Yesterday, July 30, Final Fantasy XIV received its first big patch since the release of the Dawntrail expansion. While the introduction of the new Savage raids is a source of excitement for the community, the biggest point of contention is the long list of changes the Viper job has received in patch 7.05. As one of two new jobs introduced just a month ago alongside Dawntrail, the community is not thrilled with how quickly Square Enix has simplified the role. Some are going as far as to say Viper as we knew it as dead, the latest victim of a worrying trend for the MMO.
The biggest point of contention is the removal of Noxious Gnash from the Viper job. This was a debuff that triggered when using Dread Fangs and required certain actions to extend the debuff timer. The point of Noxious Gnash is that it gives you something to keep track of and reapply every so often. It is supposed to add a layer of complexity to the job by requiring you pay attention to a timer on top of doing your usual action rotation and avoiding area of effect (AoE) attacks during combat.
In a July 4 post on the Lodestone (the official FF14 blog) the developers mentioned they had “received feedback pertaining to the busyness of [Viper’s] skill rotation,” and would be looking into tweaking the job in patch 7.05. That came only two days after Dawntrail’s release. Some wondered if the changes would remove positionals (the need to attack enemies from a specific direction). Instead the removal of Noxious Gnash feels like a meaningless change, with the community pointing out that the timer wasn’t all that difficult to keep track of, so it was an odd adjustment for Square Enix to make. Who is this change for? Players aren’t sure, but they’re definitely pissed off.
More upsetting than the changes to Viper is the worrying trend it represents in terms of Final Fantasy 14’s job designs. The Viper changes over-simplify a job that many were incredibly happy with, and these changes happened just a month after its debut. It’s the fastest a job has received such a change but not the first time jobs have been oversimplified—the healer jobs, especially the Astrologian, have suffered similar fates. With every job becoming simpler to execute it leaves those looking for a challenge no viable option, and with these recentViper changes, the issue is coming to a breaking point.
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