What is better from lvl 1 LA or HA

Before you let this die.....

I leveled a Veno from scratch as HA. It's not really hard or expensive. You just need to check the AH regularly for +str/dex/mag gear or -x% requirement gear. It's all usually pretty cheap.
I had a great time leveling her this way. It was a fun challenge and one of the most fun characters/classes I have leveled to 100.

I personally went LA on my alt Venomancer when I wanted to experiment with the more meele side of the class. It let me get used to a whole new playstyle without it being too complex. I'm also not into melee, I prefer caster classes, so it was something very different and new for me. I switched to HA later when it was easier and I was more confident.

HA from the very start isn't impossible but considerably harder, mostly due to the lack of ornaments with helpful attributes. At low levels a decent geared LA Venomancer will surpass a bad geared one (though that is not limited to these builds only).

I actually quite miss my alt Venomancer, HA is a very fun build but my preference for casters won me over and I eventually retired that toon because I couldn't afford it (it was about 2 years ago). Now I'd probably afford it but it's too late since I deleted her.b:chuckle /offtopic

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

See I'm the opposite. I prefer melee and being in the action. A fight doesn't start till the mobs attacking me back so killing before mobs reaches me or as a pet tank doesn't seem to count as playing to me (I know, it is) so I get really bored and usually end up just playing another toon. And even though I know how to kite I rarely have the patience for it.

Even if I went AA veno I'd have played like an HA veno and constantly been in the fray with mobs, which is why HA is better for me.

Hmm, I can't say I like pet tanking or that I was ever patient with waiting for the pet to grab aggro and the like. Of course for certain bosses and whatnot I had no choice but let the Hercules tank (which is the downside for being AA instead of HA). I'll have to admit when I started doing TT myself the Hercules died quite a few times because I tried to cast attacks inbetween the heals or sometimes I'd forget to heal b:chuckle I like pets as support not as something to do things in my place (I'd honestly agree with you on that it doesn't count as truly playing if you always let the pet do the tanking for you, though people may disagree that's my own opinion as well).

I did love HA's ability to tank things, I do love being face to face (or so to speak) with the boss/mob and if it wasn't for my limited time which affects my merch/farming I'd go ahead and re-make a HA Venomancer.

I don't really kite either but I just prefer to do it the caster way, that's pure preference (ironically I like melee in movies-anime more than casters but totally the opposite in gaming b:chuckle).

Friends with whom I run instances with on a regular basis usually call me reckless or crazy because I pretty much like to play the way you described "in the fray with mobs". The only class I prefer to stand back with is the Psychic (though it's also my least decent geared character due to being on a different account).

You'd say HA would suit me as well since, after all, they are still casters regardless but I couldn't give up on my magic attack (which is what exactly I meant by my caster preference won me over).



Okay I went off topic

While LA does refine better than AA and appropiate use of ornaments and sharding can make it almost as ressilient, taking hits is not the point to it. There are APS/crit rate combinations which can allow LA to reliably crit once per second, while close to perma-sparked, that mantain the full functionality of an at level mag weapon. LA can still get the nominal phys res of HA in fox (so can Arcane) and is likely the better performer in terms of melee damage output. The sole point of HA is the godly phys def you get in fox form, and this pretty much is needed on only one scenario (mass PvP; TW) however convenient it may be elsewhere. If I was doing a "fox veno" (technically, all venomancers should be profficient in fox) I would go for LA and not HA for the reasons I've quoted above.

Now, Veno can choose to use any form of armor but this is mostly endgame. If you go LA or HA right from the start (and nevermind the expense or how much longer it takes you to solo content) you're esentially cheating people you squad with out of your full capabilities. Venomancer counts as DD and not just as a debuffer. LA is already at the minimum benchmark for performance (6 mag build) without bringing any extras to the table, HA comes off about the same, if not worse, for a much larger expense. In terms of survivability you'd likely be much better off with a full vit arcane build which you can do for near free (you do have to restat later on). Now, experienced players can level to 60 in about a week or two without FCC (I cannot imagine doing so in less than a month myself, but then I'm no power leveler) given the advantages to leveling that AA provides, how desserted the lower level ranges have become, and that in terms of capacity you'll be pretty close to a tourist using LA or HA (in lower levels) I can see no legitimate reason to do so other than "personal preference". Now, I do respect this, but let's get some perspective, you might as well go for reviving the Dex-Arcane build...

On the pet thing, I don't like taking hits, I'm not squishy (I do have some vit + better than LA phys def) but I think of the relationship between venomancer and pet as something wich can be dynamic. Lately I've been experimenting with switching aggro between pet and veno (Lucky + Roar is an awesome combo) and the idea of having neither veno nor pet taking more than a few hits does appeal to me much more than just flat out playing melee (which kinda sucks without bp). Yes, this is a personal thing, but I do want to make the point because there is a difference in between relying on your pet and doing the pet cleric role. And when it does come down to efficiency (or killing just as many mobs as you can, using limited resources and within a certain time span) there's no beating a veno pet. Sins may do it faster but not cheaper, and whatever high level venos may be capable of using endgame uber gears, pets own levels 90 and under...