Editing Angelyz's Guide to Venomancers (section)

==Venomancer Arcane Skills & Strategy==

For the next strategy, I will tell you how to efficiently use your skills in order to preserve chi. This is because you, as a veno, are sometimes responsible for giving chi to a fellow group member. As an Arcane veno you have the following skills that use chi to cast them.

Ironwood Scarab - Requires a small amount of chi to cast.<br>
Frost Scarab - Requires one spark to cast.<br>
Parasitic Nova - Requires two sparks to cast.<br>
Spark Eruption - Requires one spark to cast.<br>
Advanced Spark Eruption - Requires two sparks to cast.<br>
Soul Transfusion - Uses up to 100 chi to cast (Information not written by me, Angelyz, has been removed).<br>
Bramble Hood - Requires two sparks to cast.<br>
Demon/Sage Eruption - Requires three sparks to cast.

Now, Frost Scarab is the one nuke that I personally never use because your other nukes are much better and it's virtually a waste of a good spark and a waste of spirit to buy. Especially since spirit is hard to come by at lower levels.

You can fill up your chi bar and sparks by spam healing your pet or by using nukes on mobs. When your chi is full, here is the order to cast nukes in so that your chi bar pretty much stays full in case you need to use a Spark Eruption, Soul Transfusion, or Parasitic Nova (an area effect nuke).

Start with Ironwood Scarab to use the small amount of chi, followed by Blazing Scarab to do damage over time to the mob and regain half of the chi that Ironwood used, followed by Lucky Scarab to nuke and regain more chi from using Ironwood, followed by Venomous Scarab to nuke and regain the remaining chi used by Ironwood. By doing this in that order you will never run low on chi, this way you can lend a spark to a group member or save your sparks for other skills if they are needed.

Keep in mind that if you use your sparks and need to rebuild chi fast, take Ironwood Scarab out of the equation until your chi is full again. Then you may repeat whatever as necessary. I cannot tell you how many venos I see that cast in the wrong order and wonder why their chi comes back slowly. Pay close attention to what your skills are and what they do, the strategies then become common sense.

Now that you have that knowledge it's time to make sure you don't waste any spirit points on unnecessary skills. Basically as an Arcane veno you will want to get all the skills except for the Fox Form only skills and the one nuke I mentioned above that I never use. I recommend upgrading your nukes before using spirit to upgrade anything else. And also try to upgrade your "Wood Mastery" as quick as spirit allows too. There '''are''' three fox form skills that I do use. The 1st one is pretty obvious, it's the "Fox Form" skill itself which is needed in order to use the other two that I'm about to mention.

The second one is called "Purge" which can only be cast while in fox form. This skill comes in handy during groups when you are killing a boss that keeps buffing himself. Purge will remove those buffs from him.

The third and last Fox Form skill to spend spirit on is called "Amplify Damage" which does exactly what it is called. It amplifies the damage that the entire group does to the mob for a short time.

As an Arcane veno, these are the only three useful Fox Form skills. They are useful mostly just in groups when killing big bosses. Purge is also useful in PvP (Player vs Player) if you are fast enough to cast it and switch back to normal form and kill them before they kill you. Now you may wonder why I say not to waste points on all of the other Fox Form skills right? I thought so, here's why...

As an arcane and mag build veno, you are designed to do damage through the use of nuking and mostly through the use of your pet, remember your pet does most of the work while you're solo. You are '''Not''' designed to take physical hits as an Arcane veno. Therefore, since all of the Fox Form skills are designed for a heavy armor and physical damage veno, you, as an Arcane veno, have no use for them.

Now for some people this may raise the question... "Which build is better to go with?" Here is your answer...

I've seen Heavy Armor (HA) venos and I play an Arcane veno, the difference is all in what your preference is and how you like to play. The HA veno cannot solo things like an Arcane veno can, which ultimately means you will level up slower and will not be near as useful in a group because you will lack strongly in the magic points it takes to use AoEs and other needed nukes during groups. As an HA veno you will basically be just another melee fighter in a group with a pet who you will have a harder time keeping alive due to your lack of Mag.

HA venos do have their strong points but when compared to an arcane Mag build with some Vit, the arcane is gonna win that fight easily. Pay close attention on your server and notice that more venos are arcane than HA. Now you know why.  :-)