Final Fantasy 14’s new Viper job is a dual-wielding blademaster that’s new to the entire series
There’s a new limited job on the way to join Blue Mage, too
Final Fantasy XIV has revealed the first of two new jobs coming to the MMO in next year’s expansion Dawntrail. The Viper is a fast-paced melee DPS armed with two swords that can transform, Bloodborne-style, into a single two-handed weapon. It’s brand new for the Final Fantasy series, too.
Producer and director Naoki Yoshida - aka Yoshi-P - unveiled the new class during the opening of this weekend’s Final Fantasy Fan Festival in London, having announced Dawntrail at the game’s earlier event in Las Vegas over the summer. Yoshida appeared on stage dressed in cosplay of the new job.
Yoshida described the Viper as a class designed for players looking for another dual-wielding job to play after Ninja, with the two jobs sharing dexterity melee gear. In contrast to FF14 jobs that have appeared in previous Final Fantasy games - such as Red Mage, Ninja and Dragoon - the Viper is what Yoshida called a “Final Fantasy XIV original”, having been designed specifically for Dawntrail.
A reveal trailer for the job showed the player character able to deliver fast-paced barrages of light attacks while dual-wielding, applying pressure to enemies. Upon combining the two separate blades into a two-handed staff-like weapon, the character boosts their damage with a series of slower attacks. As a Final Fantasy 9 fan, it brought to mind the twin daggers and staffs used by Zidane - but perhaps I’m just hopeful for a bit more FF9 representation in XIV.
The Viper can enhance their damage per second further with a temporary effect indicated by a blue glowing aura around the character. In the gameplay footage, the character delivers a multislash attack - not unlike Cloud Strike’s Omnislash limit break in Final Fantasy 7.
The Viper will be introduced with the 7.0 update and the release of the Dawntrail expansion. Aside from owning the expansion and having at least one other job at level 80, there won’t be any additional requirements to unlocking the new class via its starting quest in Ul’dah.
Yoshida teased the second job due to be added in Dawntrail: a ranged magical DPS role that will be unveiled at the next Final Fantasy Fan Fest in Tokyo on January 7th.
On top of the two new jobs, there will be a new limited job - the second such class added to FF14 after the Blue Mage. The yet-to-be-revealed role will be added in the second half of the 7.X patch series that begins with Dawntrail.
Dawntrail is due to release next summer, kickstarting a new story arc for Final Fantasy after the conclusion of the Hydaelyn-Zodiark arc in previous expansion Endwalker. As well as the new jobs, dungeons and quests, the expansion will overhaul the 10-year-old MMO with a major graphics revamp.