With a ranger in DKS I used Poison Arrows (or Stun Arrows) occasionally late in the game, but once I could learn Exploding Arrows and Splitting Arrows, they took over as my primary special attacks. I learned Exploding Arrows on level 15 when available, but delayed learning Splitting Arrows (just never got around to it, until I had a little bit of trouble with a fair sized group and tried it to see if it would help). Later I started preferring Splitting Arrows to Exploding Arrows (it is great for close range attacks), especially after learning Way of the Ranger (usually don't bother with temporary boost spells, but tried it out on level 40, after buying a bow with that skill bonus). I did not max Poison Arrows, since later in the game I usually just used it to come out of pause with an attack (regular attacks don't unpause with the Xbox version); with the PC version you can not enable Target Lock when paused, but can click on a specific target with the mouse cursor.
In the original release of D2:ED I tried poison and fire damage enchantments (on weapons and jewellery) with my dual wielding warrior, and at least noticed the poison effect being triggered more often (never checked the combat log to see if maybe the effect was just more visible, or something). My total normal / magic damage was effective enough late in the game that I never worried about how much damage the third weapon enchantment was contributing (and other than Static Charge or the odd Healing Aura, wasn't particularly enthusiastic about any of the jewellery enchantments).
There were changes to enchantments (and skills) between the original release of D2:ED and DKS. When the Developer Mode was added to DKS to make the Developer's Cut version, I don't recall seeing mention of any additional changes, though there may have been some. Check out Lancet's
Dragon Knight Saga FAQ/Guide for a list of enchantments (search for
*20* to jump to the enchantments section).
