I want to begin by saying this build is not out to one hit anyone. This build is about gradually killing your opponent while controlling the fight, its a very aggressive build, and you must use all of your tools together for it to shine. Its very rewarding when you do.

I've been having much success over the last month playing this extremely fun build and just thought I'd share it with the rest of the community. Its really a hex/dex build with a emphasis on poison. I'm sl270 in ng++ as of now but, I started playing this style at sl150 in Ng, I explain how to play this style at sl150 at the bottom.

Endgame build, what you'll need (assuming all gear upgraded to its maximum potential)

-Armor

Black Hood

Lion Mage Robe

Moon Butterfly Cuffs (these are great to get your enemy to roll, get good whipping them when they do)

Lion Mage Skirt

-Weapons

Dark Black Witch's Staff

Dark Darkdrift

2x Poison Spotted Whips

-Rings

Southern Ritual Band +2

Clear Bluestone Ring +2

Crest of the Rat (adds a combined 100 poison bonus damage when dual wielding whips... yum)

Chloranthy Ring +2

-Spells

2x Great Resonant Soul

Affinity

Dark Fog (practice placing these without lock on)

Profound Still

Scraps of life

Great Heal (Dark weapon a good second choice)

-Required Stats

75 atn

14 str

38 dex

38 int

40 fth

23 vit

-Recommended Stats

50 vgr

20 end

As you can see you'll need a minimum sl of exactly 251 (if you started as deprived) to acquire these stats. Beyond 251 I recommend getting 20 points into int for the extra affinity orbs, then adp to 15 for the 110 agility, and lastly continue to fill out dex, and end.

So assuming you have the stats, how do you play? To start, attuned spell order is very important, it will determine how efficiently you cast your spells. Spend too much time fumbling around for the right spell and you're as good as dead. I attune my spells in the order I'm most likely to cast them, starting with affinity, dark fog, great resonant soul, scraps of life, profound still, great heal, in this order. Since poisoning your enemy is your first priority dark fog should be readied after you affinity yourself. Once you have poisoned your enemy grs is immediately readied, since most opponents will either flask or moss at this point. Scraps of Life is your 4th and most defensive spell, successfully knock your opponent down and you have plenty of time for either a profound still, affinity, or great heal. All three spells ready right behind your scraps. (again dark weapon can replace great heal, up to you, I explain why I use great heal myself below) Also here's a little tip, if you use my attunement order, you'll usually be hitting up on the dpad 3 times after casting a scraps. Since affinity is most likely the next spell you'll want to be casting after a knockdown... so practice, 1, 2,3!

All these spells can be used with your Black Witches Staff. In your offhand, a darkdrift... its fast, its light weight, works great dark infused, its invisible, and its r2 is shield piercing, must I say more? can't tell you the amount of times I just needed that 1 last hit, darkdrift rarely fails. Ive done lots of experimenting with poison manslayer, and a poison black scorpion stinger, they come in close runner up positions, but leave the poisoning to the whips and fogs. Darkdrifts damage will trump most.

So you have your mainhand and offhand weapons now, which are all about dark damage. What about your secondary weapons? Dual wield poison spotted whips!! all about the poison. Used in conjunction with fogs and poisoning your enemy is a breeze.

Now I keep my last right and left weapon slots empty, I found that having to cycle that 1 extra slot can cost me big. After you poison someone you must have your staff back in your main hand with grs ready immediately, I can't stress this point enough its very important. Sometimes I will play fire hunter's blackbow as a 3rd offhand with fire and poison arrows, though my staff hand still only ever shares itself with a whip. replace Chloranthy ring with third dragon ring to stay under 25% weight burden, or adjust vitality accordingly if you like the bow idea.

As for optional spell changes to what I've listed, dropping Great Heal and adding dark weapon buff is a good option. I find myself switching my weapons too much to make this worthwhile, since the buff will be dropped when you switch to your whips. I really like Great Heal because I'm an invader, its almost too easy to heal yourself with the protection of profound still and scraps of life. All in all this is the spell slot you can do the most experimenting with, I've used Greater Magic Barrier here, dark weapon, resonant flesh, even soul great sword. So play around with this slot, figure out what suits you best. Dropping 1 of the grs is another option, I encourage you to keep the 2 just in case you get invaded often (like I do by blueboy... all the time hehe) and you'll want to be ready since you'll probably be using grs while hunting. It helps me in the 3v1 situations also.

All in all this is really only a basic guideline, I encourage everyone to tweak it out to their own personnel preferences.

Playing at sl150

Alright now lets say you want to play this flavor build but don't have the sl yet, you'll have to make a few adjustments. This is exactly how I leveled starting at sl150

-stat adjustments (add and subtract these stats from the stats listed above, Keep in mind my starting class was deprived with all stats starting at 6, numbers in ()'s reflect what your sl150 stats should be)

-45 atn (30)

-44 vgr (6)

-14 end (6)

-3 vit (20)

-6 fth (34)

+11 adp (17)

Str (14) dex (38) int (38) remain the same

-gear adjustments

Third Dragon Ring replaces Crest of Rat

Life ring +2 replaces Chloranthy ring +2

Dark Sunset Staff replaces Black Witches Staff

Add Dark Caitha's Chime (or dark chime of want) to 3rd offhand slot

-spell adjustments

2x grs replaced with 1 dark orb

remove Great heal

profound still replaced with another dark fog

In essence darkdrift & staff = offensive stance, chime & staff = defensive stance, whips = poison stance.

As you level get your vgr to 50 asap.

Have fun