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What is a Venomancer?[ | ]
The Venomancer is based off the Huli Jing ("fox spirit") in Chinese mythology, where they usually appear as beautiful, young women. In Perfect World they come from foxes, cats, rabbits, antelopes, and bats but they all transform into foxes.
Venomancers are a pet taming class, a solo class, a support class and a debuffer class with a fair amount of control skills on top of it. They are versatile, they can fulfil many roles in a squad (except healing players) and they can follow different builds while remaining effective. They can use their pets as tanks or they can tank themselves while the pets are secondary damage dealers. They can solo a good amount of the game's content, but are also a valuable support class in teams.
There is nothing Venomancers can't do. Any squad, doing anything, is improved by adding a Venomancer.
Playstyles[ | ]
The default playstyle is to stand at the back while sending your pet forward to attack mobs and receive any incoming damage that would otherwise be directed at you. Most of Venomancer spells cast fairly quickly and have relatively short cool-downs, so we can just keep dishing out the damage.
A second, more useful, role is to constantly run around catching additional monsters that head for the Cleric, luring monsters to the tanks, purging where needed and throwing your debuffs and attacks where they'll do the most good. Other classes can do all these jobs, but we can do them best because we can be in two places at once - our pet doing one thing, while we do another.
Alternately, you can dive into the front line yourself. We're not as good at surviving as a Barbarian but we're way less squishy than some other classes. We can survive an AOE attack or two, and get up close to throw some really nasty debuffs in Fox Form.
Playing solo we can do pretty much every quest easily and many of them levels before we have to. Usually we work on one monster, kill it, and then move to the next. Sometimes we deal with one monster while a pet deals with a second. Sometimes the pet holds a few monsters attention while we keep the pet alive or dig a chest required for a quest.
You can choose to be a caster and follow an Arcane Armor build, or choose to be a melee fox and follow a Light/Heavy Armor build. You can also choose to be both, which is the prefered playstyle as both forms have very useful skills. Though inevitably one form will have better damage than the other depending on what build you follow.
Other classes need to use charms or potions or sit and rest but Venomancers have skills to refill MP and HP. Even while we're recovering our pet can keep fighting. We keep on going. Additionally, if you have a terrible ping, then as a pet class you can cope a lot better than most others who generally need to be able to react more quickly. When lag strikes, hold down Heal Pet and hope for the best.
Pets[ | ]
The low levels (1-40)[ | ]
Complete your Cultivation quests (gold text) so you can learn new skills. Also make sure you complete your pet related quests. The rest are optional but are the main source of EXP and coins so you'll want to complete them, too.
As a caster, your main skills in these levels will be Venomous Scarab and Ironwood Scarab along with your Heal Pet and Revive Pet. Don't miss Fox Form's Befuddling Mist though; while the accuracy debuff isn't a very reliable way to stay alive, it's an AOE skill. Melee Venomancers will have to rely on Befuddling Mist and Fox Wallop. Melee Mastery is also very important to help your melee damage.
Soul transfusion will be important. It swaps your HP and mana allowing you to refill whichever was low. It works on a percentage basis so if you only have 10HP, that can still turn into thousands of MP. It consumes up to one spark, but it doesn't require any chi to use. Once you have this, you should be able to avoid running out of mana and can save your skin from certain death.
If you're not getting a Legendary Pet to start your journey with, choose a pet to stay with you for a long time. The tank pet Glacial Walker is the most popular choice but there are other options, too. If you are getting a Legendary Pet, then pick whichever you like as they are all better than common pets. Choices often come down to the Hercules (best tank pet) or the Harpy (most fun pet) but it's best to look at each Legendary Pet and decide for yourself.
Around this time, you'll want to look into learning how to lure mobs with your pet.
Don't level out of this range until you have at least: your Fox Form, a pet, one level in every skill available to you, a flyer and picked up your Genie. To stay at a low level a little longer, you can feed experience points to your Genie.
The medium levels (40-70)[ | ]
You may want to start searching for a faction at this point. The game is not particularly fun if you're always alone, unless you prefer to play solo.
In these levels you should be acquiring your full skill set, so learn everything you can and level them up as much as your spirit allows you to. Caster Venomancers should work on maxing out Venomous Scarab, Lucky Scarab, Ironwood Scarab and Noxious Gas (your main AOE). Also prioritise Amplify Damage and Leech for restoring HP in Fox Form.
If you're a melee player, you want to max out Befuddling Mist, Leech and Stunning blow to stop the runners. Melee Mastery for extra damage and Consume Spirit for MP recovery are also good. Fox Wallop isn't so great and Malefic Crush can wait. Prioritise Amplify Damage, but also try to keep up with Ironwood Scarab and Lucky Scarab.
Everyone should grab at least a few levels of Nature's Grace and Metabolic Boost to save you the coins that would go on potions. Whichever path you follow; ignore Frost Scarab and keep your Pet Heal up to date. If you squad up regularly consider getting some levels on Bramble Guard as well. Don't forget Lending Hand. This lets you send a spark (100 Chi) to another player.
Your Bounty Hunter quests are a good way to practice, to level up, and to acquire level-appropriate equipment. You will also have the options to farm Twilight Temple gear or Quicksand Maze gear. You will generally need the help of a squad for those; one more reason to find a faction.
In this level range, your Genie will begin being more useful so make sure you teach it Absolute Domain (immunity to damage) and Holy Path (increased movement speed).
Don't level out of this range until you have at least: two pets, a faction, your Cultivation up to date, a level 60 or 70 gear set.
The high levels (70-99)[ | ]
At level 79 Myriad Rainbow and Myriad Rainbow (Fox Form) become available. They aren't entirely reliable, but when they do proc they cause a 100% physical defense or magical resistance (or both) reduction. You will also get Feral Concentration which makes you immune to all damage at the cost of stunning you.
At this point in your journey you start encountering bosses you can't solo even with a Legendary Pet. You get to meet monsters with AOE more regularly. Start leveling up your remaining skills, and focus on Purge. Not many bosses need it; but the ones that do, really really do.
Start working towards gear that has an upgrade path which leads to endgame. Typically you'll want to get TT90 so you can later turn it into TT99, followed by Nirvana. In the meantime, Morai becomes available at level 85 and the quest-line rewards you with an entire armor set which is good enough for PvE until you get something better. Otherwise continue with the Quicksand Maze gear. With Morai, you'll have access to the three orders and you can farm the Venomancer Morai skills. Start with Luminance, then Shroud and then Corona. If you're planning to enter the PvP scene more seriously, start with Corona, then Luminance and then Shroud.
At level 89, you get to make the choice between the Sage or Demon Cultivation. The choice is yours. Look up the skills and decide which one appeals to you the most. In general, Sage is more defensive and team-oriented while Demon is more offensive and damage oriented.
In this level range, your Genie will become an important asset. You'll want to have the highest level possible for Absolute Domain (immunity to damage). Other useful skills are Holy Path (increased movement speed), Fortify (immunity to stuns - to avoid Feral Concentration's stun), Tree of Protection (healing skill), and Cloud Eruption (gives you 100 Chi).
Don't level out of this range until you have at least: chosen your Cultivation, a level 80 or 90 gear set, a couple of decent Genie skills leveled.
The Endgame and Reawakening[ | ]
The best gear is constantly evolving, but G16 Nirvana is your goal. The other option is Rank 9 gear, but that's usually for those planning to be competitive in PvP. You'll now have to start considering farming better ornaments like a Cube of Fate necklace and a Warsong belt.
The Lycaeum of Cultivation is now available so you can gather Feral Soul Stars and evolve your pets. Unfortunately, this feature is only available for a few specific pets. You can also pick a new series of Bounty Hunter quests that have a chance to give you pretty good rewards.
It's nice to finally be level 100, but you're only halfway through your journey in Perfect World. The Reawakening feature is now available so you can rebirth and revert back to level 1. This resets all of your attribute points so it's your chance to change your Venomancer's build if you have been thinking about it. Reawakening will give you extra attribute points, EXP gain will be faster so leveling up to 100 again won't be that bad, but above all, you will gain access to the Primal World and a whole lot of new things to do.
You will now begin leveling your Boundary levels which will give you a new stat called Spirit that increases the damage you deal and decreases the damage you receive if your Spirit is higher than that of the opponent. Mobs and bosses have 0 Spirit so it's mostly a PvP oriented attribute, but it will make you stronger in PvE, too. You can start farming the Primal version of some of your skills as well as the passive skills that increase your defenses, skill damage, Critical Hit ratio, HP and more. New instances will become available and at some point you will have to go through your second rebirth. It's best to get the rebirths out of the way as soon as possible because most of the newer game content will be available for Reawakened players only.