Sage Heavy Armor/Vit Venomancer guide

[Pelnar]

Two things to get out of the way first:

• Shia Labeouf told me to get off my ass and finally do this. Don't let your dreams be dreams and whatnot. I know I promised this a month or two ago, but I procrastinated the *** out of it.
• This is a guide for SAGE HA Venomancers. NOT Demon ones. Not APS ones. Tanky ones. If you want a guide on Demon HA Venos based on APSing people to death, then give me the EC to make another Veno to test it on and I'll figure out how to optimize that as well. But until then (which is probably never), I'm not making one. Everything in this guide is specifically for one variant of HA Venomancers, and my statements in no way reflect on any other type of build.

~~~~~~~~~~WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY, on to the guide!~~~~~~~~~~

Pros of playing HA Veno:

• Can tank any physical class literally all day. I almost fell asleep against a BM attacking me today
• Can tank magic classes for a good amount of time
• Harassment, disruption, and pissing people off is the name of the game
• AoE Purge
• Defenses of a BM with an unpurgeable Mag marrow, and then a bit more
• Purify weapon
• Get accused of "Camping defense" when using your attack or Puri weapon, even if it has no defense levels on it
• "Surprise, muthafuka" amounts of damage in the span of roughly 3-4 seconds (depends on channeling), enough to heiro most people and just flat-out oneshot an LA class on a crit unless they are camping defense
• Decent base movement speed (9.2m/s)
• PURIFY. WEAPON.
• Too many immunities. IG, AD, Feral Concentration, 1s immunity with Malefic Crush (Doesn't do much, but can help)
• On top of immunities, you have Bewitch to stop someone from doing damage to you for (usually) long enough for your charm to tick, and then Soul Transfusion to reset your HP and tick your MP charm instead. Malefic Crush is also a nice "sit the *** down" button to give you a second to think
• Self-purify with Summer Sprint to get rid of debuffs to nerf the damage Seekers and Wizards will do to you
• Bramble, Guard when applicable (NS, playoffs)

• You get to play as a fox. Your ini doesn't matter. You're a fox. That in itself deserves a point.
• Did I mention our lord and saviour PURIFY WEAPON?
• Relatively inexpensive ornas

Cons of playing an HA Veno:

• Moderately low defense level because no R8 set bonus (43 with 0 def level weapon and no def level engraves)
• Non-customizable armor stats. It's set. Though this also means that you don't have to dump thousands of damas into your armor. Just your weapon
• People will complain about you because you're playing an off-meta build
• A bit squishy to magic classes (If you call 30k-ish MDef squishy)
• Hard to play
• No pets. Don't even bother trying. If you want to try, and can contribute a pets section to this guide, feel free. I'll credit you. I just find it pointless because no pet heal and I'm not rich enough to experiment.
• Your ini doesn't matter. You're a fox.
• No Nova. Don't even try. No. I SAID DON'T NOVA!
• Often difficult for faction/tw/squad leaders to plan around and place in squads properly, as they seem to expect you to behave like an Arcane veno
• You only deal your own damage once every two minutes. Other than Fossilized Curse, you have no real damage. But you're not a DD, that doesn't matter.
• No range on anything but Bewitch and no gapcloser

Gear:

Step one: Get yourself a comfy set of Dragon Heavy Armor. Any set will do. They're all the same. Once you get it, make it your own with gear signatures, and settle in, because you're never wearing anything else.
Step two: Magic rings. The channeling helps, the MDef is absolutely 100% necessary, crit rate is nice, RPDT helps a bit and covers literally every reason you would ever want a Might ring, Defense levels are amazing, and the Magic goes towards your base of 74. (Edit: Hah, now we're stuck on magic rings. Sage Vit Veno > Demon APS Veno.)
Step three: MDef Cube and WS belt. I don't need to say anything here. You need the MDef.
Step four: Ascended Dragon Cape and Vit tome because you're a tank, not a DD.
Step five: Cards. Hokka, Kestra, Yi the Mighty Wing, Elder of the Streams, Tsu/Harpy Wraith, Fen the Victorious
And most importantly:
Step six: Weapons. Purify Weapon is a must. If you can get Puri 3x Defense, you're golden. I have Puri 2x MDef and 4% RPDT. It's far from ideal, but it works, and the MDef helps. Also get an Attack Level weapon that you will probably never use and a Defense Level weapon for specialized circumstances. I personally never use anything other than my Purify Weapon. Dragon Pataka is nice, but not necessary for this build.

Engraves/Stats (Wordy version):

You only need so much of any stat but Vit. Engrave to the minimum requirement for gear (377 Str, 74 Mag, 79 Dex)

and put the rest into vit. Thankfully, you're unlikely to hit 377 from engraves alone so strength engraves are always useful.

Breakdown of what you get from gear before you equip armor:

60 Mag from rings

40 Str from Pure Stone of the Brute x2

20 Str from helm

20 Str from S cards

60 total Mag

80 total Str

Add in Veno base stats and you end up with the following stats already accounted for:

85 Strength

65 Magic

5 Dex

This means that you need a total of the following to use your gear:

377-85=292 Strength

74-65=9 Magic (Add with stats)

and 79-5=74 Dexterity

The rest of your points go to Vitality.

Plan your engraves accordingly.

You can get away with all Vit 22 engraves and that will be just as good as

all Str 22 engraves. This is not expensive.

Alternatively, if you have the money for them, I would recommend Def Level or

RMDT engraves. I go with Vit because they're the cheapest of the 22 stat engraves

Stats/Engraves, tl;dr:
377 Str, 80 Dex (One above gear requirement for 1% crit), 74 Mag, rest to vit.

Genie:
(Big thanks to Marty again)
This is entirely up to personal preference, but I personally like a genie with 65 Strength, 160 Vit, and the rest of the available points into magic. Some people like to set up their genies differently, this is entirely up to your playstyle.

Skills:
Most of these are personal preference, but the following are MUST HAVES:

• Absolute Domain (10) (Immunity)
• Faith (10) (Faith is Faith. 'Nuff said)
• Occult Ice (10) (Lockdown while charm ticks) (I no longer use this.)
• Cloud Eruption (1) (Mid-fight chi if you're running low)
• (Edit) Soul of Fire (10) (Wizards oneshotting you? Summer sprint on CD? Can't force puri? This is godly.)
• (Edit) Heart of Steel (10) (Seekers/EAs/EPs hurting too hard? Use this.)

Highly recommended:

• Extreme Poison (10)
• Frenzy (10)
• (Edit) Nullify Poison (10) 

(The first two) are both for increasing the damage of your one damage combo, and making it even remotely possible to kill things. You don't strictly NEED these, but if you want to kill anything, good luck without them. (Edit: Null Poison is in case other Venomancers and Mystics are actually targeting Remember that Mystics hit past your immunities. This will stop that.)

Other skills:
I personally (No longer) use Mire and Holy Path because Mire is a useful AoE defense debuff in mass PK/TW (It is, but HoS and SoF exist and are better for surviving) and Holy Path makes walking places far easier. (HP is a QoL thing. If you want, I'd take Also makes chasing a lot easier. Other skills are entirely up to you. Water Immune is a nice thing to have vs Sins and Psychics. Wood immune is nice to have against Arcane Venos and Mystics. Your call.

(Submitted by Marty: )

- Vit/mag genie (for survivability) with spammable skills (Absolute Domain, Tree of Protection, Faith, Evil Ward, Holy Path, Cloud Eruption, wood immune and either one of those: Will Surge, chi drainer like Chi Siphon or Tangling Mire for aoe amp). I like when my genie regenerates fast, so I would stat 80 vit and rest in magic; if you prefer lto have more HP for your genie, you can put more points in vit if you want.


- Str genie (for more of a kick) (Absolute Domain, Tree of Protection, Faith, Evil Ward, Occult Ice, Tangling Mire, Holy Path, Cloud Eruption/Chi Siphon/Will Surge/wood immune) with str 140 (for Occult Ice to proc 100%, increasing HP boost from Tree of Protection and making Mire amp more deadly as well), then vit 40 and rest in magic. It works for me good, and same as before - if you prefer longer genie hp bar all is up to You.

(As a note on Str genies. I personally used to use one with about as much str as possible and just enough vit to combo skills, no magic for one-shotting people. Not recommended for PK, but if you want to enter something like the GM Damage Event, pure Str genie with Poison, Frenzy, and Tree of Protection makes your damage absolutely NUTS. Throw Mire on it too if you do this just to laugh at the effective AoE 0PDef and immobilize. Not literally 0 and not literally immobile, but it's hilarious to throw on top of things in PvE such as Ares, BH, Card Bosses, or whatever. It's a stupid idea to use it in PK, but I find it hilarious.)
PvP:

Mass PK/TW:
AA squad lead at start, and stay close to them at all times. You don't have to maintain AA though. Switch targets constantly and aim for the spot where there are the most people. You will want to spam Grudge Strike, which will dampen their DPS by slowing their channeling and APS. Whenever purge is off cooldown, use it on the largest clump of bodies that you can find, and preferably one close to your party lead's target.

If someone is about to take down your party lead or DDs or your EP, get on them as FAST as possible. Occult them. Puffbird them. Occult them again. Keep Grudge Striking them. Stop them from doing damage while your party annihilates them, or if they're squishy enough, set up for your Amp/Extreme Poison/Myriad/Frenzy/Fossilized Curse combo and kill them.

When your party lead calls for an AA, or when you have a suitable number of people around you, go ham with Myriad Rainbow to shred defenses and Malefic Crush to hold them still while your party unloads their AoE, and keep up that Grudge Strike. Hotkey it and mash it 24/7. While it's on cooldown, hit things with Dark Taboo to heal yourself and get in more damage and it should be up almost immediately after.

If you find an EP, tell your part and puffbird them to keep them from healing people. Stick to that EP and make their life hell with your channeling slow while doing everything in your power to make them want you off their face. If they're hitting you, they're not healing their party or buffing. If they're not hitting you, they're suffering from 50% extra channeling time, making their heals a LOT less effective and their buffing far slower, which makes their team easier to take out, as well as dealing some decent damage to them.

Oh, and spam Myriad Rainbow whenever you have spare chi. And by spare chi, I mean never go below one spark unless Feral Concentration is on CD. Remember that positioning is everything. Hit as many people as you can with Grudge Strike's cone hitbox and get the most out of every Purge. Keep one of your Curses on whatever enemy Catabarb is nearby (Damage Amp or Soul Degeneration) at all times. Crush Vigor on whatever APS classes they have.

When you inevitably come under attack, use Grudge Strike on your target and you can usually ignore them if it's a physical class. If it's a Magic class, keep doing your thing until your charm ticks, pop an immunity and run through the back line. Make them chase you if you can. But let your charm recover and then head back into the fray. You don't have the range or gap closing power to deal with them at range, so make them come to you. They will either back off or follow you into the heart of your team.

1v1s:
(As a note: I do not recommend that you 1v1 people. This is mostly a mass PK build)

1v1 against physical classes/melee classes:
They can't kill you. Most likely. Grudge Strike/Dark Taboo and attack them until they're at about half health. Bait out their Faith/Sutra/AD and then slam them in the face with fully amped Fossilized Curse, which deals enough Magic damage to take care of most people. If it doesn't, then stall. If they spark, start channeling Purge or Puffbird as their animation ends, so that it hits them just as they come out of sparking. This will either get rid of their spark buff or make a good portion of it useless. Follow up Puffbird with Stunning Blow then Grudge Strike while they're still transformed and step out of range so that either a full twelve seconds of their time is wasted, or they have to use a genie skill to hit you. And Grudge Strike them again when they get into range for it. Between your defenses and their decreased damage output, they shouldn't be able to kill you. And even if they can, you have IG/Feral which you can Purify yourself out of if they're APSing you and AD which you can use if you're already stunned and about to die.

1v1 against magic classes/ranged classes:
Don't. You can't kill them without changing out of Fox Form to use Soul Link and combo-ing that while they're at half health. DON'T. If they attack you, feel free to troll around for a bit, and feel free to tank/harass them. But for the love of god, they out-range you, they can kite, and you can't catch up. If you can catch up to an EA, you can one-shot them. Seekers depend on their gear. Any Magic class? Just don't. Save yourself the trouble. You can't kill them unless they're already CC'd for you or AFK. Yes, you can tank them. But you can't kill them. Feel free to try. Your best bet is probably just straight up APSing them. Good luck.


Pets:
(Credit to Marty for this section)
For me sacrificing a pet is a big con of that build as it makes You unable to use Natural Synergy which is important for me as anti-stun skill to combo with Feral Concentration. Def lvl weapon works for me better than puri one if I can do this. I would try to use defensive pets (astral drake/fox/spot/snowman) or any version of avatar of war (wolf, spider, bull) with self-healing skill in mood even (also nice here is snowman as he has as last skill self heal+increasing def lvls for period of time) and max it stats in defense, def levels and hp. Damage not so important. You can use it as cc than real damage (rule the world, pounce etc but with Protect and Strong on it, fixed). If you can't get self heal in mood or you got good defensive mood (=reduce damage from players) just teach your pet skill Reborn in Fire in first 4 skills of your pet. So, I would go then Rule the World, Reborn in Fire, Protect, Strong. But it's true there is no unkillable pets in that build.

AND FINALLY:

If you have any questions or if there is anything that I missed, please ask/tell me down below. I'll answer to the best of my abilities. As a disclaimer, I do not know everything, and this is not necessarily perfect. There are things I have missed and things that I will not be able to test for myself. Feedback is much appreciated, as this is my first guide.

Additionally, this is only one way to build Heavy Armor Venomancers. I will not say that this is the best (It is now, thank you #based Aga._ I will not recommend this to everyone. This build is meant to be for fun, and is somewhat effective in mass PK. I am not telling anyone that they have to do this, I am only making this information and my build available to the public, so that whoever WANTS to try this can. If this build is not for you, or you do not like it, then please be advised, I do not care and you are wasting your time on this more than you are mine by commenting any baseless insults or negative criticism that is not directed to help improve this guide. I will take any feedback, so long as it is constructive, not destructive. Thank you for your time, and I hope that this guide was at least somewhat helpful or informational. If you find a better way to do what I already am, please feel free to share, and I will credit you in this guide when I update it with your advice. Thank you in advance, and have a nice day.

Additional thanks:
Marty, for the pet section, genie help (lol I'm bad at that), and telling me to add one point in Dex for the 1% crit. I wasn't even thinking about crit rate.
Also for suggesting the addition of RMDT on the rings. I still plan to use Vit because of personal funds/preference, but it's good for other players to know about.

[RandomDude]

u wrote so much ;o

[Pelnar]

u wrote so much ;o

Yes, because there is a lot of information. I hope it can be helpful. Thank you though

[Emilkinz]

why waste your time on such useless thing, legit question 

[Frost]

why waste your time on such useless thing, legit question

Not that useless to her or those who like this non-meta build. This will help those select few at least.

[Pelnar]

Not that useless to her or those who like this non-meta build. This will help those select few at least.

^ This

Thank you, Frost.

[𝓜𝓮𝓲]

ty for guide pel..  wanna try on my sage veno <3

[Pelnar]

ty for guide pel.. wanna try on my sage veno <3

Good luck!

[zRainx]

Cool guide man 

[Jinxers]

I played sage HA veno for a while. It was really fun to watch idiot sins drop on Bramblehood in NW & NS. Nice guide.

[Fab]

........Im just going to be nice for this one time and tell you to rethink about your genie skills, mainly Frenzy and Occult Ice since your genie isnt full str.

[Neve]

Nice guide.
I read it and i really don't think this would be a build i'd enjoy personally but i'm sure it will be very helpful to some.

[icyyuki]

Wow amazing guide, so detailed! Good job! Even tho many will say that this build is useless but it is fun and I admire you for trying things differently no matter what others might say  I'm sure some will try this build.

[Nea]

Most of the pros you stated are similar to any veno in 1.5
Being tanky as *** is already proved by people like bewitch , sunnyday, elly, elene, or any other veno on server that has a rpd set and ascended dragon cape with phy ring
bewitch is 250 ec, i have it on my arcane veno o.O yes ARCANE wow how is only for  LA one
sadly... SADLY i dont have occult ice which stops me from being efficient and i have to use skills like those that fit for my vit/mag genie, such as... not occult.
SAGE Purge comes from sage wf not from your useless build :S
I've seen u yesterday and  i was in full squishy set having around what 45 def levels  with 31k hp after hp reduce and u were not able to tick me, took 2 sins and u spamming random skills dealing between 600 and 1100 dmg (yay hiero bug!!!!!!!!!) and still i didnt die, guess the hiero bug goes off the list too (?)
you died to an EA spamming metals on u, come on lmao ( Clones )
How are u HA veno if u go full vit with 0 dmg
its like , better go vit veno with arcane armor and atleast u will have enough chan to switch from human to fox form in less than 2 minutes
again
i dont have occult ice sorry

basically you are saying that for around 15 minutes in 1v1 while target tries to kill u ( will succeed) they will burn genie and u will win with a combo that might fail( will fail with ur base dmg)



i have a few questions that i'll stat below
Why aren't u AA Veno with a def set and u get same defence output(phy ring and def cape+ puri weap with full mag=  same sht as u have ) but higher dmg output and all combos are way more dangerous and op against any class?
Why aren't u using good skills on vit/mag genie such as expel and top etc that would make u even harder to kill even tho u are in a 'squishier' build ?
Why are u playing pw like u are in some kind of bad assassination movie, u hide and camp and when is about to try to kill some1 u fail ;x
Why are you using vit setup when atleast u could go demon with 0pdef and full HA aps on full mdef orns, atleast u'd KILL some1 ONCE in ur LIFE TIME with this out-dated build, and still tank the same way...
This is all

oh and inc from Elitism

Shut up.

[Drive]

Nice guide,appreciate the effort you've put into making it.
I wonder if part HA part AA veno would be viable too,or maybe a pure vit one.
Might test it out myself,if you have tested it,please tell me does it work.
Would not hurt to try something new now and then ayyeee.