I've been thinking this over, it appears that this Tradeskill has to undoubtedly be the worst tradeskill in Lusternia. If you compare it to any other tradeskills, there are some marked differences.

Herbs- Always in demand, little efforts to gather, useful skills such as Pipe packing and Herblore is great for fighting.

Alchemy- Always in demand, have to rely on Herbalists, but can be very profitable. Trans skill is awesome.

Cooking- Always in demand for people that can't gather foods via other means. Herofete is great for many people.

Tailoring- Greatrobes are profitable, normal clothings sell decently well. Splendor Robes is crap.

Jewelery- Always in demand due to enchantments and special occasions. Trans skill is crap.

Enchantment- Always in demand. Depends on how much you charge for enchanting to make up for powerstone costs, can be very profitable. Trans skill is very nice.

Forging- More in demand for warriors. Not great for money making, but Runes and Trans forging for fullplate are great.

Artisan- Furnitures are popping up everywhere, and the benefits they confer are great. Not to mention the Trans skill is particularly useful.

Poisons- Not very profitable at all since only warriors use poisons. A vial of poison will last at least a week or two as well if you fight a lot. Several weeks if you rarely fight. Trans skill is nice, but not all that great.


My biggest fear regarding poison is that warriors rely a lot on them for that extra edge in combat. I've known at least 3 Poisonists that have switched tradeskill because it is not profitable at all, not to mention the trans skill is just plain useless to them since they don't fight. Since there is little to no incentives for anyone who can take Poisons to not take Herbs or something else, I really hope this tradeskill can be looked into before poisons will completely disappear from Lusternia.

Looked into...
What would -you- propose?

Frankly, I'd like the entire tradeskill scrapped, and be incorporated bits and pieces into environment so that 1) more people would bother actually learning environment, and 2) Poisons don't become extint altogether.

I assume you meant the absolute worst (looks like you forgot a word in the original post).

But I do agree with you, I'd like to see something done. There aren't enough people doing this, and that usually means that its not profitable nor particularly effective. Putting poison in food is cool for parties, putting poisons on weapons has been downgraded because we have wounding.

I'm curious. How is it crap? I mean, since the changes to deafness and blindness, I thought less people would have blindness up. Transfix is always nice to have, no?

Or am I clueless once again?

In group fights, if you can hit more people with it, it might be useful now. I guess.

Greater chance to hit with the toxins on envenomed blades the more Poisons you know, and more uses for poisons on things like darts, throwing knives, and those crazy brands of tequila with the worm..?

That's mezcal, not tequila.

I've posted a jillion times on this subject, but here's something even farther off the beaten track. Consider how Herbalists can harvest all kinds of plant things -- things used to cure, things used for defenses, things used in alchemy, some things used in more than one. Not just things of one of those types. What if Poisons was the animal analogue to that?

So in addition to getting poisons from animals, maybe we can get some things used in alchemy that are derived from animals (like how absinthe uses leeches). Maybe we can butcher the kills to produce meat and leather (or at least something that can be delivered in comm quests to get meat and leather, much less than the existing comm quests do but at least something). Maybe there can be some creatures whose venoms are converted into a substance that grants a defense, or even an alternate cure. Maybe people can carve bones into useful shapes like bone pipes or bone flutes. Let's use every part of the buffalo!

Idea is nice, but.

If you make the chance increase too high it will be too powerful, since tradeskills are not really meant to provide you any significant advantage in fighting.

If you make it small, it's still not gonna be worth it I think, forging would still be more beneficial (I suppose, I mean those masterworks here).

Also, if more people takes poisons while the market stays small, it means even less profits. If there are only few poisonists, they can sell some here and there, right?

Valid comms already include such things as cow, snake, and human corpses... I think it would be interesting though if instead of poisonist, the trade was harvester or something, and you harvested bits of animals for various uses

Taxidermy! I suggested Taxidermy long ago!

It is venomist. Not poisonist. Poisonist sounds stupid. Venomist sounds cool.

Also, I agree that those with high poisons should have a little boost to their chances of afflicting with them, to reflect their superior knowledge of how the poisons work.

That Guido doesn't like "poisonist" is one of the best arguments for the word "poisonist". Every time I say "poisonist" it annoys him, so I say "poisonist" just as often as I, as a former poisonist, get a chance to say "poisonist". Join in the fun!

Incidentally, it's a venom in the creature, which you refine to produce a poison. If you're a poisonist, that is.

The skill is called Poisons anyways.


Wake up and smell that geomantic gas! This is Lusternia, not Achaea where there are venomists.

I don't think it needs a complete overhaul, but adding some advantages will make it more on par:

* Higher poison skill will increase chance of your venom hitting, with 15% at trans.

* Gain a higher chance of shrugging venoms, 15% at trans.

* Only poisonists are able to envenom charybdon.

All these suggestions are good if it wasn't for the fact that warriors were never meant to be the archetype to be the major poison users (read what you want into that--I'll say no more on the subject).

You devlish person you! You better never ever put Serpentlords into this game, for it will be a travesty.

Then there should be skills in Poisons or uses for Poisons that aren't intended for warriors even before the poison-using archetype is released (besides poisoned food, which, though an awesome concept, isn't terribly useful in practice).

Mmm, new class.

So poisons is doomed to be the worst tradeskill that no one in his or her right mind would take until an archetype realizes its poison-using potential or a new one comes around?