Exploring The New Classes In Final Fantasy XIV: Viper And Pictomancer

Every expansion of Final Fantasy XIV brings excitement, new content, and additions to its ever-growing roster of jobs. With the introduction of the Dawntrail expansion, players are eager to explore the two new classes: Viper and Pictomancer. These new roles not only enhance the gameplay experience but also offer unique mechanics and playstyles that cater to different player preferences.

The anticipation surrounding these new jobs is palpable! With Viper focusing on melee combat and Pictomancer introducing fresh caster dynamics, players will find themselves immersed in diverse gameplay experiences. As we delve deeper into the characteristics of these classes, we will uncover what makes them stand out in the expansive universe of Final Fantasy XIV.

As we look forward to diving into the mechanics and features of each job, let's first outline the key takeaways that will be essential for understanding their roles in the game. The introduction of Viper, with its streamlined playstyle, and Pictomancer, with its engaging yet complex rotations, marks a significant evolution in job design. Let’s explore what each class has to offer!

For every expansion in Final Fantasy XIV, it's expected that there will be new jobs added to the already-expansive roster. Heavensward picked up Machinist, Astrologian, and Dark Knight. Stormblood was all about Red Mage and Samurai (and Blue Mage at the tail end of the patch cycle). Shadowbringers brought forth Gunbreaker and Dancer. And Endwalker introduced Reaper and Sage. There has always been an incredible variety to its picks, but for the first time since Stormblood, we have two dedicated DPS classes. During the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Media Tour, we were able to get extensive time with the two new jobs and were left excited to dig deeper.

This article is based on play of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail and content in the final version is subject to change.

Viper

The second Scouter-based melee class since Ninja was introduced almost ten years ago, Viper offers a surprisingly versatile playstyle.

Viper is not too dissimilar from a class such as Reaper. It has a similar flow, but is far easier than any other melees by a wide margin. The first thing you will notice is that there are actually very few buttons. To combat button bloat, Viper only uses two buttons to facilitate its main melee combo, something I wish more jobs such as Dragoon would utilize. This rotation will increase the Serpent’s Ire Gauge, all while maintaining buffs such as an attack damage increase, a debuff on the enemy so they take more damage, and an increase of skill speed. Because the job essentially guides you through the combos, it’s hard to drop most of these buffs.

It even has it when Viper hits 50 gauge, you’re able to go into Reawakening, which is entirely Enshroud. Here, basic attacks will change into powerful new attacks with every hit generating an OGCD follow-up and a borderline finisher (Communio).

In between going into the Reawakening phase, though, the main rotation will consist of building meter through the standard combos mentioned and another smaller, but heavy hitting combo that is triggered through a sixty-second cooldown skill, Dreadwinder. This will provide a single Rattling Coil, something you can bank three of, in order to unleash a powerful combo at the cost of one diamond on the gauge.

This is a fast-paced, frantic, and flashy job, making it appealing to fellow melee enjoyers. The only downside we found was that the limit break was a little plain, which is funny because a lot Viper’s skills are vibrant.

Pictomancer

It’s hard to believe that it has been seven years since we last got a new caster job in the form of Red Mage, but with Dawntrail, we are picking up the ever-vibrant Pictomancer, a job that’s a throwback to Relm from Final Fantasy VI.

Starting with what’s easy: the core rotation. Your typical rotation is centered around using a three-step combo of casts that gives you 25 Palette gauge along with a single piece of White Paint. The White Paint can be used on an instant-cast ability or saved for when 50 Palette gauge is accumulated and used to flip the White Paint to Black, unleashing a powerful comet that’s more than 60% stronger than its Holy counterpart. This is straightforward, focusing on not overcapping your gauges while figuring out when to use the Holy ability and when to swap to the more powerful comet.

Unfortunately, it’s the canvas system that feels clunky. How this works is there are three canvases that can be painted on: Monster, Weapon, and Landscape. Landscape is your buff that’s available once every two minutes and allows for an incredible burst. Weapon is a unique 3-hit combo that’s available every sixty seconds (although there are two stacks of it). And finally, the Monster Motifs are OGCD weaves that have a 40-second cooldown but three stacks. The clunky part is having to stop the engaging systems to repaint your different canvases when they’ve been used. It wouldn’t be much of an issue, but each takes roughly three seconds to repaint, something we wish was reduced to closer to the global cooldown or even lower. It doesn’t feel as intuitive as the rest.

Pictomancer’s defensive abilities are closer to Red Mage in this regard, with a barrier that can be applied to yourself and party members, but the downside is that it’s only available once every two minutes. There’s a proc that does reduce it by thirty seconds when the barrier is absorbed, similar to something like Samurai’s Third Eye, so there’s a little bit of skill to best utilize it.

Compared to Viper, Pictomancer has a lot more going on because it has two completely separate systems going on: your painting combo and your motifs. We do enjoy how the basic Palette and Paint systems work, but the motifs feel clunky in comparison because of having to stop what you’re doing to repaint the canvases each time they’re used. We’re still excited to get more hands-on time with it, though, as it’s visually impressive, albeit a little out of place in the Final Fantasy XIV universe.