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Viper is one of the new jobs that came with FFXIV Dawntrail, and while it looks slick and hits like a truck, learning its rotation can be challenging. Since this class starts at level 80, players only have ten levels to understand how it plays before taking it to more challenging content. Even then, once you hit your first dungeon, you’ll notice the rotation might be even more complex than you thought. In addition, with the lack of high-end raids at the beginning of an expansion, a job’s rotation might not be optimized. Yet, that doesn’t mean we can’t give you a few pointers on how to use this new melee DPS.
(This guide contains information from The Balance community as well as personal experience and will be updated once the 7.0.5 raids arrive).
FFXIV: Optimal Viper Rotation
Right now, finding an extremely optimized rotation for Viper might be a bit challenging, especially since high-end raids won’t arrive until FFXIV launches its 7.0.5 update. However, you can still get a nice rotation for dungeons and story trials, which is what we’ll focus on here. Before we delve into the rotation, let’s take a look at all skills and the combos you should be familiar with.
All Viper Skills and Combos Explained
Vipers work with a four-button-combo style. Each combo gives the Viper different buffs as well as debuffs for the enemy. To simplify this, you should know that the two basic combos for Viper are green and red. A green combo indicates flanking attacks. In contrast, a red combo indicates rear attacks. Once you memorize that, positioning yourself to attack an enemy will be much easier. With that in mind, let’s begin with the two first combos.
Steel Fangs Combo
The Steel Fangs combo is the first one you’ll use, and it buffs the Viper with Hunter’s Instinct, which increases the damage you do by 10% for 40 seconds. Here is the full combo:
Steel Fangs -> Hunter’s Sting -> Flanking Strike/Flanksbane Fang -> Death Rattle
Whenever you finish this combo, the next combo you perform will be enhanced. Fralnking Strike and Flanksbane Fang always increase the potency of your next combo’s final move, which is great for having a smoother combo loop. Now, let’s move on to the second combo.
Dread Fangs Combo
The Dread Fangs combo is the next one you’ll learn, and this one applies Noxius Gash debuff to an enemy, which increases the damage they receive by 10% for 20 seconds. Beyond that, continuing with this combo also grants Swiftscaled, which reduces attack delay by 15%. Here’s the complete combo:
Dread Fangs -> Swiftskin’s Sting -> Hindsting Strike/Hindsbane Fang -> Death Rattle
The gist of playing Viper is doing any of these previous combos and finishing with either of the Flank or Hind attacks. Doing so will buff the other attack. For example, if you finish a combo with Flanking Strike, your next Hindsting Stikr will hit harder, thus making this an easy combo loop to follow.
Dreadwinder Combos
Once you unlock Dreadwinder, this will be part of your opener, as it grants new skills for a Viper and the buffs and debuffs in previous combos. Furthermore, once you have your Dreadwinder combos, you should also have Rattling Coils, which are other resources you’ll need to execute Uncoiled Fury. Before we delve into how to obtain them, here are the combos you should use when attacking with Dreadwinder first.
Dreadwinder -> Hunter’s Coil/Swiftskin’s Coil -> Twinblood Bite/Twinfang Bite -> Hunter’s Coil/Swiftskin’s Coil -> Uncoiled Fury -> Uncoiled Twinfang/Uncoiled Twinblood
If you perform the combo correctly, you should be able to apply the debuff to the enemy and buff yourself. This should be the combo to use in your opener rotation for Viper in FFXIV.
Rattling Coils and Anguine Tribute
Last, you should also learn about the Viper’s job gauge. You’ll first unlock Rattling Coils, which you can use to perform Uncoiled Fury. You can obtain Rattling Coils by using Dreadwinder and Serpent’s Ire. In the case of Anguine Tributes, you’ll get them by completing any of the Steel Fangs and Dread Fangs combos and Dreadwinder combos. Fang combos grant 10, while Dreadwinder combos grant 5. Once you have 50 Anguine Tributes, you can use Reawaken, which allows you to perform new moves. This is the full combo:
Perform combos until you have 50 Anguine Tributes -> Reawaken -> First Generation/First Legacy -> Second Generation/Second Legacy -> Third Generation/Third Legacy -> Fourth Generation/Fourth Legacy -> Ouroboros
This is your heavy-hitting combo, and it is important to save it for the right moment, which is when other jobs apply debuffs to enemies or buff the party.
Single-Target Rotation
Since we know the above information might be a bit hard to follow, let’s put it all into practice in a single-target rotation for Viper in FFXIV. Here is what you’ll do:
- Opener
- Dreadwinder -> Hunter’s Coil/Swiftskin’s Coil -> Twinblood Bite/Twinfang Bite -> Uncoiled Fury (x2) -> Uncoiled Fury -> Uncoiled Twinfang/Uncoiled Twinblood (x2)
- Anguine Tribute Build-up
- Steel Fangs -> Hunter’s Sting -> Flanking Strike/Flanksbane Fang -> Death Rattle
- Dread Fangs -> Swiftskin’s Sting -> Hindsting Strike/Hindsbane Fang -> Death Rattle
- Reawaken Combo
- Reawaken -> First Generation/First Legacy -> Second Generation/Second Legacy -> Third Generation/Third Legacy -> Fourth Generation/Fourth Legacy -> Ouroboros
AoE Rotation
We went with the single rotation for FFXIV‘s Viper first because the AoE rotation uses the same logic but with different icons and names. It is incredibly straightforward, and once you nail down the basics, doing AoE attacks will be extremely easy. Also, you’ll notice most of the names are the same, so we’ll only go over the rotation instead of explaining each AoE skill.
Pit of Dread -> Hunter’s Den/Swiftskin’s Den -> Twinblood Tresh/Twinfang Tresh -> Uncoiled Fury -> Uncoiled Twinfang/Uncoiled Twinblood.
In the downtime, you can use the AoE versions of Steel Fangs and Dread Fangs, which apply the same buffs and debuffs.
Steel Maw -> Hunter’s Bite -> Jagged Maw -> Last Lash.
Dread Maw -> Swiftskin’s Bite -> Bloodied Maw -> Last Lash.
If you follow these combos, you shouldn’t have a hard time when facing any enemy in Dawntrail. Of course, when it comes to the full rotation, you’ll likely see it once you’re inside a dungeon or against a Trial enemy. When questing, don’t stress too much about following the rotation.
