Is it useful to learn Venoms or Hypnosis if I'm only interested in hunting and not combat?

Saible

I don't want to invest a bunch of lessons in venoms and hypnosis if I'd be better off learning other skills to help me hunt and level up. I'm also looking at buying some artifacts for Saible. Maybe a whip and something to improve her health? Any suggestions? What's good for serpent hunting? 

Anaria

Hypnosis is 100% useless for bashing. It is entirely a PVP skill.

You can bite through denizen shields with Sumac and Camus, although this isn't really as useful as it was pre-battlerage. It is certainly not something you need.

Your garrote ability is based upon your Subterfuge. So at Trans you'll never miss and do maximum damage. As a Serpent, you have a choice between using a whip or using a lash. A whip does more damage, a lash is faster recovery time. I've never sat down and figured out which is better, I just leveled to 99 using a whip. I'd ask around before investing in an artefact whip or lash, but I really think its just a question of personal preference, at least as far as bashing goes. 

For pure bashing I think the Shield of Absorption is the best artefact for a Serpent. It can be used by any class and significantly reduces the amount of punishment you take from denizens. Health improving and crit items aren't bad of course, although that is general advise for any class really. It just comes down to how much you want to spend. This stuff makes the going easier, but you don't need them to bash up to dragon.

It is also worth remembering that Avoidance works against denizens as well as adventurers. I don't know how the exact mechanic functions but I believe it is damage reduction. This makes it a worthwhile investment for pure bashing.

Taryius

You really don't need any lesson investments in Venoms or Hypnosis to succeed even in PvP (You're 1v1 ability might be -slightly- harder).

Transcendent Subterfuge gives so many goodies, all your pvp skills, utility, fast travel, bashing speed/damage. 

Venom up to Shrugging is all you really need, (You'll need up to Notechis to lock any Magi but that's only a small amount of people and only in a 1v1 situation). You can buy any other venoms if you want to get into pvp.

Hypnosis gives your most important affliction right away, Impatience. All you need though you'll fail quite a bit trying to hypnotise people with it but its useable. No benefit for hunting but you won't be able to pickpocket without it (Only some like that)

Best defensive use of credits for hunting is to transcend avoidance (provides physical damage reduction) then a shield of absorption. Best offense is crit pendant and likely an artie whip/lash.

Anaria

One other thing to think about is long term value. A level 3 whip might be amazing, but Serpents don't generally win PvP through raw damage and you can't use the whip in dragonform or if you multi-class. This makes it a much inferior investment to something like a Shield of Absorption, which can be used even if you multi-class and I believe it also functions in dragonform. Avoidance is the same, it will always help you no matter what. 

Be sure to think ahead when making your investments about what you'd like to do at 99+. I know that is hard when you are just starting out. 

Cooper

Do not use a whip to bash, use a lash. It's not even close to the same bashing speed and is definitely not personal preference. 

Antonius

Saible said:

Is 580 credits what it costs for the lessons to fully learn them?

Yes. For your first class, each class skill costs 1738 lessons to go from Inept to Transcendent. Converting a credit to lessons gives you 6 lessons per credit, so you need 289.66 credits per skill. However, a couple of points:

Part of this month's promotion is that each credit converted to lessons gives 7, rather than 6, lessons, so you'd need 248.3 credits per skill instead.
There's a bonus of 2.5 lessons on converting unbound credits to bound credits, up to the first 1000 (I think - it's been a long time since I was eligible for the bonus) converted.

Kiet

No. Even if you're doing combat they're really not as useful as 580 credits would make you think outside of 1v1.

Saible

Is 580 credits what it costs for the lessons to fully learn them?

Krypton

In the age of multiclass, you will be stuck as Serpent-only if you're only interested in Subterfuge perks and never invest in Venom+ Hypnosis.

Just a minor consideration -- could be totally nonproblematic depending what your plans for Saible are.