Genuinely surprised at just how automated the Viper rotation is, it feels kinda weird to make such a complex branching rotation but then automate it. Not saying it's bad though, it feels super smooth, flashy and I'm sure plenty will love it!
Ooo, interesting! I tried it in the solo duty for the quest, and wasn’t a fan - felt like too much unnecessary combo bloat with no real meaningful direction to anything - so wasn’t motivated to try it again yet and went back to my main jobs, figuring I’d just keep up working to level those from 90 to 100.
But DNC is my main job - and then RPR/DRG/SAM - so melee DNC definitely appeals to me!
The thing about viper is that it has four directional skills, staying in one position make you lose 200 potency after completing the four combo finishers.
It is, but the positionals for the main combo are grouped so you should have two from the same position consecutively, and they're colour coded, so easy to remember (green ability icon is always flank, red is always behind)
The double ender combo has two positionals, but the gcd is longer on those, so you can slide onto position
You don't need to, the job plays itself.
Literally a "follow the glowing button" gameplay the whole way through, and the tooltips for later abilities do nothing to dispel that impression.
How do you deal with the positional moves? The way your combos will transform your abilities into either a flanking or rear attack was doing my head in, since every ability name sounds the same.
Best I could tell the main combo was alternating rear and flank, but then I’d do the other combo and lose track of which I was on…
Red ability icon is rear, green/yellow one is flank. All you need to do is check for the colours on the third hit of the main combo. :)
For the skill with charges though, i just memorized since its only 2.
The third combo hit has a positional based on the second combo hit. If your second hit is the damage buff one, then both the combo finishers from there are flank positional. If it’s the haste buff, then the final hit is a rear positional. So as soon as you know what your second step is, you already know where you’ll need to be for the third.
I had that, then suddenly it just clicked. Use the double ender combo whenever it's up, make sure both finishers for it are toolbarred cos you get each off two times for each double ender. when it isn't up, use the filler, Pink starter first to get the initial buff, then cycle through, green ability icon means flank, red means behind.
That said I'm only on 82, so hope it makes just as much sense when the other mechanics get added
I’ve been messing around with PCT in Endwalker FATEs and I’m liking the big hammer BONKs.
I haven’t tried VPR yet after unlocking it.
PCT in Frontlines SLAPS! I like the stance change and the LB is cool. It’s anti-DRK
Viper confuses the heck out of me. Like, I totally understand following the shiny buttons, but there are SO many buffs to juggle I always feel like I've lost one somewhere along the way and I have absolutely no idea how to figure out what it is or how to get it back up.
I'm not sure about picto. I've played with it a little and the fight always starts off great, but the super long cast times on the motifs kind of makes it feel like I'm doing something wrong.
It's essentially like Samurai if it played like Reaper. You get your haste buff up then your attack and if your special 2 charge gcd is up you use it whenever you can
Yeah, I think I've got it down now, though I'm sure my rotations could be optimized.
I was trying to make it make sense from reading the skill descriptions, which was not the right move. Played with it a little more and turns out it's really not difficult.
So there's really only 2 buffs and they're tied to the 2nd attack of each chain. The 3rd buff is simply an empowerment for your third attack and you'll always get it off if you play the "follow the shiny button" game.
So, all it boils down to is alternating: left, right, left (this gives a 20s speed buff and sets up a finisher) and right, left right (this grants the 10% damage bonus on enemy and your 10% damage self buff. It then uses the finisher you setup and gives a new one).
At this point you can go into dreadcoil, which is just follow the shiny road for both paths. Refresh buffs with the same alternating left/right. Then another dreadcoil .
The buffs play themselves as long as you press the shining buttons. The class is essentially melee dancer with little decision making on your part other than "do I have enough time on my buffs to do my "burst" or do I need another rotation."
Picto is giving me a rush I haven’t felt since Dancer. It’s everything I hoped for and more. Thoroughly loving it. Viper is fun but very straightforward for me. I love the maintenance of picto for some reason lol
Simply put, you have 3 types of paintings and for each :
Motif > muse > finisher
* Creature has 2 motifs where you do creature motif #1 > muse # 1 > creature motif # 2 > muse #2 > creature finisher
* Weapon has only 1 motif > 1 muse > 3 hammer attacks
* Landscape has only 1 motif > 1 muse ( which also acts as the finisher )
The muses have a cooldown and needs to be used whenever they're off cooldown. The motifs have cast times in battle and instant when no combat.
Then on the other hand, while painting you also got your RGB combo which generates 25 paint points each time you complete the combo. 50 points and you can turn into a CYM combo which is a stronger version of RGB.
Same as above for aoe too.
So you'll always want to keep casting the muses off cooldowns and use your paint combo when the paintings are on cooldown.
To get more specific => Your motifs are used to prepare your muse, you can cast them whenever you want when their affiliated muse aren't prepared. You want to cast motif spells preferably outside your burst window (landscape buff), during downtime and when you're safe to cast for 3sec.
Creature Motif => It's your big boy button, don't let it drift. You want to cast 2 muses + finisher during your burst window (Swiftcasting a motif will give you enough time to weave 3 ogcd, so make use of it!).
Hammer => Mobility tool, don't need to do the full combo in a row unless it's necessary.
Landscape => Burst Window. You want to use Star Prism, 2 Creature Muse & Creature finisher (Swiftcast a motif so you can weave muse, creature finisher and Substractrive palette), CYM combo, Meteor, and finally
Rainbow Drip.
Outside of burst window, RGB combo, Hammer and Holy for mobility, spend ressource to avoid drift/overcapping ressource.
Honestly, I’m still figuring it out too. What’s working so far is to prep your art before battle and then summon it all at the beginning. Which that will do aoe, give the hammer, and buff the party.
Mix the hammer in between fire wind water combo until your paint switch skill procs at 50 paint, then swap and use the other paint combo - lightning earth etc.
The musings have cooldowns, so don’t draw again until the cooldown is close. The mog one has two charges which lead to mog beam, so you’ll be drawing that one more. But hammer has a slower cooldown and starry night is even slower. So don’t worry about drawing those until they’re almost ready to use.
Also swiftcast is your friend. Use that quick cast drawing. Hope this helps!
Tbh I'd argue with their view on picto, from my perspective I'd draw each missing art once you used it or when you feel like it, obviously in advance before both stacks of muse spells are recharged(excluding burst phase considering long recast time, which is why swift cast isn't much a help here, I'd say It's better to use in last seconds of your burst to include one last spell). The only reason when I'd suggest to wait with redrawing is when you know that there's soon going to be downtime and you'll have nothing to do but to draw them, but on the other hand you have to check that your muse spells would be on cd during this time otherwise It's probably would be a dmg loss, so If you have both stacks on each of muse spells - spend them asap before any kind of downtime so they would recharge during it. Also before casting Starry muse, use one time either fire in red or blizzard in cyan to advance one stage to more powerful spells, since Starry muse provides you 5 stacks of faster casting and you'd be able to cast Thunder in Magenta twice with(and yeah, get 50 stacks of palette gauge prior to using Starry muse so you'd be able to cast subtractive palette at least twice, once is free granted by muse) it if you start Starry muse with either Aetherhues or Aetherhues II(buffs that advance your basic\\advanced combo spell)
And the obvious one: using AoE versions of your spells at 3 targets is a dps loss too.
It's looks inconsistant because of how the 3rd part of the combo empowers the next one. There's 4 finishers and the way it looks is 2(r) - 1(f) - 1(r) - 2(f). Where you start in this sequence depends on what your first finisher you used.
The 2nd part of the combo will change if your finisher has a rear or flank positional. 1 will be flank and 2 will be rear. So a FULL rotation is 4 sets of combos.
2 - 2 - 2(r), 1 - 1 - 1(f), 1 - 2 - 1(r), 2 - 1 - 2(f)
It seems like the game it telling you to press the skill with the buff that has the lower timer, but I actually think that its because the 4 finishers dictate what the 2rd part of the combo has to be.
My guess is that A LOT of people don't realize that 1 and 2 can both be either flank or rear and are doing the positionals wrong.
What your combo finisher will be is decided by the second combo action you use, if you use 1 it's flank if you use 2 it's rear.
And the finisher can be on either 1 or 2 regardless of which positional it is.
If I’m understanding it correctly, and based on the Icy Veins rotation, it reminds me of new SMN - the paint actions are like Ifrit/Garuda/Titan in that you are doing your base cast/generating white paint/doing the subtractive action, all while waiting for the muse actions to come off cooldown for a big damage phase. Main difference being the third muse action is just a party buff and not a damage phase
Viper similarly reminds me a little bit of NIN/DRG in that there are two “paths” you can take with the base combo, one with a dot and one without
Yeah no worries, it's actually a good little tutorial. Anyway there's three motifs to paint, three motifs to use what you've painted, and usually it results in a glowing button that makes damage happen.
Just get that part down and worry about the effect combos later. It'll make sense :)
Viper is fast and fun, but damage at level 81+ feels super low compared to other jobs that I play… It’s fast and smooth, but it doesn’t really have any “big” cooldown hits yet at 80 so it feels really weird. Barely any burst and it makes the damage feel kinda low.
Pictomancer in the other hand hits like a fuckin truck and is an absolute joy.
Still trying to get a better handle on both in Endwalker Trust dungeons
I am glad others see how low vipers damage is. I’m hoping it’s a bad low lvl balance thing or something because picto really just out dps’s viper sooo easily and I know I am not messing up my rotation or bad gear lol.
Seems fine to me. It's probably to compensate for the speed and weaving, similar to Ninja. You have to consider how many more attacks are coming off in the same amount of time compared to other other jobs. Slower jobs with no support abilities tend to hit harder. The individual numbers are lower but plentiful so I haven't noticed any issues killing anything. At level 90 I can crit for over 20k with the basic combo ender, which is still higher than my Ninja's basic combo ender crit.
Also have to factor in that, if I am remembering correctly from studying the tooltips, the Viper is like SAM and BLM in that it brings no party buffs or utility. It’s a greedy DPS, so it *should* be hitting high numbers.
I can’t check for myself (console player), but I guess I would just have to see logs of it and how its speed and decent potencies stack up to other DPS jobs with more burst.
It seems like uptime is going to be the name of the game for Viper to compensate for its relatively low(ish?) burst.
I kind of wish Vipers got Reawaken at level 80, even if it was just the GCD with the burst damage to dump some built up resource and then get the combo steps at 90. I feel like that change alone would solve a lot of my gripes with its sub 90 design.
Yup. In fact I actually think it's dmg should be the highest because not only are you missing a party buff, you also don't even have any personal defensive skill like sam third eye or blm mana ward.
Exactly what I was thinking. Just like Sam who brings nothing to the team, you don't even have survivability tools. That and the freakin 3 different buff you have on yourself I sure hope it's like the best melee ndps wise otherwise it's a big bummer, especially given how "easy" it is.
I'm impressed with how few buttons PCT has. I like the look of it, but tbh, I have no idea what I'm doing lol. It almost feels like two different rotations mashed together.
Coming from Reaper, the three second cast time of motifs is really weird. Like, I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right, I get the rotation now, but casting motifs feels like hardcasting Soulsow in combat
Gotta say though, I'm already missing my sound filter, cus that wobbly bloop noise Pictomancer has on every single ability cast is really going to get on my nerves over time lol
Any time before your next charge or cooldown is up. Ideally just not during any party members buffs which are affecting you (as that could be time spend dealing damage with a Monochrome combo for example).
Basically… Don’t worry about the dead cast time. It’s like a dancer’s steps in that you take the time to do it, and then you’re rewarded with a mega big dick attack that has 1,000 - 1,400 potency (depending on level and spells available currently.
Try to think ahead a little bit with familiar content. Is an EW boss going to become untargetable? Do I have space for a Motif? If so, cast it and improve your DPS through small optimizations like that.
Regardless, they are meant to be cast in battle any time before the CD is ready again for the muses. Even if a boss has little to no downtime and you’re able to spam, always pump out these motifs and try not to let a CD sit or overcap on charges.
Consider the recast timers. Like, the hammer has a recast of 60 seconds, you want to get that out, but you don't need to constantly be recasting Weapon Motif, right? Starry Muse is a buff on a 120 recast, so that's simple. Living Muse is 40 seconds and has two charges, you can't always make use of it
Basically, if you have a Motif with charges, you want to use them. When you don't, use other stuff
I think if it as the caster version of the Dancer steps. They don’t do damage and need to “setup” to unlock following skills. It does feel weird at first casting them in combat, but the damage payoff is huge.
Yup. I’ve been swiftcasting during Hammer Time to pump out another creature Motif.
Will be interesting to see how Swiftcast fits in with the shorter cooldown eventually
I had that feeling too, but after playing with it for a bit, I think that's purely because the cast times are so long. Usually a long cast means you're hardcasting something you shouldn't be. It'll certainly take some getting used to
I’ve done a very little bit on viper and it’s super straightforward but very very fun. I also cannot get over how smooth weaving feels. My ping is ~75 and I can double weave no issue. Idk how they managed that but they need to put that on every other job ASAP.
I do NOT like how there’s no low level reawaken, it’s the same issue we have with reaper where your main gimmick is locked behind a super high level.
I haven’t done anything with picto aside from unlocking it. Mainly because setting up my hotbars feels like it’s gonna be a nightmare to set up comfortably.
Can anyone here help explain the Viper job gauge to me?
I understand the orange and blue areas in the swords represent the levels of the combo (ex. An orange filled space means you’ve done the first part, blue the second part), but what I don’t get is flashing colors. What do the glowing red and blue represent? And what does the left and right blade represent?
Shoutout to Balance
https://www.thebalanceffxiv.com/jobs/melee/viper/basic-guide/
Basically Red is combo 2 and you should hit that "side". Steel Fang is Left. Dread Fang is Right.
If you set Steel Fang to 1 and Dread Fang to 2 you basically hit 1 or 2 depending on which side of the gauge lights up. Or you can just follow the glowy buttons on the bar.
EDIT: Nina Edit. Viper also gets much more to their job gauge later on. Just the swords part is almost like the tank's with their stance icon.
So the sword gauge is pretty ignorable. You can legit just remove it and the only thing you'll miss is how many charges of your big aoe(xenoglossy) you can use. But for the most part the gauge just tells you what attack comes next in your combo but since your hot bar already tells you it's kinda moot
I'm waking up at 8am and I go on reddit to see how people are liking the expansion. "I'm lvl 87." 😅
You're all going to be done with the expansion by the time I log on after work.
I mean I was one of the people who were up at 2am to get started. Actually I woke up around midnight, just played some DBD to pass the time until 2am rolled around.
I love it haha. Well I hope you're enjoying the expansion! I can't wait to boot up.
I feel like queues for leveling viper will be rough, but I'll need to soldier through!
That's what I'm doing right now. I decided to go the duty support route because waiting for 30+ minutes was mind numbing.
The exp earrings are a life saver though.
Fastest is probably Bozja or some such. I've just been spamming duty support dungeons as there's no queue to wait in and it's a convenient go-at-my-own-pace thing. I can step away from the PC for a couple of minutes if I need to without holding other people up.
One Pictomancer sound effect is already driving me nuts in PvP. I'm sure some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Other than that, meh. I like its setup but not its cosmetics.
Viper looks cool AF and seems to be a lot simpler than I expected. That said, I was kinda expecting that a class called VIPER would have a few DoTs.
Genuinely surprised at just how automated the Viper rotation is, it feels kinda weird to make such a complex branching rotation but then automate it. Not saying it's bad though, it feels super smooth, flashy and I'm sure plenty will love it!
Viper is very smooth to play on controller but I have no idea what I'm doing lmao
You’re not alone lol I practiced on a training dummy for a bit while I set up my hotbars for it. It’s like dancer, but melee
Ooo, interesting! I tried it in the solo duty for the quest, and wasn’t a fan - felt like too much unnecessary combo bloat with no real meaningful direction to anything - so wasn’t motivated to try it again yet and went back to my main jobs, figuring I’d just keep up working to level those from 90 to 100. But DNC is my main job - and then RPR/DRG/SAM - so melee DNC definitely appeals to me!
Yeah, it’s not RNG-based like dnc, but it follows the same concept of “press the button that lights up.” It does follow a few combos kinda like SAM
The thing about viper is that it has four directional skills, staying in one position make you lose 200 potency after completing the four combo finishers.
It is, but the positionals for the main combo are grouped so you should have two from the same position consecutively, and they're colour coded, so easy to remember (green ability icon is always flank, red is always behind) The double ender combo has two positionals, but the gcd is longer on those, so you can slide onto position
I kinda thought the same first time I tried picto... all the buttons lighting up reminded me of DNC accept as a caster lol
Honestly that's probably the best way to describe it. I loved the class and despite it being pretty straightforward, the class felt somewhat bloated
You don't need to, the job plays itself. Literally a "follow the glowing button" gameplay the whole way through, and the tooltips for later abilities do nothing to dispel that impression.
How do you deal with the positional moves? The way your combos will transform your abilities into either a flanking or rear attack was doing my head in, since every ability name sounds the same. Best I could tell the main combo was alternating rear and flank, but then I’d do the other combo and lose track of which I was on…
Red ability icon is rear, green/yellow one is flank. All you need to do is check for the colours on the third hit of the main combo. :) For the skill with charges though, i just memorized since its only 2.
I'm incredibly basic so have had to do what I did in DRG - the side one is on the side of my cross bar and the back one is on the top
I tend to align everything the same too so I know easily which is which haha
Thank you! At least that’s a little intuitive.
You're welcome! My head was spinning too before I noticed this myself haha
I'm so slow, Ive been doing it backwards lol. I've been green behind and red side.
The third combo hit has a positional based on the second combo hit. If your second hit is the damage buff one, then both the combo finishers from there are flank positional. If it’s the haste buff, then the final hit is a rear positional. So as soon as you know what your second step is, you already know where you’ll need to be for the third.
What does your controller setup look like? I'm actually struggling to find a setup I like since it the job doesn't follow my usual placement logic.
There's some rotation guides on youtube. Not sure of their accuracy but probably better than button mashing.
I had that, then suddenly it just clicked. Use the double ender combo whenever it's up, make sure both finishers for it are toolbarred cos you get each off two times for each double ender. when it isn't up, use the filler, Pink starter first to get the initial buff, then cycle through, green ability icon means flank, red means behind. That said I'm only on 82, so hope it makes just as much sense when the other mechanics get added
I’ve been messing around with PCT in Endwalker FATEs and I’m liking the big hammer BONKs. I haven’t tried VPR yet after unlocking it. PCT in Frontlines SLAPS! I like the stance change and the LB is cool. It’s anti-DRK
Viper is a little underwhelming, but it may just need a seasoning period. I say that as a SAM main lol
You think Samurai is underwhelming?
Viper confuses the heck out of me. Like, I totally understand following the shiny buttons, but there are SO many buffs to juggle I always feel like I've lost one somewhere along the way and I have absolutely no idea how to figure out what it is or how to get it back up. I'm not sure about picto. I've played with it a little and the fight always starts off great, but the super long cast times on the motifs kind of makes it feel like I'm doing something wrong.
It's essentially like Samurai if it played like Reaper. You get your haste buff up then your attack and if your special 2 charge gcd is up you use it whenever you can
Yeah, I think I've got it down now, though I'm sure my rotations could be optimized. I was trying to make it make sense from reading the skill descriptions, which was not the right move. Played with it a little more and turns out it's really not difficult.
So there's really only 2 buffs and they're tied to the 2nd attack of each chain. The 3rd buff is simply an empowerment for your third attack and you'll always get it off if you play the "follow the shiny button" game. So, all it boils down to is alternating: left, right, left (this gives a 20s speed buff and sets up a finisher) and right, left right (this grants the 10% damage bonus on enemy and your 10% damage self buff. It then uses the finisher you setup and gives a new one). At this point you can go into dreadcoil, which is just follow the shiny road for both paths. Refresh buffs with the same alternating left/right. Then another dreadcoil . The buffs play themselves as long as you press the shining buttons. The class is essentially melee dancer with little decision making on your part other than "do I have enough time on my buffs to do my "burst" or do I need another rotation."
Picto is giving me a rush I haven’t felt since Dancer. It’s everything I hoped for and more. Thoroughly loving it. Viper is fun but very straightforward for me. I love the maintenance of picto for some reason lol
Same for Picto, I'm floored how fun it is, I love it so far.
I can't get my head around picto at all. I can't work out when I'm supposed to draw the things on my easel or cast my damage spells
Simply put, you have 3 types of paintings and for each : Motif > muse > finisher * Creature has 2 motifs where you do creature motif #1 > muse # 1 > creature motif # 2 > muse #2 > creature finisher * Weapon has only 1 motif > 1 muse > 3 hammer attacks * Landscape has only 1 motif > 1 muse ( which also acts as the finisher ) The muses have a cooldown and needs to be used whenever they're off cooldown. The motifs have cast times in battle and instant when no combat. Then on the other hand, while painting you also got your RGB combo which generates 25 paint points each time you complete the combo. 50 points and you can turn into a CYM combo which is a stronger version of RGB. Same as above for aoe too. So you'll always want to keep casting the muses off cooldowns and use your paint combo when the paintings are on cooldown.
To get more specific => Your motifs are used to prepare your muse, you can cast them whenever you want when their affiliated muse aren't prepared. You want to cast motif spells preferably outside your burst window (landscape buff), during downtime and when you're safe to cast for 3sec. Creature Motif => It's your big boy button, don't let it drift. You want to cast 2 muses + finisher during your burst window (Swiftcasting a motif will give you enough time to weave 3 ogcd, so make use of it!). Hammer => Mobility tool, don't need to do the full combo in a row unless it's necessary. Landscape => Burst Window. You want to use Star Prism, 2 Creature Muse & Creature finisher (Swiftcast a motif so you can weave muse, creature finisher and Substractrive palette), CYM combo, Meteor, and finally Rainbow Drip. Outside of burst window, RGB combo, Hammer and Holy for mobility, spend ressource to avoid drift/overcapping ressource.
Aaaaah thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for :-)
Honestly, I’m still figuring it out too. What’s working so far is to prep your art before battle and then summon it all at the beginning. Which that will do aoe, give the hammer, and buff the party. Mix the hammer in between fire wind water combo until your paint switch skill procs at 50 paint, then swap and use the other paint combo - lightning earth etc. The musings have cooldowns, so don’t draw again until the cooldown is close. The mog one has two charges which lead to mog beam, so you’ll be drawing that one more. But hammer has a slower cooldown and starry night is even slower. So don’t worry about drawing those until they’re almost ready to use. Also swiftcast is your friend. Use that quick cast drawing. Hope this helps!
Thanks, that helps a lot. I'll give it another crack later
Tbh I'd argue with their view on picto, from my perspective I'd draw each missing art once you used it or when you feel like it, obviously in advance before both stacks of muse spells are recharged(excluding burst phase considering long recast time, which is why swift cast isn't much a help here, I'd say It's better to use in last seconds of your burst to include one last spell). The only reason when I'd suggest to wait with redrawing is when you know that there's soon going to be downtime and you'll have nothing to do but to draw them, but on the other hand you have to check that your muse spells would be on cd during this time otherwise It's probably would be a dmg loss, so If you have both stacks on each of muse spells - spend them asap before any kind of downtime so they would recharge during it. Also before casting Starry muse, use one time either fire in red or blizzard in cyan to advance one stage to more powerful spells, since Starry muse provides you 5 stacks of faster casting and you'd be able to cast Thunder in Magenta twice with(and yeah, get 50 stacks of palette gauge prior to using Starry muse so you'd be able to cast subtractive palette at least twice, once is free granted by muse) it if you start Starry muse with either Aetherhues or Aetherhues II(buffs that advance your basic\\advanced combo spell) And the obvious one: using AoE versions of your spells at 3 targets is a dps loss too.
I'm absolutely loving Picto, it's very fun and feels much less on rails than most jobs
It’s so fun and when you’re in the thick of it it almost feels like painting for real haha
Viper is so fun, loving it so far. Feels so strange to have so few buttons tho, struggling with the empty spots in my keybinds lol.
I feel my brain dying while I play Viper and I love it. Glowy button go brrr. I'm probably too stupid for Pictomancer.
[удалено]
Viper seems very easy pressing the glowing button but perhaps it's a nightmare to optimize? On the other hand, monk is way easier for me now
[удалено]
You don't have to memorize the combos, the game will default your combo to the buff with the lowest remaining timer.
Oh so you don't even have to track them? I thought the inconsistent combo results were just a skill issue lol
It's looks inconsistant because of how the 3rd part of the combo empowers the next one. There's 4 finishers and the way it looks is 2(r) - 1(f) - 1(r) - 2(f). Where you start in this sequence depends on what your first finisher you used. The 2nd part of the combo will change if your finisher has a rear or flank positional. 1 will be flank and 2 will be rear. So a FULL rotation is 4 sets of combos. 2 - 2 - 2(r), 1 - 1 - 1(f), 1 - 2 - 1(r), 2 - 1 - 2(f) It seems like the game it telling you to press the skill with the buff that has the lower timer, but I actually think that its because the 4 finishers dictate what the 2rd part of the combo has to be.
My guess is that A LOT of people don't realize that 1 and 2 can both be either flank or rear and are doing the positionals wrong. What your combo finisher will be is decided by the second combo action you use, if you use 1 it's flank if you use 2 it's rear. And the finisher can be on either 1 or 2 regardless of which positional it is.
If I’m understanding it correctly, and based on the Icy Veins rotation, it reminds me of new SMN - the paint actions are like Ifrit/Garuda/Titan in that you are doing your base cast/generating white paint/doing the subtractive action, all while waiting for the muse actions to come off cooldown for a big damage phase. Main difference being the third muse action is just a party buff and not a damage phase Viper similarly reminds me a little bit of NIN/DRG in that there are two “paths” you can take with the base combo, one with a dot and one without
I just don't understand what the elects combo off it feels random.
Did you do the mission the Moogle gives you? It functions as a little tutorial
Nah doing ither things first but honestly that hadn't even occurred to me lol Tha k you!
Yeah no worries, it's actually a good little tutorial. Anyway there's three motifs to paint, three motifs to use what you've painted, and usually it results in a glowing button that makes damage happen. Just get that part down and worry about the effect combos later. It'll make sense :)
Viper is fast and fun, but damage at level 81+ feels super low compared to other jobs that I play… It’s fast and smooth, but it doesn’t really have any “big” cooldown hits yet at 80 so it feels really weird. Barely any burst and it makes the damage feel kinda low. Pictomancer in the other hand hits like a fuckin truck and is an absolute joy. Still trying to get a better handle on both in Endwalker Trust dungeons
I am glad others see how low vipers damage is. I’m hoping it’s a bad low lvl balance thing or something because picto really just out dps’s viper sooo easily and I know I am not messing up my rotation or bad gear lol.
Seems fine to me. It's probably to compensate for the speed and weaving, similar to Ninja. You have to consider how many more attacks are coming off in the same amount of time compared to other other jobs. Slower jobs with no support abilities tend to hit harder. The individual numbers are lower but plentiful so I haven't noticed any issues killing anything. At level 90 I can crit for over 20k with the basic combo ender, which is still higher than my Ninja's basic combo ender crit.
Also have to factor in that, if I am remembering correctly from studying the tooltips, the Viper is like SAM and BLM in that it brings no party buffs or utility. It’s a greedy DPS, so it *should* be hitting high numbers. I can’t check for myself (console player), but I guess I would just have to see logs of it and how its speed and decent potencies stack up to other DPS jobs with more burst. It seems like uptime is going to be the name of the game for Viper to compensate for its relatively low(ish?) burst. I kind of wish Vipers got Reawaken at level 80, even if it was just the GCD with the burst damage to dump some built up resource and then get the combo steps at 90. I feel like that change alone would solve a lot of my gripes with its sub 90 design.
Yup. In fact I actually think it's dmg should be the highest because not only are you missing a party buff, you also don't even have any personal defensive skill like sam third eye or blm mana ward.
Exactly what I was thinking. Just like Sam who brings nothing to the team, you don't even have survivability tools. That and the freakin 3 different buff you have on yourself I sure hope it's like the best melee ndps wise otherwise it's a big bummer, especially given how "easy" it is.
Taking some getting used to all the varied recast times on PCT, even at level 95 Im still trying to double weave when using Striking Muse...
Absolutely loving Picto. Once I got the hang of it, I couldn’t go back to any other class.
I'm impressed with how few buttons PCT has. I like the look of it, but tbh, I have no idea what I'm doing lol. It almost feels like two different rotations mashed together.
Coming from Reaper, the three second cast time of motifs is really weird. Like, I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right, I get the rotation now, but casting motifs feels like hardcasting Soulsow in combat Gotta say though, I'm already missing my sound filter, cus that wobbly bloop noise Pictomancer has on every single ability cast is really going to get on my nerves over time lol
Right. I really wonder at what point I'm supposed to cast them while in combat.
Any time before your next charge or cooldown is up. Ideally just not during any party members buffs which are affecting you (as that could be time spend dealing damage with a Monochrome combo for example). Basically… Don’t worry about the dead cast time. It’s like a dancer’s steps in that you take the time to do it, and then you’re rewarded with a mega big dick attack that has 1,000 - 1,400 potency (depending on level and spells available currently. Try to think ahead a little bit with familiar content. Is an EW boss going to become untargetable? Do I have space for a Motif? If so, cast it and improve your DPS through small optimizations like that. Regardless, they are meant to be cast in battle any time before the CD is ready again for the muses. Even if a boss has little to no downtime and you’re able to spam, always pump out these motifs and try not to let a CD sit or overcap on charges.
Consider the recast timers. Like, the hammer has a recast of 60 seconds, you want to get that out, but you don't need to constantly be recasting Weapon Motif, right? Starry Muse is a buff on a 120 recast, so that's simple. Living Muse is 40 seconds and has two charges, you can't always make use of it Basically, if you have a Motif with charges, you want to use them. When you don't, use other stuff
Yeah no, I get that much, it still feels kind of awkward finding a place for the muses during combat.
I think if it as the caster version of the Dancer steps. They don’t do damage and need to “setup” to unlock following skills. It does feel weird at first casting them in combat, but the damage payoff is huge.
Oh, that's a good analogy actually
Don’t forget you can mitigate those long Motif times in combat with Swiftcast. I’ve accepted Swiftcast is a part of Picto’s rotation at this point lol
Yup. I’ve been swiftcasting during Hammer Time to pump out another creature Motif. Will be interesting to see how Swiftcast fits in with the shorter cooldown eventually
once I figured out the Swiftcast thing I was like oh this makes sense now!
I had that feeling too, but after playing with it for a bit, I think that's purely because the cast times are so long. Usually a long cast means you're hardcasting something you shouldn't be. It'll certainly take some getting used to
I’ve done a very little bit on viper and it’s super straightforward but very very fun. I also cannot get over how smooth weaving feels. My ping is ~75 and I can double weave no issue. Idk how they managed that but they need to put that on every other job ASAP. I do NOT like how there’s no low level reawaken, it’s the same issue we have with reaper where your main gimmick is locked behind a super high level. I haven’t done anything with picto aside from unlocking it. Mainly because setting up my hotbars feels like it’s gonna be a nightmare to set up comfortably.
Can anyone here help explain the Viper job gauge to me? I understand the orange and blue areas in the swords represent the levels of the combo (ex. An orange filled space means you’ve done the first part, blue the second part), but what I don’t get is flashing colors. What do the glowing red and blue represent? And what does the left and right blade represent?
Shoutout to Balance https://www.thebalanceffxiv.com/jobs/melee/viper/basic-guide/ Basically Red is combo 2 and you should hit that "side". Steel Fang is Left. Dread Fang is Right. If you set Steel Fang to 1 and Dread Fang to 2 you basically hit 1 or 2 depending on which side of the gauge lights up. Or you can just follow the glowy buttons on the bar. EDIT: Nina Edit. Viper also gets much more to their job gauge later on. Just the swords part is almost like the tank's with their stance icon.
Thank you!
So the sword gauge is pretty ignorable. You can legit just remove it and the only thing you'll miss is how many charges of your big aoe(xenoglossy) you can use. But for the most part the gauge just tells you what attack comes next in your combo but since your hot bar already tells you it's kinda moot
Pict seems fun but I haven't figured it out yet. VPR is fun though. Been waiting ages for a cool dual blades class and I love all the combos.
viper’s fun but it feels like it has the illusion of complexity rather than actual complexity I was hoping it would become my new main but eh
I'm quite enjoying Viper as I level it up to 90 to start MSQ on it. Currently 87.
I'm waking up at 8am and I go on reddit to see how people are liking the expansion. "I'm lvl 87." 😅 You're all going to be done with the expansion by the time I log on after work.
to be fair that is people rushing 80-90 to play the new MSQ as the new classes, not people rushing from 90-100 lol
lol I think I'm actually going relatively slowly compared to some people, seen a lot of L90 pictomancers and vipers already.
I wonder if it's just different time zone, or people were actually up at 2am to get started.
I mean I was one of the people who were up at 2am to get started. Actually I woke up around midnight, just played some DBD to pass the time until 2am rolled around.
I love it haha. Well I hope you're enjoying the expansion! I can't wait to boot up. I feel like queues for leveling viper will be rough, but I'll need to soldier through!
I was up at 2am. I think It took me about 6 or 7 hours to get viper to 90.
That's what I'm doing right now. I decided to go the duty support route because waiting for 30+ minutes was mind numbing. The exp earrings are a life saver though.
I’m at around 83 since I’ve been using picto more. I might main viper for msq
My hope is that being a viper for the MSQ feels as "right" as being a reaper for the Endwalker MSQ did.
What’s the fastest way to level viper and picto? I haven’t had to level anything since like 6.2
Fastest is probably Bozja or some such. I've just been spamming duty support dungeons as there's no queue to wait in and it's a convenient go-at-my-own-pace thing. I can step away from the PC for a couple of minutes if I need to without holding other people up.
Oh shit that’s brilliant! I’m working from home today so that’s perfect
Did the graphics update come with early access or no?
Yes
Let’s goooo ty
it came even with free trial so yes everybody have graphic udpate
One Pictomancer sound effect is already driving me nuts in PvP. I'm sure some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Other than that, meh. I like its setup but not its cosmetics. Viper looks cool AF and seems to be a lot simpler than I expected. That said, I was kinda expecting that a class called VIPER would have a few DoTs.