess? Also as it shares the SAM DnA is also has vastly superior mobility.

[koko-on-da-forumz]

FFXIV players : Please stop with all this homogenization!

Also FFXIV players : WTF why don't I have this minor inconsequential skill that everyone else has????

[CKNovel]

FFXIV players : Please stop with all this homogenization!

Also FFXIV players : WTF why don't I have this minor inconsequential skill that everyone else has????

Jobs can have skills with similar purpose but with different uses to reflect their identity without homogenizing the jobs.

Reaper's Arcane crest is 30 seconds and has a hot on the whole team, good and flexible mobility.
Dragoon has a lot of instant mobility, higher armor and self healing (thought very weak and not flexible...)
Ninja has a personal shield, very strong but long cooldown, also able to strike from far away thanks to Ninjutsu.
Samurai has a short self protection that ends up in a DPS gain.
Monk has a very powerful but long cooldown riddle of earth that can also heal allies.

I don't think it would be bad if Viper would have a cooldown that increases their HP for 20 seconds or something similar.

[koko-on-da-forumz]

Who cares even a little if job identity is 'reflected' if the system is identical.

That's like saying Inner Release and Delirium are sufficiently differentiated.

I swear to god, FFXIV players are the worst.