Dungeons as a Battlefox?

Sovanara - Heavens Tear

I prefer nobody sways me from my choice of going pure HA. Just saying. b:tired

Leveling's been good and the Elder quest gear is nice(although I'm not AA, so it means sacrificing it.) Heh, I leveled faster than I anticipated, but I haven't gotten a hold of my fox form. Like I mentioned before, I'm going battlefox all the way for PvE purposes. For the first dungeon (FF19 I think is the name) I may or may not get a run, but if I don't, am I still suppose to do what everyone expects of a usual ranged veno? It may sound silly to claim I'm actually a HA veno.

Advice is appreciated b:laugh

Bellarie - Raging Tide

Sovanara - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I prefer nobody sways me from my choice of going pure HA. Just saying. b:tired

Leveling's been good and the Elder quest gear is nice(although I'm not AA, so it means sacrificing it.) Heh, I leveled faster than I anticipated, but I haven't gotten a hold of my fox form. Like I mentioned before, I'm going battlefox all the way for PvE purposes. For the first dungeon (FF19 I think is the name) I may or may not get a run, but if I don't, am I still suppose to do what everyone expects of a usual ranged veno? It may sound silly to claim I'm actually a HA veno.

Advice is appreciated b:laugh

Problem with HA venomancer is the lack of stat points needed to be able to equip not only the current HA, but also the current magic weapon. In the end, you will need a large amount of extra stat points granted by a tome, equips, ornamants, etc, to be able to equip the current weapon and gear. Also, be prepared to deal with an increasing difficulty keeping your pet alive as you get higher in lvls, due to diminished magic attack. Still, it is possible, though you might want to go VIT AA or LA build until at least 60ish, then restat and switch. One reason being, it is much easier to obtain squads as a werefox veno once you have befuddling mist, amplify damage and purge.

Here is a guide on HA venomancer build:

http://pwi-wiki.perfectworld.com/index.php/Heavy_Build_Venomancer

Sarrafeline - Sanctuary

Going from level 1 to level 21 in one day is pretty easy if you've leveled a character to 30 or higher before. Almost all of the mobs below level 20 do physical damage only, so doing an HA build... makes it easier at this point in time.

Once you hit 21, you will have to fight mobs that will do magic damage, and believe me, you will find yourself struggling as an HA only fox veno, unless you know what you're doing.

You will need the right pet, the right weapon, the right armor, and the right skills.

I don't recommend LA, either. It's a sad compromise that in the end leaves much to be desired. It's easier on stat points, since HA requires a LOT of str, and little dex, whereas LA requires a lot of str and dex.

I have done LA, and arcane, and HA. There's a place and time where LA is great, awesome fun, and the rest of the time it just sucks. From 65 until about 80, LA is pretty nice. You are put into situations where you have to deal with multi-aggro, taking ranged physical, and lots of physical AOE, so LA is quite nice. But the low damage output, nerfed pet heal, and reduced mana pool kills it by about 80. The repairs alone make it stupid expensive to do a pure fox build, and as an LA Veno, I carried around 3 weapons simply because I could shatter two during TT1-3, and that was with me casting most of the time.

Truth is, Veno is an ill-thought out class by the Devs, in the fact that we get 'MELEE MASTERY' as a skill, but no real means to use it. You whack a mob in fox form and you do so little damage it's not worth it, even LA. They didn't give us the ability to use actual melee weapons and use our skills at the same time, which basically means, Melee Mastery is a waste of skill points unless you want to glitch.

For PVP, HA is a pretty nice build. But... LA and HA are probably THE most expensive builds you can do in PWI, short of a Warsoul build. I put more money into my HA veno getting her to level 35 than my arcane veno required to get to level 50.

Tome, two sets of armor, crafted weapon after weapon after weapon, ornaments... And I still am behind on stat points. Save yourself a headache... Don't bother with a Fox Form Veno, roll a BM if you want to melee stuff, or a Barb if you like tanking.

Myrrmidonna - Dreamweaver

<< LA build since lvl1, going HA/AA hybrid at lvl90


I have to 2nd the opinion of post above mine.

HA: having some more p-def is great, and HA has the highest total def (pdef+mdef) of all armors, but it's very hard to get HA at lower levels. You'll be struggling to get enough stat points to wear everything you want.

LA: having a lower m-atk was a bit frustrating on lower levels, but now I got used to it. Anyway, it has been pretty playeble, even though I still feel some envy towards the AA build, being able to outheal bosses I can't.
It's pretty nice overall, and I wouldn't switch it (at this level) for anything else. I have enough m-atk for solo grind and party gameplay at bosses and instances, and the survivability I could never get as an arcane, with more of both p-def and hp, and my m-def is quite good as well - and if it's not, I can always put m-def accesories on.
Futhermore LA build is straight as a plank :P you can't possibly do anything wrong with stats, and you have enough of them for everything.

If you want a foxform HA veno, I would reccomend you starting as LA + pdef accesories, and restating later on (80+ for example, when, as my preposter wrote, LA starts loosing its charm), when you'll have more stat add-ons available on gear to fill all your equipment needs.

Anyway - have fun

Rivierra - Archosaur

I found it was quite easy to keep up with the stat points, but I did have some pretty hefty +str items that I found really cheaply on AH. Also my tome helped.