Venom

Venom is an Assassin Skill in Diablo II.

Lore
''Poison use is another technique an Assassin has to help even the odds when battling demons and their ilk. An Assassin who has mastered this skill secretly coats her weapons with vile toxins. ''

Synergies

 * Gives synergy to: None
 * Receives synergy from: None

Venom caps the poisoning duration at 0.4 seconds, thus preventing long term poisoning. Consequently, all other items will only inflict poison damage for 0.4 seconds. Example: Though 700 damage over 10 seconds might seem impressive, only 28 damage will be inflicted due to the 0.4 seconds cap.

If a character who is buffed with Venom uses a physical skill that also inflicts poison (Poison Dagger for example), the duration is instead set to 0.4 seconds plus the duration of the skill itself, while the rate of damage is added to the attack. This results in a monstrous amount of damage added to the skill. For example, if a necromancer with level 15 Venom from Treachery Rune Word active uses level 25 Poison Dagger (which poisons over 11.6 seconds), the duration of the poison will be set to 12 seconds (11.6 + 0.4), and Venom will provide a total of 9150-9750 damage over that period (305/0.4*12 to 325/0.4*12).

Venom does stack with Burst of Speed or Fade (in earlier versions of the game, it was erroneously overriding Fade if cast).

Skill Progression
Mana Cost: 12

Poison Damage is dealt over 0.4 seconds