One of the things I like about Viper in Final Fantasy XIV is that it fills a gap that the game has heretofore been kind of unable to manage. Dual-wielding in this franchise tends to both happen for Ninja and for non-Ninja physical powerhouses, and Ninja tends to be a more magical-ish job without being an outright mage. For years now, Ninja in FFXIV has very much been the opposite number of Red Mage, a melee class with caster elements instead of a caster with melee elements. But there’s space for other things.
Of course, we still have the last fan festival in less than two weeks along with the media tour and so forth, so right now all we know about how Viper plays is the broad strokes, plus we have a very short preview video showing a handful of melee strikes. Thus, this week I decided to just go ahead and speculate on the things I want for the job. This is based on absolutely nothing beyond the things I would like. It is completely self-indulgent. You are free to disagree, but that is how you should understand it.
A gun for its ranged attacks
Every melee job other than Monk can do something at range, although it’s never a very good attack. This makes sense. Sometimes you just have to back off, but because of how the game works, it would suck if you couldn’t at least snap something. Ninja has throwing knives, Dragoon throws a javelin, Reaper casts a dark spell, and Samurai just flings sword energy at the target. Odds are good that Viper will probably also fling a knife or two, or maybe it’ll have its own ranged thing.
But I want a pistol. Just an unceremonious “pull out a pistol and shoot at the target” moment. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that Tural does not seem to largely be Gun Central, but it would make me happy. And even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, like… you can visually tell that Dragoon is just throwing the spear the Dragoon is holding, and it’s just still there a second later. It’s all right if some of these things don’t make sense.
Grappling hook charges
All melee jobs have some kind of gap closing ability, too. Ninja has a short-range teleport that’s annoying to target, Monk has a quick dash, Reaper and Samurai have a charge and a backstep as necessary, and Dragoon jumps at high speed. It seems a given that Viper will have one as well, and on the same level I’d love it if this were a matter of throwing a grapple at the target and pulling yourself toward it.
You could, theoretically, have ground targeting a la how Ninja works, but that’s kind of a giant pain to do; I personally would prefer if it’s more along the lines of Dragoon and Samurai where your gap closer is actually an attack, instead of a pure mobility tool. I could also see this being the one melee job, based on that, which has no form of backstep (Monk and Ninja can target allies); it’d be flavor and relevant without majorly ruining balance.
Phase-based mechanics
Most of the melee jobs currently in the game have some degree of burst window. Ninja focuses around Trick Attack (and every other Trick Attack you bust out Mug), Dragoon has Life of the Dragon, Samurai builds to its Iaijutsu, and Reaper is building up to merge with its avatar. Only Monk is different and is focused more around a flow state, an even softer “burst” than Samurai; you’re building up and unleashing attacks in sequence, so it’s more about sustained repetition than anything.
What we know about Viper right now is that linking the swords together is for heavier hits, but it’d be kind of nice if we flowed back and forth between linked and unlinked attacks. I find it interesting that the “power up and attack” animation in the above trailer is specifically with separate blades. Plus, it would just make Viper feel more distinct if it were continually weaving back and forth between phases, even if one is a heavier damage period.
Either simple play or high damage
I’ve played Ninja a lot since it first launched, and at this point, Ninja has a problem: It’s a support DPS with a very high skill floor.
As a general rule, FFXIV balances its jobs around support provided, which is correct and proper. Dancer deals less damage than Bard, which deals less damage than Machinist; however, Dancer buffs the damage of others more than Bard, which in turn does more than Machinist. Ninja, as a support DPS in the melee field, is not supposed to be doing more damage than its less-supportive counterparts.
This is fine as far as it goes, but if you actually play Ninja, you know that the job is about doing hand gymnastics to hit all of the buttons required in order to do less damage than Dragoon, which is very simple. It is kind of exhausting. You find yourself longing to play something else because it both ensures your personal numbers will be higher and you won’t have to hammer on your hotkeys like a pianist. (Heaven help you if you click your action bar. I do not judge, you control your character how you like, but Ninja will not be kind to you.)
Viper can move either bar and I’ll be happy. If it’s as chill as playing Dragoon, but it’s a support-oriented DPS, killer. That will be nice. If it’s still as frenetic as Ninja, but it’s closer in support to Samurai – that will also be nice. Just move one of those bars.
There are mismatched sword options
I enjoy symmetry. Most people do. It’s nice to have two weapons that look identical, and Ninja has long enforced that because both of your “knives” (which are often short swords, let’s be real) are identical. Every Ninja weapon is symmetrical, and the one Ninja who had different weapons (Thancred) just got a set that had two separate models from existing paired sets.
Now, I understand why these weapons are single items instead of two separate weapons in the offhand, and it’s the same reason that Paladin weaponry is frequently dropped as a unified pair. The alternative means that main hand and offhand weapons require twice as many drops, and when both of the weapons are technically identical, the coding is just a nightmare based on how the Armoury Chest works. No complaints here; it all makes sense.
But that does not change the fact that I, personally, would like it if Viper had at least a couple of options wherein the two blades do not match up. There may also be technical limitations to doing that, or there might just not be a desire to do those sorts of mash-ups between different sets, but I think it would be nice. Just a personal thing, as all of these are.
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week, we will be on the Week of the Fan Festival (which probably does not need to be capitalized, but I’m doing it anyway), so as I have speculated about the festival and said what I don’t want to see and what I would like to see, I will spend next week talking about what this festival has to accomplish. It’s more than you might think.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
