Armor/Build Decision?

use whatever build you like to play. use whatever build you can make work for you. don't think you're locked into one build for all time, either. i'm AA now, but i don't plan to stay AA forever.

what build might work for you will depend on your playstyle and objectives. PvP or PvE? solo or group focus? caster or melee? like to DD, or prefer to debuff? it'll all depend.

quickest leveling early on is probably AA, with maybe some vit. although venos really can't level all that fast, what with having to keep our pets near our own level; we get to start grinding pretty quickly.

Survivability increases with swiftness of killing: not just armor. -LA sucks for that.
Most range attacks you'll be hit with in PvE are mag. -LA sucks for that.
Reliable aggro improves survivability. - LA sucks for that
Pure mag AA can have more pdef than mdef through buffs.
LA will cost you more in pots - LA sucks sucks sucks.
LA will affect your pet healing which can decrease your survival.
LA rank equips are not available for veno.
Veno has bramble hood, feral concentration, and fox form: we don't need LA.

llexcall wrote: »

Okay well this is regarding my build.

Yes ive read the others posts but it still has me contemplating my build, people are telling me that arcane would be better simply because i already have a tank that i can use which is my pet.

while others say LA add survivability incase i do get attacked, now im just wondering what i should do? Sacrifice mag dmg for phy def? or sacrifice MY OWN (not pets) phy def for mag dmg?

i like getting through mobs quickly and easily, and always stay a safe distance even from respawn points.

+ id like to make a new char simply cause i hate how she looks

Suggestion?

If you don't PVP then any build is going to be fine, depending on how well you play it. Some of us have/have played other builds than just vit arcane/pure magic arcane, so we know the viability of LA and HA/AA.

Note that those who play LA and HA/AA maximize efficiency of their build by playing a combination of fox and arcane. Just for fun I made a new veno on my sin/archer/bm/barb account to share the LA gear for DPS and I've noticed little difference in magic attack (obviously it's going to a be a little less.. duh) and a vast increase in not only survivability to things so many veno's die to (i.e. physical aoe, initial aggro on mobs that do extensive physical damage) but deal significantly heavier physical damage (7,000+) and critical hit rate (20%+) while maintaining heavy magic attack (10,000+).

A good question in building a veno if you're flexible is who will it be sharing gear with?

Also, make sure to play the build you are most comfortable with, and don't listen to other players telling you to play a one dimensional build and how fail others are -- they're looking for re-assurance for their own decisions.

^ for the post above..

What build you want to aim for largely depends on your situation, and your aim for the veno and their role in the game and with squads.

About fox form, it isn't necessary most of the time to be hitting in fox form except for bosses that would either be magic immune or wood immune (Mountain's Finger), or perhaps bosses that drain the living **** out of your MP (Vampiric Sovereign, Peachblossom), or that would aoe purge the **** out of you and the squad if you were ranged (Legion Marshal). If you're going to do so, I would recommend not using the arcane rank armour unless it's during ranged casting (always possible to switch), because there's numerous bosses/mobs who either do heavy physical short/long range AOE or perhaps aggro switch and if you were right there and the beneficiary of aggro while in melee range having arcane armour is not going to help you.

Play style changes significantly when utilizing fox and when utilizing other armours than arcane. Arcane foxes don't do much physical damage, and don't have the type of crit an LA build will have. As you already noticed, an LA build will have less magic damage, while doing quite a bit more physical damage but even more-so adding a substantial amount more accuracy.

HA/AA is more of a viable build IMO for hybrid than LA/AA. For LA I would generally just stick to LA, use two diff casting weps, but also focus on similar LA gear that your archer would be using endgame, like lionheart orns, TT99 LA wrist/boots, LA nirv pants, and since you won't have rank, probably best off to go TT99LA or Nirv LA chest. If you put a decent amount into strength this lends the ability to wear a LA Nirv hat, Warsoul of Earth, or a Forest's Wisdom (even the G9 extremely easy to farm in uni forest one which refines the same as the highest grade gold helm and even easier/cheaper to 4 socket).

Another option for you might be HA/AA like your gf, or even staying pure arcane but using phys def orns and possibly adding a bit of vit. It really depends on what you can benefit yourself and the people you squad with most and more importantly, can have fun playing.

Currently, I imagine I would at least use foxform somewhat for purge/amp in pve, though many of the other skills look quite nice for pvp/tw purposes. I still imagine that the Human/fox ratio would be around 75%/25% give or take 5~10%.

Question: Do a veno's foxform skills have 100% accuracy like magic skills? I think maining an archer has made me a bit of an accuracy ***** lol.

I could be swayed back in favor or pure mag AA veno, but the whole HA/AA idea made me curious and I don't actually know any LA or HA/AA venos to ask. I dislike the damage nerf from being LA, but I further dislike the larger damage nerf from being HA/AA.

And ty Sylen, I had honestly forgotten about magic affecting your pet heals. Perhaps I need to have a long discussion with a veno on my server so I can get a better gauge of their damage capabilities without a pet and their foxform abilities. (When fighting venos in TW, I generally just kill them or I get pwn'd by a nix lol). To be honest, I wasn't factoring the pet into my armor decision, having the pet tank or get aggro back makes AA much more viable to me now.

And Janus, I suppose my goal in squads would be to debuff like crazy (I plan to have a genie with Mire and EP) as well as adapt to any situation that may arise. Im starting to think AA may be the way to go though with Bramble Hood and Feral
Concentration being nice looking options.

Whilst arcane is only one weapon - you still want two sets of ornaments - one with -channel and the pdef set.