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Welcome to my guide on how to use the Dread Venom Striker effectively. This guide goes over each part of your loadout in detail: armor, side weapons, shields, pets and trinkets.

Dread Venom Striker

The Dread Venom Striker (DVS) has fast swings that deal normal damage, allowing it to be effective against every monster type. The charge attack doesn't offer a lot of utility and the damage increase on the charge attacks hits is not enough to compensate for the drawbacks: for the duration of the charge attack you are unable to dodge or block attacks and you cannot adjust your aim.

Dread Venom Striker benefits a lot from damage bonuses and the effects of poison. This is great, because it can inflict poison! When using DVS, you are forced to match your gear to it. You will need armor that provides damage bonus for swords (or a universal damage bonus). DVS is unique in this way: many weapons do just fine without damage bonus. DVS on the other hand really needs all the damage bonus it can get to show its true potential.

Damage bonus explained

Dread Venom Striker benefits more from damage bonuses than, for example, Final Flourish for 2 reasons.

1. It has normal damage which means that monsters actually resist it quite well and,
2. It has each of its 5 swings split up in a regular hit and a ghost hit, which means monsters can put their defence to use twice, whereas they can only defend once against a Flourish.

To balance this out, DVS needs a high base damage. When playing without damage bonuses the high base damage remains hidden and DVS has fairly low damage. However, as soon as you stack damage bonuses and buffs while using DVS, the hidden base damage it possesses will make the damage you deal to monsters increase a lot.

1. ASI: The weapon is already fast, but more ASI will help you kill faster and also interrupt monsters faster. This could possibly mean the difference between knocking a foe over or losing some time (and DPS) by being forced to shield, or worse: taking a hit.
2. Damage Bonus: Damage Bonus UVs are a nice bonus to have, in case you have trouble reaching Maximum (+6) Damage bonus through armor and trinkets. Even a Low Damage Bonus UV can be useful! ASI takes priority over these, because they only work for one monster family, while armor can grant damage bonus against all monster families.
3. CTR: CTR UVs are only moderately useful, as DVS has a fast base charge time and you should not be using the charge very often.

Building a good loadout

Armor

When using Dread Venom Striker, there are a few things you should consider when picking your armor. First of all, you want to get as much damage bonus for swords as you can get, preferably maximum, but ultra is acceptable. Next is status resist: some status will drastically lower your damage output as well as make you die faster. Then you can weigh in damage type, because it lets you preserve your Health more easily, which allows you to play more aggressively. Lowest priority is additional ASI, which is always nice to have, but does not outweigh the advantage that damage bonus, status resistance and defence provide.

Which status resistance?

As we know, Dread Venom Striker benefits more than other weapons from damage increase buffs. This goes both ways though, which means it's also more vulnerable to damage penalties. This makes Poison a very dangerous status when using DVS. Getting your damage reduced makes monsters live longer and harder to disrupt, while at the same time you are also taking more damage from their hits and are unable to heal. Shock is a known strong status that you do not want to suffer from for too long. It stops you from using your Vortex Bomb and makes it dangerous to get close to monsters in general, because you are defenseless when you spasm.

Next in line are Fire and Freeze. Both are very strong statuses, but Fire doesn't stop you from killing monsters. Too much fire will drain you of Health and force you to play less aggressively though. Freeze is again a very dangerous status that can hamper your killing and survival. It breaks after a hit though, so your strong shield will let you take that hit after which you can dash out of harm's way. Teammates can also free you, so thats why it's lower in priority.

The lowest priority is Stun and then Curse. Stun is a status you will not get inflicted by often and even if you do, it doesn't have a very long duration. Curse is even less common and won't hurt you too much if you don't have a penalty to it and 3 weapon slots.

Name	Defences	Abilities	Notes	Unique Variants
Snarbolax			The Snarbolax set has great traits in its poison and freeze resistance, both very useful resistances when using DVS. It also provides a Sword Damage Bonus: Medium per piece, which translates into Very High for the set. All of this makes it the number one armor set for most DVS loadouts.	Shock, Fire, Poison, Freeze UVs are great to have in your DVS loadout. Normal, Shadow come second because they enhance the armor sets natural defences, which makes these two UVs also desirable for Lockdown. Pierce, Elemental, Stun and Curse UVs can be useful at higher strengths (High or Maximum).
Skolver			The Skolver set has great traits in its freeze resistance and Sword Damage Bonus: Medium per piece, which translates into Very High for the set. Snarbolax set outclasses skolver for general use because of its poison resistance. Nevertheless, this is a great set for piercing themed levels.	Shock, Poison, Fire, Freeze UVs are great to have in your DVS loadout. Piercing UVs are great because you will use Snarbolax as your main set, only switching to Skolver for piercing themed levels. Normal, Pierce also have their value in Lockdown. Shadow, Elemental, Stun, Curse UVs can be useful at higher strengths (High or Maximum).
Black Kat			The Black Kat set has great traits in its freeze resistance and Damage Bonus: High for all your weapons, per piece. The full set will give you maximum Damage Bonus on all your weapons. As if that wasn't enough, it also grants you a MSI: Low per piece, increasing your mobility. To balance this, it comes with a status pentaly for Shock, Fire, Poison and Curse. Consider combining a Black Kat Cowl with a Snarbolax Coat to get Damage Bonus: Ultra, which is one off the Maximum, but acceptable. This allows you to use your trinkets for Health rather than damage and somewhat counters Black Kat's poison penalty.	Shock, Fire, Poison, Freeze UVs are great to have in your DVS loadout. Normal, Shadow UVs come second because they enhance the sets natural defences, which is also desirable for Lockdown. Elemental, Pierce, Stun and Curse UVs can be useful at higher strengths (High or Maximum).
Chaos			The Chaos set has a useful Damage Bonus: Medium and CTR: Medium per piece, which makes Very High for both when using the full set. Its defenses are lacking though, with penalties to Shock, Fire, Poison, Freeze and Curse. The only real benefit it has in a DVS loadout, is that it reduces the charge time for your Vortex Bomb, which is a key part of your loadout (see below). Consider combining Chaos Cowl with Snarbolax Coat to counter some of its status penalties, as well as reducing charge time on your Vortex Bomb. Using the full set offers no real advantage over other possibilities and will only result in slower killing, because it forces you to focus more on dodging, kiting and blocking monsters.	Shock, Fire, Poison, Freeze UVs are great to have in your DVS loadout. Normal, Elemental come second because they enhance the sets natural defences, which is also desirable for Lockdown. Pierce, Shadow, Stun and Curse UVs can be useful at higher strengths (High or Maximum).

Shield

When using the Dread Venom Striker, you will often find yourself very close to your enemies. Because its attacks are so fast, you can often attack until right before their attack will hit you, at which point you will quickly raise your shield and block. After you block their attack, you can immediately start attacking them again. You do not have to waste time dodging and kiting enemies. Playing like this requires a strong shield. Pick a shield that defends against the theme status of the level and at least 1 of the main damage types.

For example: In Heart of Ice, you may use Dread Skelly shield because it defends against freeze+shadow+normal. You should not use Crest of Almire since it lacks freeze resistance.

If you are new, get Grey Owlite Shield and Dread Skelly Shield first. Those 2 will give you a nice coverage to tackle a lot of missions. Later on also look into (no particular order): Gorgomega, Savage Tortoise, Omegaward, Heater Shield, Dragon Scale Shield, Crest of Almire.

Barbarous Thorn Shield is a possibility for piercing levels, but using it everywhere is not recommended. Getting your shield broken and statuses like shock or poison inflicted on you will slow down your killing. Get your damage bonus elsewhere.

Weapons

There are other weapons you can use in your DVS loadout, Gran Faust and certain handguns are certainly useful, but describing all of the combinations is not the focus of this guide. Be creative and see if you can develop more attack styles for yourself.

Battle Sprite

This section discusses the battle sprites and their abilities. The table below tells you which ultimate skills you should pick and what their strengths are. To use some of the skills to their maximum potential, you must equip the right Harness for the level. Spending 8,000 crowns for the first variants is definitely worth it. Once you can afford it, consider upgrading to the advanced and elite versions.

Maskeraith

Maskeraith is my favourite pet to use with Dread Venom Striker. Its skills are great ways to increase your damage output and often it gives you that little extra you need to finish off a monster without having to block or dodge its attack.

Key skills: Vengeful Quills, Deadly Shadow Cloak

Quills: I recommend the Vengeful upgrade. There's not a huge difference compared to Virulent Quills, but I prefer Vengeful. Overall this is a great skill to increase your damage. The quills do a lot of damage when hit and they also help spread poison around faster. Combined with a fast recharge this makes the skill perfect for smaller groups or single enemies that are otherwise hard to take down, like a Giant Lichen Colony. Make sure to have the appropriate damage type equipped as your sprite's harness.

Shadow Cloak: Deadly Shadow Cloak greatly outperforms Vengeful Shadow Cloak. Do not get the latter under any circumstance. This skill works great with any weapon, but as we know, Dread Venom Striker benefits even more from damage bonuses than other weapons. Initially Deadly Shadow Cloak turns you invisible, after 15 seconds it ends and gives you a huge damage buff for 2 seconds; this may seem short, but its sufficient to decimate a large group of monsters that got caught in your vortex. The cloak ends prematurely if you start attacking or charging, so you can decide when to activate the buff. A super-combination is when you activate the 2 seconds of damage buff from Deadly Shadow Cloak, followed by picking up a damage buff pickup. Both buffs will stack and make your damage go through the roof.

Drakon

While I do prefer the Maskeraith, Knights who have other Sprites as their companion needn't worry! Drakon has some useful skills that allow for interesting combinations.

Key skills: Scorching Barrier, Firestorm

Flame Barrier: Pick Scorching Barrier. The extra orb and the size increase both help to increase the amount of hits you can get in with the barrier. The Scorching Barrier's damage is often very helpful to take down stronger monsters before they can launch their attacks. For example Almirian Crusaders will take so much damage from your DVS and the barrier when using an elemental harness, that you can usually kill them before they can pose any real threat.

Firestorm: Both ultimates are viable in my opinion. Frenzied Firestorm is nice with the party wide Damage Boost while Explosive Firestorm has a lot of extra damage through explosionticks that can deal ~50 damage per tick. I love Explosive Firestorm with elemental harness for taking care of large groups of Zombies, but against other monsters Frenzied Firestorm might be more useful.

Seraphynx

Seraphynx has 3 useful abilities. This pet works well when you solo with DVS, because monsters have less HP and you can do without the extra damage Maskeraith or Drakon provide. It obviously also works well in a party, where heart attack can heal your teammates and angelic aura can protect them while attacking.

Ray of Light: Pick Disintegration Ray: Lowering defense synergizes well with Dread Venom Striker. Use it on a group of enemies that you caught in your vortex to hit multiple targets, then proceed to hit all of them with strong DVS hits.

Heart Attack: I recommend Iron Heart Attack, because unlike Violent Heart Attack, it doesn't have the animation that can blur your vision a little bit. Use this on vortexed enemies to help out your teammates.

Angelic Aura: Pick Valkyrian Aura. When under a lot of pressure, this aura lets you safely charge up your Vortex bomb at maximum CTR to change the tide of battle. The aura is also useful during offense: it will take a few hits for you so you can focus completely on killing your enemies. For instance, this works well when killing a group of vortexed fiends: with the aura, you don't need to worry about the chairs being thrown at you.

Trinkets and Perk

Heart Pendants should be the first trinkets you consider. Keep in mind you don't really need trinkets to play with DVS, but the extra HP these give can allow for more aggressive play. You can risk more and sometimes it creates some spectacular combinations. Grand Solstice Ring and Gift of Autumn are possible alternatives to Penta-Heart Pendants.

An Elite Slash Module can help you reach maximum damage bonus when using the Snarbolax set for example, this is probably the only situation where you should drop a health trinket. If your loadout has damage bonus ultra, a heart trinket will most likely be better.

Status trinkets and Defence trinkets aren't worth the slot. Status trinkets (+2) are also weaker than the Status Perk (+3) your pet can equip. For most levels you can just use the health perk, but the status perks can be useful to reach immunity. You can also equip a Sword damage bonus or Bomb CTR perk if your loadout demands it. MSI is useful but not necessary, since you rarely kite (except when charging vortex, but you can do it just fine without MSI). On the contrary, most of the time, its you who are chasing the monsters, not the other way around!

Video Section

Will try to record some video's myself in a few weeks. Can't promise anything because recent tries with OBS resulted in nothing more than 2 Blue screens before giving up.