Heavy Veno non fox-form viable?

53 is quite early to be doing this IMHO. I don't want to discourage you if you really want to do it, but keeping your stats updated for the new armor requirement every few levels is a real pain. The TT armors at 70, 80, and 90 all come at one level so you can update your stats just once every 10 levels and be done with it.

If you really want to do this, I'd suggest you start by camping the auction house and start picking up +stat gear. That will give you some clue as to the pain and effort this will entail, without you having to commit with a restat scroll yet. +stat gear which also has -%channel is going to be insanely rare and expensive.

IIRC, Obsessed is a heavy caster veno, but has all sorts of uber gear and I think didn't restat until 80. You'd basically be trading off vit (hp) and mag for the flexibility of switching to high pdef. If all you want is the ability to withstand a few hits, I would look for some good pdef jewelry on AH (refining it will increase the +pdef), arcane armor with +pdef modifiers (probably easier to find than all the +stat equipment), and consider putting on pdef shards on your armor (start with the cheap common or average ones - they add up).

As Reikara said, going heavy is a pretty big investment just so you can have better pdef. I don't think I would have done it without fox form's pdef bonus and melee mastery's patk bonus. I would have rolled a BM instead. While you can tank, you lack aggro skills, so you'll be relying entirely on DPS and sparks (and maybe the genie skills Alpha Male) for aggro. The only times I've ended up tanking (outside of solo play) were when the main tank/herc died.

If a herc was tanking, I'm usually next on the aggro list (because I'm not being super-careful about aggro like the archers/wizards are - I can take a hit or two from a boss). If a barb was tanking and drops, then I've been pausing to toss the barb chi and the archers/wizards have been using their skills. They usually get killed next, then I get aggro. I can tank well enough for the cleric to get the barb back up, but the safety net I provide basically only protects the cleric and other venos. So while you can tank, it's really only in a way which is useful for a group that's about to wipe. You're not gonna be the main tank for a boss like a barb or BM could be. (Well, maybe with damage reflect you could do it. But the DD classes would have to treat it as if a herc were tanking, and if that's the case I would rather just have my herc tank and the cleric add more damage rather than heal me.)

As stated heavy without foxform is fairly wasteful, both in money and stats. Also I agree, with first hand experience, that ha/aa hybrid is VERY hard to pull off in the early levels, and in the end probably isn't worth it, unless you are on a pvp server then its debatable. I went ha/aa from lvl 1 with my veno, and while I loved it, it wasn't necessary, and it was a lot more expensive than those levels needed to be, but for me it was fun and different. Obviously besides the stat issue, there is the spirit issue. You cannot keep up with all your skills all the time if you want to do both trees pre-60 or 70. I had to choose my favorite foxform and human form skills (venomous, and ironwood scarabs, and befuddling mist, leech, and melee mastery).

So in summary, don't go ha/aa too early, its a royal pain, but if you're like me and want something different go for it, just be prepared for what it entails.

It's not impossible, but it probably will cost a lot. I know a veno on Lost City who wears full HH90 HA and the HH99 Gold (297 Magic requirement). Not sure what his entire stats are, but I know he spends a decent amount of time in caster more than fox.

well i have 5,4k deff and 5,5 magg res at lv77 3736 hp in foxform arcane
actually played robe fox from the start (lv9) never ever cared for human form and still dont care i grind just fine in human with leech planing to go sage
fox for more deff boost and 100% leech

I would use arcane for higher mag results.

There is a third option of using non magical weapons as your main attack. The general pattern for that build is to equip a magic weapon, cast ironwood scarab and a DOT skill or two then switch out to axes or such to attack alongside a pet in human form. Never tried it myself but have known of a couple of venos who use this option.

here is a heavy veno at 90, most certainly the end game build, unless you plan to replace the tt80 green with tt80 gold but the benefits aren't too different, besides, your better off with the tt80 green since it adds a few extra mdef. use of offensive pets like kowlin, sawfly or phoenix is suggested with this build for pvp purposes since your magic attack is quite low.

lv90 heavy armor caster venomancer


note
- this build requires a setup of 5 legendary equipments and a tome to boost magic stats.
- suggested re-stat to this build only at level 90.
- build's main focus is on pvp and town wars.


pros

- very good phy def, has 70 percent p def reduction in caster form
- flexibility, can make full utilization of fox and caster forms excellently
- further building, tt80 green can be replaced with tt80gold and legendary eqp as you see fit, if you want to play around with stats.
- excellent vs archers, blademasters and barbarians. you can further compliment this build with a nix for its 100 percent efficiency for pvp.
- overall this build is excellent in tt, fb, aoe levelling with herc, pvp or town wars.

cons

- low magic atk, has same magic attack as a light armor, only you don't critical that often either.
- low mag def, almost as same as a light armor build.
- low critical, evasion and accuracy. the accuracy problem can be solved by sharding your weapon with 1 or 2 accuracy shards if you plan to use foxform often.
- low to average hp and low chance of survivability against cleric or wizard.


build

base stats at 90
str - 202
dex - 44
mag - 216
vit - 3