When I first played Viper, I had the impression that it was a complicated job with too many interconnected skills. But after playing for several hours I have come to the opposite conclusion - the job is almost too simple. It just takes a while to notice because the game is really bad at teaching players how to play viper properly, so you have to figure it out over time.
Fundamentally, the core combo is really straightforward. It is a three button combo where each button is a choice of two.
That is really simple. Of course there are additional skills, but those are basically all variations of "press the glowing button", at least at level 80 when you start with the job. For a level 80 job, this actually seems too simple when compared with the rotations other jobs have at that level.
So why does Viper feel so confusing when playing it at first?
The job has 45 different skills, 27 of those are unassignable. That is more than any other melee job. A lot of the skills have very similar names and long tooltips, which masks the fact that many of them are just variations of the same skill with the same effects, just at a different point in the combos.
The fact that the majority of skills are not on the hotbar but "hidden" behind other buttons makes it difficult to grasp the basic combos. You never see the classic 1-2-3 button combo that most other melee jobs have. Your brain always has to think for a moment what button will be pressed next, because it only shows up after you press the previous button.
The initial job gauge is completely meaningless. It tells you nothing you would not already know from the button prompts. Worse, the gauge tricks beginners into thinking they actually have to look at it. It feels like the only reason there is a gauge at level 80 is because every job has one.
The gauge obviously becomes more useful later when you get actual resources to manage. But it would really have made the job easier to comprehend if the gauge only showed up at that point instead of from the beginning.
Since Endwalker every new job has a tutorial. That is good, because the amount of skills a new job starts with now can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, the tutorials this time are really not good at teaching the important parts. Pictomancer's tutorial has the same issue, but because the job has more straightforward skills it is not such a glaring problem.
Instead of actually teaching the core rotation of the job, the tutorial just lists different combos of similar sounding skills, giving the impression that the player actually has to memorize those combinations. You don't, just look for whatever button is glowing.
What ultimately prevents the tutorials from being helpful is that they are framed as training for our character, not a gameplay tutorial for the player. Because of that the tutorial omits any out-of-universe terminology and aspects like buffs, debuffs, cooldowns etc., which really hinders its ability to teach the player what actually matters.
These problems could have been avoided. They are not inherent to the Viper job. Let's hope the developers learn from these issues for the next expansion.
submitted by /u/SuppeBargeld
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Lack of complexity
Fundamentally, the core combo is really straightforward. It is a three button combo where each button is a choice of two.
- First button choice: depends on whether the enemy has the damage debuff.
- Second button choice: Pick the glowing button. Technically, these skills also give you two buffs, but if you don't mess up the rotation you never have to actively think about that.
- Third button choice: Pick the glowing button. If it is reddish, attack from behind. If it is greenish, attack from the side.
That is really simple. Of course there are additional skills, but those are basically all variations of "press the glowing button", at least at level 80 when you start with the job. For a level 80 job, this actually seems too simple when compared with the rotations other jobs have at that level.
So why does Viper feel so confusing when playing it at first?
Skill bloat
The job has 45 different skills, 27 of those are unassignable. That is more than any other melee job. A lot of the skills have very similar names and long tooltips, which masks the fact that many of them are just variations of the same skill with the same effects, just at a different point in the combos.
The fact that the majority of skills are not on the hotbar but "hidden" behind other buttons makes it difficult to grasp the basic combos. You never see the classic 1-2-3 button combo that most other melee jobs have. Your brain always has to think for a moment what button will be pressed next, because it only shows up after you press the previous button.
Pointless job gauge
The initial job gauge is completely meaningless. It tells you nothing you would not already know from the button prompts. Worse, the gauge tricks beginners into thinking they actually have to look at it. It feels like the only reason there is a gauge at level 80 is because every job has one.
The gauge obviously becomes more useful later when you get actual resources to manage. But it would really have made the job easier to comprehend if the gauge only showed up at that point instead of from the beginning.
Bad tutorial
Since Endwalker every new job has a tutorial. That is good, because the amount of skills a new job starts with now can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, the tutorials this time are really not good at teaching the important parts. Pictomancer's tutorial has the same issue, but because the job has more straightforward skills it is not such a glaring problem.
Instead of actually teaching the core rotation of the job, the tutorial just lists different combos of similar sounding skills, giving the impression that the player actually has to memorize those combinations. You don't, just look for whatever button is glowing.
What ultimately prevents the tutorials from being helpful is that they are framed as training for our character, not a gameplay tutorial for the player. Because of that the tutorial omits any out-of-universe terminology and aspects like buffs, debuffs, cooldowns etc., which really hinders its ability to teach the player what actually matters.
These problems could have been avoided. They are not inherent to the Viper job. Let's hope the developers learn from these issues for the next expansion.
submitted by /u/SuppeBargeld
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...