Viper is the new melee DPS job introduced in Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the Viper’s gameplay, covering its opener, basic rotation, resource management, burst phase, and area-of-effect (AoE) actions. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just picking up Viper, this guide will help you understand the fundamentals and optimize your Viper DPS.
Viper Opener: Setting the Stage for Success
The Viper opener is designed to smoothly integrate into party buffs and establish a strong foundation for your rotation. It utilizes the unique mechanics of Viper to maximize damage from the beginning of an encounter.
Viper opener skill sequence, highlighting Reaving Fangs, Swiftskin’s Sting, and Vicewinder for buff alignment and burst setup.
The opener begins with two preparatory hits: Reaving Fangs followed by Swiftskin’s Sting. These actions allow you to buffer the opener, aligning it effectively with party buffs that often appear at the start of combat. Following these, Vicewinder is used to complete your initial buffs and prepare for a robust burst window.
Prioritizing the haste buff from Swiftskin’s Sting early in the opener is crucial. This haste buff shortens subsequent Global Cooldowns (GCDs) within the Vicewinder combo and optimizes your action speed for the rotation that follows. After initiating with Reawaken, you should use your strongest available skills. In later phases, particularly around the 2-minute mark, ensure your buffs are refreshed before transitioning into back-to-back Reawaken phases to maximize damage during burst windows.
Mastering the Basic Rotation: Steel Fangs, Reaving Fangs, and Vicewinder
The core of Viper’s rotation revolves around a straightforward 3-hit weaponskill combo, efficiently managed using two primary buttons. While the skill transformations might seem complex initially, the execution is remarkably intuitive.
Viper basic rotation flowchart illustrating the interplay between Steel Fangs, Reaving Fangs, and Vicewinder combos for damage and buff management.
Let’s break down the basic rotation flow:
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Combo Starters: The first hit in your rotation alternates between Reaving Fangs. Both skills deal equal damage, but using one grants a buff to use the other in the next rotation cycle. In practice, you will consistently alternate between these two as your combo’s starting point.
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Second Hit – Buff Choices: The second hit presents a choice between two transformed actions. Reaving Fangs transforms into Swiftskin’s Sting, granting a haste buff. These transformations are consistent regardless of your initial choice, ensuring predictable buff application.
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Third Hit – Positional Finishers: The third hit offers four possible actions, but you will only choose between two based on your second hit selection.
- If you used Hunter’s Sting, you unlock Flanksting Strike and Flanksbane Fang, both requiring Flank positioning.
- If you used Swiftskin’s Sting, you unlock Hindsbane Fang and Hindsting Strike, both requiring Rear positioning.
- Each of these third-hit options provides a buff that enhances the power of a different skill, following a fixed rotation: Flanksting Strike → Flanksbane Fang → Hindsbane Fang, and then repeats. Landing a third hit also transforms your Serpent’s Tail into Death Rattle for extra damage and grants 10 Serpent Offerings.
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Following the Flow: After the opener, the game visually guides you towards the optimal choice for your next combo through glowing buttons and your Job Gauge. The side of the gauge that glows indicates whether to use Reaving Fangs (right) and their respective transformations. Adhering to these visual cues is vital for maximizing damage output.
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Buff Maintenance: The rotation of the four third hits inherently encourages alternating between the second hits, simplifying the maintenance of both damage and haste buffs. By following the opener and the game’s visual prompts, you’ll naturally pair Reaving Fangs with Swiftskin’s Sting.
Viper’s Job Gauge, Vipersight, indicating skill priority through glowing prompts for optimal rotation execution.
In addition to the standard rotation, Vicewinder introduces another 3-hit combo. The second and third hits of Vicewinder, Hunter’s Coil and Hunter’s Coil, a Flank positional, provides the damage buff, while Hunter’s Coil buffs Swiftskin’s Coil buffs Twinblood Bite. These bites further enhance each other, leading to a sequence like:
Vicewinder → Hunter’s Coil → Swiftskin’s Coil → Twinfang Bite.
These GCDs have a longer base cast time of 3.0s compared to the standard 2.5s, making weaving in off-GCD actions straightforward, regardless of ping.
Serpent Offerings and Reawaken: Unleashing the Burst
The Serpent Offerings gauge, Viper’s resource mechanic, fills during standard rotation to enable Reawaken and burst phases.
As you execute your standard rotation, you’ll accumulate Serpent Offerings. Once you reach 50 points, you can activate Reaving Fangs, Reawaken itself, which ends the burst phase.
After each Generation skill, you can use a corresponding off-GCD Legacy action: Serpent’s Tail. The Reawaken phase is a relatively straightforward sequence of button presses, as seen in the opener.
Reawaken. This allows for the immediate Reawaken in the opener and facilitates double-Reawaken burst windows every two minutes. Viper is generally resource positive, ensuring you’ll have ample Offerings, requiring strategic planning for their usage.
Crucially, Reaving Fangs combo, but it does break your Vicewinder combo. Plan your rotations accordingly to avoid unintended combo breaks.
Rattling Coil and Uncoiled Fury: Flexible Damage Options
Vicewinder and Serpent’s Ire grant Rattling Coils, represented as red gemstones on your job gauge. Each coil enables the use of Uncoiled Fury, a potent action with a 3.5s recast time. Uncoiled Fury initiates an off-GCD combo with Twinfang and Twinblood, transforming them into Uncoiled Twinfang and Uncoiled Twinblood.
While useful in the opener, Uncoiled Fury is flexible and can be used whenever Rattling Coils are available. It’s particularly valuable for maintaining damage during mechanics that require disengagement or for adjusting your rotation leading up to a burst phase due to its range and immediate impact.
Viper Burst Phase: Maximizing Party Buffs
Viper’s burst phase is not driven by personal damage cooldowns but relies on aligning with party buffs, which typically synchronize with the 120-second intervals tracked by Reawaken. With sufficient Offerings, you can immediately follow up with a second Reawaken after the first concludes. This double-Reawaken allows you to unleash two Ouroboros under party buffs for significant damage amplification.
This extended burst window, lasting over 22 seconds, necessitates refreshing your buff timers beforehand. Focus on renewing the damage and speed buffs from Hunter’s and Swiftskin’s skills, respectively, as their 40-second duration might not last through the entire burst if not recently reapplied. The 60-second buffs from finishers and the Reaving Fangs buff are less likely to expire. Remember, you can initiate a basic 1-2-3 combo, execute the double Reawaken, and then complete the combo afterward to maintain buff uptime.
Viper Area of Effect (AoE) Actions: Handling Multiple Targets
Viper features a comprehensive suite of AoE actions mirroring its single-target skills. The combo transitions to Death Rattle.
Vicewinder has an AoE counterpart in Twinfang – Twinblood Thresh and Twinfang Thresh – functioning similarly to the single-target versions.
Reawaken combo are also inherently AoE. In dungeon scenarios with trash mobs, your rotation remains largely consistent, simply substituting single-target skills with their AoE equivalents. Currently, all AoE actions are advantageous on three or more targets.
Final Thoughts: Embracing the Viper
Viper gameplay blends buff management, reminiscent of Samurai, with a 3-hit combo structure akin to Monk. The rotation is intuitive, guided by visual cues, and the burst phase emphasizes buff alignment and resource management. Viper is a purely damage-focused melee DPS job, lacking raid utility or personal mitigation, rewarding players who master its dynamic rotation and burst timings.
Changelog
- August 1st, 2024: Opener image updated with correct skill names.
- July 30th, 2024: Updated for Patch 7.05; opener image corrected for skill name accuracy.
- July 21st, 2024: Improved gauge and guide images; fixed typo in opener section.
- July 18th, 2024: Guide updated for Dawntrail full release.
- June 8th, 2024: Media Tour information incorporated.
- May 31st, 2024: Guide created and published.
