The General and Generic Venomancer Guide

A What-mancer?

A Venomancer is first and foremost a support class. It specializes in debuffing targets and acting as a secondary damage dealer or tank with a sufficient tanking pet. With a Mag build and Robe set, they can be a decent DDer. With a Heavy Armor build and maxed Fox Form, they can be great physical tanks. The light armor build works as safe build overall with the bonus of having a nice crit rate for spike damaging if you ever need it. An important thing to remember when deciding on what build you want to go for is that attributes have diminishing returns. The more points you allocate to a particular stat, the less improvement you'll get per stat point. Of course, this is a gradual process so it's nothing to fret over, but it is still a factor to consider.

There are endless possibilities to building a Veno, since it is such a versatile class. Here's a brief description of some of the more common builds.

The Robe/Mage build for a Veno works by adding 3 points into Magic each level, and using a formula for Strength, whereas (Your level + 8) / 2 = Strength. More simply put, you add 1 strength every two levels. The rest of the stats are free to go into Vitality or into even more Magic, although most people would probably prefer more Magic. With this build, you'll have a very potent pet heal , solo very well, deal very good damage, have high magic defense, and have fairly high HP. The downside is that you won't be able to use Fox Form very well, which is really half of a Veno.

The general Light Armor consensus is to allocate 3 points into Magic, and 1 point into Strength and the last point into Dexterity each level. With this stat distribution, you should be able to use your current level Magic Weapon and Light Armor. As a special bonus, you'll also be able to equip the most updated Robe set if you choose to do so. As yet another bonus, you'll get a pretty crit rate bonus from all the Dexterity. However, this build suffers from a lack of HP but it shouldn't be a problem with the higher survivability.

Where there is also a pure Heavy Armor build, it is much more advisable to go Heavy/Robe, which is explained in detail in the Heavy Build Venomancer guide. The general idea is to take advantage of +stat equipment to fill your requirements to be able to equip the most up to date Heavy Armor and weapon at the same time. When properly done, the build can be very effective in pretty much all PvP scenarios.

As for weapon types, it's mostly personal preference. Magic Swords have the lowest magic attack range, making them fairly stable without much spike damage. They also have the highest physical attack limits, which makes them more ideal for Fox Formers. Glaives have a mid magic attack range, but the lowest physical attack limits. They look compact if that means anything. Patakas/Wands generally have higher physical attack limits than Glaives, but they always have the widest magic attack range, making them quite inconsistent in terms of damage. Not too many people run around with Patakas/Wands, so if you like the bonus of being a bit unique, it could be a factor to deciding your weapon.

Petsmart!

Venomancers are separated from the other magic classes by their ability to tame and use pets in battle. You'll get the ability to tame a pet at level 7 after you complete the quests given by the Pet Skill Trainer Hu. To get over the question, "What is the best pet in the game?" early, buy battle pet packs until you get 9999 Source of Forces and 9999 Phoenix Feathers so you can start the game with a Hercules and a Phoenix, unarguably the best two pets in the game. If you're on a budget like the rest of us, you'll have to go through it the harder way.

I would recommend you to start with the Scorpion as the starter pet because endgame, it'll have the highest attack rating outside of the Cash Shop pets. Even if you get the Phoenix later on, the Varicose Scorpion (level 2) would still be pretty nice to have when you feel like PKing in Secret Passage where flying pets will be disabled. However, it's not an essential pet if you're not interested. In City of the Lost, you'll probably be seeing people selling Volcanic (level 18)/Crystalline Magmites (level 17) and Petite Sawflys (level 8). Until you get enough money for the Cash Shop pets, go ahead and purchase those so you can save yourself some time on traveling and effort to catch those pets if you are lazy. The Volcanic Magmite is .1m/s faster than the Crystalline Magmite and comes with better skills. The Crystalline Magmite will have marginally higher stats, so it's really just a matter of preference for deciding which one you want. Skills, although fairly expensive, can be purchased for pets, but stat points cannot. The main purpose of a pet is to tank for a Veno, and a Magmite does this job quite well. If you can get your hands on a Shaudo Cub, it could work as a great tank in place of either Magmites.

The Sawfly is the budget Phoenix. You'll need it to do your air and even water quests, since it's possible to lure water mobs to the surface for a flying pet to attack it. The alternate is a Foxwing, which has lower attack ratings but higher defensive ratings. Investing in a Windwalking Piggy for its tanking capabilities isn't a bad option either. With the listed pets, you're pretty much set until level 80 when you finally get a decent water pet and the water quests start going too deep in the water for you to fish with your flying pet. The particular water pet is the Celestial Plumpfish, which is actually a very nice pet with pretty decent stats. If you really have the patience to consistently raise a low level water pet though, go for it. Otherwise, another alternative to complete your collection with a water pet is to catch a random water pet around your level to complete your water quests if you don't like fishing with an air pet.

Some Venos also carry pets for specific purposes, such as a luring pet or a ranged pet, which includes the Cactopod and Eldergoth families. The trick is to make sure no skills are selected for the pet to use, so it'll resort to using ranged attacks. A luring pet would be any fast running pet used for the purpose of drawing out an individual target within a group of targets, which will be explained in detail later.

Most Venomancers get their Cash Shop pets around level 60 or so. Go ahead and start saving up as soon as you start playing and no need to bother wasting money on equipment since you'll outgrow your stuff in a short amount of time anyways. Not to mention that since your pet will be tanking for you, you can potentially do well enough without wearing any armor at all. Most people choose to aim for a Hercules first since you can farm Twilight Temple materials that you can sell. It's a great plan, although how much money you make depends on the market. If you don't like relying on the in-game market and don't mind grinding endlessly for cash, go ahead and get the Phoenix first, since it'll improve your killing speed by 50% or something like that. Or you can save yourself 40 million coins altogether and just stick with the free pets.

If you don't care about top notch things and barely noticeable improvements, you can honestly do fine with any pet you want. Common pets, rare pets, whatever. On the subject matter, rare pets are pets that usually spawn once every 12 hours and are usually adorable, so everyone wants them. They're also terribly hard to catch because of this and they're fairly expensive if you want to just buy them. The rare pets are the following:

Frogling (level 9)

Often considered the best magic tank in the game. It has a combination of decent attack, very high magic defense, decent physical defense, and good HP. Unfortunately, most mobs use a combination of magic and physical attacks, so the times when a Frogling will be more useful than a Magmite is very rare. Because of this, getting a magic tank of any sort is not essential. On the bright side, a Frogling is fairly cheap for a rare pet if you really want a magic tank.

Snow Hare (level 20)

Just for looks. Unlike other rare pets, it spawns hourly, so it's also fairly cheap compared to other rare pets. It doesn't excel in any aspect other than cuteness.

Tabby Plumdrop (level 20)

Fairly decent magic tank and a pretty fast pet so it can work as a good puller as well. More about pulling will be explained later.

Shaodu Cub (level 20)

Decent overall pet. Also one of the most expensive rare pets for some reason. It has good defense and magic defense so it can play as a primary ground tank.

Windwalking Piggy (level 30)

Godly tank pet. Higher HP than a Magmite, very high defense and magic defense, it's a very good tanking pet. Unfortunately, it's not so good at attacking which means you'll steal aggro from it everyday. It's also the only rare flying pet, if it means anything.

Cuddly Puppy (level 30)

Good puller due to its very high speed. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as a Tabby Plumdrop.

Kowlin (level 60)

Pretty much the fastest puller in the game due to its top speed, which can outrun everything except for a maxed land mount. It also has a fairly good attack and magic defense. However, it has one of the lower defense and HP ratings, so it's not so good to leave it alone for too long.

Armored Bear (level 80)

The Armored Bear is basically a Shaodu Cub clone with marginally higher ratings in defenses and marginally lower ratings in offensive power. But hey, it's pretty much the coolest looking pet because it's a bear with armor. That aspect alone is reason enough for you to get one.

Don't forget to feed your pets every 5 minutes with pure or spring water. Don't bother with all the other stuff unless you have a Cash Shop pet. When you're running low on water, buy 200 pure water from the pet person and it should last you for another few weeks. If you're cheap and don't like spending 50k every so often, create a new Venomancer, level it to level 3, do the pet quest and get the free 200 water then send it to your main through mail.

Save up some money and buy a tome. Those will prevent your pet from getting hungry. You'll still have to feed your pet when it dies and when you first hatch it to get it's loyalty up initially, but you won't have to feed it every 5 minutes. Don't bother with the Arcane Pet Book in the Boutique; it only lasts a week and doesn't give extra stats, which every other tome in the game does. If you're having trouble affording a tome, try looking for the Christmas Blessing, it's the cheapest one available.

Pet Tricks

Unless you're PvPing or really hate your pets losing aggro, you should be able to get by without touching any of your pet skills. Pet skills can be bought and upgraded at Mrs. Zoologist, who happens to be at the southeast corner of Archosaur. Pet skills can be upgraded up to level 5, at one skill level per 20 actual levels. For completion's sake, here's a breakdown of the pet skills:

Bash

Everyone's favorite aggro skill. A pet with high attack power with a maxed out Bash can do some pretty good spike damage in PvP, but everyone prefers Flesh Ream because it does more damage overall.

Elemental Bashes

Fireball (fire), Icicle (water), Sandblow (earth), Toxic Mist (wood) and Thunderbolt (metal) are the exact same thing as Bash, except they're elemental. They actually count as magic attacks, so it's fairly decent in PvP against physical defense heavy classes.

Threaten

Lowers target's physical attack by up to 36% for 15 seconds when maxed. Not only is it useful for giving you some extra time to nuke mobs instead of healing your pet, but it's actually a very nice debuff PvP-wise.

Tough

When maxed out, can reduce all damage taken by half for 15 seconds. If you've aggroed too many mobs but you're too lazy to get out of the situation, you could always use this.

Roar

Draws aggro from the targeted mob to the pet. It doesn't actually build up any threat from the pet, so in terms of true tanking, it's not a great skill. Best used as an emergency aggro drawer or something to that extent.

Boost

Your pet self-heals a small amount of HP, only 12% when maxed. It has a fast cooldown, so it could possible compliment you when you're healing your pet against a tough boss. On the other hand, if you would have such a difficult time tanking something, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

Pierce

Drops the target's physical defense. Pretty obsolete, since your Ironwood Scarab won't stack with it and has a much better cooldown.

Howl

Drops the target's magic defense. Since the only other way a Veno can cast this debuff is through a level 79 skill, it's not too bad of a way to rack up your numbers after casting Amplify Damage on your target. Unless you're foxforming anyways.

Flesh Ream

Causes bleeding over 9 seconds, the damage is based on the pet's attack. Thanks to the fact that Flesh Ream doesn't suffer a 75% damage reduction in PvP, it is pretty much essential to put this on a PvP pet for the average Veno.

Slow

Decreases the target's running speed for 6 seconds with only a 10 second cooldown. Useful when luring fast mobs and kiting in PvE.

Shriek

Interrupts channeling. It's not so great until maxed, which is when it'll have a 100% success rate. Then you can be cancel spells like a pro. The crappy part is that pet skills have a 1 second delay so make sure you time it right.

The following skills are rare skills that can only be found through the Dragon Temple event on Tuesdays:

Pounce

Gives a fairly high chance of stunning the target (80% chance maxed) for 3 seconds and increasing your pet's attack speed at the same time. Not an essential skill, but everyone could always benefit from an extra stun.

Claw

Increases the pet's physical attacks by up to 30% for an hour.

Reflect

Returns all physical damage the pet has taken by up to 70% for an hour.

Blessing of the Pack

Increases the pet's maximum HP by up to 30% for an hour.

Strong

Increases the pet's physical defense by up to 150% for an hour.

Protect

Increases the pet's magical defense by up to 150% for an hour.

Bloodthirst

Drains enemy HP up to 25% of pet's HP, and increases pet's HP.

Bloodhunger

Drains enemy HP equal to 50% of pet's missing HP, and increases pet's HP. REQUIRES a maxed Bloodthirst.

Consume

Drains enemy MP up to 25% of pet's HP, and increases pet's HP.

Devour

Drains enemy MP equal to 50% of pet's missing HP, and increases pet's HP. REQUIRES a maxed Consume.

Sacrifice

Pet loses 75% of current HP to do 400% of base physical damage.

Penetrate

Does up to 800 damage, ignoring any defense.

Skillful

If you don't care about PvP nor being a helpful Veno, the only skills you really need are Venomous Scarab, Heal Pet, Revive Pet, Metabolic Boost, Nature's Grace, and Soul Transfusion. But that's a boring way to play, so you'd probably decide to get what skills you want instead and develop your own style. Due to the large amount of skills, I'll break this down into a list.

Human Form Branch

Venomous Scarab

Upgrade this whenever you can and spam it whenever Ironwood Scarab is on cooldown. It's pretty much your grinding skill here due to its low mana cost. PvP-wise, it's not the best idea to use this simply because it's too basic to have any good usage. The exception is if you have Demon, whereas the wood resistance debuff would very much be reason enough to use it.

Ironwood Scarab (level 9)

The 25 chi is well worth the cost, considering that will pretty much be your strongest nuke throughout a good chunk of your career and has a little physical debuff as an added bonus. Regardless of your build, it's a good idea to use this as your opener. If not to give a good start with some foxform hits, then at least to give your pet some added damage. Not to mention that both Sage/Demon added effects to it are quite nice. One important note is that the Demon Ironwood Scarab only has the 20% chance of reducing the target's defense by 0, and the innate 30% defense reduction does not exist.

Blazing Scarab (level 19)

Damage over time spells have a very split base, with one side saying it is useless to upgrade it past level 1 while the other side says it's a great way to damage the target while kiting around in. If something, it is useful to gain a large chunk of chi in a single attack skill. Both Sage/Demon versions of the spell doesn't add too much to it either.

Frost Scarab (level 29)

The general consensus is that it's not a bad spell per say, but the 1 spark cost is very costly, at least until you gain your 3rd spark. The frostbite chances are too low to justify the usage unless you get the Sage version which shoots up the 80% chance of freeze to a 95%. The 3 second freeze from Demon is always a nice thing to have.

Noxious Gas (level 39)

A staple for the Herc user Veno. Even without a Hercules, this move is pretty nice. It does fairly decent damage and the DoT time is only a mere 9 seconds so the overall damage stacks up pretty quickly. The major problem with this is the 2.5 casting time and the mana cost, which isn't so great for solo grinding sessions. Not recommended outside of DDing a boss or AoE grinding. The Sage/Demon paths don't add much to it either.

Lucky Scarab (level 49)

Finally, another real staple spell you get at level 49. Does spike damage as high as Ironwood and at max, has a 95% chance to stun the target for 2 seconds. Not that the stun is useful for actually stunning, but it's a much needed addition, since a Veno really lacks movement locking debuffs. What stops this from being a great grinding spell is the high mana cost and a very long 15 second cooldown. The 2 second cooldown reduction from Demon doesn't help too much either, but the 1 second addition to the stun time from Sage does.

Parasitic Nova (level 59)

Major damage, great major debuff, major AoE range, major casting time, major mana cost, major cooldown, and major spark cost. So in terms of just about everything, it's big. The terrible problem with this is that the chance to cause chaotic is static at only 67%, so it's not really reliable for anything other than spike AoE damage. It does this really well, since at level 1, it still matches damage to a Sage/Demon Ironwood. With Sage, a 50% chance of only consuming 1 spark may make it more accessible for regular usage, but it's still nothing you can spam. If anything, it's great as a follow up to a Sage Lucky Scarab if the 3 second stun does go off so you get enough time to fire Parasitic Nova off. I can't say anything about going Demon for this, since I was never a fan of the 67% chaotic chance and since the bonus damage only applies to chaotic targets, there is too much to risk for just that spike damage.

Human Form Support Branch

Bramble Guard (level 16)

A Veno's only party useful buff. Typically, it's used on a tank so they can keep aggro a lot better. Not particularly necessary, but tank will love you for it. Note that this skill has no effect in PvP or TWs, only in duels and PvE. Regardless, max this as soon as you hit level 59 because it opens way to Bramble Hood.

Metabolic Boost (level 26)

One of the key skills that makes a Veno the godly grinder that she is, this recovers a really nice chunk of your HP for absolutely no mana cost. Although the cooldown seems fairly long, most Venos use this in conjunction with Nature's Grace and Soul Transfusion to make the timing of the cooldown absolutely perfect. More about this endless grinding cycle will be explained below.

Nature's Grace (level 36)

Same thing as Metabolic Boost, but for your MP instead. Max it.

Bramble Hood (level 59)

Returning 200% damage and reducing damage taken by 75% for 15 seconds is about as godly as a Veno can get, even though the return damage effect is removed in PvP/TW scenarios. Although a lot of people swear by Bramble Hood as a life saver, which it really is, I find the 2 second delay is a bit of a deterrent in emergency situations where you really want to scram before the mob gets even 15 meters to you. Nevertheless, using this in conjunction with Soul Transfusion should be a great escape mechanism when something goes terribly wrong.

Fox Form Branch

Fox Form (level 9)

This spell is best used to go into fox form, which is really the other half of a Veno. Even for a pure caster Veno, it's pretty important to get this up to date because the physical defense boost can be a life saver when you're in a pinch, and a caster Veno is really lacking in the physical defense department. For the LA and Heavy Veno, you need this too. So basically, this is something every Veno needs to get. This skill is also a major deciding factor for whether a player should go Sage or Demon because that 60% movement boost for Demon is amazing, as is the 30% pd and 50% accuracy boost for Sage. With Sage obviously catering towards Fox Form users and Demon catering the casters who could always use a quick escape. All about what you want to be for this one.

Fox Wallop (level 9)

Other than the damage boost, a 40% channeling speed reduction for only 3 seconds is pretty crappy. Not that the chi cost is an issue, but this skill overall is pretty useless. The 50% chance of not consuming 20 chi for Sage doesn't help either. The only redeeming factor for this skill is the 20% chance of making all hits critical for 5 seconds on Demon. How's that for motivation to finally spam this skill? Otherwise, leave it at level 1.

Befuddling Mist (level 19)

Much better than Fox Wallop. the 70% accuracy reduction can really hurt those Barbs and BMs without the Misty Forest Ring, plus you don't need to constantly spam it thanks to the long 8 second duration. For a Foxform LA Veno, this skill can give the Veno an evasion rating comparable to that of an Archer. Both Sage/Demon versions of the skills give fairly nice improvements to the skill too, so you might as well max it if you're ever planning on using Fox Form.

Stunning Blow (level 29)

Yes, that 1 spark cost may look a little pricey, but when you get multiple sparks in your bag of tricks, a mere spark for 8 whole seconds of freezing the target will start looking very attractive. Also note that the Demon version of this has a potential 3 second stun, making it a quick and easy interrupter.

Leech (level 39)

An 80% chance to leech a good amount of HP with only a 6 second cooldown is reason enough to use Fox Form. Useful for tight spots, runs without Clerics, waiting for Metabolic/Nature's Grace cooldowns, and just about in any situation where you don't have full health. Not only that but this skill doesn't actually leech HP from the target. It simply gives you the extra HP. This means that even if Leech misses or the target is already dead by the time it hits, you'll still gain the health. Max this one out ASAP.

Consume Spirit (level 49)

One of the lesser popular Fox Form skills, it reduces your current health by a percentage to gain mana. With this maxed out and a Sage Leech, you can pretty much juggle between the two skills to keep yourself in top shape concerning your HP and MP without the need for Metabolic Boost or Nature's Grace. However, it's best not to waste your time using this skill in PvP because there are no good benefits outside of keeping yourself in tip top shape in a grinding environment.

Malefic Crush (level 59)

Like Parasitic Nova, there are really better usages of 2 sparks. However, Malefic Crush does not suffer from a major channeling time and burning 1.6k mana from the target can actually be useful on BMs and Barbs when used in conjunction with that Genie skill that also drains mana. If you're not looking for draining the target's mana, just spend the sparks on something like a Spark Eruption or something instead.

Fox Form Debuff Sub-branch

Purge (level 13)

PvE wise, you'll probably never touch Purge unless you do TT2-3s or TT3-xs. So other than the two bosses, there is no real justification to use Purge at all, especially since regular mob buffs aren't too big of a threat either. When you switch topics to PvP, Purge suddenly becomes a beacon of light. Take a maxed Beast King's Inspiration, which gives a bonus 30% HP. In about 3 seconds of Purge, that's 30% of the target's HP gone. Mix and match it with any buff the target may have. The more buffs they have, the more fun you have Purging them. Add in the tiny AoE boost from Sage and the mass clutter of people in TWs and you got yourself a full support Veno. Highly recommended in PvP, stay away from it if you're staying away from PvP.

Amplify Damage (level 23)

When a Veno is not tanking a boss in a squad, Amp Damage basically defines the Veno's role in the team. While in ordinary grinding scenarios, you probably won't be using it much unless you happen to be in Fox Form when you see an Inc Life mob. But in specialized scenarios such as PvP and bosses, you would want to max this out ASAP to save some wear and tear from the tank and clerics' charms or prep to dish out some major nukes. In a PvP situation though, don't make Amping the target a priority, although it's a nice plus if you have the time to soup up the debuffs before nuking the target. Both Sage/Demon versions are pretty nice additions as well. Recommended.

Soul Degeneration (level 33)

No one ever sees this because no one ever uses it. In theory, it sounds terrible, and in practice, it doesn't fair much better. There was an experiment to see if Soul Degeneration can possible halt the regen effect of Diamon Sutra or Ironheart, but the results were never posted. Absolutely useless in PvE. The Sage effect of reducing maximum HP by 20% sounds particularly attractive by using it to follow up a Purge on a Barb buffed target to really cut down the HP. Avoid it unless you have the Sage book for it.

Crush Vigor (level 43)

I won't blatantly say that the Veno Fox Form skill branch sucks, but the later portions with Consume Spirit and Soul Degeneration really kill it. Crush vigor is obviously useless in PvE, but if used well in PvP, it can't be all that bad. It could potentially be used alongside with an Archer or Fist BM to really kill someone's chi and sparks in PvP/TW, but it's really situational and really requires a squad effort to make this really effective and preferable to something like Amp Damage. Don't bother unless you've got some lofty tricks up your sleeve with this skill.

General Support Branch

Melee Mastery (level 19)

Easy. You use Fox Form, you level this. You don't, you don't level this.

Wood Mastery (level 29)

Really minor boost to your damage, but you might as well max it anyways since it's passive.

Soul Transfusion (level 29)

A step above Bramble Hood, this is pretty much a much have skill for a Veno. A fairly short minute cooldown for you to instantly exchange HP and MP percentage values, for a cost of up to 100 chi maximum. This means you don't even need any chi to use it, although if you do have chi, it'll still consume it. This means there's no debate on whether to spend your spark on Bramble Hood or Soul Transfusion throughout most of the game, since you can use both of them in conjunction given that you cast Bramble Hood first. Great survival skill and great grinding skill. Must have.

Summer Sprint (level 29)

Gives a very nice speed boost for 5 whole minutes for a low mana cost. Although not essential, it's always funner to run faster. Highly recommended.

Lending Hand (level 46)

Lending Hand is to give an ally a spark every once in awhile to increase the squad's performance. If you do FBs and TTs a lot, get this. It's pretty cheap though, so it's not really a bad idea to get it regardless.

Level 79 Skills

Myriad Rainbow (Fox Form) (level 79)

There are actually two Myraid Rainbows. One for Fox Form and one for standard form. For the normal person who's practical and not rich enough to afford both Myriad Rainbows, get the Fox Form one instead. The difference between the two other than which form its usable in is that the Fox Form one has a much shorter range, but it has a 15 meter AoE. the AoE factor makes all the difference. Note that Myriad Rainbow causes random status effects, which means sometimes you'll get one on a target, sometimes you get all of them on a target, or sometimes it'll even do nothing. The Bleed and Poison are useless. The big reason anyone would get Myriad Rainbow is for the 100% Armor or Magic Break status. Reducing the defense by 100% is essentially reducing it to 0, which makes this skill very attractive to Sage Venos who'll miss out on the 20% 0 physical defense in a Demon Ironwood Scarab. In regular situations, the 800 mana cost is way too much so the best usage of this is through bosses where you can take the risk of using this gamble skill.

Myriad Rainbow (level 79)

Unless you have a lot of cash to burn and you really want to use Myriad Rainbow in a controlled situation where you don't want to aggro close by mobs from the AoE, don't touch the standard Myriad Rainbow at all.

Feral Concentration (level 79)

When the description says at the cost of being able to move for 10 seconds, what it actually means is that you yourself are stunned for 10 seconds. With this in mind, it seems like a pretty bad waste of a spark unless the tank just died and you don't mind taking aggro while the cleric quickly tries to pull the tank back together. In that case, this would make a great escape mechanism along with Bramble Hood and Soul Transfusion. What makes this really magical though is through the use of an anti-stun pot. Pop one before using this skill and voila. 10 seconds of invincibility while you get to terrorize mobs and PKers alike. If you have a nice apothecary level and don't mind making a few anti-stun pots, this skill would be a great addition to your list. The downside is the 5 minute cooldown, so it's not something you'll be able to pull often. Another 'trick' to using Feral AND being able to move around (like run from a mob!) is to cast Demon Summer Sprint then Feral. One of the benefits of Demon summer Sprint is the fact it makes you immune to all movement impairing effects for 6 seconds INCLUDING those you cast on yourself. As Feral makes you unable to move for ten seconds, it is counteracted by the Summer Sprint benefit. Just cast Summer Sprint first, maybe use pots or apo to increase health, then cast Feral for immunity to damage and be able to move.

Veno Techniques

There are two things every Venomancer should learn or know. The first is non-stop grinding, the second is luring.

The goal of non-stop grinding is to grind and grind and grind without the usage of any charms, minimal usage of pots, and never ever stopping to meditate or do anything else except for grinding. The three key skills to this is using Nature's Grace when you're at the appropriate MP amount, then when it does down to the relatively same level again, use Soul Transfusion then Metabolic Boost. When you're back at the same level, Nature's Grace's cooldown should be over and you can repeat the pattern. At lower levels, you'll probably need some pots to supplement the pattern, but as you max out the 2 skills, it'll be easier and easier on you, given that you don't ever get touched by a mob. If your pattern is disrupted by resurrecting a dead pet or getting ninjaed by some mobs, you could potentially fix everything by going into Fox Form and Leeching anything that moves whilst using Soul Transfusion until your HP and MP levels are both near full. It's that simple to grind with a Veno.

Luring is easier to master, since you can practice as soon as you get a pet at level 3. Simply stand far away from the target, preferably 24 meters or so, order your pet to attack the mob, and as soon as the pet shows the attack animation, unsummon it. Chances are, you'll see the mob do damage to your pet and vice versa, and the mob will start after you immediately or delay a bit before running at you. At this point, you can start running if the mob is fairly quick, or you can take the time to quickly re-summon your pet and have it block the mob before it gets to you. When you resummon your pet, you should notice that it wasn't damaged at all by the mob, despite that numbers showed up right as you unsummoned it. It's that simple. Luring is mostly performed when you want to draw a specific mob out of a crowd of mobs that aggro. It's also much easier to lure on melee mobs due to their short ranged nature. This technique is invaluable in FBs and especially TTs, so learn it and learn it well. More information about luring can be found on the Venomancer Luring Guide.

So Sage or Demon?

In general, Sage is more defensive driven, PvE based, stable damage, and conserves more chi to unload those spark eruptions. Demon is often described as being more PvP based, offensive, and spike damage. For the Venomancer though, it also splits into the paths that Sage is more friendly for Fox Formers, while Demon benefits Human Form Venos even more-so. Some very strong factors for the Sage include the 100% Sage Leech, Self-Purifying Summer Sprint, and 30% Amplify Damage. On the other hand, the Demon Masteries that increase crits, the 20% chance to make all hit crit for Demon Fox Wallop, the Demon versions of Venomous and Ironwood, the 75% Bramble, and 90 sec cooldowns for the regeneration skills are just as attractive. Also note that a good chunk of the Sage/Demon skill books are very difficult to find or make. If you're not planning on staying around long term enough to get the benefits of the upper level Sage/Demon skills, feel free to decide simply based off of the level 89 Sage/Demon skills.