Heavy Veno - Pros, Cons, and Workarounds?

Obsessed - Heavens Tear

Lareish - Harshlands wrote: »

Obsessed, those are some delicious armor/stats ^x^

The stats on their own look very viable from here, but I'm looking with the eyes of a late 2x Mage, early 2x Venomancer. Out of curiosity, how do they look against a typical Heavy class of the same level as you? Any clue, or can someone with a leveled BM/Barb chime in here?

Also, if you use +MAttack shards on your weapon, how much of the m.attack gap could they make up for, compared to what you lose against Robe/LA?

Although if it's true that you really aren't losing any compared to LA... heh heh. Delightful. (It would be fascinating if it could work the same way for a Wizard - there's a Heavy Mage thread in that subforum. Which sounds far stranger than Heavy Veno, and not something I want to attempt just now.)

Thanks.

No clue.

Like I said there is no noticable difference between m.atk of LA and HA if both builds are played correctly.

HA mage would pretty much be the exact same stat-wise and equip-wise as HA veno, only difference is theres no foxform to protect em. You could make a cleric the same way too, if one so desired.

Lareish - Harshlands

I'm actually debating HA vs LA on someone else's Heavy Mage thread. They've made the Same M.Attack claim as well.

It's a curious possibility... A Mage that isn't squishy... An Unsquishy veno doesn't sound as unusual.

What's your point distribution like per level? I need to wander over to the distribution threads for some of the other classes... Wiz guide doesn't have Heavy stattage if I recall correctly. Not sure if the veno one did, it's been a while since I parsed it.

Sigr - Heavens Tear

Lareish - Harshlands wrote: »

I'm actually debating HA vs LA on someone else's Heavy Mage thread. They've made the Same M.Attack claim as well.

It's a curious possibility... A Mage that isn't squishy... An Unsquishy veno doesn't sound as unusual.

What's your point distribution like per level? I need to wander over to the distribution threads for some of the other classes... Wiz guide doesn't have Heavy stattage if I recall correctly. Not sure if the veno one did, it's been a while since I parsed it.

a HA caster build isn't straight forward like LA is, and that is because HA requires more stat points for same level HA which means there is no easy "x Mag, x str, x dex" stat.

Level	Points	Mag	Str	Dex	|| Stat Increases	|| Gear Stat Reqs	Armor					
1	0	5	5	5	|| Mag	Str	Dex	|| Mag	Str	Dex	Level
11	50	35	20	10	|| 30	15	5	|| 22	0	0	2
19	40	60	34	11	|| 25	14	1	|| 46	39	11	3
29	50	87	54	14	|| 27	20	3	|| 87	39	11	3
39	50	117	71	17	|| 30	17	3	|| 117	67	17	4
49	50	147	86	22	|| 30	15	5	|| 147	92	22	5
59	50	177	101	27	|| 30	15	5	|| 177	92	22	5
69	50	207	121	27	|| 30	20	0	|| 207	117	27	6
79	50	237	136	32	|| 30	15	5	|| 237	142	32	7
89	50	267	156	32	|| 30	20	0	|| 267	142	32	7
99	50	297	171	37	|| 30	15	5	|| 297	167	37	8

This is basically what you are looking at for what you should have every 10ish levels. As a caster, the most important thing is to keep your magic weapon at your level. At some points, in order to use the next level of HA, you will have to either use -% stat req gear, or use +str items when ever possible. I have a combined total of +31 stats between magic and strength which pushes my magic to 155 and strength to 102, and puts me in level 6/5 HA with some -% stat gear on the level 6 bracers.

If I had to start this character over again, I'd go with what I outlined in the table above instead of what I had to restat out of. At the higher levels, restats will probably be needed to take stat bonuses from the TT gear into account, but, IMHO, to guarantee that your weapon is at your level without relying on +stat gear, those are the marks you should try for on your magic.

In order to use the TT90 gear, you will have to restat for 227 str, 49 dex and 270 magic (including any +stat bonuses from gear), but the above should get you there in one piece, I think.

Peritia - Lost City

Nothing as impressive as Obsessed's setup, but thought I'd share the equipment I'm using myself at 74:

Peritia - Heavy Veno 74

Xelea - Heavens Tear

Is this the part where i insert: Heavy Veno= FAIL?

Plicid - Heavens Tear

While it is true that Heavy armor Venos can have same or nearly the same magic attack as a light armor Veno; LA can still do more damage faster. We do this in 2 ways. 1st since there is more dex required that means higher crit rate. 2nd as Obsessed stated we have room for those -channeling equip.

I have thought about going heavy armor multiple times, but I see little fault with my light armor setup.

Ladydeadlock - Heavens Tear

Xelea - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Is this the part where i insert: Heavy Veno= FAIL?

uve been saying that and thats all uve been saying.. mind telling us why?

OMGLAZERZ - Heavens Tear

Plicid - Heavens Tear wrote: »

While it is true that Heavy armor Venos can have same or nearly the same magic attack as a light armor Veno; LA can still do more damage faster. We do this in 2 ways. 1st since there is more dex required that means higher crit rate. 2nd as Obsessed stated we have room for those -channeling equip.

I have thought about going heavy armor multiple times, but I see little fault with my light armor setup.

According to the stats Obssed posted the crit difference is going to be 2% at best. Obsessed's base crit rate is 5% while LA will be 6% without taking into account any dex increases from armor or accessories, so given same Magic on both builds, LA does ~.9% more damage. So, while it's true that over the long term, it does add up, it isn't really noticeable since both builds will have similar crit rates. What I mean is, that to the casual observer, the two crit rates are indistinguishable (1%), and only by tracking the numbers over a period of several thousand attacks will the crit rate difference become apparent.