Genie Builds and Skills for the Venomancer

Overview of Genie Skills:

http://www.ecatomb.net/pwi/genieskill.php

Intro:

Many come here confused about whether they would even benefit from a Genie, or what skills they could benefit from. The problem there is that a Genie's build can determine what skill is most suitable, or a few skills can determine which Genie build is most suitable. Venomancers have the wonderful world of being able to do both great phys dmg and great mag dmg, so there isn't one particular build that dominates for them, and there isn't one specific genie build or skill set that dominates. We also have our own play styles, so a single guide from a one person perspective should be out of the question. If I get enough cooperation, I'd like to incorporate the responses in this thread to provide an overview of possibilities for an end game venomancer's Genie or Genies.

There are basically two builds: Dex and Str. Vit and Mag are more about frequency of use or ability to use. Vit determines maximum energy, and mag determines energy recovery rate. Dex appears to be more about chances and is more geared toward the mage (extreme poison vs tangling mire), while Str appears to be more about phys.


What Genie and why?:

I like the Zeal Genie (orange) because of it's innate luring skill. It's ability to lure is solely enhanced by Magic points in that it can lure more frequently with higher mag. Sure, Tame Beast only costs MP, but Genie Luring is much faster (even if you have ~-50% channeling).

The Discipline (white) genie's innate skill is Wind Force which temporarily speeds up your aerogear and is enhanced by Dex which makes it a good candidate for a Dex build genie. Holy Path also benefits from Dex so I use my Discipline when I want to travel fast. Wind Force works great with Accelerate.


The Strength Build:

I chose this initially because I opted to go with Second Wind over Tree of Protection and saw that Cloud Eruption also benefited from it. Obviously, you cannot have a pure STR build and use these skills. At least 130 Energy is needed for Cloud Eruption Lv.1, and 135 if you want to use Absolute Domain, so you will want about 35-40vit.

Highlights and Skills to consider with the STR Build:

• Earthflame - Innate skill primarily used for luring, unaffected by all but mag stat (energy recovery / frequency of use). Decreases defense by 5% for 5 seconds giving your pet a little jump on aggro.
• Holy Path - Who doesn't have this skill to speed up your walking speed temporarily? Sure 100 Dex can get you 1 more second on it but that's crazy anyway! For longer distance speed up consider Tai Chi instead.
• Second Wind - Instantly Heals you for 800HP, and every STR point increases healing by 2% of base 800 - *Mayfly "Indeed, it works exactly that way. 50 strength means it heals for 1600." -Vitenka
• Absolute Domain - Unaffected by Genie points but requires 135 Energy. Gives you the ability to be functional during Feral Concentration, and immune to damage while casting it.
• Cloud Eruption - At Lv.1 Provides 1 spark + 3 chi + 1 chi for every Genie STR point. It's recommended to leave this skill at Lv.1 to keep the Energy cost down. It can be used as a cheap alternative to spark pots for things like triple sparking Parasitic Nova.
• Tangling Mire - Reduces Pdef by 35% for 10s at Lv.10, and for every 5 STR, it gets an additional 1% pdef reduction. A Genie with an STR of 100 combined with Sage Ironwood suggests it would yield the equivalent of a reliable armor break for 10 seconds. The damage boost while soloing may not seem like much but for elite mobs it helps my pet hold aggro so I can do more damage.
• Tai Chi - Speed up party and their HP recovery. This skill can remove the cleric HP recovery buff from party members, but it has a 15s duration, low energy / stamina costs, 0 cooldown, and benefits greatly from STR.
• Impact - Reduce pdef on single target at a lower cost than Tangling Mire.
• Leaf Dance - Increase your crit rate by 2% for a long time
• Frenzy - Increase attack level by 20 but makes yourself more vulnerable

Dexterity Build by sleepcat -with some additions

Highlights and Skills to consider for Dexterity Build:

• Holy Path - It saves me in PvE and TWs.
• Tree of Protection - I am too lazy to figure out the balance between str and dex to optimize Tree of Protection and I haven't used it too much to see how much it's been healing me. But it suits a Dex build so I'll put it here.
• Absolute Domain - It's good because you don't need to consider genie stats for it. Although the affinity points is another story.
• Badge of Courage - Being stunned is a big problem for me because I am too cheap to use anti-stun pots. With 80 dex, I get about a 80% chance of getting out of stuns.
• Seal - There are a bunch of good dex based genie skills but I wanted to try something different and go for Seal. 55% chance is pretty low though, I'm not sure if it was a good decision yet..
• Extreme Poison -
• Chi Siphon - Cheaper to use than Cloud Eruption for chi.
• Frenzy - Doesn't really benefit from dex, but is still useful for +20 atk level.

Personal Thoughts on STR build:

Extreme Poison is a popular choice over Tangling Mire, but it prefers Dex over STR (10 Genie Dexterity points increases the duration by 1 second at max Lv), and it's stamina cost per use is 200 higher. Most squads tend to have a higher patk to matk ratio, and when soloing: you'll likely use Tangling Mire on Mag Resist mobs in Fox / melee form. Tangling Mire combined with Ironwood Scarab can reliably provide similar results to Armor Break.

Tree of Protection is an alternative to Second Wind. Tree of Protection requires less stats to recover more HP, but it has a delayed response and cost around double the Stamina. Tree of Protection benefits from both STR and DEX. With a high STR Genie, Second Wind should be able to recover a good amount of HP instantly. I used to have both but realized giving up dex and focusing on Second Wind would benefit me more overall.

Cloud Eruption is so much cheaper than spark pots and benefits greatly from STR and Chi Siphon (dex) is cheaper yet.