Not even a full month since its introduction, one of Final Fantasy XIV’s newest damage jobs is experiencing a major change to its kit. Viper joined the Final Fantasy XIV stable of damage jobs with Pictomancer when Dawntrail launched on July 2. After receiving player feedback during Dawntrail’s early access period, the game’s director, Naoki Yoshida, called out upcoming changes to Viper in a July 4 Lodestone post. Those changes were revealed and became live with the arrival of Patch 7.05 and player reception has been mixed.
The biggest change was the removal of Noxious Gnash, a status effect that increased damage to affected targets by 10 percent. That’s right. Noxious Gnash wasn’t adjusted or even reworked–it was removed entirely. The Viper skills that once transmitted Noxious Gnash have all been renamed to reflect this change. Dread Fangs is now Reaving Fangs. Dread Maw is now Reaving Maw. Dreadwinder is now Vicewinder. And Pit of Dread is now Vicepit.
Now, why did they do this? In the July 4 Lodestone post, Yoshida mentioned that the Viper changes would address the “busyness” of the dual-blade-wielding job’s rotation. Now that Patch 7.05 is here, the FFXIV team clarifies how removing Noxious Gnash is meant to reduce player strain.
This explanation is available In the Patch 7.05 Adjustments Overview on the official Jobs Guide page.
“We've received feedback that Viper's unique combo system, and the managing of its combo routes, have proven relatively difficult to handle compared to other melee DPS jobs. We believe one of the reasons for this has to do with the actions Dread Fangs and its status effect Noxious Gnash─more specifically, finding the most opportune time to reapply and maintain this effect on enemies. To address this issue, we've removed Noxious Gnash and replaced it with Honed Steel and Honed Reavers, effects that are applied to self. With this change, players should be able to more freely choose the timing with which they use their associated actions. This also necessitated further changes to potency, as we endeavor to maintain balance between melee and ranged DPS jobs.”
To account for the lost damage without Noxious Gnash, other Viper skills have been buffed, thereby increasing the job’s overall base damage. And, as the adjustment overview mentions, Honed Steel and Honed Reavers are two new status buffs that increase the damage potency of selected follow-up actions.
While some players think the impact of Noxious Gnash’s removal is negligible, others lament it as losing a part of what made Viper gameplay unique. Moreover, even though not all players are on board with this trend, job simplification has certainly been a theme when it comes to FFXIV’s balancing approach–especially with the launch of Dawntrail. The fact that an entire job feature can already be pulled less than a month after the job’s launch shows how aggressively Yoshida and the FFXIV team are addressing issues they believe negatively impact player experiences.
For the complete list of Viper changes and changes to other jobs, check out the Patch 7.05 Patch Notes.
