A few questions about Veno stuff

Vaxial - Dreamweaver

Ok, I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

I apologize in advanced for the massive post. I tried to make my questions as clear as possible(I hope).

- Regarding moods on my herc, I finally got the mood I like/wanted; Selfless. However, the skill levels are low: Self-healing level 4 (40% heal, max is 80%) and Primal Howl level 1. I was wondering if when I go to reroll his mood will it have a chance to get the same mood with higher skill levels? Or do I need to roll to something else then try to go for the mood again and hope for higher skill levels? Combining his Unique evolution skill with Primal Howl generally lets me keep agro over myself and others without issues. That is not so much the case with a sin/bm or an op person, generally in those situations we play a nice game of agro ping pong. I feel that if I'm able to tank, I should, to prevent team mates from having to use pots/other resources.

- Again, dealing with herc. I have been satisfied with his inherited stats (http://puu.sh/epixn/e4084366d7.png). I haven't had much issues with things that I should be able to tank that are within my ability. I was wondering, should I risk his near maxed defence level to try for better regular defence? I'm still working on farming the rest of the badges for my g16 gear, so I don't have the defence level set bonus (3 pieces of g16 and 3 pieces of g15, so no defence levels from either side). However, when I'm using pet to tank a particularly hard hitting/risky boss, I like to use O'mally's blessing. I was told that Attack levels don't effect healing(also I know herc takes a hit personally since he's effected by attack levels too), so I figure the extra defence levels would help him tank a little bit better.

- Tomorrow I'll have finally gathered enough feral soul stars to Evolve my Dino from Morai. I was looking through the moods he's compatible with and I was thinking maybe Righteous. That mood gives Demon Hunting (increases demon hunting(slaying?) levels) and Wraithslayer (increases skill damage done to monsters). I was just looking at the mood skills, ingame, through my herc, and saw a mood called Raving. I'm not sure if it's compatible with Evolved dino or not, but it has Craze (Increases attack rate) and Demon Hunting. Another question about the Dino I have is: Since it is primarily an auto-attacking DD, Would it be worth it to scrap his skills he comes with, and put on maybe: Claw (does this stack with Demon Hunting's Slayer level increase?), M.Def Debuff, and P.Def Debuff. I'm not sure what to put in Slot 4. Maybe the interupt skill, but in my experience, pet skills don't exactly go off exactly when you press the button. I'd prefer not to put Rare skills on Dino as they are expensive as hell. Claw is an exception because someone has been trying to sell in AH for week and it's starting to get Cheap, lol.

-Currently, my ornaments are: Sky Demon's Pearls(+3) and Eye of Jungle (+3, it's the level 40 gold belt) with a switch of OHT -channeling ornies. I was wondering if there was anything worth while to hold me over til I can farm a cube necklace and warsong belt, or should I just get them to +5 and call it a day?

-I've never been good with genies. At all. I'm one of those noobs that generally puts Holy Path on the genie and calls it a day. I feel I've managed to get along well without a good genie for all this time, but now I've been thinking about how much more effective and efficient I could be with a nicely built genie. Before I go further, I'm looking at a PvE perspective. Looking through the skills, I was thinking maybe: Earthflame (Really only use this at bh2-3 to pull Wurlord, with herc at group to catch, so he doesn't have to rebuff/I don't get killed), Earthquake (Since it knocks back, I figure it might be useful incase head gets too close in Warsong, can only do metal and fire so far), Cloud Eruption (I give sparks to others like candy, better to let people who can do more with them than me have them), Extreme Poison (Since it's an amp rather than p.def debuff, sure Tangling mire would help my pet, but I have him for tanking rather than DD'ing. Also, I can usually consistently keep up a p.def debuff with demon ironwood and both myriads.), Either Second Wind or Tree of Protection (For those Oh $**T moments where a crab just wont heal enough and maybe soul transfusion is on cooldown or I'm low on MP too. However, I'm not sure which one to use.), NO to Holy Path (I feel I really don't need it. Between Summer Sprint and Demon Fox form, I can keep up a consistent 10.4m/s. To me, that feels like enough. I haven't really encountered a situation where that extra bit of speed from Holy Path would be useful. With those skills in mind, I do need assistance with Skill point allocations for the Genie, and definitely enlighten me to any other genie skills that might be worth looking in to.

Mayfly - Dreamweaver

1) Moods have 3 levels, with corresponding higher mood skill levels. They are no star, open star and solid star. You can continue rerolling the mood until you get the mood you want at a higher level.

2) You get to choose whether to take the new inheritance or keep the old when you reroll. You might get lucky and get both high defense levels and defense.

3) Desdi has a spreadsheet somewhere listing what pets have access to what moods. I'm not sure if demon hunting stacks with claw, but I think it does.

4) No opinion on the ornaments. As a heavy veno, I choose ornaments for stat boosts (except vit) more than anything else.

5) Tangling Mire's pdef debuff stacks with ironwood or pierce, but is sort of useless when demon ironwood or myriad has procced (unless it's PVP and myriad is the one that procced, since the 100% reduction from myriad doesn't take buffs into account.) You can't reduce pdef below 0. As for Second Wind or Tree of Protection, it depends on your HP. Second Wind restores a set amount instantly and maxes out about 2k, depending on genie stat. Tree of Protection restores a percentage of max HP over time while temporarily boosting max HP. Second Wind is better if your HP is low (say not more than 4 or 5k HP) with Tree of Protection being preferable if your HP is much greater.

opkossy

Also worth noting with genie skills is that Second Wind is instant while Tree heals after 3 seconds. So with tree you have to anticipate your need slightly. On a similar note, venos don't need earthflame because tame pet serves the same function.

Mayfly - Dreamweaver

But you can use Earthflame while Tame Beast is on cooldown, or if your bag's full.