Final Fantasy XIV’s next job will be the Viper, a double-sword dual-welding melee DPS job. The Viper was showcased at the FFXIV Fan Fest in London with a brief video, and an expanded trailer for Dawntrail.
The class is a FFXIV original, but seems somewhat inspired by Zidane from Final Fantasy IX. As per Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, the job was designed to be catered to those who want a new dual-wield job that isn’t Ninja.
As stated, the Viper is a melee DPS job that uses Dual Blades as the weapon. There’s no required class or job to unlock, and it will start at level 80. The Viper’s starting location will be in Ul’dah, and of course, will release as part of the Dawntrail expansion.
As per the presentation, the Viper uses a close-range fighting style passed down by Turali Hunters. It uses one-handed blades that can be combined into a single two-handed double-bladed sword.
The Viper alternates between high-pressure DPS and swift strikes from the two small blades, and mighty blows from their joined weapons. As the slides from the keynote presentation detail: “By calling on the memories of ancient hunters contained within their soul crystal, the Viper can imbue their body with additional power for a brief time.”
It is speculated that the job will use scouting gear, which is currently only utilized by the Ninja. The gear shown in the screenshot, (and cosplayed by Yoshi-P) is the starting gear players will receive when they pick up the job.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information emerges.
