05-10-2005, 01:21 AM
Sirs/readers
Firstly, i would like to say hello to everyone as this is my first time here, and i would really like people to read this, and tell me their thoughts about this
Anyways, i was so blur abour registering, kept thinking that the email registration was the forum registration, till i realized my mistake.
Anyways, i am here to present you with a strange and different Rabies Build, well yeah, it is a Rabies build, just slightly different damage wise
So, ladies and gentlement, first thing is first, we must first click on create a character, okay, i'm just playing
Now, we'll cut the crap, and get down to business! (^_^)
For stat growth, it's pretty basic, and here it is
---------------------------------
Strength: Just enough to wear your equipment, if you have Annihilus Charms, you can have less points here.
Dexterity: 195 or maybe slightly less, remember, you'll need it as you don't have many +attack rating equipments. You may have less if you have Annihilus Charms as well, but life won't be a problem, trust me.
Vitality: Everything else here
Energy: None.
*Pretty self explanatory
----------------------------------
Now, let's move on to a bit of Skill distributions shall we?
20 Oak Sage
20 Poison Creeper
20 Werewolf
20 Lycanthrope
20 Rabies
1 Feral Rage
It's pretty basic, and if you are wondering, Feral Rage is just a prerequisite. About specific skill placement, sorry, i can't give you that, i have not actually played this build, just tested it out at the final, but that is where you players come in
Oh, you'll have a few more skill points in the end, so i'll leave it to you to choose what to use them for, i never was able to think what was worthwhile
Okay, i've also been getting flames about not using carrion ring instead, but here are my reasons, kindly read them first, before flaming
I know bears are good, but so is my Mercenary
If i remove a +Skill ring, this is what i lose
-More life from Oak Sage
-More life and attack rating and attack speed from Lycanthrope and Werewolf
-A significant amount of damage from Rabies, around 1.5k-2k
What i do gain, however, is just 12% of synergy, and a bear with life.
Okay, i've given it some thought, and yes, i see the logic in having a bear, more units to go with thorns aura actually makes it somewhat useful. However, I consider keeping the damage as high a possible, and trust me, with the poison, your mercenary will rarely die assuming that you gave him the right stuff, also with Oak Sage, it makes me wonder how he actually can die. If the monsters surround him, excellent, hit one monster, sit back, and watch it spread, and grasp their hearts out like a sickening plague.
------------------------------------
Equipment Selection
Probably the best part about guides, i think (^_^)
Weapon: Plague Bearer Socketted with 1 Shael Rune (I'll explain why we should not use a phase blade)
Emergency Weapon: Death Web Only to handle Poison Immunes, other than that, you won't need it, trust me. OR: Grief Phase Blade. They are both simply for handling poison immunes, other than that, you should be perfectly fine.
Shield: Lidless Wall Grim Shield Socketted with a 5/5 Poison Facet
Amulet: Maras Kaleidoscope Amulet
Ring: Stone of Jordan
Ring: Bul Khatos or another Stone of Jordan if you need the mana.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Armour: Bramble with a 50% Poison Increase ONLY.
Glove: Trang Oul's Glove
Boots: Anything that gives 40% to run/walk(I'll explain why shortly) and a hell load of resistance, stuff like Gore Rider won't work because you are not a fighter, just one nasty poisoner. Also, maybe one that converts damage to mana, there is a unique or set boot that gives all those requirements, forgot what though, sorry. So, don't bother with open wounds and critical. I am saying this out of assumption that those statuses do not inrease the rabiess damage. I'm not so knowledgable when it comes to knowing how the game works in codes.
Helmet: Jalas upgraded, and socketed with a 5/5 Poison Facet
----------------------------------------------
INVENTORY:
8 Spiritual Grand Charms of Vitality(+1 to Shapeshifts and +40 Life)
1 Annihilus Charm, (optional, and VERY HELPFUL, feel like making this a must, but i understand it's hard to find. If you can't get it, make sure that your Bramble Armour has low requirements, and decent defense)
CRAP LOAD OF SMALL RESISTANCE CHARMS
*Don't worry about why i chose what i chose, i'll explain it shortly
Also, if you can, or if you do not want your horadric cube, carry 10 Grand charms, you'll get a bonus of 2k-3k min and max damage.
-------------------------------------------
Explanations
a) Okay, i did not use the 6 socketed Phase Blade because of a few reasons
- Poison needs time to work, no point hitting them over and over again, while taking damage from them, you are a TACTICAL FIGHTER, not a HEAD ON RUSH FIGHTER, remember that, you hit, and move away, and let the poison do it's work, till it dies, trust me.
-There are better weapons, such as the Plague Bearer
So, basically, you'll be hitting much slower, but it's okay, you'll be damaging much faster, trust me, i've tested this, poisoning for larger damage is better than slashing 4 times a second. Your attack will still be reasonable because of your Werewolf skill and the socketted Shael, around 1.5-2 hits a second.
b)I do not choose to use Chains of Honour over Bramble, because a Bramble with 50% percent bonus, is incredible. Trust me. However, because of that downfall, you'll need a lot of small charms of resistance, if you can't get them and prefer chains of honour, by all means, go ahead and use them. However, be prepared for a loss of 10-15k of damage difference, your call.
c) If you feel that mana is a big issue, use double stone of jordans.
d) Life is not a problem, in hell mode, i had 4000+ life with Oak Sage, 5000 assuming if all of your grand charms adds life.
e) Do not worry about your attack rating, you'll have around 11k of attack rating, JUST ENOUGH to poison one guy, and let the poison spread.
f) The poison is very deadly, it's so strong, and the duration is actually shorter, 21.2 seconds.
g) Okay, i've calculated that Yes, death's web gives significant damage. Slightly more by 5k i think, although the status screen may show other wise. However, one must remember this,the unit you strike with Death's Web will take considerable damage, and he'll die fast, maybe too fast for the poison to spread, but even if it does spread, alot of people forget that the poison damage that has spread is still that low amount, compared to that of Plague Bearer, because you did not hit each and everyone of those units to reduce their poison resistance, because of this,i find it dangerous to try and hit everyone to lower their resistance. Hence,i find endangering yourself as not a part of the idea of a Tactical Fighter. This is why Plague Bearer is still the main weapon, because the poison damage that spreads, is excellent, where as Death's Web is considerably good to handle 1 on 1, or poison immunes. You want 61k of damage to spread, not 45k+ of damage to spread, i hope i made this clear enough, of when and where to use the Death's Web and Plague Bearer, i've gotten numerous flames from people on some other site where i posted this guide as well
, saying that i have not revised the build well enough. Hope it's clear, thanks for reading this edited add on.
h) Okay, i've gotten alot of flames about not having max resistances in Hell mode, saying that i'm a rubbish of a writer, sigh, oh well, if you are going to insult me on that too, go ahead, i can't stop you
Let me explain why i state that resistances are not really necessary, this is highly relative to your playing style, if you are tactical and evasive, you hit your opponent, you move back, and he'll die in a second or 2. If you rinse and repeat, always avoiding missile projectiles, i do not see a reason for you to get hit my elemental missiles. Of course you'll get hit once in a while, but that's from melees and a random elemental missile, so it's okay. If you are wondering what are the resistances , here is a rough view, depending on the rollings of your equipment, this is what i got
53
53
23
75
*Also, as a note, please keep in mind that these resistances were counted while equipping Gore Riders, so it would help if you could use some resistance boots.
So, it's not really that bad, at least it's not zero and below. Besides, your life makes up for the low resistance.
---------------------------
Good and bad points
Good:
a) He has a decent attack rating, enough to poison the opponent
b) Good life amount with Oak sage activated
c) Specially good in tough monsters that comes in clusters. An elite in this category. He takes out hell mobs faster than most sorceress builds, -I think.-
Bad:
a) Not as fast in terms of attack speed when compared to a Fireclaw Brother (But trust me, you won't need it)
b) Not as much defense (Highly depends on the armour you used for the Runeword)
c) Not as much attack rating (Once again,you won't need it)
d) I can't think of anymore maybe the resistances, but i never had problems
e) One more, he won't kill as fast as a Fireclaw Druid, but he just needs to hit and move away, and watch the life seep away slowly for Act bosses, but SURELY. a funny thing is this, in normal mode, one swipe at baal, count to 15, he drops dead from the poison. I find this so amusing.
Synergies:
With this guy and a Fireclaw Druid, you practically make a total broken party, just the 2 of you is enough to take on Hell with ease.
----------------------------
Game play style
a) Always hit an opponent, and just move back, but if you really want to for the fun of it, continue hitting him,you'll still be hitting faster than a bowazon, trust me.
b) For clusters, run around, you'll be pretty fast with your +40% boots and make them clog up together, then, hit the preferably the hardest monster there, one with loads of life. I noticed that if the unit dies too quickly, maybe less than 0.7 seconds, the poison won't spread. Okay, so that's dangerous, so you want the poison to spread, or you'll have to run and hit. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, one at a time to be safe, for clusters, well, just wait for full 20 seconds, which happens to be the rabies duration, and i'll guarantee, the unit would have dropped dead.
The mentioned above 2 were for players without a Mercanery, however, with one, it totally changes
a) You'll just have to get your guy to tank, and then, let the poison spread by hitting one enemy, that simple.
-----------------------------
Mercanery
Sorry sirs, i'm not really knowledgable when it comes to stuff like these, i'll let the masters take this on here
-----------------------------
Final Outcome:
Erm, i would like to apologize that i do not know how to find a hoster, for a picture, but if any of you can teach me, i would be more than obliged to show you a picture, for now, this'll do. Words
Rabies Attack Rating: 11k
Defense: 1.5k (Because i used boneweaver during the guide making)
Life: 5.6k with Oak Sage
Mana: 450
Stamina: 800 (Pretty insignificant information)
Max resistances in normal
Normal Attack Damage: 600-700 Poisoned element
Rabies Damage: 6 1 k - 6 3 k
Easily boosted up with more charms or more +items, not sure if higher is possible with the current equipments, but charms yes.
Yay! Finally, a picture for you guys to see !
http://www.weblogimages.com/v.p?uid=Pois...INO78DNQW5
----------------------------------------
Important stuff i forgot to add in earlier
1) The purpose of this build was made for fun, by fun, and with fun,so it is in no way a PvP character, if you want that, i think there is one guide around by Keitaro, i hope i spelled his name right, i apologize if it's wrong.
2) It is definitely not as strong as a Fireclaw Druid, because they hit like 4 hits a second, with 17-18k of damage, so yeah, it's definitely much more, but what this build offers is high damage with safety to sit back and watch an invisible force do the work for you.
3) Only play this build if you are a conservative player, if you like the head-on-combatant-druid, Fireclaw Druid is your man to go.
4) Oh,kindly not start posting stuff like "If i wear this, and that, and this and that, your build will get owned..." Please take note that ANY build can wear contrasting equipments to pawn another hero, so kindly not post stuff like that. This is an all-round druid.
5) Once again, i thank you if you are still alive reading it up to you, honestly, thank you .Just reading it is a big return for me.
That comes to the conclusion of this brief guide on how to make a Rabies Druid, i hope you liked it, and if you have any comments or some constructive criticism, feel free to speak your mind, just wanted to see more Rabies Druids in Battlenet.
Remember, once more, Tactical Capabilities are invaluable.
Do have a nice day, God bless.
Edit: Added some explanations here and there, and some changes here and there. Thank you for reading up to here ! Do have a nice day.
Firstly, i would like to say hello to everyone as this is my first time here, and i would really like people to read this, and tell me their thoughts about this
Anyways, i was so blur abour registering, kept thinking that the email registration was the forum registration, till i realized my mistake.
Anyways, i am here to present you with a strange and different Rabies Build, well yeah, it is a Rabies build, just slightly different damage wise
So, ladies and gentlement, first thing is first, we must first click on create a character, okay, i'm just playing
Now, we'll cut the crap, and get down to business! (^_^)
For stat growth, it's pretty basic, and here it is
---------------------------------
Strength: Just enough to wear your equipment, if you have Annihilus Charms, you can have less points here.
Dexterity: 195 or maybe slightly less, remember, you'll need it as you don't have many +attack rating equipments. You may have less if you have Annihilus Charms as well, but life won't be a problem, trust me.
Vitality: Everything else here
Energy: None.
*Pretty self explanatory
----------------------------------
Now, let's move on to a bit of Skill distributions shall we?
20 Oak Sage
20 Poison Creeper
20 Werewolf
20 Lycanthrope
20 Rabies
1 Feral Rage
It's pretty basic, and if you are wondering, Feral Rage is just a prerequisite. About specific skill placement, sorry, i can't give you that, i have not actually played this build, just tested it out at the final, but that is where you players come in
Oh, you'll have a few more skill points in the end, so i'll leave it to you to choose what to use them for, i never was able to think what was worthwhile
Okay, i've also been getting flames about not using carrion ring instead, but here are my reasons, kindly read them first, before flaming
I know bears are good, but so is my Mercenary
If i remove a +Skill ring, this is what i lose
-More life from Oak Sage
-More life and attack rating and attack speed from Lycanthrope and Werewolf
-A significant amount of damage from Rabies, around 1.5k-2k
What i do gain, however, is just 12% of synergy, and a bear with life.
Okay, i've given it some thought, and yes, i see the logic in having a bear, more units to go with thorns aura actually makes it somewhat useful. However, I consider keeping the damage as high a possible, and trust me, with the poison, your mercenary will rarely die assuming that you gave him the right stuff, also with Oak Sage, it makes me wonder how he actually can die. If the monsters surround him, excellent, hit one monster, sit back, and watch it spread, and grasp their hearts out like a sickening plague.
------------------------------------
Equipment Selection
Probably the best part about guides, i think (^_^)
Weapon: Plague Bearer Socketted with 1 Shael Rune (I'll explain why we should not use a phase blade)
Emergency Weapon: Death Web Only to handle Poison Immunes, other than that, you won't need it, trust me. OR: Grief Phase Blade. They are both simply for handling poison immunes, other than that, you should be perfectly fine.
Shield: Lidless Wall Grim Shield Socketted with a 5/5 Poison Facet
Amulet: Maras Kaleidoscope Amulet
Ring: Stone of Jordan
Ring: Bul Khatos or another Stone of Jordan if you need the mana.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Armour: Bramble with a 50% Poison Increase ONLY.
Glove: Trang Oul's Glove
Boots: Anything that gives 40% to run/walk(I'll explain why shortly) and a hell load of resistance, stuff like Gore Rider won't work because you are not a fighter, just one nasty poisoner. Also, maybe one that converts damage to mana, there is a unique or set boot that gives all those requirements, forgot what though, sorry. So, don't bother with open wounds and critical. I am saying this out of assumption that those statuses do not inrease the rabiess damage. I'm not so knowledgable when it comes to knowing how the game works in codes.
Helmet: Jalas upgraded, and socketed with a 5/5 Poison Facet
----------------------------------------------
INVENTORY:
8 Spiritual Grand Charms of Vitality(+1 to Shapeshifts and +40 Life)
1 Annihilus Charm, (optional, and VERY HELPFUL, feel like making this a must, but i understand it's hard to find. If you can't get it, make sure that your Bramble Armour has low requirements, and decent defense)
CRAP LOAD OF SMALL RESISTANCE CHARMS
*Don't worry about why i chose what i chose, i'll explain it shortly
Also, if you can, or if you do not want your horadric cube, carry 10 Grand charms, you'll get a bonus of 2k-3k min and max damage.
-------------------------------------------
Explanations
a) Okay, i did not use the 6 socketed Phase Blade because of a few reasons
- Poison needs time to work, no point hitting them over and over again, while taking damage from them, you are a TACTICAL FIGHTER, not a HEAD ON RUSH FIGHTER, remember that, you hit, and move away, and let the poison do it's work, till it dies, trust me.
-There are better weapons, such as the Plague Bearer
So, basically, you'll be hitting much slower, but it's okay, you'll be damaging much faster, trust me, i've tested this, poisoning for larger damage is better than slashing 4 times a second. Your attack will still be reasonable because of your Werewolf skill and the socketted Shael, around 1.5-2 hits a second.
b)I do not choose to use Chains of Honour over Bramble, because a Bramble with 50% percent bonus, is incredible. Trust me. However, because of that downfall, you'll need a lot of small charms of resistance, if you can't get them and prefer chains of honour, by all means, go ahead and use them. However, be prepared for a loss of 10-15k of damage difference, your call.
c) If you feel that mana is a big issue, use double stone of jordans.
d) Life is not a problem, in hell mode, i had 4000+ life with Oak Sage, 5000 assuming if all of your grand charms adds life.
e) Do not worry about your attack rating, you'll have around 11k of attack rating, JUST ENOUGH to poison one guy, and let the poison spread.
f) The poison is very deadly, it's so strong, and the duration is actually shorter, 21.2 seconds.
g) Okay, i've calculated that Yes, death's web gives significant damage. Slightly more by 5k i think, although the status screen may show other wise. However, one must remember this,the unit you strike with Death's Web will take considerable damage, and he'll die fast, maybe too fast for the poison to spread, but even if it does spread, alot of people forget that the poison damage that has spread is still that low amount, compared to that of Plague Bearer, because you did not hit each and everyone of those units to reduce their poison resistance, because of this,i find it dangerous to try and hit everyone to lower their resistance. Hence,i find endangering yourself as not a part of the idea of a Tactical Fighter. This is why Plague Bearer is still the main weapon, because the poison damage that spreads, is excellent, where as Death's Web is considerably good to handle 1 on 1, or poison immunes. You want 61k of damage to spread, not 45k+ of damage to spread, i hope i made this clear enough, of when and where to use the Death's Web and Plague Bearer, i've gotten numerous flames from people on some other site where i posted this guide as well
, saying that i have not revised the build well enough. Hope it's clear, thanks for reading this edited add on. h) Okay, i've gotten alot of flames about not having max resistances in Hell mode, saying that i'm a rubbish of a writer, sigh, oh well, if you are going to insult me on that too, go ahead, i can't stop you
Let me explain why i state that resistances are not really necessary, this is highly relative to your playing style, if you are tactical and evasive, you hit your opponent, you move back, and he'll die in a second or 2. If you rinse and repeat, always avoiding missile projectiles, i do not see a reason for you to get hit my elemental missiles. Of course you'll get hit once in a while, but that's from melees and a random elemental missile, so it's okay. If you are wondering what are the resistances , here is a rough view, depending on the rollings of your equipment, this is what i got
53
53
23
75
*Also, as a note, please keep in mind that these resistances were counted while equipping Gore Riders, so it would help if you could use some resistance boots.
So, it's not really that bad, at least it's not zero and below. Besides, your life makes up for the low resistance.
---------------------------
Good and bad points
Good:
a) He has a decent attack rating, enough to poison the opponent
b) Good life amount with Oak sage activated
c) Specially good in tough monsters that comes in clusters. An elite in this category. He takes out hell mobs faster than most sorceress builds, -I think.-
Bad:
a) Not as fast in terms of attack speed when compared to a Fireclaw Brother (But trust me, you won't need it)
b) Not as much defense (Highly depends on the armour you used for the Runeword)
c) Not as much attack rating (Once again,you won't need it)
d) I can't think of anymore maybe the resistances, but i never had problems
e) One more, he won't kill as fast as a Fireclaw Druid, but he just needs to hit and move away, and watch the life seep away slowly for Act bosses, but SURELY. a funny thing is this, in normal mode, one swipe at baal, count to 15, he drops dead from the poison. I find this so amusing.
Synergies:
With this guy and a Fireclaw Druid, you practically make a total broken party, just the 2 of you is enough to take on Hell with ease.
----------------------------
Game play style
a) Always hit an opponent, and just move back, but if you really want to for the fun of it, continue hitting him,you'll still be hitting faster than a bowazon, trust me.
b) For clusters, run around, you'll be pretty fast with your +40% boots and make them clog up together, then, hit the preferably the hardest monster there, one with loads of life. I noticed that if the unit dies too quickly, maybe less than 0.7 seconds, the poison won't spread. Okay, so that's dangerous, so you want the poison to spread, or you'll have to run and hit. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, one at a time to be safe, for clusters, well, just wait for full 20 seconds, which happens to be the rabies duration, and i'll guarantee, the unit would have dropped dead.
The mentioned above 2 were for players without a Mercanery, however, with one, it totally changes
a) You'll just have to get your guy to tank, and then, let the poison spread by hitting one enemy, that simple.
-----------------------------
Mercanery
Sorry sirs, i'm not really knowledgable when it comes to stuff like these, i'll let the masters take this on here
-----------------------------
Final Outcome:
Erm, i would like to apologize that i do not know how to find a hoster, for a picture, but if any of you can teach me, i would be more than obliged to show you a picture, for now, this'll do. Words
Rabies Attack Rating: 11k
Defense: 1.5k (Because i used boneweaver during the guide making)
Life: 5.6k with Oak Sage
Mana: 450
Stamina: 800 (Pretty insignificant information
)Max resistances in normal
Normal Attack Damage: 600-700 Poisoned element
Rabies Damage: 6 1 k - 6 3 k
Easily boosted up with more charms or more +items, not sure if higher is possible with the current equipments, but charms yes.
Yay! Finally, a picture for you guys to see !
http://www.weblogimages.com/v.p?uid=Pois...INO78DNQW5
----------------------------------------
Important stuff i forgot to add in earlier
1) The purpose of this build was made for fun, by fun, and with fun,so it is in no way a PvP character, if you want that, i think there is one guide around by Keitaro, i hope i spelled his name right, i apologize if it's wrong.
2) It is definitely not as strong as a Fireclaw Druid, because they hit like 4 hits a second, with 17-18k of damage, so yeah, it's definitely much more, but what this build offers is high damage with safety to sit back and watch an invisible force do the work for you.
3) Only play this build if you are a conservative player, if you like the head-on-combatant-druid, Fireclaw Druid is your man to go.
4) Oh,kindly not start posting stuff like "If i wear this, and that, and this and that, your build will get owned..." Please take note that ANY build can wear contrasting equipments to pawn another hero, so kindly not post stuff like that. This is an all-round druid.
5) Once again, i thank you if you are still alive reading it up to you, honestly, thank you .Just reading it is a big return for me.
That comes to the conclusion of this brief guide on how to make a Rabies Druid, i hope you liked it, and if you have any comments or some constructive criticism, feel free to speak your mind, just wanted to see more Rabies Druids in Battlenet.
Remember, once more, Tactical Capabilities are invaluable.
Do have a nice day, God bless.
Edit: Added some explanations here and there, and some changes here and there. Thank you for reading up to here !
Do have a nice day.
![[Image: tongue%281%29.gif]](http://www.d2sector.net/forums/images/smiliesv2/tongue%281%29.gif)
You'll be fine,t rust me, with 5.6k of life, who wouldnt be ?