HA and LA veno

Pelli - Dreamweaver

So, what are you thoughts on those two builds? Are they good or are they bad?

LA is pretty good because it has an equilibrium between magic def and physical def in human form and with the right orns, they can make awesome tanks, and they have decent critical rates along with decent physical attack when in fox form for various reasons.

And HA has extremely good physical defense although it is lacking in magical def. It has good physical attacks in fox form when tanking and with the good gears and orns, they can also have very good magical attack to make a difference.

For me, though, I'd prefer the LA veno because it can serve various purposes rather easily in both fox form and human form. And the crits aren't all that bad too.

I just don't really like AA because I think it's overlooking the awesomeness that is the fox form melee tree, and its mastery, which is a very good add-on for the class.

Cotillion - Dreamweaver

My Veno is HA build (though can also wear current level AA).
She's not my main and has been a slow side-project for me. She's been a source of great fun for me in this game tho as I levelled her this way and I had a blast keeping in both sets of gear.

I went full HA for the obvious wicked pdef. I play mostly in Foxform, only switching to use Human form debuffs and such. This has also granted me alot of soloability and have no tank pets. I have pets for DD and debuffs ofc, but the aggro is mine and they supplement me, rather than the opposite. This build has also lent me the ability to save squads/clerics whereas I don't believe I could have otherwise.

LA......having an Archer and a Sin, I am so used to LA being the mediocre armor that excels at neither. I didn't like the idea of sacrificing str or mag for dex either, thus lowering even more my already lower magic and physical attacks due to being mixed build (my own opinion, some people prefer this).

I played an AA as well.....and personally, I didnt care for it. Doesn't fit the way I want to play.

Desdi - Sanctuary

The Venomancer class is very flexible hence it appeals to so many people because they can choose a build to their liking.
I have tried all four common builds; I used to have 2 Venomancers; the second for the LA/HA test.

AA build doesn't necessarily mean to overlook the Fox Form skill tree and endgame weapons with easy refines have made the melee attacks of Venomancers decent even on Pure Mag builds. At least as far as PvE goes (not very experienced in PvP as until now I didn't bother with it.) In contrast, I very much love the Fox Form skills but I'm simply more of the caster type, not the melee type, hence I went AA.

HA was a fun and great build for as long as I played but it really wasn't my thing. HA Venomancers can be great but they are for different purposes such as TW focus, support focus, etc.

LA, honestly, isn't that good, in my opinion. It used to be a viable endgame/PvP build along with Vit-Mag back in the days when TT99 was the ultimate endgame gear. HA was difficult or maybe impossible due to the lack of (good) ornaments and good tomes to make up for the points whereas AA builds were a 2-shot more or less.

Just my 2 cents :P

Raziyal - Archosaur

I have to HA venomancers.

One on Sanc called Nabbubu (104)

One on Archosaur Raziyal (100)

I have currently ( a long time ago ) had an AA veno but it was never to my liking.
So i made my 104 veno Nabbubu into a HA veno around lvl 50, and i fell in love with it. Mind you this was all before nirvana and the TB. Me and a group of other venos decided to become HA venos purely for "****s and giggle" but we never really nunderstood how OP they were at lvl 100.

Now a days we have R9 and HA venos have become rarer that Barbs and Clerics in squads haha
I'm still a HA veno leading up to once again 15k hp and my r9 wep on Raziyal just like my 104 veno Nabbubu

I have been LA but i never liked it, i found to annoying in my opinion, and HA armor is just Sexy!

I'm more of a Melee playing type but i like using Magic, Reasons i never made a BM or other melee race, it never appealed to me.
I found Venos more flexable and i just love having a pet running around and attacking things

I_sage_i - Harshlands

i think HA/AA venos are beast they have high pdef and hp decent mdef and decent magic attack. but the setup im thinking of requires ALOT OF money so i think its good if u can afford to get the good gear.

EDIT: oh i think the LA/AA build is **** horrible **** low pdef low mdef its horrible requires u to have 100+ str and dex to wear LA so less stat points for u to put into magic

MiniST - Sanctuary

As a HA or LA veno, you are bound to a support class, especially with g16, your magic is about 40% (60% vs 100%) less than a full g16 veno. (g16>r9 in atk by a big margin, and about equal in defense). I was LA veno for the longest time, it worked will when there was only tt99, but now, the attack is just too lacking against all the r9 and g16 out there. I'm going full arcane again(just need a stupid reset sale XD). Armor is only gonna help you survive for so long, it's mostly how u use your genie, apoth, time your skills and predict your opponent's skills that allows you to last in TW and pk.

Empu - Sanctuary

HA is great for those who enjoy the versatility of being a melee/caster class. In squads, the venos role is mainly to debuff and support, so wether you focus on melee (HA build) or magic (AA build) doesn't matter much for your squad. For me, it's mainly for the player to decide what they enjoy most.

Desdi - Sanctuary wrote: »

LA, honestly, isn't that good, in my opinion. It used to be a viable endgame/PvP build along with Vit-Mag back in the days when TT99 was the ultimate endgame gear. HA was difficult or maybe impossible due to the lack of (good) ornaments and good tomes to make up for the points whereas AA builds were a 2-shot more or less.

I agree more or less with that. For me, LA is good till 90~100+. HA can be a bit off a pain in the butt for gear as you lvl (though with current lvling speed it might be easier). LA with phys ornies in fox gives about the same phys def as normal HA. It's a great setup for those who aren't sure which path to go.

It certainly lost a bit off it's advantage though. HA with latest mag weap is very possible now, while it wasn't a long time back.

I_sage_i - Harshlands wrote: »

i think HA/AA venos are beast they have high pdef and hp decent mdef and decent magic attack. but the setup im thinking of requires ALOT OF money so i think its good if u can afford to get the good gear.

I'm not a big fan of HA/AA actually. The reason is that HA fully sapphire sharded beats about any other armor/shard combination at +10 when looking at phys def and hp, while still having close/comparable mag def. I think it's more for the +mag stats of AA and the swap ability that HA/AA can be good, but not for survivability reasons.

akosireann

Question # 1. Is this veno an alt of a melee toon and you just decided to swap gears so to cut down on spending for gears? If not you better have a deep pocket to spend more coin then. The gears needed to balance a HA/AA build is prolly one of the most expensive ingame (1 set for HA, 1 set for AA and prolly a tome with a lot of stats to balance the 2 sets). Yes there are 3 star -req AA or HA armors but i see them lacking several stats (Usually a lot of mdef on several HA or just 2-3 overfocused elemental stats on HA with the rest missing) and with the finicky squads these days a lot won't be too happy squadding with a mooch when they are in TT or gold gear.

2. Is this veno by any chance have an aspiration to go to caster nirvy? With the current mentality of venos being the weakest among the caster types, would you go on further gimping your matk and just pander yourself as a support type? There are basically 2 classes now that are considered more of support in caster now (bm and seeker), don't hooch yourself further. And some squads are not too keen on keeping an HA or LA veno around, Sage amp or not

SweetAnthrax - Heavens Tear

HA/AA build is expensive... Unless you play other classes and you can wear their item sets it's not a good idea cost-wise.

I chose full heavy. Magic defenses are very weak in the early levels but with all the plvling and exp items it's not a problem. In late levels (say 80+) surviving magic hits is quite easy as there are plenty of good mdef belts/necklaces avaiable and you can always stuff your gear with sapphires like TW barbs do.

Magic damage numbers are the bitter part with choosing heavy. Say they drop by 35% or a little more. The worst part is that you can't stack much channel reduction gear while still wearing interval reduction gear. On the other hand melee attack is rather good thanks to the strength points required for gear. While using interval reduction items a heavy veno should deal some fair damage over time. Not like a heavy veno will ever match a 5.0 aps sin in terms of damage output but it's good enough to get the job done.

But full magic arcane venos should take some criticism as well. Even with fine magic stats and proper weapons the final hits are no match to what a psychic or wizard will do. If one pays enough attention to venomancer skills and compare them to wizard and psy trees it's easy to figure venomancers are far more defensive, with extremely powerful survival skills. In other words, venomancers are better suited for tank role than damage dealing.


@akosireann
I've been to casters nirvana only twice so far and I really hated it. But skilled venos always find their way to full APS squads and I must tell doing normal nirv runs is much safer and faster than casters.