Venomancer

The Venomancer is the mage of the Untamed and the only class that tames pets and sends them into battle. Her pet acts as a personal tank or as extra damage, which is why she is often called a solo class. Her toolkit is full of control and debuffs: she can lower an enemy's physical or magic defense, steal chi, raise the damage a target takes, cut its maximum HP or accuracy, and strip away its buffs.

In fox form her physical defense and accuracy rise and she gets a separate set of skills; her magic attack in human form turns into physical attack in fox form. All Venomancers are female. They may descend from foxes, cats, rabbits, deer or bats, yet every one of them changes into a fox. The class is said to be inspired by the fox spirit of Chinese myth.

Weapons of the same grade give the same average magic attack; they only spread it differently. The Wand gives the steadiest numbers, which is good for healing the pet. The Magic Sword balances magic damage with decent physical attack for fox form. Glaives and Patakas suit players who want big spikes of damage.

• Arcane Armor with a pure Magic build is the usual choice for damage; a Magic and Vitality mix adds HP and defense for a support role.
• Heavy Armor with Strength suits a fox-form, melee style with high defense but low damage. It is hard for beginners, because the gear and the weapon need different attributes.

Her battle pets take the hits while she fights, so she dies rarely while leveling and spends little on repairs. The pet bag opens with the P key. The Rising Call content update added pet evolution: once a pet reaches level 100 it can be evolved with Feral Soul Stars, which come from the Venomancer-only dungeon Lycaeum of Cultivation.

• Evolving costs 140 Feral Soul Stars, or 75 Stars with 20 Chienkun Stones, or 20 Stars with 90 Chienkun Stones. The pet must be stowed to evolve.
• An evolved pet can no longer be traded. It can be turned back into an egg, but it stays bound to the character.
• After evolving, its stats follow the gear the Venomancer wears when she summons it, and it gains one unique skill that cannot be changed.
• A mood gives the evolved pet two more skills. There are more than 70 moods and each pet can roll from 30 of them; rerolling always uses up Stars, even if you keep the old mood. Inherited HP, attack and defense values can be rerolled the same way.

The source lists 19 evolved forms; all Legendary Pets and most rare pets can evolve. A few examples:

• Baby Hercules becomes Celestial Giant
• Monkey King becomes Avatar of War
• Baby Blazing Phoenix becomes Heliacal Phoenix
• Glacial Walker becomes Supreme Walker
• Harpy becomes Empyrean Harpy

Low mana costs, self-recovery skills and cheap repairs make the Venomancer one of the cheapest classes to play and one of the best for farming. With a strong pet, such as the Baby Hercules or a pet boosted by Faction Base pet buffs, she can even clear several dungeons of her level alone. Early on, the main thing to learn is to hold back damage so the pet keeps the monster's attention.

Squads want her for her debuffs and her unique purge. Debuffs do not depend on gear, so groups rarely judge her equipment as long as she stays alive. A well-geared Venomancer or her pet can also tank bosses when no Barbarian is around.

She is decent alone but shines in group fights. Her usual order is: purge the enemy's buffs, weaken them with debuffs, lock them down with control, then add damage. Pets are useful for stuns but die easily to players. Fox form puts her on the front line with high defense, while human form keeps her in the back with her ranged control skills.

Stuns and paralysis are her biggest danger in human form, so a genie with a protective skill is recommended. Assassins and Duskblades, with their heavy single-target control, are the classes to fear most; strong physical hitters such as Archers, Seekers and offensive Barbarians also need care. In Territory Wars her group control and debuffs matter even more.