Venos in Nation Wars

I got 153 Supply Tokens in my first Nation Wars event. I'm not sure what place my Nation was, it was either second or third. The second time...I decided to sleep instead of wake up in the morning for it b:chuckle

I didn't try touching the flag, mainly because I don't think my gear can allow me to survive that long, at least not until I get the remaining pieces of G16 and start sharding/refining.

I was charmed during the Nation Wars, mainly because the following day I had TW (which was my first TW ever on this toon b:chuckle) and used Sutra/IG whenever I could. I was purging people left and right and throwing Bewitched to Barbarians to knock them out of tiger form or stop them from potentially Arma'ing people.

Other than that I went after Clerics, Blademasters and Assassins a lot, most of them ended up being a relatively easy target for me (Bramble ) whilst Archers killed me often (though in general R9 people rolled me if I got caught without Sutra/IG/etc.).

My notes; As an 86 veno I got 47 medals on 1st event (Frost, we were last) and 32 on 2nd (Frost again, we came second).

First; You don't have to invest heavily to get a start on NW, and I would recommend venos at my range or lower to only invest earnings and to pace themselves. I did not use a charm as it would not help vs higher levels one shotting me (most of the time either I could survive on transfussion and potting or was getting dropped in 2-3 hits by archers/melee) but I did stock plenty of apos (blinking powder, puri, anti-stun, chi, speed) of which I only ended up using around 7-8 for each day. Much to my surprise the speed buffs came in the most handy, they allowed me to get some kills against kiters. The one thing you'll be using plenty of is hp n mp pots, if you're over lvl75 crab meats and yuanxiao are a must. As for pets I only used my tabby on the 1st day (apparently the speed and small size do come in handy) then was able to obtain a pre-leveled (80) Skatefish which I reskilled with maxed lightning, slow, bash and ream. Its main advantage wasn't so much in damage but as a distraction since some people will actually waste time targeting and killing the pet directly. On the other hand the tabby going unnoticed meant it only got killed through AoEs, and ream + howl I did find an effective combo. The ideal skill set for a NW pet would be, in my opinion, Ream, Pounce, Slow and Claw. Obviously you can't have this on a nix although it remains the better choice by far. Currently working on genie, apart from holy path and a full heal I would recommend going for occ ice and fortify, cloud eruption if u can get it. I'm thinking earthquake as a situational could come in handy but haven't really tried yet.

Second; For builds, those of us pre-90 probably benefit more from a conventional arcane, HA seems too much of a waste of resources at the range and LA would likely function better as caster. In the skill department I would hold off on some of the less used choices, such as crush vigor, although Frost has been the subject of some recent debate. Still on the fence on that one (haven't leveled it yet). Amp only flag bearers already being engaged by others on your side, otherwise don't bother. Purge, same thing, I know this is going to irk some, but I don't recommend it otherwise. You can't purge the NW buffs and most people will only have self buffs anyway, the really bad ones (soul of vengeance, tidal) you can't do much about. Always self buff (bramble and sprint) your go-to skills will be your caster nukes as well as feral and hood. The kill sequence I recommend is to start with Ironwood if you're jumping someone or getting the first hit, then Lucky for the stun, then venomous and blazing as fillers. Noxious takes too long and Nova is likely to just get you killed even if you can cast on multiples (it will 1 shot no 1) use sparks whenever available when they don't interfer with your using hood or feral. The choice between these last two depends on enemy but I recommend it when going 1 on 1 vs higher levels (you can tell by your first hit's damage, after you should learn to recognize the individuals) ALWAYS with antistun, which doesnt work unless you use it first, always assume higher levels will stun unless you've got the advantage (on the air, target engaged with someone else, etc.). People on your range you should be able to drop fast enough you won't need special considerations however. Feral on casters (especially psychics) hood on melees (don't forget to pot). Archers are a special case, I recommend feral but you should always use some speed buff to get within almost melee range or pursue as otherwise they'll cheat you out of the kill by kiting. Never engage them without invincibility or damage reduction.

Third; As for strategy, you can choose to either assist higher levels on your side, join the relative safety of a small group or go solo search and destroy. Don't bother with the flag unless you see a good opportunity, you're too frail to pull it off. Choose your targets carefully, some you may just have to let go, Doesn't mean there's a class you can't take on (venos can solo the lowbie barbs) but there are deffinitively players you don't stand a chance against on your own, learn to identify them. Also, kiting/fleeing is a very common strategy so learn when to let go off a target, some lowbies go fishing and try to reel in those blindly tab/killing back to where their group or higher levels can deal with them. Other times you may simply lose your opportunity window, eg feral/hood or going against charmed players who outgun you. Yes, sometimes a kill is worth dying but make sure you're getting it before you commit to sacrificing yourself. basically whether you can get a kill or not on your own depends on how fast you're dropping a target's hp, even if they're recovering to almost full health by potting, gauging whether you can get them in between charm ticks is the real trick here. Either a target is within your reach or its not, learn to tell the difference. Ganking is another option, you can choose to either join others in group already engaged or go as part of a small group. In the later case, don't stand too close to your buddies. Also keep an eye on the sky while on land, preferably zoom out your screen so no one sneaks up behind you. There are pretty much three routes you can choos to take; Air, land openly (around the open terrain surrounding the open pit) or trying to sneak by. If on air go as high as you can when not engaged so you can stay away from the reach of ranged classes, and always mind others flying. On land, openly, stay as close to your side as possible, even if hunting an outnumbered side try not to stray too far away from others, so that a sin stealthing out will at least be seen. Sneaking (not my fave) try not too waste too much time going around hiding, whether on land or air, and hit fast. You don't have stealth so anyone you can target can likely target you. Remember, better to die repeatedly and get kicked out of an area than wasting time not engaging others, so whatever strategy you decide to use your best bet for participation is to fight as much as you can.

Sorry for the uberwall, this is a complex subject.

Edit; LOL, and for a near guide I did forget something very important, use the minimap to find targets. Also, minimize the time you spent traveling, check territories in order of how close they are to you and go to ones without battle to either start a new one (worth a bit over 100 points) or wait for more terrain to open up. The ideal when your nation is on the offensive is to try to choke the players on the rival nation by limitimng their choices, so work towards that IF the choice is available.

In the first nw I was in I basicly purged hard to kill r9s/barbs and I killed some people. I had no idea what else to do since I didn't see myself fit to carry the flag.
In my second nw I paid more attention to the flag and protecting the person carrying the flag. Once I got my hands on one cause everyone was too busy pking eachother xD the only reason I survived that was because no one but one wizzie went after me. And as demon veno I still have some speed while carrying the flag. My rewards have been quite low compared to others since I've been in the losing nation both times.

Next nw I'll probably protect the flag again. As well as purging/killing.

To me, Both cultivations can do really well with flag carrying since we have Feral Concentration for damage immunity and now sage veno's have the new morai antistun skill. Demon veno's would probably do better with defense/immunity pots because they already have the speed. Sage veno's would do well with speed pots because of our lack of a constant increased speed for quick flag capture. Just dont get caught ;P

So far in Nation wars the most i've gotten was 140 and all I do is protect the flag carrier to the checkpoint by purging/DD or escort the flag myself.

P.S. Sometimes I wish bramble reflect damage could count towards my damage lol but then that would be too OP

Baby_pho - Heavens Tear wrote: »

right? i mean there were times where there were 5 sins on me in nw and 3 of them died bc of regular bramble and the other 2 died cos i aoed/bramble hood. so rediculous how stupid sins are.

Tell me about it b:laugh

My most memorable moment in NW related to this is when I was wandering around searching for the rest of the players to join the PK party and a sin popped out of stealth and stunned me only to proceed to killing himself on bramble. It was really funny because I didn't even move or AD or anything at all. I just watched him die b:chuckle.

But yeah, including the bramble damage would be quite unfair to the other classes (even though I tend to bramble all the people in the same nation as me whenever we meet in the battle field)

You got most things right, though when it comes to BMs I've found myself killing them easily unless they are R9 or have some very high sharding/refines so I suppose it depends on what kind of BM you run into. I've even 1shot a BM during one of my NWs.

Barbarians fall under the same category, they can drop down easily if their gear is average and you have good magic attack but otherwise I agree; it takes a lot of players to take one down. I mostly purge, bewitch them and chi burn to knock them out of tiger form but also prevent them from possibly using arma on people.

Clerics are relatively easy and with some luck (and skill) you might even take down R9 Clerics (at least I managed to last NW though she went after me afterwards for revenge b:chuckle)

Archers...I hate Archers. If it's something that will kill me it's R9 Archers. R8 ones don't hurt me so much though and I can usually take them down quite fast.

Wizards hurt a lot too but I have more chances of surviving them (being AA build) and the same applies to Psychics but they are quite challenge. Purge, stun and Arcane Antinomy (phys damage and annoying channeling debuff) and hope the rest will help me take them down.

The Mystics I've killed so far went down fast but I haven't seen many either, let alone meeting R9 or high refined/geared ones so can't comment on it either.

Seekers hurt a lot too but they fall into the same category as BMs for me. Unless epicly geared, I'll survive their attacks and kill them fast.

Sins usually die on bramble or die at the same time as me. I usually survive unless my genie happens to be on CD or if I get ganked.

^those are my experiences with NW so far. Not too different from TW but NW is significantly harder since you don't have your TW squad with you, there's not always good coordination with the rest of the players and sometimes there's not enough players with you so you often have to charge to the enemy alone/without having backup help.

Kitty ish a HA-veno too, around lvl 83 atm. Seems that with good gear a HA-veno can easily face melee opponents 20 lvls higher unless there's about 3 of them at a time. Sins are a bit troublesome as they stunlock and APS-kill >_<' Casters are harder ones, biggest hope being either HPing to them(if enough energy) or send pet to kill them and try to help it. Bramble, own+pet+genie debuffs, purge and sparks are veno's best friends there.

At least rewards not been too bad. Kitty has got about 50 tokens/NW, always being at worst Nation >.<' That is more than some Kitty's lvl 100 friends get, though.
If Kitty got to be in the best nation, Kitty might get 80 tokens...and get about 30m coins by selling the products b:victory

just maxed my apo skill...
120phys 100mag charms ready for the fun b:chuckle