Venomancer Builds

Although often considered a member of the ranged magic class, the Venomancer lends itself well to several builds. Your choice of build will depend on your gameplay preferences as well as whether you want to take advantage of the magic damage skill tree or the melee damage skill tree. In PvE, any build can work so long as you know how to take advantage of it. In PvP, the build choices are more restricted due to the gear paths available, but there is still some variety to be found there.

Pure Magic Build
This is the most common Venomancer build. It offers high magic attack, a large pool of mana, high magic defense, good overall damage and excellent pet heals (which depend on your magic attack). However, leveling up with this build means that you will be lacking in both physical defense and HP. You will be taking considerable damage from mobs with physical attacks, be fairly vulnerable without your pet and run the risk of stealing aggro off your pet if you aren't careful. At endgame, gear and skill will compensate for this build's weaknesses though not completely eliminate them. In PvP, this is one of the most common builds, especially for those that have good gear and adequate skill to survive despite the build's drawbacks.

Vitality Build
One of the most common Venomancer builds and usually the build of choice for those who are in the process of leveling. This build will give your Venomancer a sufficient balance between HP and magic attack. The points allocated to Vitality will allow you to withstand much more physical and magic damage than the previous build, while still giving you enough magic power to have good pet heals and deal significant damage. At endgame, most Venomancers will typically reset to Pure Magic once they have farmed their gear. In PvP, a variation of this build is adopted by Venomancers who wish to play as full support. The build is commonly referred to as Full Vitality which entails allocating a minimum amount of Magic to equip the weapon and using everything else in Vitality.

Light Armor Build
This is an uncommon build, often followed by those who share a Light Armor gear set among multiple characters. The general consensus is that it is not a good build to have at endgame because Dexterity is not a particularly useful attribute for this class. However, it is a fairly fun build to use while leveling and has its perks in PvE. It gives you the opportunity to choose between magic or melee attacks and gives you more physical defense. With regards to tanking a boss with your pet, because of the lower magic attack and consequently your diminished ability to heal, your pet will not have the same survivability as that of an arcane Venomancer. You will however be able to withstand physical damage better. There is no room to allocate points to Vitality in this build, but it gives you enough stat points to wear Arcane Armor, if you choose.

Heavy Armor Build
Stat Option #1 gives you access to the best heavy armor for your level (25 Str/10 levels), at the cost of of having to equip a much lower level magic weapon (10-15 Mag/10 levels). Stat Option #2 gives a slightly lower level heavy armor option than your level (22 Str/10 levels), but a higher level magic weapon option (23 Mag/10 levels). (You would need around 30 Mag/10 levels to equip your current level magic weapons.)

Heavy Armor build is rarely the build of choice for leveling Venomancers. It's a challenge but it can have satisfying results. Most Venomancers will usually follow a Magic or a Light Armor build until their first Reawakening so they can reset their stats for free and then follow the Heavy Armor build. This build relies primarily on the Fox Form attack skills which are stronger due to the extra Strength. It has amazing physical defense and a good HP pool. On the other hand, it is weak against magic attacks and might have trouble keeping the pet alive in some situations. It was once a very popular PvP build but has become fairly outdated due to gear updates.

Heavy and Arcane Armor Mix Build
This build is not intended for beginners. The stat point allocation sums up to about 12 points every two levels, but you only receive 10 points every two levels. The trick here is to find as much +Mag/Str/Dex gear addons as possible. This will make up for the fact that you need more points than you get. However, this is extremely expensive and again is not intended for a new player. The benefits of this build are huge, being able to wear both highest possible (for your level) Arcane Armor and Heavy Armor means you can change to suit your needs and making you very versatile.

Gear
As expected, none of the builds listed are without weaknesses. However, there are ways to mitigate their weaknesses. You can imbue armor with gems, pick appropriate ornaments with suitable add-ons, refine gear for more HP and more.

The grade or level of the gems that you imbue depends on your budget. Please note however that the higher the grade, the better the add-ons from the gem will be.

A second means of improving a build is through refining their equipment. Refining is done at the Elder of any major city and will add additional defense, HP or attack depending on the gear piece. Refining armor for low HP builds, such as the Pure Magic Build, is particularly important as it will add extra HP. Refining weapons for melee damage builds, such as the Heavy Armor Build, is important as it will improve the damage output. The greater the number of times that you refine a single piece of equipment, the greater the value of the add-ons. Note that you shouldn't invest too much in low level gear since you will level up fast and won't be needing that gear anymore.

Players can also improve their builds simply by choosing the appropriate accessories. Accessories can come with extra statistics Suggestions for the accessories that you should be wearing with each build are listed below.