At the end of the month, Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail will go into Early Access. MeinMMO editor Sophia Weiß was able to try out the new classes, the Viper and the Pictomancer, before the release. And the Viper is so good, it could become her main class after 8 years of loyalty.

Dawntrail is not far away anymore, and it won’t be long before you can try out the two new jobs yourselves. Square Enix invited MeinMMO to an early playtest event. We have already tried out the two new classes.

We were also able to talk about the Viper with Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida during an interview.

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In addition to the new jobs, we were also able to take a look at one of the new dungeons. As in previous expansions, you can see how the challenges have evolved:

Similar to the Alliance Raid in Endwalker, for example, mobs between the bosses transform into the characters of your group. In Shadowbringers Bozja, your Warrior of Light also learned to climb ladders – that has also found its way into the dungeon.

New is that a PvP setting can now also be used for PvE: When you set it or do not turn it off, combo actions automatically replace the previous command on your hotbar.

This naturally saves space on the hotbars and correspondingly on your screen. However, it is also something to get used to and possibly even overwhelming.

Now enough of the preamble – here is our playtest report on the two new classes.

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Inspired by Sword Art Online – This is the Viper

What is the Viper? The Viper is an extremely stylish job. With the combinable blades, the cool actions, and the outfit, the class really brings an adventurous flair. Here are the key facts at a glance.

• Starting level 80
• Starting quest location: Ul’dah
• Job type: Attacker / Damage Dealer and Melee
• Shares armor sets with Rogue and Ninja
• Weapons: Two blades, wielded simultaneously in each hand; can be combined for powerful attacks

Pretty exciting, sometimes overwhelming

The Viper is an incredibly fast and intense class. When you start with it at level 80, you will already have a large portion of your abilities. During the playtest, this led to the hotbar lighting up and blinking like an American Christmas tree at the end of November after the initial attack:

Many abilities give your character states that are needed as conditions for other skills. If one or several states are active at the same time, you can use the conditional actions as combos. While the combos of the well-known jobs are relatively linear, the flow chart of the Viper looks like the subway network of Tokyo.

But let’s take it one step at a time.

Basically, you have two single-target and two group combos. Each one is your standard attack on the Global Cooldown. The second attack combo has its own timer and is stronger or gives you more status.

If you want to get the most out of the job, you must think on your feet and select the right combo action depending on the situation and the enemy. However, you must not forget your positioning, enemy area attacks, and the combat mechanics.

At the end of each attack chain is a powerful ability that, if executed correctly, deals a lot of damage and makes your character look extremely cool. To do this, you fill various resources in your job bar that unlock these additional attacks.

For whom is the job? The Viper feels like the right job for everyone who likes to generate high damage numbers. Similar to the Dragoon, the temptation to stay a little too long in the threatening area of effect is quite large. It is possible that Viper and Dragoon players will end up lying together on the ground a lot in the future.

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Fight like in Sword Art Online, says Yoshi-P

Naoki Yoshida also talked with MeinMMO during an interview about the job. When asked about the inspiration behind it, he said that many players had wished for a stylish dual-wielder.

They had a very special inspiration:

When we thought about what image everyone has in mind of a job with two blades, we referred to a Japanese title: Sword Art Online. There is the character Kirito. I’m sure you all know Kirito very well. We thought:

Maybe it is what people associate with his strength and style what they expect from a job with two blades.

So we integrated that and also the feeling of speed into our work. That became the foundation for our work on the Viper.

Naoki Yoshida, 28.05.2024

In the conversation, Yoshi-P also explained that the job is becoming faster and faster. As a player, you should have an “enhanced sense of excitement”, think about the rotation while not forgetting the combat techniques.

Next, we move on to the Pictomancer on page 2.

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