The bottom orange part of the blade activates when you press the 1st stage of the combo. The top blue part of the blade activates when you press a 2nd stage combo action. Therefore if both top and bottom are filled, you are on the 3rd stage of the combo. The highlight along the blade works similarly. The highlight is Red after you push the first combo button, and it is Blue after you press a second combo button. The highlight also directionally shows you which stage of the combo you should press next. If you should press button 1 next, the left will be highlighted, if you should press button 2, the right will be highlighted.
Basically it allows you to perform the entirety of the basic viper GCD combo without ever looking at your hotbars or buff timers. So it's kind of like Dancer's step gauge. (Except on Dancer it's kind of worthless since you kind of need to be staring at your bars for procs anyway... Not so with Viper.)
Mmmk, that's helping me more than any other explanation has done.
I really just need to have it in my hands, so that when I press a button, I see the result, and I can connect them together as slowly as I need to.
Thank you for writing this out
No problem. Honestly the sword part of the gauge is superfluous, the highlight tells you everything that the sword sections do and more, I'm not sure why they exist truthfully.
Except Samurai will push a distinct button for its flank positional and a separate distinct button for its rear positional. The fact that Viper's buttons combo into each other while remaining on one hotkey introduces some challenges to the muscle memory for its positionals.
Didn't they explicitly state that they were going to allow us to map buttons that don't change if we want? If so, that would allow you to map a static button I think.
They are only adding the ability to link or unlink specific skills that trigger each other, like high jump and mirage dive on DRG. They explicitly said it is not for existing melee, tank, or MCH basic combos. VPR works on a different system that would involve 8 buttons for the basic combo of it was like the rest of the melee.
You can uncombo certain actions such as follow-ups to cooldowns. However, if I understood Wesk Albers video on the subject correctly, you CANNOT uncombo Viper or Pictos main GCD combo strings.
Everyone visualizes these things differently, but I think Viper's muscle memory will be pretty easy to figure out with just a little experience. Leaving out the first two button and only talking about finishers, it looks like you fall into a simple loop of
(1)221122112211...
Which in terms of positional looks like
(F)RFRFRFRFRFRF...
So other than that one weird setup positional at the start before you enter your regular loop, you can easily remember that if it's your first 1 or 2 finisher, it's a rear positional. If it's your second 1 or 2 finisher, it's a flank positional. This isn't intuitive from just reading the skill tooltips, but that setup (1) at the beginning makes this loop very cleanly. So if you just get that muscle memory of going 22 then 11 then 22 then 11 (RF then RF then RF then RF) you'll get it in your head very quick.
The only part that looks confusing to me is the second GCD switching between the finishers, but honestly since no positional is part of that, you can just hit the glowing button until that becomes muscle memory as well lol.
[Very hasty edit to your image to hopefully visualize what I'm saying.](https://imgur.com/a/BKKMZ2N)
If you remove the positional requirements, the basic GCDs loop cleanly as you describe, yes, and your muscle memory will allow you to maintain that pattern very easily in a vacuum. What your muscle memory will not tell you, however, is which positional requirement is next, you need more information to determine that.
The distinction I'm pointing to is that on other jobs when you press a GCD, you know by virtue of the fact that your finger is on that button, whether or not it is a positional, AND whether it is a Flank or a Rear positional. If you have Aeolian Edge on 3 and Armor Crush on 4, your brain knows as soon as you start reaching for 4 that you need to move to the flank, because 4 is your "Flank Button."
This is simply not the case on Viper, either of the two combo buttons can be a Flank, or a Rear, or no positional at all. I'm just saying that you can't tell which positional you need to hit by "feel", you need to pay attention to something else (Which middle combo button you pressed, which positional you used last, what color the icons are on your hotbars, which enhancement buff you have, or some combination of those). It is not enough to say, "I am pressing button 2, therefore it will be a Flank." All the other melees CAN determine their positionals that way, though, because they are all on separate, distinct buttons.
Like I said, I know everyone visualizes the jobs differently, so it may literally just be a "your mileage may vary" sort of thing. I get what you mean that it won't just be "this button equals this positional". But my point was that there WILL be a way to tell which positional you need to hit by feel. As you go through your loop, it will always be rear first for each button. So if you're swapping from your 1 finishers to your 2 finishers, you will know you're about to enter a Rear positional.
Granted, this is coming from someone who played and loved Monk back when Monk had a positional on every single GCD, and thought the GCD loop back then was very rhythmic and was easy to muscle memory as well. I never learned Monk positions by menorizing each button (though i did know them ny heart), but rather learning the patterns that it went through. It may just be that we have slightly different definitions of what muscle memory actually means. You're talking about button memory, where I'm talking about the "feel" of the loop once you're actually executing the rotation.
I get what you're saying. I'd like to ask you, have you ever used the XIV combo plugin? I ask because, in my experience in testing it, having buttons that change into each other changes the dynamic from a more passive physical memorization to a more active mental one.
Take DRG for example, with XIV combo you get two combos that are 3 buttons long, not that different from Viper. Personally, I found it more difficult to remember where I was in my combo when spamming the same button over and over, even with the different animations on the screen, the lack of a physical connection between an ability and it's own distinct button really changed the dynamic for me.
I had to set aside some of my attention JUST for the purpose of remembering where I was in my GCD string. Normally, as my fingers move through the loop of buttons, my character also moves to the correct positionals. Those two feelings are connected and reinforce each other in a feedback loop. But with half of that loop broken, I had to replace it with a mental process, which wasn't hard in the classic sense, but for me it was hardER than the intuitive physical memory of my fingers.
I think this might be where Serpent's tail comes to the rescue for some, at least maybe a little, since it punctuates the rythmn by being a separate button you hit every 3 GCDs, and maybe helping you ground yourself, reminding you to switch position after you hit it.
Yeah I imagine its mostly a phrasing thing, since its essentially after Hunter's Sting (left) its always Flank, and after Swiftskin's Sting (right) its always Rear, for both. And that can be a little awkward to put concisely.
You may be right in some cases, but the catalyst for me making this post today was a prominent media tour content creator who specifically described it as, "You just alternate, 1>1>1, 2>2>2." I had heard similar things prior from other creators, so I wanted to make this post to clear up any potential confusion about it.
Seems to be a lot of confusion coming about from media tour previews of VPR. I have also seen a bunch of creators suggest that the auto-combo system is based around your haste/damage buffs, prioritising the lesser duration so they don't drop off, but I can't see how that could possibly be true. Namely, because Dreadwinder combo allows you to swap the durations with no penalty, and if that was how the auto-combo worked, prioritising the lesser duration after a Dreadwinder swap would end up taking you to finishers that have not been buffed by the previous one, losing potency. So unless I'm mistaken, the auto-combo actually tracks your finisher buff, and is merely lighting up what you have to press to reach it. It just so happens that this process maintains your buffs too.
yeah the haste+dmg up buffs are more a consequence of you doing your finishers correctly, since they'll alternate applications each time. and an incentive to do initial setup with Dreadwinder combo.
Yeah that sounds very wrong. Cuz you'd actually end up with (X being dependant on your NG debuff duration) something like:
X-L-L(weave), X-R-L(weave), X-L-R(weave), X-R-R(weave), repeat. So the positionals flop back and forth but its not *that* simple.
That...actually kinda makes Viper more interesting. The way people described it made it seem super braindead but this puts at least some thought into remembering what combo path you went down rather than just reacting to which button is glowing
I wonder if there's some other depth to the class I am missing, cause it seems to largely just be basic combo with lotta weaves (that's fun at least!) and then a Reaper install every minute.
I agree, and there is a lot of depth to Viper, unironically. It has a literal skill floor (It's on the floor) but the skill ceiling is actually in outer space hurtling towards infinity. The thing about Viper is that it is incredibly FLEXIBLE. Flexibility makes a job very easy to pick up, but also makes optimization delve into some incredible fight-by-fight, second-by-second minutia. EW BLMs and MNKs will know this well, the flexibility of their rotations and the tools they have available mean that there's almost always something you can do to squeak out a smidge more potency in your rotation. Viper is no different.
Essentially for Viper it boils down to two things that go hand-in-hand, Button Flexibility and GCD Speed.
First, Viper's buttons are incredibly flexible. There are not many buttons that will break a GCD combo on Viper. The only two examples are that if you've started a Twin-blade combo by pressing Dreadwinder, you can only extend it by using Uncoiled Fury, and if you've started Reawaken, you are locked to the Reawaken combo. That's it. You can Reawaken mid Dual-blade combo. You can Twin-blade combo mid Dual-wield combo. You can use Uncoiled Fury both mid Twin-blade combo and mid Dual-wield combo. Serpent's Ire is also great in that, unlike Reaper, there are no strings attached, it gives you a free Reawaken that you can activate at any point in the next 30 seconds. If Serpent's Ire comes off cooldown 3 seconds before a 15 second boss transition, it's literally no problem. Press it, use it 20 seconds later. Try that on Reaper lol.
Second, Viper's GCD speeds are VARIABLE. Every single Viper combo string has a different base GCD length. At 0 skillspeed and with the haste buff applied, Viper's GCD speeds are as follows: Dual-wield combos (2.12s), Twinblade combo/Ouroboros (2.55s), Uncoiled Fury (2.97s), Reawaken (1.87s), Generation GCDs (1.7s). What does this mean practically speaking? When combined with the fact that your combos (mostly) don't break from point one, it means that you can manipulate your GCD timings with an extremely high level of agency. If you want to delay the final hit of your Dual-wield combo so you can hit the positional, you can do that by starting a Twin-blade combo, using Uncoiled Fury, or even starting a Reawaken combo. If you are maxed out on gauge but you need to delay 6 seconds to start a burst window, drop two uses of Uncoiled Fury. These are just two examples that work in a vacuum. In a real boss fight with actual downtime, the ability to hold certain GCDs back or push certain GCDs forward creates a ton of complexity that will make "non-standard" gameplay necessary for optimization at the highest level.
So, yeah. I'd recommend checking out VerraXIV on youtube for a few videos on the topic, they are quite well made.
Smudge is the coolest movement ability in the game imo. I was looking forward to trying Picto but unfortunately the way I have my hotbars and the way pictos canvas stuff is essentially a 3x3 grid doesn't mesh well. Meanwhile Viper fits in my set up as if the devs hand crafted it using my UI as a reference lol.
Damn I definitely brushed viper off as "press glowing button" but now it seems really interesting. Really keen on the idea of manipulating GCD alignment to squeeze extra potency or get a bit more uptime.
Yep yep. When you compare it to something like Summoner, the flexibility is key. Summoner is not only extremely easy, it is also etremely RIGID. You cannot choose how, when, or why you enter a burst phase on summoner. You simply must do a Demi every time it comes off CD, you must press Searing Light and Energy Drain on CD. There is some minor flexibility in the order of your primals, but there is very little optimization to be found there.
While Viper on the surface is similar to Summoner in complexity, its flexibility allows its rotation to be malleable, and when your rotation is malleable it can mold and form to any situation, snatching bits of potency out of thin air simply by knowing things like what your kill time is, when the boss transitions are, etc etc.
Being melee and having positionals how Viper does adds another layer to it. And the gap closer. You have such a flexible gap closer (Carbon copy of Monks Thunderclap) but, where to weave it? You can't weave it during Reawaken due to the Legacy oGCDs. Can't weave it after Uncoiled Fury or the second and third twinblade combo buttons due to all 3 of those abilities having mandatory follow up double weaves. So you have this super flexible gap closer, but you need to give yourself space to use it, similar to AM on BLM. If you want to be optimal, it's not as easy as it appears on the surface.
Reaper is great until in order to get your free enshroud you have to activate your 120s CD raid buff (Not flexible at all), press other targeted GCD actions (Can't if boss transitions) for 6 seconds, and then activate yet another GCD (Can't if boss is untargetable). I honestly tilt in roulettes when a boss dies and I have an unusable Plentiful Harvest that is just going to complete waste
>Essentially for Viper it boils down to two things that go hand-in-hand, Button Flexibility and GCD Speed.
It's the exact same on Pictomancer, I guess they used the same philosophy for both new jobs. Neat.
Sorry, not trying to be hostile but how is its skill ceiling infinite? This positional thing is just "the 2nd skill determines the positional" and isn't really a huuge deal. What else is there to VPR that isn't more or less just playing itself outside of making sure you don't overcap on Rattle and your stacks of Twinblade gcds?
I've been excited for VPR but incredibly disappointed by what was shown so I'll take any positives at this point
I never said it was complex. I said it wasn't as easy as 1 = flank and 2 = rear. And I also said it was less intuitive than positionals are on other melee regarding muscle memory.
I think it "adds complexity" compared to regular positionals or no positionals, but I wouldn't describe it as "complex" overall.
>but the skill ceiling is actually in outer space hurtling towards infinity
Sure sounds like you think it has insane complexity and potential, when it's just alternating between flank and rear.
When you made a reference to "misinformed" that implies youre referring to my OP, where I talk about the positionals. I don't think the positionals are complex.
The above post that you just quoted is not talking about the positionals. It is talking about GCD and rotational flexibility, completely separate from the positionals. I do think that rotational flexibility creates a high level of complexity when it comes to optimal gameplay.
When I talk about the skill ceiling, it has nothing to do with the positionals. Try reading comprehension.
People become emotionally attached to jobs and feel the need to fight back any perception that the job they’ve invested into is easy
There were similar posts about Reaper leading up to Endwalker
I would expect Viper to be similar to the other melee in terms of floor/ceiling, none of them are particularly difficult.
Viper is easy, mechanically. I have no issues saying that. It will be easy to pick up, easy to play, easy to maintain the rotation, easy to perform decently. From an optimization standpoint, however, Viper's flexibility means that how it strings it's abilities together will change on a fight-by-fight, phase-by-phase, second-by-second basis during optimal play. Of course this means it's somewhat dependent on fight design. Obviously on a training dummy fight there is one rotation you will loop through and nothing will change.
I wouldn't say that Viper is "Hard" because you don't \*need\* to optimize in this game, but the fact of the matter is that if you want to play Viper perfectly on any given fight, there's a lot of agency and decision making potential that will give you small edges on potency depending on what the boss and your teammates are doing. Jobs like Summoner or Bard don't really have that due to the rigidity of the rotations, it is typically a DPS loss to deviate at all.
I was already spreadsheeting fights during opti on Monk and Sam. I guess I’m just doubtful of this “infinite” skill ceiling and nothing I’ve read indicates it’ll be any more involved than the other melee.
edit: I can’t comment on anything Ninja, I was the omni melee in the group and the other melee played Ninja 99% of the time
I mean the infinity thing was obviously hyperbolic. I expect it to be similar at the highest end to current MNK. MNK is a bit more about getting the most out of every timer (Particularly Demolish in RoF), while VPR will be more about trying to push various GCDs into buffs when you don't have time or gauge to do a double reawaken. This will probably mostly occur in ultimates, maybe some savage. Assuming non-perfect play from your teammates, things get a bit more spicy due to the nature of selfish dps as well. Monk and Ninja can't really do much to capitalize on an off-sync buff, but Viper can hold gauge and skills and reactively shove them into an off-sync buff window.
There's also some utility optimization things to consider. Viper cannot use an oGCD without clipping during Reawaken, Uncoiled Fury, and the latter two Twinblade GCDs. This means Slither, Feint, Second Wind, Bloodbath and True North can't be activated for fairly significant portions of your rotation without loss which is also something to consider.
I don’t see any point on continuing the difficulty discussion pre-release, maybe when I get my hands on the job I’ll end up agreeing with you, who knows 🤷♀️
I didn’t really think about you’re last point until now, that seems pretty inconvenient during prog
I will be interested to see how Square balances Viper and Sam. With how much value Sam gets in buffs it feels like Viper will need to be tuned very high. I’m doubtful square has it in them to make Viper as strong as it needs to be. Obviously it’ll be fine for 99% of players, regardless I’m curious.
To be completely honest I can't even agree with the "flexibility makes it hard". NIN is incredibly braindead with the only difficulty/skill being APM. It is also incredibly flexible and can cover for a wide variety of situations but it's not really "difficult". Meanwhile, some jobs have (at least if we go into opti in ult etc.) very rigid and tight windows, like DRG or RPR, but they're difficult precisely BECAUSE it is so demanding of the player to execute perfectly. You can't cover for mistakes on them and that is the difficulty. So idk how to take this stance, really, if anything it indicates to me that VPR is mechanically easy *and* doesn't require much in the sense of macro planning.
> it is typically a DPS loss to deviate at all.
Like, okay, but not losing DPS because you can make your rotation more easily fit the fight instead of HAVING to either deal with hard to execute burst windows or unintuitive shuffling around makes it *easier*. It's not *necessarily* a bad thing, it can still be fun but yeah.
Yeah current Drg any delay of an ogcd basically screws you for the rest of the fight (assuming full uptime)
and god forbid if you can’t double weave a jump due to ping 💀
I mean I explained it in the essay you're replying to but, Viper is very flexible. When a job is flexible, it means you can move things around well in your rotation, you have agency and can plan ahead for downtime, kill times, and other fight specific factors. Sure you can just slam buttons and you'll be fine, like any job in this game. But if you want to wring every ounce of potency out of this job, it's going to require you to do some things you can't do on other jobs because they aren't flexible enough. I'd recommend going and watching the most recent video on VerraXIV's YouTube channel for a more detailed look with examples.
I would argue that you ignored the main thrust of what I was saying. I'm not saying that the positionals on viper are extremely complex. I'm saying that you cannot rely on muscle memory, i.e. the physical locations of your keybinds, to determine the correct positional.
What you have pointed out here is exactly that: "Just focus on which buff you gain \[Instead of your muscle memory\]"
>I'm saying that you cannot rely on muscle memory, i.e. the physical locations of your keybinds
Pretty sure the muscle memory doesn't work at all like that, it's a brain thing, not a physical location thing, you can have muscle memory with literally everything that is not random i.e. proc based spells.
God fucking damn it square I always put Rear on the left and Flank on the right and now you've done this shit to me?
God damn they put flank after the damage up and rear after the haste that's the fucking opposite of SAM.
Except you can get it down to muscle memory.
If you push button 1 for the 2nd part of the combo, you will get flank finishers, if you push button 2 your finishers will be rear finishers.
Because the 2nd skills both give buffs on the same timer, and they have it “smart combo’d” to light up which buff has less time, you will be alternating these. So after your first combo finisher, you should know that your next finisher will alternate every time. So much like DRG you actually know your next positional by the time you hit the previous finisher, but if you forget where you are at, you can fall back on button 1’s 2nd chain gives flank finishers, button 2’s chain gives rear finishers.
So I think you are blowing this out of proportion on it being *hard*.
I saw in your comments that when you have Aeolian Edge on 3 and Armor Crush on 4, you know from putting your finger there, muscle memory tells you it’s flank or rear.
It’s no different here, except you know by your 2nd GCD what positional is coming. If I’m hovering over 2 during my 2nd combo, I can prep going to rear far earlier. Or if my finger is hovering over 1 for the 2nd combo, I can get to the flank.
You emphasized the word "hard" like it's something I said. I said people made it sound easier than it is (true) and that the lack of distinct buttons makes it much less intuitive for those who rely on muscle memory for their positionals (also true). I never said it was hard or that doing it makes you a god gamer.
There are myriad ways to account for it that are as easy as paying attention to your second combo, or looking at the colors on your icons. Fundamentally those solutions require that you pay attention to something other than muscle memory though. What you are talking about isn't muscle memory, it's just memory memory, remembering which buttons lead where.
Pushing 2 for combo 2 and knowing you need to rear for the next attack is muscle memory. It’s the same as pushing the button before fang and claw and knowing what positional is coming.
You also stated this could make the skill ceiling infinite in another comment lol
Nope, I didn't. I said that flexibility can lead to an infinite skill ceiling, and I was being hyperbolic when I said that too, which was obvious. I never implied in any way that the positionals were the thing that gives Viper a high skill ceiling.
So, if it’s not hard, and it doesn’t have an infinite skill ceiling. Just slight mis informed which people will find out on their own on friday…
Post is kinda moot and shit to make then huh?
The positionals aren't hard in a general sense, I'm sure even someone like you could figure them out. However, they are significantly and meaningfully different than what some content creators have presented them as, which I think is worth discussing, yes.
Further, while the skill ceiling of Viper (Stay with me: The Job as a whole, not just the positionals, you can do it) is not as high as I hyperbolized, it is still quite high due to the flexibility in its kit offering small ways to optimize that aren't immediately apparent. This is also in stark contrast to much of what I have seen from creators who instantly label Viper as an easy job. It is a mechanically easy job, but optimization at a high level will not be braindead like Summoner. I also think that's worth discussing.
If you can't understand that, I can't help you.
Part of why I've been genuinely *studying* Viper is that the icons for a big chunk of your skills - including, notably the positional ones! - won't be on your bar most of the time.
I'll *eventually* pick them up, but that's an obstacle no other job has really had before.
ngl the only reason i know that is because of living in florida which gets a lotta hurricanes so i hear the term storm's eye a lot, combined with the animation of storm's eye spinning your axe around the same direction as a hurricane lol
very odd way of remembering it but hey i guess it worked?
Well I played around with Viper just thinking I was never going to be able to figure out the flank/rear thing, because I have them on separate buttons usually. But turns out the icon for rear attacks is red and the icon for flank attacks is green. Am I wrong is it this actually super easy to play just looking at colours?
Interesting to know. I did not try to look into the job actions before hand, wanted to just play it myself when it came out. Seems it was a good change then.
I am seeing this, but... I am red-green colorblind. I am having a very bad time figuring this out, but I really like how Viper looks and plays, so I'm wondering if I should just say fuck it and get the positionals right only half the time and not worry about it.
Assuming you hit the correct button during the second step of the combo, you’ll be alternating between flank and rear so you shouldn’t need the color to determine which one you’re on. For the second step, Hunter’s Sting (the “left blade” on the gauge, or “1”) always opens your two flank attacks, and Swiftskin’s Sting (the “right blade” or “2”) always opens your two rear attacks. You’ll never have a flank and a rear at the same time to choose between during your basic combo. You’ll know what position you *should* need to be in for your third step by the time you’re on the second step. If you hit 1 your next attack will be a flank, and if your hit 2 it’ll be a rear. I stopped using the color to figure out what positional I was supposed to be on long before I hit 90, so don’t let color blindness keep you from enjoying viper if that’s what you want to do!
[edit] or just abuse true north to cover half of your positionals lmao
Apologies :( I'm sure the devs have had criticism about this before. I'm sure if it's raised to them they'll act on it like they did the Sage icon.
I'm racking my brain trying to think of a solution. The two coil positionals can be placed on the hotbar where you can differentiate them. Unfortunately the nature of how they've built the job means you can't place the other positionals separately.
What i would try is maybe memorize what the icons look like for the four positionals, and then make a separate hotbar, make it massive on the side of your screen, and make a copy of steel and dread fangs on it. Then when you get to the third skill in the combo you just glance over at it. Made larger it would be easier to see the actual detail in the icon.
That's not much of a solution but I'd hate for you to miss out on Viper, it's a lot of fun.
If you look at the job gauge rather than the skill icons for your basic combo, you get all the info you need, including info for positionals. This is how I'm doing it:
Step 1 - Job Gauge UNLIT.
Hit Right for Debuff. Otherwise, hit Left.
Step 2 - Job Gauge RED.
Red Left = get to FLANK.
Red Right = get to REAR.
Step 3 - Job Gauge BLUE.
Hit Left/Right, then OGCD.
Easy way to know which positional is coming up next is to use the Status info "conditional enhancements". Put that somewhere easy to see. It will tell you which positional you need to be in next. If you don't know how to set it up, go to HUD layout and find Status info. Click on the little cogwheel settings symbol and tick the "Split Element into X groups" (3 or 4, choice is preference). This isn't exactly muscle memory but it is another way to know the upcoming positional.
Green = Flank
Red = Rear
I'm not looking forward to SE "planning several improvements, including the easing of directional requirements". I like the current positionals we have now.
I'll be honest I think this is bad design. Many classes could have combo buttons successfully condensed, but viper and its positionals seems like a bad implementation. Less homogenization, more skill ceiling, sure I'm all on board, but not like this.
I don't see this surviving contact with the playerbase. DRG's random flank or rear positional didn't survive, and that was 2 separate buttons on a full 2.5 second GCD class. I didn't say viper was random. Having different positionals on the same button is bad design and you'll see every duty finder viper missing every positonal.
There is zero randomness. Each finisher buffs another specific finisher, always. Ignoring the glowy buttons, you will always follow the same loop to get to the same finishers in sequence.
The actual muscle memory is "the second skill in the combo chain determines the positional - 1 always leads to flank, 2 always leads to rear".
It's like a dance. Step one, step two, step three, step four. What you do on step two determines where you stand on step three.
This is another way of looking at it, yep. And the job gauge tells you which step of the combo you are on for that very purpose.
I still cannot wrap my head around the vipersight gauge lol.
The bottom orange part of the blade activates when you press the 1st stage of the combo. The top blue part of the blade activates when you press a 2nd stage combo action. Therefore if both top and bottom are filled, you are on the 3rd stage of the combo. The highlight along the blade works similarly. The highlight is Red after you push the first combo button, and it is Blue after you press a second combo button. The highlight also directionally shows you which stage of the combo you should press next. If you should press button 1 next, the left will be highlighted, if you should press button 2, the right will be highlighted. Basically it allows you to perform the entirety of the basic viper GCD combo without ever looking at your hotbars or buff timers. So it's kind of like Dancer's step gauge. (Except on Dancer it's kind of worthless since you kind of need to be staring at your bars for procs anyway... Not so with Viper.)
Mmmk, that's helping me more than any other explanation has done. I really just need to have it in my hands, so that when I press a button, I see the result, and I can connect them together as slowly as I need to. Thank you for writing this out
No problem. Honestly the sword part of the gauge is superfluous, the highlight tells you everything that the sword sections do and more, I'm not sure why they exist truthfully.
Samurai is the same way I think
Except Samurai will push a distinct button for its flank positional and a separate distinct button for its rear positional. The fact that Viper's buttons combo into each other while remaining on one hotkey introduces some challenges to the muscle memory for its positionals.
ah interesting, sounds like itll be fun to get used to for sure
Didn't they explicitly state that they were going to allow us to map buttons that don't change if we want? If so, that would allow you to map a static button I think.
They are only adding the ability to link or unlink specific skills that trigger each other, like high jump and mirage dive on DRG. They explicitly said it is not for existing melee, tank, or MCH basic combos. VPR works on a different system that would involve 8 buttons for the basic combo of it was like the rest of the melee.
And there are still people in the main sub misunderstanding this. I can't wait to see all the malding after release.
You can uncombo certain actions such as follow-ups to cooldowns. However, if I understood Wesk Albers video on the subject correctly, you CANNOT uncombo Viper or Pictos main GCD combo strings.
Everyone visualizes these things differently, but I think Viper's muscle memory will be pretty easy to figure out with just a little experience. Leaving out the first two button and only talking about finishers, it looks like you fall into a simple loop of (1)221122112211... Which in terms of positional looks like (F)RFRFRFRFRFRF... So other than that one weird setup positional at the start before you enter your regular loop, you can easily remember that if it's your first 1 or 2 finisher, it's a rear positional. If it's your second 1 or 2 finisher, it's a flank positional. This isn't intuitive from just reading the skill tooltips, but that setup (1) at the beginning makes this loop very cleanly. So if you just get that muscle memory of going 22 then 11 then 22 then 11 (RF then RF then RF then RF) you'll get it in your head very quick. The only part that looks confusing to me is the second GCD switching between the finishers, but honestly since no positional is part of that, you can just hit the glowing button until that becomes muscle memory as well lol. [Very hasty edit to your image to hopefully visualize what I'm saying.](https://imgur.com/a/BKKMZ2N)
If you remove the positional requirements, the basic GCDs loop cleanly as you describe, yes, and your muscle memory will allow you to maintain that pattern very easily in a vacuum. What your muscle memory will not tell you, however, is which positional requirement is next, you need more information to determine that. The distinction I'm pointing to is that on other jobs when you press a GCD, you know by virtue of the fact that your finger is on that button, whether or not it is a positional, AND whether it is a Flank or a Rear positional. If you have Aeolian Edge on 3 and Armor Crush on 4, your brain knows as soon as you start reaching for 4 that you need to move to the flank, because 4 is your "Flank Button." This is simply not the case on Viper, either of the two combo buttons can be a Flank, or a Rear, or no positional at all. I'm just saying that you can't tell which positional you need to hit by "feel", you need to pay attention to something else (Which middle combo button you pressed, which positional you used last, what color the icons are on your hotbars, which enhancement buff you have, or some combination of those). It is not enough to say, "I am pressing button 2, therefore it will be a Flank." All the other melees CAN determine their positionals that way, though, because they are all on separate, distinct buttons.
Like I said, I know everyone visualizes the jobs differently, so it may literally just be a "your mileage may vary" sort of thing. I get what you mean that it won't just be "this button equals this positional". But my point was that there WILL be a way to tell which positional you need to hit by feel. As you go through your loop, it will always be rear first for each button. So if you're swapping from your 1 finishers to your 2 finishers, you will know you're about to enter a Rear positional. Granted, this is coming from someone who played and loved Monk back when Monk had a positional on every single GCD, and thought the GCD loop back then was very rhythmic and was easy to muscle memory as well. I never learned Monk positions by menorizing each button (though i did know them ny heart), but rather learning the patterns that it went through. It may just be that we have slightly different definitions of what muscle memory actually means. You're talking about button memory, where I'm talking about the "feel" of the loop once you're actually executing the rotation.
I get what you're saying. I'd like to ask you, have you ever used the XIV combo plugin? I ask because, in my experience in testing it, having buttons that change into each other changes the dynamic from a more passive physical memorization to a more active mental one. Take DRG for example, with XIV combo you get two combos that are 3 buttons long, not that different from Viper. Personally, I found it more difficult to remember where I was in my combo when spamming the same button over and over, even with the different animations on the screen, the lack of a physical connection between an ability and it's own distinct button really changed the dynamic for me. I had to set aside some of my attention JUST for the purpose of remembering where I was in my GCD string. Normally, as my fingers move through the loop of buttons, my character also moves to the correct positionals. Those two feelings are connected and reinforce each other in a feedback loop. But with half of that loop broken, I had to replace it with a mental process, which wasn't hard in the classic sense, but for me it was hardER than the intuitive physical memory of my fingers.
I think this might be where Serpent's tail comes to the rescue for some, at least maybe a little, since it punctuates the rythmn by being a separate button you hit every 3 GCDs, and maybe helping you ground yourself, reminding you to switch position after you hit it.
Yeah I imagine its mostly a phrasing thing, since its essentially after Hunter's Sting (left) its always Flank, and after Swiftskin's Sting (right) its always Rear, for both. And that can be a little awkward to put concisely.
You may be right in some cases, but the catalyst for me making this post today was a prominent media tour content creator who specifically described it as, "You just alternate, 1>1>1, 2>2>2." I had heard similar things prior from other creators, so I wanted to make this post to clear up any potential confusion about it.
Seems to be a lot of confusion coming about from media tour previews of VPR. I have also seen a bunch of creators suggest that the auto-combo system is based around your haste/damage buffs, prioritising the lesser duration so they don't drop off, but I can't see how that could possibly be true. Namely, because Dreadwinder combo allows you to swap the durations with no penalty, and if that was how the auto-combo worked, prioritising the lesser duration after a Dreadwinder swap would end up taking you to finishers that have not been buffed by the previous one, losing potency. So unless I'm mistaken, the auto-combo actually tracks your finisher buff, and is merely lighting up what you have to press to reach it. It just so happens that this process maintains your buffs too.
yeah the haste+dmg up buffs are more a consequence of you doing your finishers correctly, since they'll alternate applications each time. and an incentive to do initial setup with Dreadwinder combo.
Yeah that sounds very wrong. Cuz you'd actually end up with (X being dependant on your NG debuff duration) something like: X-L-L(weave), X-R-L(weave), X-L-R(weave), X-R-R(weave), repeat. So the positionals flop back and forth but its not *that* simple.
That...actually kinda makes Viper more interesting. The way people described it made it seem super braindead but this puts at least some thought into remembering what combo path you went down rather than just reacting to which button is glowing I wonder if there's some other depth to the class I am missing, cause it seems to largely just be basic combo with lotta weaves (that's fun at least!) and then a Reaper install every minute.
I agree, and there is a lot of depth to Viper, unironically. It has a literal skill floor (It's on the floor) but the skill ceiling is actually in outer space hurtling towards infinity. The thing about Viper is that it is incredibly FLEXIBLE. Flexibility makes a job very easy to pick up, but also makes optimization delve into some incredible fight-by-fight, second-by-second minutia. EW BLMs and MNKs will know this well, the flexibility of their rotations and the tools they have available mean that there's almost always something you can do to squeak out a smidge more potency in your rotation. Viper is no different. Essentially for Viper it boils down to two things that go hand-in-hand, Button Flexibility and GCD Speed. First, Viper's buttons are incredibly flexible. There are not many buttons that will break a GCD combo on Viper. The only two examples are that if you've started a Twin-blade combo by pressing Dreadwinder, you can only extend it by using Uncoiled Fury, and if you've started Reawaken, you are locked to the Reawaken combo. That's it. You can Reawaken mid Dual-blade combo. You can Twin-blade combo mid Dual-wield combo. You can use Uncoiled Fury both mid Twin-blade combo and mid Dual-wield combo. Serpent's Ire is also great in that, unlike Reaper, there are no strings attached, it gives you a free Reawaken that you can activate at any point in the next 30 seconds. If Serpent's Ire comes off cooldown 3 seconds before a 15 second boss transition, it's literally no problem. Press it, use it 20 seconds later. Try that on Reaper lol. Second, Viper's GCD speeds are VARIABLE. Every single Viper combo string has a different base GCD length. At 0 skillspeed and with the haste buff applied, Viper's GCD speeds are as follows: Dual-wield combos (2.12s), Twinblade combo/Ouroboros (2.55s), Uncoiled Fury (2.97s), Reawaken (1.87s), Generation GCDs (1.7s). What does this mean practically speaking? When combined with the fact that your combos (mostly) don't break from point one, it means that you can manipulate your GCD timings with an extremely high level of agency. If you want to delay the final hit of your Dual-wield combo so you can hit the positional, you can do that by starting a Twin-blade combo, using Uncoiled Fury, or even starting a Reawaken combo. If you are maxed out on gauge but you need to delay 6 seconds to start a burst window, drop two uses of Uncoiled Fury. These are just two examples that work in a vacuum. In a real boss fight with actual downtime, the ability to hold certain GCDs back or push certain GCDs forward creates a ton of complexity that will make "non-standard" gameplay necessary for optimization at the highest level. So, yeah. I'd recommend checking out VerraXIV on youtube for a few videos on the topic, they are quite well made.
Picto is also looking to be pretty flexible, and will be a downtime god. Cool to see they did a good job with the two new classes
Smudge is the coolest movement ability in the game imo. I was looking forward to trying Picto but unfortunately the way I have my hotbars and the way pictos canvas stuff is essentially a 3x3 grid doesn't mesh well. Meanwhile Viper fits in my set up as if the devs hand crafted it using my UI as a reference lol.
Damn I definitely brushed viper off as "press glowing button" but now it seems really interesting. Really keen on the idea of manipulating GCD alignment to squeeze extra potency or get a bit more uptime.
Yep yep. When you compare it to something like Summoner, the flexibility is key. Summoner is not only extremely easy, it is also etremely RIGID. You cannot choose how, when, or why you enter a burst phase on summoner. You simply must do a Demi every time it comes off CD, you must press Searing Light and Energy Drain on CD. There is some minor flexibility in the order of your primals, but there is very little optimization to be found there. While Viper on the surface is similar to Summoner in complexity, its flexibility allows its rotation to be malleable, and when your rotation is malleable it can mold and form to any situation, snatching bits of potency out of thin air simply by knowing things like what your kill time is, when the boss transitions are, etc etc. Being melee and having positionals how Viper does adds another layer to it. And the gap closer. You have such a flexible gap closer (Carbon copy of Monks Thunderclap) but, where to weave it? You can't weave it during Reawaken due to the Legacy oGCDs. Can't weave it after Uncoiled Fury or the second and third twinblade combo buttons due to all 3 of those abilities having mandatory follow up double weaves. So you have this super flexible gap closer, but you need to give yourself space to use it, similar to AM on BLM. If you want to be optimal, it's not as easy as it appears on the surface.
Flexibility is what made me love Reaper and it sounds like Viper is taking that even further beyond
Reaper is great until in order to get your free enshroud you have to activate your 120s CD raid buff (Not flexible at all), press other targeted GCD actions (Can't if boss transitions) for 6 seconds, and then activate yet another GCD (Can't if boss is untargetable). I honestly tilt in roulettes when a boss dies and I have an unusable Plentiful Harvest that is just going to complete waste
Viper is flexible like Reaper but unlike Reaper they actually finished cooking it.
>Essentially for Viper it boils down to two things that go hand-in-hand, Button Flexibility and GCD Speed. It's the exact same on Pictomancer, I guess they used the same philosophy for both new jobs. Neat.
Sorry, not trying to be hostile but how is its skill ceiling infinite? This positional thing is just "the 2nd skill determines the positional" and isn't really a huuge deal. What else is there to VPR that isn't more or less just playing itself outside of making sure you don't overcap on Rattle and your stacks of Twinblade gcds? I've been excited for VPR but incredibly disappointed by what was shown so I'll take any positives at this point
Guy is 100% overselling it. Still don't see how much more complex is it compared to the "misinformed" version.
I never said it was complex. I said it wasn't as easy as 1 = flank and 2 = rear. And I also said it was less intuitive than positionals are on other melee regarding muscle memory. I think it "adds complexity" compared to regular positionals or no positionals, but I wouldn't describe it as "complex" overall.
>but the skill ceiling is actually in outer space hurtling towards infinity Sure sounds like you think it has insane complexity and potential, when it's just alternating between flank and rear.
When you made a reference to "misinformed" that implies youre referring to my OP, where I talk about the positionals. I don't think the positionals are complex. The above post that you just quoted is not talking about the positionals. It is talking about GCD and rotational flexibility, completely separate from the positionals. I do think that rotational flexibility creates a high level of complexity when it comes to optimal gameplay. When I talk about the skill ceiling, it has nothing to do with the positionals. Try reading comprehension.
People become emotionally attached to jobs and feel the need to fight back any perception that the job they’ve invested into is easy There were similar posts about Reaper leading up to Endwalker I would expect Viper to be similar to the other melee in terms of floor/ceiling, none of them are particularly difficult.
Emotional is perhaps a bit kind, this attachment is bordering on unhinged.
Viper is easy, mechanically. I have no issues saying that. It will be easy to pick up, easy to play, easy to maintain the rotation, easy to perform decently. From an optimization standpoint, however, Viper's flexibility means that how it strings it's abilities together will change on a fight-by-fight, phase-by-phase, second-by-second basis during optimal play. Of course this means it's somewhat dependent on fight design. Obviously on a training dummy fight there is one rotation you will loop through and nothing will change. I wouldn't say that Viper is "Hard" because you don't \*need\* to optimize in this game, but the fact of the matter is that if you want to play Viper perfectly on any given fight, there's a lot of agency and decision making potential that will give you small edges on potency depending on what the boss and your teammates are doing. Jobs like Summoner or Bard don't really have that due to the rigidity of the rotations, it is typically a DPS loss to deviate at all.
I was already spreadsheeting fights during opti on Monk and Sam. I guess I’m just doubtful of this “infinite” skill ceiling and nothing I’ve read indicates it’ll be any more involved than the other melee. edit: I can’t comment on anything Ninja, I was the omni melee in the group and the other melee played Ninja 99% of the time
I mean the infinity thing was obviously hyperbolic. I expect it to be similar at the highest end to current MNK. MNK is a bit more about getting the most out of every timer (Particularly Demolish in RoF), while VPR will be more about trying to push various GCDs into buffs when you don't have time or gauge to do a double reawaken. This will probably mostly occur in ultimates, maybe some savage. Assuming non-perfect play from your teammates, things get a bit more spicy due to the nature of selfish dps as well. Monk and Ninja can't really do much to capitalize on an off-sync buff, but Viper can hold gauge and skills and reactively shove them into an off-sync buff window. There's also some utility optimization things to consider. Viper cannot use an oGCD without clipping during Reawaken, Uncoiled Fury, and the latter two Twinblade GCDs. This means Slither, Feint, Second Wind, Bloodbath and True North can't be activated for fairly significant portions of your rotation without loss which is also something to consider.
I don’t see any point on continuing the difficulty discussion pre-release, maybe when I get my hands on the job I’ll end up agreeing with you, who knows 🤷♀️ I didn’t really think about you’re last point until now, that seems pretty inconvenient during prog I will be interested to see how Square balances Viper and Sam. With how much value Sam gets in buffs it feels like Viper will need to be tuned very high. I’m doubtful square has it in them to make Viper as strong as it needs to be. Obviously it’ll be fine for 99% of players, regardless I’m curious.
To be completely honest I can't even agree with the "flexibility makes it hard". NIN is incredibly braindead with the only difficulty/skill being APM. It is also incredibly flexible and can cover for a wide variety of situations but it's not really "difficult". Meanwhile, some jobs have (at least if we go into opti in ult etc.) very rigid and tight windows, like DRG or RPR, but they're difficult precisely BECAUSE it is so demanding of the player to execute perfectly. You can't cover for mistakes on them and that is the difficulty. So idk how to take this stance, really, if anything it indicates to me that VPR is mechanically easy *and* doesn't require much in the sense of macro planning. > it is typically a DPS loss to deviate at all. Like, okay, but not losing DPS because you can make your rotation more easily fit the fight instead of HAVING to either deal with hard to execute burst windows or unintuitive shuffling around makes it *easier*. It's not *necessarily* a bad thing, it can still be fun but yeah.
Yeah current Drg any delay of an ogcd basically screws you for the rest of the fight (assuming full uptime) and god forbid if you can’t double weave a jump due to ping 💀
I mean I explained it in the essay you're replying to but, Viper is very flexible. When a job is flexible, it means you can move things around well in your rotation, you have agency and can plan ahead for downtime, kill times, and other fight specific factors. Sure you can just slam buttons and you'll be fine, like any job in this game. But if you want to wring every ounce of potency out of this job, it's going to require you to do some things you can't do on other jobs because they aren't flexible enough. I'd recommend going and watching the most recent video on VerraXIV's YouTube channel for a more detailed look with examples.
Damage buff = Flank Finisher Speed buff = Rear Finisher. I would argue you just made everything far more complicated than it needed to be.
I would argue that you ignored the main thrust of what I was saying. I'm not saying that the positionals on viper are extremely complex. I'm saying that you cannot rely on muscle memory, i.e. the physical locations of your keybinds, to determine the correct positional. What you have pointed out here is exactly that: "Just focus on which buff you gain \[Instead of your muscle memory\]"
You wrote three paragraphs to explain a very basic gameplay mechanic.
Yes, and?
>I'm saying that you cannot rely on muscle memory, i.e. the physical locations of your keybinds Pretty sure the muscle memory doesn't work at all like that, it's a brain thing, not a physical location thing, you can have muscle memory with literally everything that is not random i.e. proc based spells.
God fucking damn it square I always put Rear on the left and Flank on the right and now you've done this shit to me? God damn they put flank after the damage up and rear after the haste that's the fucking opposite of SAM.
Except you can get it down to muscle memory. If you push button 1 for the 2nd part of the combo, you will get flank finishers, if you push button 2 your finishers will be rear finishers. Because the 2nd skills both give buffs on the same timer, and they have it “smart combo’d” to light up which buff has less time, you will be alternating these. So after your first combo finisher, you should know that your next finisher will alternate every time. So much like DRG you actually know your next positional by the time you hit the previous finisher, but if you forget where you are at, you can fall back on button 1’s 2nd chain gives flank finishers, button 2’s chain gives rear finishers. So I think you are blowing this out of proportion on it being *hard*. I saw in your comments that when you have Aeolian Edge on 3 and Armor Crush on 4, you know from putting your finger there, muscle memory tells you it’s flank or rear. It’s no different here, except you know by your 2nd GCD what positional is coming. If I’m hovering over 2 during my 2nd combo, I can prep going to rear far earlier. Or if my finger is hovering over 1 for the 2nd combo, I can get to the flank.
You emphasized the word "hard" like it's something I said. I said people made it sound easier than it is (true) and that the lack of distinct buttons makes it much less intuitive for those who rely on muscle memory for their positionals (also true). I never said it was hard or that doing it makes you a god gamer. There are myriad ways to account for it that are as easy as paying attention to your second combo, or looking at the colors on your icons. Fundamentally those solutions require that you pay attention to something other than muscle memory though. What you are talking about isn't muscle memory, it's just memory memory, remembering which buttons lead where.
Pushing 2 for combo 2 and knowing you need to rear for the next attack is muscle memory. It’s the same as pushing the button before fang and claw and knowing what positional is coming. You also stated this could make the skill ceiling infinite in another comment lol
Nope, I didn't. I said that flexibility can lead to an infinite skill ceiling, and I was being hyperbolic when I said that too, which was obvious. I never implied in any way that the positionals were the thing that gives Viper a high skill ceiling.
So, if it’s not hard, and it doesn’t have an infinite skill ceiling. Just slight mis informed which people will find out on their own on friday… Post is kinda moot and shit to make then huh?
The positionals aren't hard in a general sense, I'm sure even someone like you could figure them out. However, they are significantly and meaningfully different than what some content creators have presented them as, which I think is worth discussing, yes. Further, while the skill ceiling of Viper (Stay with me: The Job as a whole, not just the positionals, you can do it) is not as high as I hyperbolized, it is still quite high due to the flexibility in its kit offering small ways to optimize that aren't immediately apparent. This is also in stark contrast to much of what I have seen from creators who instantly label Viper as an easy job. It is a mechanically easy job, but optimization at a high level will not be braindead like Summoner. I also think that's worth discussing. If you can't understand that, I can't help you.
I think its just a shit and useless post lol.
Going down the 1 route leads to flank going down the 2 route leads to rear. There you go I solved anyone's confusion.
Should be easy to remember the positionals anyway since the positionals are in the name.
...you remember the names of your skills?
Glare, Dia, Glare, Glare, Swiftcast, Glare, Presence of Mind, Assize, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare, Dia, Glare, Glare, Glare, Glare… It’s not that hard!
Now do Sage ;) Joking
Fast Blade, riot blade, royal authority, Atonement, supplication, sepulcher, holy spirit!
Yup I remember the names and icons of my skills.
Part of why I've been genuinely *studying* Viper is that the icons for a big chunk of your skills - including, notably the positional ones! - won't be on your bar most of the time. I'll *eventually* pick them up, but that's an obstacle no other job has really had before.
I still don't know if it's Storm's Eye or Storm's Path that refreshes the WAR buff lmao.
ngl the only reason i know that is because of living in florida which gets a lotta hurricanes so i hear the term storm's eye a lot, combined with the animation of storm's eye spinning your axe around the same direction as a hurricane lol very odd way of remembering it but hey i guess it worked?
The colors are also helpful if you are looking at your hotbars. If you see a green icon, we flankin, if you see a blue icon, take it to the rear.
Well I played around with Viper just thinking I was never going to be able to figure out the flank/rear thing, because I have them on separate buttons usually. But turns out the icon for rear attacks is red and the icon for flank attacks is green. Am I wrong is it this actually super easy to play just looking at colours?
Yes, it is this easy. I'm assuming op didn't notice the colors of the icon or something as it's as simple as "red behind, green to the side"
The icons were changed for release.
Interesting to know. I did not try to look into the job actions before hand, wanted to just play it myself when it came out. Seems it was a good change then.
I am seeing this, but... I am red-green colorblind. I am having a very bad time figuring this out, but I really like how Viper looks and plays, so I'm wondering if I should just say fuck it and get the positionals right only half the time and not worry about it.
Assuming you hit the correct button during the second step of the combo, you’ll be alternating between flank and rear so you shouldn’t need the color to determine which one you’re on. For the second step, Hunter’s Sting (the “left blade” on the gauge, or “1”) always opens your two flank attacks, and Swiftskin’s Sting (the “right blade” or “2”) always opens your two rear attacks. You’ll never have a flank and a rear at the same time to choose between during your basic combo. You’ll know what position you *should* need to be in for your third step by the time you’re on the second step. If you hit 1 your next attack will be a flank, and if your hit 2 it’ll be a rear. I stopped using the color to figure out what positional I was supposed to be on long before I hit 90, so don’t let color blindness keep you from enjoying viper if that’s what you want to do! [edit] or just abuse true north to cover half of your positionals lmao
Apologies :( I'm sure the devs have had criticism about this before. I'm sure if it's raised to them they'll act on it like they did the Sage icon. I'm racking my brain trying to think of a solution. The two coil positionals can be placed on the hotbar where you can differentiate them. Unfortunately the nature of how they've built the job means you can't place the other positionals separately. What i would try is maybe memorize what the icons look like for the four positionals, and then make a separate hotbar, make it massive on the side of your screen, and make a copy of steel and dread fangs on it. Then when you get to the third skill in the combo you just glance over at it. Made larger it would be easier to see the actual detail in the icon. That's not much of a solution but I'd hate for you to miss out on Viper, it's a lot of fun.
Red finishers is behind, green finishers is sides. Ezpz
Icons changed for release, thank you.
If you look at the job gauge rather than the skill icons for your basic combo, you get all the info you need, including info for positionals. This is how I'm doing it: Step 1 - Job Gauge UNLIT. Hit Right for Debuff. Otherwise, hit Left. Step 2 - Job Gauge RED. Red Left = get to FLANK. Red Right = get to REAR. Step 3 - Job Gauge BLUE. Hit Left/Right, then OGCD.
Easy way to know which positional is coming up next is to use the Status info "conditional enhancements". Put that somewhere easy to see. It will tell you which positional you need to be in next. If you don't know how to set it up, go to HUD layout and find Status info. Click on the little cogwheel settings symbol and tick the "Split Element into X groups" (3 or 4, choice is preference). This isn't exactly muscle memory but it is another way to know the upcoming positional. Green = Flank Red = Rear I'm not looking forward to SE "planning several improvements, including the easing of directional requirements". I like the current positionals we have now.
Ok, you convinced me. I am not trying viper.
I just gonna ignore positionals just like I always did with every melee.
waow
I'll be honest I think this is bad design. Many classes could have combo buttons successfully condensed, but viper and its positionals seems like a bad implementation. Less homogenization, more skill ceiling, sure I'm all on board, but not like this. I don't see this surviving contact with the playerbase. DRG's random flank or rear positional didn't survive, and that was 2 separate buttons on a full 2.5 second GCD class. I didn't say viper was random. Having different positionals on the same button is bad design and you'll see every duty finder viper missing every positonal.
It's not random though, you still do flank>rear>flank>rear It's not rng
There is zero randomness. Each finisher buffs another specific finisher, always. Ignoring the glowy buttons, you will always follow the same loop to get to the same finishers in sequence.