FFXIV Viper Job guide: Best rotation, skills, hotbar setup, leveling tips, and more

Viper and Pictomancer are the two new jobs added to Final Fantasy XIV with the Dawntrail expansion, and while painting cute pictures sounds like a fun time, most people lean toward the former’s dual blades and flashy moveset.

The Viper Job in Final Fantasy XIV may seem like just another bog standard melee DPS class at first glance, but it has an extensive moveset with 100 levels of skills to learn. It forgoes party utility and buffs in favor of raw damage output, making the Viper Job similar to Samurai. It’s a pretty complex Job when you first pick it up, but you’ll master its many combos in no time.

How to Unlock the Viper Job in Final Fantasy XIV

To unlock the Viper Job in Final Fantasy XIV, all you need to do is complete the level 80 quest “Enter the Viper.” Like most DLC Jobs, the starting Viper quest is located in one of the starting city-states of Eorzea. The Enter the Viper quest can be started by talking to the Worried Weaver in Ul’dah at the Steps of Nald (X: 9.3, Y:9.2).

You have to have at least one other Disciple of War or Magic class at level 80 in order to accept the quest, however, so you won’t be able to unlock this Job until you’ve sunk a lot of time into Final Fantasy XIV. The Viper Job starts at level 80, which is the reason behind the requirement. This means it’ll be 10 levels behind where the Dawntrail MSQ begins, so there’s some grinding in your future if you want to play through the 7.0 main storyline as a Viper.

All Viper Skills in Final Fantasy XIV

Since Viper begins at level 80, you’ll have most of these skills unlocked by default. Take the time to study them and read the tooltips before hopping into your first dungeon.

Final Fantasy XIV Viper Job Rotation

The main Viper rotation in FFXIV involves several fluid combos that end with unique skills that inflict status effects and raise the potencies of other skills. It’s a lot to take in at first, but it’s really just a bunch of plates that you need to keep spinning.

Level 80 Viper Rotation

At level 80 when you first unlock Viper, you’ll only have to worry about the basic combos of the Job. Don’t worry about the Job gauge or meters just yet. Those come into play when you unlock skills like Uncoiled Fury at level 82 or Reawaken at level 90. For now, just focus on nailing the bread-and-butter combos.

There are two single target combo strings and two AOE combo strings for Viper. The main combo sequence begins with either Steel Fangs or Dread Fangs. The second attack can be either Hunter’s Sting or Swiftskin’s Sting (either of these can follow up either of the Fang attacks). Finally, Hunter’s Sting can lead to either Flanksting Strike or Flanksbane Fang, and Swiftskin’s Sting can lead to either Hindsting Strike or Hindsbane Fang.

I know it sounds like a lot, but let me break it down for you. For a basic explanation, just press the glowing buttons when they pop up. The actions on your hotbar will automatically be replaced by the next steps in the combo and they’ll be highlighted so you know which ones to press. If multiple skills are highlighted, you can press either one. That’s all you really need to know for Viper when you’re first starting out, but you can keep reading on if you want a more detailed explanation of what everything does.

Steel Fangs and Dread Fangs (the starting strikes for the single target combo) are really the same thing, but the latter applies a debuff called Noxious Gnash which increases the damage you do to a target by 10%. From there, Hunter’s Sting and Swiftskin’s Sting apply Hunter’s Instinct and Swiftscaled respectively. The former increases the damage you deal by a further 10%, while the latter reduces your auto-attack delay.

Finally, each of the combo finishers with names beginning with “Flank” or “Hind” are just positionals that deal increased damage to a target’s side or rear. Each one applies a buff that increases the damage of the other positional on the same side. For example, Flanksting Strike will make Flanksbane Fang deal increased damage, and the same goes for the Hind attacks.

Ideally, you want to alternate between the two attacks for each position so they’re always buffed. Use both Strikes, then both Fangs, then repeat. After landing any of these positionals, you’ll be able to use Death Rattle as an all-powerful combo finisher.

The second single-target combo applies the same buffs, but the opener has a 40-second cooldown so you can’t use it that often. This is because this combo grants Rattling Coils and increases your Serpent’s Offering meter, very important icons on your Job gauge that will become important later once you unlock more skills.

The second combo is thankfully much more straightforward. Just do Dreadwinder followed by Hunter’s Coil and Swiftskin’s Coil. Both Coil skills are interchangeable, so you can use them in either order after Dreadwinder. Remember that they’re positionals, though!

While Dreadwinder is on cooldown, the main AOE combo is the same as the single-target one, just with different names. Steel Maw, Hunter’s Bite, and Jagged Maw are the first trio, and Dread Maw, Swiftskin’s Bite, and Bloodied Maw are the second. These follow the same rules and give the same buffs as the single-target combos, so it should come naturally to you.

Here’s the ideal level 80 basic Viper rotation in Final Fantasy XIV. The buffs applied by each skill are listed in parentheses to give you a better idea of why each skill is placed where it is.

1. Dreadwinder
2. Hunter’s Coil (Hunter’s Instinct)
3. Twinfang Bite
4. Twinblood Bite
5. Swiftskin’s Coil (Noxious Gnash)
6. Twinfang Bite
7. Twinblood Bite
8. Dread Fangs (Noxious Gnash)
9. Hunter’s Sting (Hunter’s Instinct)
10. Flanksting Strike
11. Death Rattle
12. Steel Fangs
13. Swiftskin’s Sting (Swiftscaled)
14. Hindsting Strike
15. Death Rattle
16. Steel Fangs
17. Hunter’s Sting
18. Flanksbane Fang
19. Death Rattle
20. Steel Fangs
21. Swiftskin’s Sting (Swiftscaled)
22. Hindsbane Fang
23. Death Rattle

Just rinse and repeat this combo list until Dreadwinder becomes available again, at which point you start all over again. Make sure to mix in Hunter’s Sting and Dread Fangs to keep your buffs up at all times, too. Remember, just press the glowing buttons.

Level 80 Viper AOE Rotation

The basic AOE rotation for Viper is basically the same thing, only with different skill names. You’ll still get the same buffs and the general concept is still the same. If you’re faced with a group of enemies, use this AOE Viper rotation.

1. Pit of Dread
2. Hunter’s Den
3. Swiftskin’s Den
4. Dread Maw
5. Last Lash
6. Hunter’s Bite
7. Jagged Maw
8. Last Lash
9. Steel Maw
10. Swiftskin’s Bite
11. Bloodied Maw
12. Last Lash

As you can see, it’s basically the same thing. There’s a combo on cooldown that adds stuff to your Job gauge and a main combo that you repeat to keep your buffs active.

Level 90 Viper Rotation

Your Viper rotation remains mostly the same at level 90, but there are three new skills that you need to pay attention to. The first is Uncoiled Fury, an AOE that consumes a Rattling Coil. These are obtained by going through your standard combos, and you can have two of them at once. Just pop Uncoiled Fury whenever it starts to glow on your hotbar and you should be fine.

Speaking of Uncoiled Fury, the next ability you need to watch out for is Serpent’s Ire. This just grants you a Rattling Coil, so use it whenever it comes off cooldown.

Finally, Reawaken is the most important new step of your Viper rotation. It’s a powerful AOE that costs 50 Serpent’s Offering gauge points, so it’ll come up naturally as you progress through your combos. After you cast Reawaken, your skills will automatically transform into First Generation, Second Generation, Third Generation, and Fourth Generation. This is just a really strong combo. After you use the Reawaken combo, just return to your normal combo rotation until it comes back up!

Level 100 Viper Rotation

At the level cap of 100, the Viper rotation remains mostly the same, just with a few additional tweaks here and there. The core mechanic of the Job — Reawaken — became available at level 90, so you don’t have much more to learn at this point. You actually can’t even put anything else on your hotbar past level 90!

Every new skill that you learn as a Viper past level 90 is just an upgraded version of an existing one. Uncoiled Twinfang and and Uncoiled Twinblood are enhanced versions of the base skills that can be executed after you use Uncoiled Fury, for example, and Ouroboros is a new combo finisher for your Reawaken burst phase. The Generation set of skills expands with an additional set of skills ending with “Legacy” as well, making your burst phase even more powerful.

That’s all you need to know about level 100 Viper gameplay in Final Fantasy XIV, though. Just keep pressing the glowing buttons, managing your positionals and buffs, and popping your Reawaken burst when it comes up. Happy hunting!

Best Viper Hotbar Setup in Final Fantasy XIV

We recommend this hotbar setup if you’re playing the Viper Job in FFXIV. It keeps all of your single-target and AOE skills separated and keeps the more situational abilities in their own section on the right.

Best Viper Weapons in FFXIV and How to Get Them

There are a ton of cool Viper weapons to discover in Final Fantasy XIV, but most of them aren’t available until you reach the level cap of 100. You’ll still need to get new swords as you level up, though, but you shouldn’t just buy every piece of leveling gear as you’re learning Viper.

When you pick up the Job at level 80, pay a visit to the Crystarium to obtain the Augmented Cryptlurker Viper weapon for Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. This will serve you well enough until you reach level 90, at which point you should visit Sharlayan or Radz-at-Han to get the level 90 Augmented Crendulum weapon for your Viper.

Augmented Crendulum gear will carry you through most of the Dawntrail MSQ, but you should start seeking replacements after level 95 or so. The gearing process is much more straightforward at these levels, though, since you can just roll on any Viper weapons that you see when playing through dungeons. If you need to increase your item level and get unlucky with dungeon drops, just hit up the market board or have a friend craft you the highest-level pair of swords that you can equip.

How to Level Viper to 100 Fast in FFXIV Dawntrail

Leveling up the Viper Job to the Dawntrail level cap of 100 will take quite some time, but thankfully, the Dawntrail MSQ makes the level 90-100 grind much easier if you’re planning on doing the 7.0 storyline as a Viper. If not, then there’s a lot of grinding ahead.

With all of these strategies, make sure you’ve eaten food to get the XP buff and join an active Free Company to take advantage of their XP buff on top of that. Also, don’t forget to equip the Azeyma’s Earring pre-order bonus if you have it. This will give you 30% bonus XP through level 90.

Wondrous Tails

Wondrous Tails is one of the easiest ways to get a head start on the Viper leveling process. Just hit up Khloe in Idyllshire to claim a journal every week and complete enough activities to get a guaranteed half level of XP regardless of where you are in the leveling process.

Since you get a half level of XP no matter what level you are, however, we recommend saving Khloe’s notebook for last after you’ve done every other daily and weekly XP farm at your disposal. Why turn in your Wondrous Tails journal when you’re level 80 to get half a level of XP when you could do your roulettes and other XP farms and get half a level of XP at level 82 or 83?

Roulettes

Roulettes are the primary method of leveling most Jobs in Final Fantasy XIV, and Viper is no exception. Once you’ve unlocked Viper, hit all of them every day. Since the Job starts at level 80, you won’t have to level it up to get access to high-level roulettes. Just do all of them (yes, even Frontline) and you’ll get a huge chunk of XP every day.

Bojza

The Bozja grind provides a never-ending source of XP as long as you have the patience for it. Despite being used mainly for leveling Jobs from 71-90, the XP gains are still pretty good past 90 as you continue along the road to 100. Since dungeon queues can take a while and both Dawntrail Jobs are DPS classes, you may have better luck hanging out in Bozja and grinding FATEs instead.

Allied Society Quests

While they’re not as lucrative, the missions formerly known as Tribal Quests provide a nice daily chunk of XP and they’re incredibly quick and easy to finish. Since Viper is a Disciple of War Job, you can do the Arkasodara and Pixie quests in Thavnair and Il Mheg respectively. These only take a few minutes each, so you can knock them out of the way at the start of your daily grinding sessions.

Dungeon Spam

If you don’t mind waiting, then queueing for the highest-level dungeon available to you over and over again is one of the fastest ways to level up the Viper Job in FFXIV. Queues will be long since it’s a DPS Job, so grind FATEs in high-level zones while you wait. It’ll take two or three runs of each dungeon before you reach a high enough level to reach the next one.

Thankfully, you can skip the lines with the Trust system if you don’t mind adventuring with NPC companions. The dungeon clears will be slower, but you’ll be provided with a stress-free environment to master your Viper rotation and learn the intricacies of the Job. This is also a great way to level the Pictomancer Job as well!

That’s all you need to know about the Viper Job in Final Fantasy XIV! It’s one of the most rewarded classes to master in FFXIV, and it’s a great fit for some of the new content that you’ll be facing in the Dawntrail expansion. Plus, all the Viper gear looks stellar with the new graphics update introduced in version 7.0.