Assassin General FAQ
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Q: Why do I still do Poison damage over 0.4 seconds with Venom, despite having an X poison damage item with a long duration?
A: When Venom is active, it converts the durations of all the poison sources on your equipment match its own(0.4 seconds). Consequently, the damages of all your poison sources are reduced to how much damage they would do over 0.4 seconds (for example, a 400 poison damage charm with a 5 second duration would be converted to 32 poison damage charm with a 0.4 second duration, when Venom is active). For this reason, external poison damage sources are usually useless when used with Venom. Despite this, keep a lookout for items with a high damage/low duration ratio, which may add a decent amount of damage to Venom, in addition to +skills and +poison skill damage mods.
Also, try to look at things in terms of ratios (this doesn't just apply to Venom, it applies to many chargeups and Traps as well). While 500 damage on Venom applied over 0.4 seconds may look paltry at first, look at it in terms of seconds(1250 damage/second, or even 12500/10 seconds) and you might change your mind. The only time you have to worry about the true duration (in Venom's case, 0.4 seconds, or 10 frames), is when you're checking whether you meet or exceed the listed duration with your attack, so you're doing the most damage/time possible(10 frames or below, in Venom's case). If you're attacking slower than the listed duration, you're not getting the most out of the skill, as there are instances where Venom's duration elapses, when you're still attacking(11 frames or above, in Venom's case).
Note: Venom's short duration unfortunately means that certain fast attacking skills (such as DTalon and its quick follow-up kicks) don't quite benefit as much as they do with other skills, per attack, as DTalon alone usually does high damage. Chargeups and other finishers truly benefit from Venom, however.
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