Venom Counters

[Niveus] The effective use of venom counters requires discipline and skill. If used appropriately, venom counters can contribute a great deal of damage to your enemies.

However, such skills take time to develop, and until they are properly used—

[Altera] You just suck.

[Niveus] You can’t write that. This is why we don’t have followers. You’re not professional! Monemius, can you remove that? Thank you.

Now . . . where was I? You made me lose my train of thought!

[Altera] You were talking about skill. But if you don’t remember, I can take over.

[Niveus] Oh, shush. I got it. Assassins are one of the most difficult classes to master. Nearly all of their attacks are close range, and they do not have the benefit of heavy armor or defensive skills.

A poorly trained assassin has a double negative effect. They deal less damage and take more damage than any other starting class. To offset this imbalance, the assassin must learn proper fighting techniques, strategy, and should master the use of venom counters or poison.

Venom Counter Basics

[Altera] I can do this one!

[Niveus] Yes, but I already have something prepared, and it’s short. This will all go a lot faster if you stop interrupting.

[Altera] Interrupting? This was my idea, and you’re doing everything yourself.

[Niveus] I am helping, Altera. You were going to do this months ago. If not for me, we wouldn’t even be this far. Don’t look at me like that, it’s true! But I’m sure we’ll find a section you can do later.

Now . . . yes, okay.

A venom counter is an applied effect that does immediate damage, then additional damage every 3 seconds for 9 seconds.

If a weapon normally does 5-10 damage, 1 venom counter will make that 6-11. Any subsequent attacks will renew the effect and stack the counter up to, typically, a maximum of 5 per venom type.

At 5 venom counters, the target will take 5 damage every 3 seconds. And any attack—until the venom counters expire—will deal 10-15 damage instead of 5-10.

There are many different types of venom counters, and they all work together: skills, items, weapons, traps, and venom sacs, to name a few.

This all leads into our next section.

Applied Weapon Effects

[Altera] This is my section.

[Niveus] No, I have—

[Altera] For God’s sake! I know the most about crafting, so this is my section. I’m sure you’ll edit it to pieces when I’m done anyway, so slither off!

Dear wonderful reader, given that venom counters typically have a 5-stack limit, reusing the same skills and weapons can present a difficult limitation to surmount.

That sounded professional, right?

[Niveus] It’s fine. Keep going. Monemius, you don’t have to write down everything. Only transcribe the content for the guide.

[Altera] The solution to this problem requires extra work and resources, but it introduces a lot of flexibility.

I am talking about crafted venom effects that can be applied and changed—in mid-combat, no less—to your weapons.

Specific mobs, listed below, will drop venom sacs. Some are harder to obtain than others. All venom sacs provide the same generic venom type, which is why crafting is necessary.

Venom sacs combined with specific herbs will yield a new venom type. Unfortunately, the effect is timed, and each venom sac has a limited number of uses.

The better the herb and venom sac quality, the more uses you will get out of it.

Like, duh.

Higher quality also contains useful affixes that may affect damage, duration, how long a counter can remain inactive, the maximum number of counters, and a lot of other things I’m sure we’ll get to eventually.

Weapon Enchantments

[Niveus] Weapon enchanting is a deep subject that we won’t be covering in this guide. Please see . . . what was that guide called?

[Altera] How would I know? I’ve never enchanted a weapon before.

[Niveus] Lot a good you are. But no matter, we’ll just edit this later to include the title. It’s a really good guide by Pruvidhis called {add title here, Monemius}.

In short, enchanting can reroll an item’s affix range of effect—such as the bonus to critical strike damage—or be used to create an affix.

Here are a few available affixes that are useful to assassins.

Venomous**:** A weapon with the Venomous affix will apply venom counters with each strike. The maximum number of active counters depends on the affix’s roll and can be enhanced.

Typically, however, Venomous has a low number of maximum venom counters. This allows a weapon to renew venom counters but not add much to the overall stack count.

Venom Limit: All venoms have a counter limit. This affix can either be a boon or a curse, increasing or decreasing the maximum venom counters of a specific type. Make sure you don’t forget to set the venom type.

Dual Venom: This affix allows the weapon to use two different venom counter types simultaneously. The combined effect helps deal more upfront damage and distribute counters across multiple venom types.

Critical Strike Damage

[Altera] (Silently stares at Niveus)

[Niveus] Yes, go ahead.

[Altera] Alright! When a venom counter is applied to a critical strike location—most notably the back—all damage, including damage over time effects, receives the critical strike damage modifier.

Can you imagine? You get 10 venom counters on some poor, weak follower of the Lion, and instead of taking 10 points of damage every 3 seconds, they take 20 or 30, based on your critical hit damage stat.

That’s so cool! And the same thing applies to skills like Venom Extract. If you pull venom counters out of a critical strike area, boom!

[Niveus] What happened to being professional?

[Altera] Professional is boring. . . .

Special Venom Counters

[Niveus] There are special types of venom counters that may be useful depending on the situation. The most notable and general of these special counters is the Reapply Counter.

Reapply Counter: This venom counter doesn’t deal any additional damage. The purpose of it is to extend the duration of the other counters.

The Reapply Counter resets all counters. Right before the ninth second, it reapplies itself, giving the assassin eighteen total seconds to maneuver the battlefield or extend the damage of all counters for 6 additional ticks.

Area Effect: For skills such as Rain of Blades, Venomous Spiders, and Den of Snakes, the goal is to afflict venom counters to multiple targets. Different skills go about this in different ways, so please refer to the skill’s description.

Linked: A linked venom counter doesn’t deal damage. It links two targets together, combines all venom counters, then splits the damage.

The main benefit is that renewing the counters on one target automatically renew the counters on the other. Some assassins will make themselves the second target and use special armor or venom resistance to outlast their opponent.

[Altera] Hey! You forgot to add that a linked venom counter deals damage based on where the link was made.

You can totally have a dozen venom counters in non-critical strike locations, then use a link to shift where the damage is applied, even to single targets, by linking the target to themself.

[Niveus] I didn’t forget. We’re just covering the basics, and that’s an advanced move. In any case, I think that’s a wrap for today.

[Altera] But . . . I didn’t cover the herbs or what mobs to kill for venom sacs. I said they were listed below, but then you jumped into enchantments.

[Niveus] I’m the perfectionist one. Don’t worry. We’ll edit it before anyone reads it. Besides, I have the biggest migraine. Being a snake gives me motion sickness.

[Altera] Monemius! Don’t record any of—