Okay so yesterday I wanted to get better at the new Viper job in FF14. Heard it’s all about those fancy combos and keeping buffs up, but man it looked messy at first glance.
First Attempt Total Disaster
Jumped into Stone Sky Sea on a training dummy. Just started mashing buttons randomly like:
- Pressed that big flashy skill first because it looked cool
- Forgot to use my buffs until halfway through
- Kept dropping the twin snakes stacks constantly
Ended up doing potato damage. Like embarrassingly low numbers. Felt like I was slapping the dummy with a wet noodle instead of dual blades.
Actually Reading My Tooltips
Decided to stop being lazy and actually read what the skills do. Sat my ass down in Revenant’s Toll for 20 minutes just hovering over every button. Key things I noticed:
- Those two glowing icons above my health bar? Yeah they’re super important for unlocking stronger skills
- Need to keep hitting stuff every few seconds or the stacks disappear
- There’s actually a rhythm to the rotation – not just random button smashing
Building Muscle Memory
Practiced on dummies for like an hour straight. Broke it down step by step:
Opening: Buffs first ALWAYS. Then quick double hits to build stacks fast. If I mess this up everything goes to hell.
Mid rotation: Keeping both blades glowing by alternating between quick pokes and heavy slashes. Timing feels like patting head while rubbing stomach at first.
Big damage phase: Save all the flashy moves for when both gauges are full. Unleash everything at once like a blender.
Still screwed up constantly though. Accidentally pressed my gap closer instead of damage skill three times in a row. Felt like an idiot.
Finally Seeing Improvement
After dying to training dummies more than actual raids:
- Damage numbers started creeping up slowly
- Stopped losing stacks constantly between combos
- Actually remembered to refresh buffs before they dropped
Still not perfect but way better. Cleared the dummy check finally! Now if only I could stop backflipping off ledges by accident…
Gonna keep grinding this tomorrow. Maybe try in actual dungeons where things move instead of standing still. Bet that’ll be another disaster waiting to happen.
