FFXIV fans at the London fanfest were privy to a sneak peek at the new job coming to Dawntrail, the Viper.
The only teaser trailer available, now on YouTube and through the Final Fantasy XIV official Twitter account, is about a minute long and showcases the weapons, some basic attacks, and an end screen.
The character showcased in this teaser wielded two swords which combined into a twinblade. Near the end of the trailer, the character was enveloped in blue energy before releasing a flurry of blows to the poor Morbol punching bag in front of it.
From a brief glance, it seems that the two swords form will be for resource-building, while the twinblade stance will be for spending resources or unleashing devastating, high-cooldown attacks during FFXIV’s 60-second rotations.
We don’t yet know if the blue aura that surrounded the character is an easy-to-gather resource or not. We imagine it will be closer to the Reaper’s Shroud, a long-term goal that the Viper gathers towards over the course of two minutes before releasing it during the party’s buff window.
The teaser, unsurprisingly, did not show any advanced mechanics like party buffs, armor type, or names of abilities. We’d be surprised if this wasn’t the Scouting armor buddy that the Ninja has been waiting for, though. Scouting gear has been a one-class game for a while now, so it might be time for Ninjas to start sharing their toys.
We also don’t know the origin of the class, though it’s easy to imagine it is a native fighting style to the continent of Tural and the city of Tuliyollal.
The Viper is the physical DPS announced by the FFXIV team, so we’re just missing the ranged magical DPS. The second class of Dawntrail remains a mystery, though I’m personally a believer in the Green Mage theory that several Reddit users have suggested since the end of Patch 6.5. The reference to the symbol of the Final Fantasy Tactics class is too much to ignore, though the idea that such a hardcore support caster would become the game’s next magical DPS is a bit strange.
We look forward to how the Viper shakes out in Dawntrail and hope the official unveiling of the next magical DPS comes soon. We can’t wait until Summer 2024 for all of the juicy details on how these two classes work.
