I. Armor
Armor Types
Venomancers, as a caster class, can be customized to be able to wear any of the 3 main armor classes while still remaining a caster. Your three choices:
1: Robes
Low phys def, Very high magic defense, high hp.
STR = (Your level + 8) / 2
MAG = (At least Your level x 3)
VIT = (Remaining points)
AGI = 3
This build can be customized by removing points from VIT and putting them into MAG instead, for higher damage output vs lower survivability.
2: Light Armor
Decent phys def, decent magic defense, low hp.
STR = (Your level + 4)
AGI = (Your level +4)
MAG = (Your level x 3)
VIT = 7+, depending on leftover points.
This build doesn't include enough points to add into con, so unless you get a lot of armor with +hp, your hp will be quite low.
3: Heavy Armor
High phys defense, high magic defense, low hp.
STR: (Enough to wear heavy armor 3-4 grades lower than you - equates to (level - 10 or 20) * 2.5 +2)
AGI: (Enough to wear heavy armor 3-4 grades lower than you)
MAG (Your level x3)
VIT: 3 (Or however many points are left over.)
II. Skills:
I have renamed all the skill names in this section, but in other sections I may inadvertently refer to the skill as what it's called in the MY version, so I'll leave those skill names in for your reference.
Mage tree attack skills:
Venomous Scarab: Max it as soon as you can. This is your spammable boring grinding skill. (Envenom Parasite)
Ironwood Scarab: Max it as soon as you can. This takes 25 vigor, armor breaks the opponent and hits for 300% magic attack. At higher levels this becomes a serious spike. (Ironrock Parasite)
Blazing Scarab: Leave it at level 1. DoT spells are pretty pointless when a Venomancer kills before the time even runs out, and you can save your sp for bigger and better things. (Blazing Parasite)
Frost Scarab: Leave it at level 1. 1 fury for a possible chance to slow is ridiculous. (Frostbolt Parasite)
Noxious Gas: Max it when you have the spare sp. Very high damage which hits for 200% magic attack, but has a slow casting time. Useful for building up vigor in HH or an FB, but not so good in normal grinding as it's likely to pull aggro away from your pet. (Mass Parasite)
Lucky Scarab: Max it as soon as you can. This is pretty much your only stun, and although very short at 2 seconds when maxed, has a very quick cast time and a high percentage of stunning. Very useful as an interrupt. (Megalith Parasite)
Parasitic Nova: Don't even touch it. 2 fury for a skill is bad enough especially when a Venomancer desperately needs fury for survival skills, and even worse takes 4 seconds to cast. A 4 second cast time spell pretty much only becomes useful in situations when nobody notices you or is able to react within 2 seconds to throw a stun of their own. Edit: I'm revising my opinion of this skill. It's got a useful stun (seal + paralyze) for quite a long time, so if you can afford to throw away 2 fury for it and you know no one can attack you, it's ok in pvp, while being very useful in situations where multiple monsters decide to mob you and you don't feel like running away, sealing 2/3 of them for 7 seconds is quite nice. (Parasite Nova)
Wood Mastery: Max it as soon as you can. Passive +damage. Nuff said.
Mage Tree Miscellaneous Skills:
Bramble guard: Pretty useless except in PvP, so unless you'll be doing some of that don't bother maxing it until you reach level 59 for the next skill. Reflects a % of melee damage back at the attacker.
Bramble hood: Get it as soon as you get level 59. It gives you a damage reduction of 75% as well as a 200% melee reflect. It's a lifesafer in HH if your tank decides to take a piss break and leave a rampaging HH boss that you lured your way. It's also lol in PvP when your opponent has no idea what he's doing and suicides on it. Most of the time however, as soon as your opponent see this skill is cast they'll run away until it times out, which gives you time to lose the cooldown on your hiero, pot some more, or whatever. Takes 2 fury, which is a good reason why you don't want to start your battles with Parasite Nova. Maxes out at level 1. (Bramble Array)
Metabolic Boost: Max it as soon as you can. A decent quick heal is nice, especially since it pushes you up 50% when maxed.
Nature's Grace: Max it when you have the spare SP. This is pretty much a money saving move only, as you use this recover mana. Like Metabolic, it recovers 50% when maxed. (Divine Supplements)
Lending Hand: Get this as soon as you reach level 46. This helps keep Barbarians hold aggro against bosses by spamming Ripping Bite, which in turn allows your damage dealers to do their job without accidentally pulling aggro. (Vigor Switch)
Fox Tree Miscellaneous Skills:
Fox Form: Max it as soon as you can. Even if you're a mage tree only user, this is handy for the 120% increase in physical defense (in other words, it more than doubles it) which allows for a getaway. This maxes out at level 3.
Purge: Max it when you have the money/sp. It removes all buffs from the target, and the more you level it the lower its cooldown drops. Pretty much only useful in PvP, as it's always lol to wipe out their fury (Spark in this version?), or cancel a barbarian's bloodbath and see their hp/accuracy cry. (Banish Malediction)
Amplify Damage: Max it by the time you hit 60. It's one of the priority jobs of a Venomancer in HH to keep the boss Maimed, as the 20% damage increase speeds up the kill drastically. HH is boring as hell without it, although you wont' be finding yourself using it in single mob situations. (Amplify Maim)
Soul Degeneration: Leave it at level 1. I've yet to find a use for this skill, but I suppose it'd be useful against people who run away and sit or something. I've yet to find out if it works against hp pots though since those work by adding to hp regen, which, if it does, would make it much more useful.
Crush Vigor: Get it at level 43. After the target is cursed, they lose 8 vigor points every time they're hit. I've never really had the opportunity to use this, but I imagine it would be useful in a TW against a catapult puller everyone is trying to kill to prevent them from turtling. I don't really see much of a use for it in a 1v1 situation though, although with a fast attacking pet it may be worth it.
Fox Tree Attack Skills:
Fox Wallop: Leave it at level 1. Takes 25 vigor to slow casting time, which, while it sounds useful against mages, is inferior to just physical attack spamming. Robe mages die in enough normal hits that there's really no point wasting time slowing down their casting time. (Foxy Drub)
Befuddling Mist: Max it as soon as you can. A fan aoe that, when maxed, drops target accuracy by 70%, it's useful for keeping yourself alive in melee fights against something with a naturally poor accuracy rate like a warrior or a werebeast. (Hexmist Attack)
Stunning Blow: Max it when you have the spare SP/money. A paralyze (cannot move, but can still attacK) move that takes 1 vigor, it allows you to hold a ranged class down so you can rip into them with physical hits, or hold a melee class down to allow yourself a getaway into human form for magic attacks. (Enlace Drub)
Leech: Max it as soon as you can. This skill is god. Each use gives an 80% chance of recovering hp, even if it misses. When maxed, this equates to 600 hp. Very good at keeping you alive. (Life Depriver)
Consume Spirit: Leave it at level 1. It drains 10-20% of your hp to return 400-200 mana. Useless.
Malefic Crush: Don't bother with this, for the same reasons as Parasite Nova. Although the casting time isn't quite as stupid at 3.3 seconds, taking 2 fury for a bit of added flat damage isn't really worth it, although the mana drain could come in handy in a duel against a warrior / werebeast.
Melee Mastery: Max it as soon as you can, added + damage passive skill.
Skills Usable in Either Form:
Swimming Mastery: Get it as soon as it's available. Cheap passive skill for swimming faster. Why not?
Soul Transfusion: This skill is god. Get it as soon as it is available at level 29. It takes one vigor to exchange your HP and MP percentages. If you keep your mana bar full, it equates to having a second hp bar. If you're grinding and run out of mana, you can Divine Supplements -> Intersoul Switch -> Metabolic Boost to regain full mana without using a single pot. Needless to say, this is pretty godly in PvP too, and is one thing you should always try to have the vigor for. With hp/mana hierograms and intersoul, you can prevent yourself from getting spiked during your first hiero break. I cannot stress how important this skill is to Venomancers. (Intersoul Switch)
Summer Sprint: Max it as soon as you can. It adds movement speed. (Celerity Wind Walk)
Pet-Related Skills:
Pet Heal: Max it as soon as you can, for obvious reasons. Keep your pet alive.
Pet Revive: Leave it at level 1. Kind of a waste of sp, unless you really feel the shorter chanting time is necessary.
Pet Taming: Leave it at level 1. HP of a monster you're trying to tame seems to matter more than the level of the skill.
III. Pets:
Venomancers are best known as a pet tamer class. Here's all the info on pets that you want to know. There are multiple classes of pets, each with their own stat attributes that typify the class. Pets gain stats automatically through their growth chart (which can be seen by opening the pet backpack and clicking "detail" on a pet). Pets in perfect world work on a Pokemon system (holy **** did he say pokemon?) The lower the original level of the pet is, the better its stats will be when its leveled up. In other words, a level 2 wolf, when trained to level 40, will have better stats than a wolf caught at level 40. Pets also have a loyalty system - the higher their loyalty, the more damage they'll do in battle and the more exp they'll earn per kill. Killing monsters of equal level or higher will give a pet 10 base exp. At 500 loyalty or higher, they gain 150% exp, so killing a monster of equal level or higher to the pet will give it 15 exp. You can increase a pet's loyalty by feeding it (which you have to do anyway every 5 minutes, else its loyalty drops.)
Popular pets:
Golem: High physical defense, decent magical defense, high hp, high attack. Great as a tank and is used by virtually every Venomancer. There is a bit of debate over whether it's better to get the level 17 Molten Lava Crystal or the level 18 Fiery lava Rime, both of which can be caught near Ground of Logging (who knows what it'll be changed to in this version) by Etherblade city.. The stat difference is extremely small with the Molten Lava Crystal having a slight advantage over the Rime in stats, but the Rime starts off with the skill crustaceous, which is useful for a tank. Basically, if you wish to save a bit of money pick the Rime, otherwise the Crystal has better stats.
Frog: The little frog is another rare pet that spawns every 12 hours. High phys defense, high magic defense, good hp, low attack. Venomancers that decide they need a magic tank use these for bosses with high magic attack that a golem simply can't live through at the same level, such as Styxserpent in id69.
Flying pig: Yet another 12 hour spawn pet. High physical defense, high magic defense, high hp, low attack. Very good as an air tank, although hardly ever used, as tanks are really only needed in dungeons which only allow ground pets, and the low attack of the pig make it a pain to level.
Dodo Bear: The little dodo bear and great dodo bear are both 12 hour spawn rare pets, and have surprisingly different growth charts, as they appear to be considered different classes of pets. In general, the dodos have high hp, high physical defense and high magic defense, with low attack. At level 80, the great dodo bear is worse than the little dodo bear in nearly every category, but by level 90 due to its growth chat being different, it overtakes the little dodo bear in both defense categories while the little dodo remains ahead in attack. Many Venomancers use dodos as well due to their starting skill of Doodoo, which stuns the opponent, useful simply because a Venomancer does not have enough stuns with just Megalith parasite.
Eldergoth Marksman: Decent physical defense, decent magic defense, decent hp, and high attack. Mostly used for luring as it is one of the few pets with a ranged physical attack. Also good as a tank against ranged mobs that kite you.
