User:Waterbeat

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This is my guide on how to use the Dread Venom Striker effectively. It is still under construction and I will possibly rewrite or add more information to all sections.

Dread Venom Striker

The Dread Venom Striker (DVS) has fast swings that deal normal damage, allowing it to be effective against every monster type. I do not recommend using the charge attack since its doesn't offer a lot of utility. 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. Like Echo, you will need armor that provides damage bonus for swords (or a universal damage bonus). DVS is unique in this way: most weapons do just fine without damage bonus, even though they are better with a bonus. DVS on the other hand needs the damage bonus to show its true potential.

Building a good loadout

In this section I will try to discuss all the aspects of building a loadout around the Dread Venom Striker.

Armor

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, I recommend getting 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.

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

Weapons

Electron Vortex

Gran Faust/Divine Avenger

Battle Sprite

Maskeraith

Drakon

Seraphynx

Trinkets and Perk

The Monsters