fox build, light armour veno

Your can only put in 2 points for your vit, and it has to stay at 7. You should be getting most of your hp via your gears and possibly stones.

Though this will be argued, I'm gonna say it anyway.

The absolute best build for fox form venos is heavy, but it really only starts getting good around level 20 when you get melee mastery. Your damage almost doubles, and you get your 2nd attack skill for fox form.

if you go light armor, and plan on using fox form as your main combat mode, your gonna die frequently, even if you have a golem to tank while you attack.

Light armor just doesn't merit using fox form as your primary.

However!! Using Light armor and being a caster, that's the best survivability you get in light armor. You have a very high magic attack compared to heavy armor, which helps on healing your pet, and you have a decent phys def for when it gets rough.

Keep this in mind though, a heavy armor build will have 2x your phys def when 10 level below yours, possibly even 2.5x!

graider wrote: »

if you go light armor, and plan on using fox form as your main combat mode, your gonna die frequently, even if you have a golem to tank while you attack.

Light armor just doesn't merit using fox form as your primary.

Actually, you can do incredibly well as a light armor venomancer in fox form, I have only died a small hand full of times ever so far.

As a level 65 (at the time of writing this) light build veno with maxed fox skills for my level, I run into few problems. If I want things to die faster I use mage form, otherwise I find the survivability and skills in fox form preferable. My primary pets are a frog and golem that are usually three levels behind, for the record.

I ran the numbers in a spreadsheet. Based on the magic weapon str/int requirements and light armor str/dex requirements, as someone already said, you only have two extra points to put into vit. At some levels you have more points (due to there being no new armor or new weapons at that level). But at level 24, 34, 44, 54, etc. you only have 2 extra points.

You don't get enough points to support a heavy armor build and equip a magic weapon for your level. e.g. If your stats can equip the best heavy armor at level 50, the best magic weapon you can equip is level 34. If you compromise the other way and distribute your points so you can equip the best magic weapon at level 50, the best heavy armor you can equip is level 36 (actually around 39, but there is no L39 armor).

So that's probably why light armor is popular - you don't have to compromise. You can get the best weapon and best armor for your level. The correct distribution is 3 int, 1 str, 1 dex, with a max vit of 7.

The heavy/arcane-armor hybrid is interesting. If all armor pieces were the same level, it would be worse than light armor. But because the different pieces have different level requirements, you're forced to wear some armor up to 9 levels below your level. This offsets some of the penalty of having to use low level heavy pieces, and the heavy/arcane hybrid ends up being almost exactly the same as light armor. e.g. if your int is high enough to equip a magic weapon of your level, at level 46:

light gives 705 pdef, 1115 mdef
heavy/arcane gives 704 pdef, 1180 mdef
your light accuracy, dodge, and critical rate are 2.5x that of heavy/arcane

To make it work though, you need to get a full set of heavy and arcane armor. You wear the arcane, and swap out the 2 or 3 lowest level pieces for heavy. As you go up in levels, the lowest level pieces will always change, so you need a full set of heavy to complement your arcane. That could get expensive at higher levels with upgrades and stuff.

Of course the big benefit is if you're in a situation where you need more pdef or mdef, you can swap the armor around. A light armor veno is probably not going to be carrying a set of arcane armor with her to swap. In the above level 46 case:

full arcane gives 242 pdef, 1755 mdef.
full heavy gives 1078 pdef, 505 mdef.

So if you're willing to get the full armor sets and swap them around as needed, it is a viable alternative to light armor.

Solandri - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I ran the numbers in a spreadsheet. Based on the magic weapon str/int requirements and light armor str/dex requirements, as someone already said, you only have two extra points to put into vit. At some levels you have more points (due to there being no new armor or new weapons at that level). But at level 24, 34, 44, 54, etc. you only have 2 extra points.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but your math is wrong. My statement before is also wrong but closer to the truth than your statement.

Here's my numbers. The first 3 numbers added together are the additional stat points needed to be able to equip the best gear for that level from base stats. The -X number is the total available stat points for that level. The final number is what's left over. Since venos can use any of the 4 magic weapons, I've done the math for each (Wand, Magic Sword, Pataka, and Glaive).

Lv.31 89+29+29=147-150*-1=3
Lv.34 97+32+32=161-165*-1=4
Lv.37 104+35+35=174-180*-1=6
Lv.39 112+35+35=182-190*-1=8

From here on, you need +10 each for str/dex to use new Light Armor for that level. You also need +30 in each to use new Weapons for that level. Wands and Pataka are the exception to this. Wands require +31 at Lv6 and Lv8. Pataka require +29 at Lv6 and Lv8. This holds to at least Lv8 gear and I didn't test further.

Unless a veno is using wands, there is always more than 2 stat points remaining. This includes Magic Swords which you used for your calculations (Lv.34).

You could always do 5 STR / 1 DEX / 3 MAG / 1 VIT every 2 levels and use both Heavy Armor and Robes since 2.5 STR and 0.5 DEX per level is the requirement for Heavy Armor and 1.5 MAG per level is the requirement for Robes.

And even then, if you want to equip your magic weapons at a sooner level, you could take that 1 VIT and add it to MAG making it 4 MAG every two levels.

If you really want to, you could even use all three types of armor if you went 5 STR / 2 DEX / 3 MAG every 2 levels, lol!

swiftlikeafox wrote: »

Somehow you've managed to pull 33 stat points out of thin air.... you must have some crazy gear to have added on that many.b:shocked

xD I find random drops with mag. str. dex. or vit. + in them I put absolutely no money into my armor >.>

I have been quite confused because I wanted to be pure arcane armor build and have been distributing my points mostly into MAG, and neglecting STR as I've been putting leftover points to DEX and just adding a point into STR. I am dying left right and center once my pet dies. I also created a heavy armor veno just to see how it would go, but I felt it didn't do damage as heavily or quickly as being arcane, although the plus side to this is having all kinds of HP for long drawn out fights. So after reading all your posts I have made my decision to switch over to light armor, since the stats support the best of both worlds: arcane damage, and a good whallop here and there in fox form when things get hairy. Thanks everyone!