05-11-2005, 03:40 AM
Sirs/Readers,
Hello and welcome once again.
I am back to provide an even more in-depth guide compared to the last hopefully, with difference, of more variations to the build, as to seeing the wide tastes of players. All these for the liberty of some users at which i am not going to mention. At least now, i hope these helps everyone.
Now, let me give a brief depiction of what this build is about to be, so what am i playing ?
a) A warrior, one who excels at tanking and fighting head on with little care for his life.
b) An agile fighter, one who is only reasonable at tanking, only does it when it is necessary, more often, he prefers the way of "Strike without getting striked"
c) A maged-class, one who excels at far range attacks, without getting attacks, however, because of his advantages of excessive safety, he suffers from low damage from his missile attacks.
So basically, yeah, you are a wolf, so you should know that the answer is B. Always remember that while playing the game, and you'll be fine.
Before we go any further, let's cross out some important information about this character:
a) This character is not as strong as the number shows, it is not per hit, as shown, but merely, divided over a time period.
b) He does not attack as fast a Fireclaw druid, but is more specialize for clusters
c) He can adapt amazingly well to any situation, with the help of the many lowering-resistance-equipments available.
d) If played right, you'll have an easy time through hell, during my prototype test, i know i did have a breeze through the chaos sanctuary.
e) He has normal resistance, meaning that in HELL mode, he won't have max resistance, but he won't have none either, just nice.
Now, i'll start off with the generals of the guide, and later, i'll break it down into several parts to further elaborate on the different variations of the Rabies Druid. However, the damages of these druids will vary very differently, but they each still do an amazing 35K+ respectively, have no fear.
Okay, with the generals, you'd want to know about the stats and distributions, so here goes.
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STATS DISTRIBUTIONS
Strength: You'd need just the minimum amount for your equipments, these varies with the types of armour you are wearing, and their requirements.
Dexterity: You'd want around 195-200 here, due to the fact that i strongly discourage using the Angelic Rings with the Angelic Amulets, but if you think those are fanciful, by all means, you can just have something like 150 here.
Vitality: Everything else here, because you are going to need alot of life, for this builds number one problem is defense
Energy: Nah, you won't need any .
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SKILL DISTRIBUTIONS
Okay, let's move on with the skill distributions now, but let me explain, that i'm now referring to a general Rabies Druid, i'll provide a different skill set later, with different items.
Okay, for the general approach of having max damage, you'd want these skills:
20 Oak Sage
20 Werewolf
20 Poison Creeper
20 Rabies
20 Lycanthrope
1 Feral Rage
You'll have a few more points, so i'll leave it to you on how you wish to spend it, you could get a level 1 Fury, which would most likely be level 20 because of the +items you are getting. Also, note that i don't really advise on getting fury because your weapon damage is not going to be strong.
Now, for those who are considering the General Rabies Druid approach, here is alist of how you should max them out, in this order, basing on how you get your skill points, the number beside the skill is your level, however, take note that you may get it earlier because of quests, so i'll leave it to you to decide.
Okay, i've decided to mention the order of distributions for those who are interested in this General Build
a) Firstly, pump skill points into Poison Creeper, as he is your main psychee for the moment, and will find that he is pretty damn good.
b) When you can, add 1 Point into Oak Sage, 1 Point into Feral Rage, 1 point into Werewolf, 1 point into Lycanthrope, because it is invaluable for the extra life for you and your mercenaries probably.
c) Continue adding to your poison creeper, till he is level 18, where you add it into rabies, and max it all the way to level 20. The moment you get rabies, you'll notice that he has crazy damage ready to pound people, so have fun, cause the damage is just going to get higher.
d) After that, max out your poison creeper, followed by Werewolf, followed with Lycanthrope and Oak Sage as the last thing.
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Equipment selection
Okay, this is the equipment selection for the General Rabies Druid build, it will change when it is regarding PvP, but general in this context highly refers to the PvM, meaning the normal gameplay of you and your fellow hell buddies of Diablo.
Weapon: Plague Bearer Socketted with 1 Shael Rune/ 5/5 Poison Facet, whichever you prefer (I'll explain why we should not use a phase blade)
Emergency Weapon: Magical Wands with Lower Resist Charges. Try to get wands with a pretty high level Lower Resist charges. This will require you to switch back to your druid form, refer to the new short section, on hotkey advices.
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. Aldur's might be a good choice.
Helmet: Jalas Totemic Mask upgraded, and socketed with a 5/5 Poison Facet
Also, as a note before hand, you would want to upgrade everything possible, and I strongly advise this, well , practically anyone would strongly advise to this.
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INVENTORY
Now, besides that, additional damage comes from your inventory too, so these few items are vital to have as they make up the General Rabies Druid as well.
9 Spiritual Grand Charms of Vitality
- These charms gives +1 to Shape Shifting skills and 40 Vitality, it's going to be hard to collected that many, but trust me, it's worth it in the end.
1 Annihilus Charm
-Self explanatory, get it, it's good.
Resistance Small Charms
-These charms should give something like +5% resistance to all elements, only use this when you cannot get more annihilus charms, other than that, carry as many as you can.
1 Tome of Portal to escape
1 Tome of Identify for the cliche-ness of carrying one around.
Your belt should only consists of Full Rejuvenation Potions, your build will not have alot of life leeching, but don't worry, you'll rarely use it.
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Mercenary Section
Okay, regarding this, you'd want a Mercenary from Nightmare, Act 2 with the Holy Freeze Aura.
Okay, now, after doing some research, this part is being changed a bit. As for now, I have to apologize for the misinformation but Conviction does not stop Poison immunes , but hold your horses, we are figuring something out.
Till then, keep to the aura.
Let's break this into 2 parts, for offline and online players. So, here are my opinions , when it comes to equipments.
OFFLINE PLAYERS:
ARMOUR:
Stone runeword socketted into a pretty nice armour, but make sure that he has enough strength for it.
WEAPON:
For now, i would suggest anything particularly strong or has life leeching, because, there ain't really any good non-ladder runewords, but i'm sure that you will be able to find a nice rare spear.
HELMET:
Now, for offline, this is going to be abit tough, but if you ask me, i always give me Mercenary the Vampire Gaze Helm because it is cheap, easy to find, and it ha nice damage reduction plus life leeching. That's my opinion though, if you have others, feel free to post it, and if it is definitely better, i'll change it here.
ONLINE PLAYERS:
This will refer mostly to ladder characters.
ARMOUR:
I would still suggest Stone. Or anything that beefs up his life and defense. If you really want, you could try armours like Gloom, because of the high resistance, or Chains of Honour, really your call, but if you want straight up defense, Stone is the way to go.
WEAPON:
Hmm, Infinity still looks decent with all that enhanced damage, so i would still suggest this. If you have any other weapons that you would like to be posted here, name it, and we'll see how it goes.
HELMET:
There are alot of choices here, and i don't have a specific name, but anything that gives Resistance, Life, and defense, that's about it. You don't need him to be powerful, just a really stubborn mercenary who won't die.
Simple extra tips of leveling: If you are level 70+ and your mercenary is say something like 45+ I would suggest that you travel to easy places and just kill the same stuff over and over again. For this, try out Lut Gholein, Nightmare, and watch his experience level go up. If it's fast, then you will know that he is gaining 100% experience, after that, just keep coming back there, and if you follow this, you'll be able to level him up once every ten minutes or so, depending on the amount of monsters. Once he starts to slow down, go to Act 3. Rinse and repeat till his level is the same as yours.
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Gameplay style:
Follow these steps
1) Hit a monster
2) Move back or hit another monster
3) If you have struck a monster, move back, otherwise, continue evading the current monster
4) Repeat step 1-4.
Although it seems like 4 steps, they'll be integrated into a matter of a second. Yeap, monsters drop in a second or so
Simple right? Of course, as the difficulty progresses, one would have to be careful of the dangers, so you would just have to play more elusively, and avoid oncoming dangers.
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Explanations for the General Rabies Druid
a) About his weapon, it's final, Plague Bearer, socketted either with a Shael Rune, or a Poison face 5/5, if you ask me, now i think i'll take the facet because poison does not stack, hitting him once is enough. Okay, you'll need a Magical wand here, with lower resist, this is the only good way to remove Poison Immunes,it's going to be hard at first to switch to your druid back, and cast it first, tedious in fact, but with the right hotkeys, it's pretty easy and you'll get the gist of it in no time. With this wand, nothing in Hell mode can be tough for you.
b) About the armour, yes, Bramble is still by far the best for high reaching results. However this results in small charms of resistance. Lots of it. Bramble is the best call if you have an Annihilus Charm
c) You'll generally have a lot of life, so don't worry too much. Coupled with decent resistance, you'll do fine through hell mode, even then, you might just suffer abit of problem here and there.
d) Only thing to worry about is the mana, which is why i might permanently turn it into 2 Stone of Jordans.
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Leveling and equipments
These are just some useful tips and pointers to help you through while leveling
a)For the low levellers, meaning those that has not reached anywhere around say, level 70, meaning, to have maxed out Werewolf yet, you'd want to wear the Angelic Amulet and the Ring, because this provides excellent Attack rating to make up for the lack of it from your still-growing-Werewolf-skill.
b) Try to use your Poison Creeper as well as possible in the early levels. He is useful, very useful, for the early levels.
c) Basically, till you get rabies, you are going to be just bonking people on th head, so i'd suggest you get a decent weapon, hopefully, you will find some.
Level 1-10: Anywhere in Act 1, up to the Black marsh, it should be relatively easy because of your Poison Creeper and Oak Sage for extra Life
Level 11-15: You could try Tristram Runs
Level 16-20: Tomb Runs, or level on your own , that's what i did.
Level 21-25: Cow runs, should seriously level you quick.
Level 25-45: Baal runs
Once you reach around level 45 or so, you'd be pretty powered already, with 10k+ of damage, from there on, you can try stuff like Nightmare Baal Runs, or Nightmare Cow Runs, and stuff like that.
Hope this was useful, let's move on.
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Hotkey tips and guides, and active skill settings.
Okay, since with the change of not using a death's web as your emergency weapon, casting lower resist will require you to switch to your druid form back, and this require a fine setting of your hotkeys to help your casting easier, and smoother.
Okay, here is what and how i would do, to help me play more comfortably.
Set 1 Weapon: Plague Bearer
Set 2 Weapon: Magical Wand with Lower Resist Charges
Okay, listen carefully, you obviously know, and if you don't, you have to press W to switch between weapons. Also, for each weapon wielded the right hand and left hand current skill settings will be that of the last used skill.
For example, let's say that while using a plague bearer, you had Fury on the left skill and Oak sage on the right skill. When you press to W, you set it to Rabies on the left and Poison Creeper on the right. Now, if you press W again, it'll switch to Plague Bearer with Oak Sage and Fury, this is the good and important thing about helping you cast Lower Resist.
Of course, alot of you already know this, but i'm just posting it anyway, just in case. So, this is how i would arrange the skill points.
Set 1: Plague Bearer
Left Skill: Rabies
Right Skill: Any skill here don't matter
Set 2: Magical Wand with Lower Resist Charges
Left Skill: Lower Resist Charges
Right Skill: Werewolf
Okay, from there on, you should get the picture, but if you don't here goes the explanation. If you see a Poison Immune, this is what you do
a) In Werewolf Form, Press W.
b) Right click to switch to a druid.
c) Hold Shift and Left click on the Poison Immune Target
d) Right click to switch to a Wolf
e) Press W
f) Hit the monster.
Rinse and Repeat as necessary.
Okay, it might seem like 6 long steps, but after some practice, it will be pretty easy, and you'll learn how to do it in a second. No more, probably less.
Okay, always remember that this is my opinion of how it would be comfortable and easy to cast lower resist. If you can, i would advise you to use your own methods, anything that you are comfortable with.
Anyways, i just posted this here as additional information for gameplay issues, i hope it helped.
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Deviations
Okay, now, we have come to the slightly varitions or deviations of the general builds, and it's going to be pretty clear cut, you can refer mostly back to the top for equipment information.
Okay, for those of you who are unwilling to accept the fact of distributing points into Poison Creeper, and wish to use Carrion Ring, it's cool. The equipments should be more or less the same, but this is one thing to remember, you'll have a tougher time in the earlier levels, and you are definitely going to need a high leveled friend to rush you, because rabies without the synergy is not really worth the mana cost. That being said, i'll explain briefly on how to max your skills
a) You'll want to put points into Werewolf, and 3-5 point into Lycanthrope and 1 point into Oak sage before getting rabies, Lycanthrope is important for the duration, which you are going to need, because of low rabies damage.
b) Once you get rabies, max it out
c) Following that, you'll want to max Werewolf out, and Lycanthrope, followed by Oak Sage, or if you are like some others, you may choose to get a level 20 Cyclone Armour first, or a decent Hurricane for your Wolfie.
Now, there are pros and cons to having a Hurricane or Cyclone or a Grizzly bear for that matter, and i'm giving you with a choice.
Here are comparisons for you to decide:
Assuming that all three methods had a Mercenary recommended above:
a) Those who add to Poison Creeper
Good:
High Damage early on, and still the highest damage later on, this is going to get you to kill the fastest of the three, with the expense of your own safety.
Bad:
Highly depends on your playing and moving skills to make the best out of the low resistance. Internet lag becomes a major issue here.
b) Those who wish to add to Cyclone/Hurricane, thus creating a hybrid
Good:
You'll have some nice elemental protection, and cold damage being able, to slow mobs down should your Mercenary die.
Bad:
Continuous recast of your Cyclone Armour and your Hurricane due to it's short duration, i might be mistaken, unless if cyclone armour increases it's duration. Forgot the synergy of which is which. Consumes alot of mana for a recast, considering your already low mana for Rabies.
c) For those who wish to use the High-lifed Grizzly bear
Good:
You'll have one more man to your posse, decently strong, another tanker, resulting in lower deaths of your mercenary, and usually the meat of the defense wall, and making excellent use of your Thorns aura from Bramble.
Bad:
You are just playing the game at a slower and safer pace, giving you more time to think on the next course of action. However, bear bear will start to die later on very quickly in Hell Mode because of it's weakness of synergies.
Okay, for both B and C, you are going to have a harder time leveling, but they definitely have their plus points there, they are both primally focusing on the welfare of you and your survival .
A is a the normal choice, as long as you have a good mercenary, you are fine. If you want something even more exotic then the already-uncommon-rabies druid, go for B or C, but if you are just a sucker for high damage, go for A. The choice is yours.
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For those going the B and C route, this is how i would suggest the skill distribution to be
20 Werewolf
20 Oak sage
20 Rabies
20 Lycanthrope
20 Cyclone Armour
1 Hurricane
and
20 Werewolf
20 Oak Sage
20 Rabies
20 Lycranthrope
20 Grizzly Bear, if you can get it there, along with the prerequisites.
I do apologize that i cannot give you a detailed growth of these 2 methods, because i do not excel int his department, but i just wanted you, as a reader, to consider your options. Also, about methods pertaining to Fury and such, i strongly do not recommend wasting time there, maybe just a single point, but most of the time, you will not use it, because your traditional damage is low, so it's just a waste of your 4 mana for that Fury swipe. Rather cast a 40k+ rabies
Okay, for these 2 methods, you won't get poison creeper, so i would suggest finding a good friend who will rush you to level 60 so that you may wear your ring. Till you get that ring, these 2 builds are seriously subpar to A. However, once you do, you'll just lose on the damage spree by a few 1000s...so it's cool.
Okay, till you do get your rings, i would suggest wearing decent rings, like Raven Frost or angelic Amulets, mostly your call, because honestly, the Rabies Druid , regardless of the deviation, mostly have a strong backbone when it comes to life, because of the similarity of stats, you mostly anything works.
I hope that miniguide helps all those who are looking for the deviation version, as for equipment wise, these are a few things to consider for those who are safety players
a) Wear Chains of Honours to solve the non-max-resistance in hell mode, damage drops, so the game is slower paced, but you still live longer, it's like pressing slow motion in Matrix.
b) For damage reduction, wear equipments like Verdungo sash i think, they are many other good damage reduction equipments, i'll leave it to you to find them.
c) Try to get other -% damage equipments, if you are really afraid of death.
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PvP and a little section on it
Okay, regarding PvP, there are a few things to keep in mind, and you have to constantly keep this in mind.
a) You have to be at least level 80+ to be a good Pvp player, in all good assumption that your opponent is godly. (This is to avoid those blasphemous statements like "If this, if that")
b) You are going to need the hurricane Version of Rabies Druid, with the Cold effect. After some consideration, this is in fact the ONLY build capable of fighting people with the least RISK involved. This is due to the nice slow involved, even then, this is highly assuming that your opponent does not have potions, if he does, it might take a while, but as long as you have him frozen, you are fine, if you have are fighting a melee character with a Raven frost ring, you are in trouble. Hit him as he hits you, and hope for the poison to kill him first, it's the only way.Rabies druids were never ultimately built for PvP, they are strong, but at the same time, inexplicably weak to certain soft spots, all characters are, no build is perfect, hence the need for "classes"
c) As many resistance as possible, coupled with -% damage modifiers. This will help keep you alive long enough to poison them.
d) For the general build, you are going to need some luck, and some hope that your opponent stops suddenly, out of the blue, and you can poison him.
e) IF you really are a fan of PvP, let me know, i'll try to update this section later. Till then. I hope this helps.
Lastly, for the PvP section, damage is not a problem, the trick is trying to survive longer, for you to plan more attacks, but because of all the reduction in PvP, i generally dislike using Poison as a method of killing in PvP, already the guy's got like 75% resistance, and after further damage modifiers, he'll take very little total damage, over such a long period, not practical.
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Photographs for the Skeptical.
[url="http://www.weblogimages.com/v.p?uid=PoisonWolf&pid=319848&sid=INO78DNQW5"]Druid Photo A
[/url]
Druid Photo B
- This consists of my Original Guide Wolf, using a Call To Arms as a secondary weapon, with level 6 Battle Orders, just for referencing sake. Notice the life boost, damage drop.
I will add more photos with passing time, including the those who use the carrion ring Glitch.
There it is, enjoy.
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Conclusion
This is about the conclusion for the guide, and i hope it helped you, i will update certain parts of the guide as i come along, the if there are changes, i'll tell you here, at the conclusion section, so check this part out if you are looking for changes. Hope you enjoted it, do have a nice day.
Updates: Made some changes for increased presentability. Colour wise.
Updates: Thanks for pointing it out,King rookie,appreciate the help,changed it.
Updates: Edited the Mercenary part.
Updates: Added a Hotkey section.
Updates: Added an extra picture.
Hello and welcome once again.
I am back to provide an even more in-depth guide compared to the last hopefully, with difference, of more variations to the build, as to seeing the wide tastes of players. All these for the liberty of some users at which i am not going to mention. At least now, i hope these helps everyone.
Now, let me give a brief depiction of what this build is about to be, so what am i playing ?
a) A warrior, one who excels at tanking and fighting head on with little care for his life.
b) An agile fighter, one who is only reasonable at tanking, only does it when it is necessary, more often, he prefers the way of "Strike without getting striked"
c) A maged-class, one who excels at far range attacks, without getting attacks, however, because of his advantages of excessive safety, he suffers from low damage from his missile attacks.
So basically, yeah, you are a wolf, so you should know that the answer is B. Always remember that while playing the game, and you'll be fine.
Before we go any further, let's cross out some important information about this character:
a) This character is not as strong as the number shows, it is not per hit, as shown, but merely, divided over a time period.
b) He does not attack as fast a Fireclaw druid, but is more specialize for clusters
c) He can adapt amazingly well to any situation, with the help of the many lowering-resistance-equipments available.
d) If played right, you'll have an easy time through hell, during my prototype test, i know i did have a breeze through the chaos sanctuary.
e) He has normal resistance, meaning that in HELL mode, he won't have max resistance, but he won't have none either, just nice.
Now, i'll start off with the generals of the guide, and later, i'll break it down into several parts to further elaborate on the different variations of the Rabies Druid. However, the damages of these druids will vary very differently, but they each still do an amazing 35K+ respectively, have no fear.
Okay, with the generals, you'd want to know about the stats and distributions, so here goes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATS DISTRIBUTIONS
Strength: You'd need just the minimum amount for your equipments, these varies with the types of armour you are wearing, and their requirements.
Dexterity: You'd want around 195-200 here, due to the fact that i strongly discourage using the Angelic Rings with the Angelic Amulets, but if you think those are fanciful, by all means, you can just have something like 150 here.
Vitality: Everything else here, because you are going to need alot of life, for this builds number one problem is defense
Energy: Nah, you won't need any .
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SKILL DISTRIBUTIONS
Okay, let's move on with the skill distributions now, but let me explain, that i'm now referring to a general Rabies Druid, i'll provide a different skill set later, with different items.
Okay, for the general approach of having max damage, you'd want these skills:
20 Oak Sage
20 Werewolf
20 Poison Creeper
20 Rabies
20 Lycanthrope
1 Feral Rage
You'll have a few more points, so i'll leave it to you on how you wish to spend it, you could get a level 1 Fury, which would most likely be level 20 because of the +items you are getting. Also, note that i don't really advise on getting fury because your weapon damage is not going to be strong.
Now, for those who are considering the General Rabies Druid approach, here is alist of how you should max them out, in this order, basing on how you get your skill points, the number beside the skill is your level, however, take note that you may get it earlier because of quests, so i'll leave it to you to decide.
Okay, i've decided to mention the order of distributions for those who are interested in this General Build
a) Firstly, pump skill points into Poison Creeper, as he is your main psychee for the moment, and will find that he is pretty damn good.
b) When you can, add 1 Point into Oak Sage, 1 Point into Feral Rage, 1 point into Werewolf, 1 point into Lycanthrope, because it is invaluable for the extra life for you and your mercenaries probably.
c) Continue adding to your poison creeper, till he is level 18, where you add it into rabies, and max it all the way to level 20. The moment you get rabies, you'll notice that he has crazy damage ready to pound people, so have fun, cause the damage is just going to get higher.
d) After that, max out your poison creeper, followed by Werewolf, followed with Lycanthrope and Oak Sage as the last thing.
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Equipment selection
Okay, this is the equipment selection for the General Rabies Druid build, it will change when it is regarding PvP, but general in this context highly refers to the PvM, meaning the normal gameplay of you and your fellow hell buddies of Diablo.
Weapon: Plague Bearer Socketted with 1 Shael Rune/ 5/5 Poison Facet, whichever you prefer (I'll explain why we should not use a phase blade)
Emergency Weapon: Magical Wands with Lower Resist Charges. Try to get wands with a pretty high level Lower Resist charges. This will require you to switch back to your druid form, refer to the new short section, on hotkey advices.
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. Aldur's might be a good choice.
Helmet: Jalas Totemic Mask upgraded, and socketed with a 5/5 Poison Facet
Also, as a note before hand, you would want to upgrade everything possible, and I strongly advise this, well , practically anyone would strongly advise to this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INVENTORY
Now, besides that, additional damage comes from your inventory too, so these few items are vital to have as they make up the General Rabies Druid as well.
9 Spiritual Grand Charms of Vitality
- These charms gives +1 to Shape Shifting skills and 40 Vitality, it's going to be hard to collected that many, but trust me, it's worth it in the end.
1 Annihilus Charm
-Self explanatory, get it, it's good.
Resistance Small Charms
-These charms should give something like +5% resistance to all elements, only use this when you cannot get more annihilus charms, other than that, carry as many as you can.
1 Tome of Portal to escape
1 Tome of Identify for the cliche-ness of carrying one around.
Your belt should only consists of Full Rejuvenation Potions, your build will not have alot of life leeching, but don't worry, you'll rarely use it.
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Mercenary Section
Okay, regarding this, you'd want a Mercenary from Nightmare, Act 2 with the Holy Freeze Aura.
Okay, now, after doing some research, this part is being changed a bit. As for now, I have to apologize for the misinformation but Conviction does not stop Poison immunes , but hold your horses, we are figuring something out.
Till then, keep to the aura.
Let's break this into 2 parts, for offline and online players. So, here are my opinions , when it comes to equipments.
OFFLINE PLAYERS:
ARMOUR:
Stone runeword socketted into a pretty nice armour, but make sure that he has enough strength for it.
WEAPON:
For now, i would suggest anything particularly strong or has life leeching, because, there ain't really any good non-ladder runewords, but i'm sure that you will be able to find a nice rare spear.
HELMET:
Now, for offline, this is going to be abit tough, but if you ask me, i always give me Mercenary the Vampire Gaze Helm because it is cheap, easy to find, and it ha nice damage reduction plus life leeching. That's my opinion though, if you have others, feel free to post it, and if it is definitely better, i'll change it here.
ONLINE PLAYERS:
This will refer mostly to ladder characters.
ARMOUR:
I would still suggest Stone. Or anything that beefs up his life and defense. If you really want, you could try armours like Gloom, because of the high resistance, or Chains of Honour, really your call, but if you want straight up defense, Stone is the way to go.
WEAPON:
Hmm, Infinity still looks decent with all that enhanced damage, so i would still suggest this. If you have any other weapons that you would like to be posted here, name it, and we'll see how it goes.
HELMET:
There are alot of choices here, and i don't have a specific name, but anything that gives Resistance, Life, and defense, that's about it. You don't need him to be powerful, just a really stubborn mercenary who won't die.
Simple extra tips of leveling: If you are level 70+ and your mercenary is say something like 45+ I would suggest that you travel to easy places and just kill the same stuff over and over again. For this, try out Lut Gholein, Nightmare, and watch his experience level go up. If it's fast, then you will know that he is gaining 100% experience, after that, just keep coming back there, and if you follow this, you'll be able to level him up once every ten minutes or so, depending on the amount of monsters. Once he starts to slow down, go to Act 3. Rinse and repeat till his level is the same as yours.
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Gameplay style:
Follow these steps
1) Hit a monster
2) Move back or hit another monster
3) If you have struck a monster, move back, otherwise, continue evading the current monster
4) Repeat step 1-4.
Although it seems like 4 steps, they'll be integrated into a matter of a second. Yeap, monsters drop in a second or so
Simple right? Of course, as the difficulty progresses, one would have to be careful of the dangers, so you would just have to play more elusively, and avoid oncoming dangers.
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Explanations for the General Rabies Druid
a) About his weapon, it's final, Plague Bearer, socketted either with a Shael Rune, or a Poison face 5/5, if you ask me, now i think i'll take the facet because poison does not stack, hitting him once is enough. Okay, you'll need a Magical wand here, with lower resist, this is the only good way to remove Poison Immunes,it's going to be hard at first to switch to your druid back, and cast it first, tedious in fact, but with the right hotkeys, it's pretty easy and you'll get the gist of it in no time. With this wand, nothing in Hell mode can be tough for you.
b) About the armour, yes, Bramble is still by far the best for high reaching results. However this results in small charms of resistance. Lots of it. Bramble is the best call if you have an Annihilus Charm
c) You'll generally have a lot of life, so don't worry too much. Coupled with decent resistance, you'll do fine through hell mode, even then, you might just suffer abit of problem here and there.
d) Only thing to worry about is the mana, which is why i might permanently turn it into 2 Stone of Jordans.
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Leveling and equipments
These are just some useful tips and pointers to help you through while leveling
a)For the low levellers, meaning those that has not reached anywhere around say, level 70, meaning, to have maxed out Werewolf yet, you'd want to wear the Angelic Amulet and the Ring, because this provides excellent Attack rating to make up for the lack of it from your still-growing-Werewolf-skill.
b) Try to use your Poison Creeper as well as possible in the early levels. He is useful, very useful, for the early levels.
c) Basically, till you get rabies, you are going to be just bonking people on th head, so i'd suggest you get a decent weapon, hopefully, you will find some.
Level 1-10: Anywhere in Act 1, up to the Black marsh, it should be relatively easy because of your Poison Creeper and Oak Sage for extra Life
Level 11-15: You could try Tristram Runs
Level 16-20: Tomb Runs, or level on your own , that's what i did.
Level 21-25: Cow runs, should seriously level you quick.
Level 25-45: Baal runs
Once you reach around level 45 or so, you'd be pretty powered already, with 10k+ of damage, from there on, you can try stuff like Nightmare Baal Runs, or Nightmare Cow Runs, and stuff like that.
Hope this was useful, let's move on.
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Hotkey tips and guides, and active skill settings.
Okay, since with the change of not using a death's web as your emergency weapon, casting lower resist will require you to switch to your druid form back, and this require a fine setting of your hotkeys to help your casting easier, and smoother.
Okay, here is what and how i would do, to help me play more comfortably.
Set 1 Weapon: Plague Bearer
Set 2 Weapon: Magical Wand with Lower Resist Charges
Okay, listen carefully, you obviously know, and if you don't, you have to press W to switch between weapons. Also, for each weapon wielded the right hand and left hand current skill settings will be that of the last used skill.
For example, let's say that while using a plague bearer, you had Fury on the left skill and Oak sage on the right skill. When you press to W, you set it to Rabies on the left and Poison Creeper on the right. Now, if you press W again, it'll switch to Plague Bearer with Oak Sage and Fury, this is the good and important thing about helping you cast Lower Resist.
Of course, alot of you already know this, but i'm just posting it anyway, just in case. So, this is how i would arrange the skill points.
Set 1: Plague Bearer
Left Skill: Rabies
Right Skill: Any skill here don't matter
Set 2: Magical Wand with Lower Resist Charges
Left Skill: Lower Resist Charges
Right Skill: Werewolf
Okay, from there on, you should get the picture, but if you don't here goes the explanation. If you see a Poison Immune, this is what you do
a) In Werewolf Form, Press W.
b) Right click to switch to a druid.
c) Hold Shift and Left click on the Poison Immune Target
d) Right click to switch to a Wolf
e) Press W
f) Hit the monster.
Rinse and Repeat as necessary.
Okay, it might seem like 6 long steps, but after some practice, it will be pretty easy, and you'll learn how to do it in a second. No more, probably less.
Okay, always remember that this is my opinion of how it would be comfortable and easy to cast lower resist. If you can, i would advise you to use your own methods, anything that you are comfortable with.
Anyways, i just posted this here as additional information for gameplay issues, i hope it helped.
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Deviations
Okay, now, we have come to the slightly varitions or deviations of the general builds, and it's going to be pretty clear cut, you can refer mostly back to the top for equipment information.
Okay, for those of you who are unwilling to accept the fact of distributing points into Poison Creeper, and wish to use Carrion Ring, it's cool. The equipments should be more or less the same, but this is one thing to remember, you'll have a tougher time in the earlier levels, and you are definitely going to need a high leveled friend to rush you, because rabies without the synergy is not really worth the mana cost. That being said, i'll explain briefly on how to max your skills
a) You'll want to put points into Werewolf, and 3-5 point into Lycanthrope and 1 point into Oak sage before getting rabies, Lycanthrope is important for the duration, which you are going to need, because of low rabies damage.
b) Once you get rabies, max it out
c) Following that, you'll want to max Werewolf out, and Lycanthrope, followed by Oak Sage, or if you are like some others, you may choose to get a level 20 Cyclone Armour first, or a decent Hurricane for your Wolfie.
Now, there are pros and cons to having a Hurricane or Cyclone or a Grizzly bear for that matter, and i'm giving you with a choice.
Here are comparisons for you to decide:
Assuming that all three methods had a Mercenary recommended above:
a) Those who add to Poison Creeper
Good:
High Damage early on, and still the highest damage later on, this is going to get you to kill the fastest of the three, with the expense of your own safety.
Bad:
Highly depends on your playing and moving skills to make the best out of the low resistance. Internet lag becomes a major issue here.
b) Those who wish to add to Cyclone/Hurricane, thus creating a hybrid
Good:
You'll have some nice elemental protection, and cold damage being able, to slow mobs down should your Mercenary die.
Bad:
Continuous recast of your Cyclone Armour and your Hurricane due to it's short duration, i might be mistaken, unless if cyclone armour increases it's duration. Forgot the synergy of which is which. Consumes alot of mana for a recast, considering your already low mana for Rabies.
c) For those who wish to use the High-lifed Grizzly bear
Good:
You'll have one more man to your posse, decently strong, another tanker, resulting in lower deaths of your mercenary, and usually the meat of the defense wall, and making excellent use of your Thorns aura from Bramble.
Bad:
You are just playing the game at a slower and safer pace, giving you more time to think on the next course of action. However, bear bear will start to die later on very quickly in Hell Mode because of it's weakness of synergies.
Okay, for both B and C, you are going to have a harder time leveling, but they definitely have their plus points there, they are both primally focusing on the welfare of you and your survival .
A is a the normal choice, as long as you have a good mercenary, you are fine. If you want something even more exotic then the already-uncommon-rabies druid, go for B or C, but if you are just a sucker for high damage, go for A. The choice is yours.
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For those going the B and C route, this is how i would suggest the skill distribution to be
20 Werewolf
20 Oak sage
20 Rabies
20 Lycanthrope
20 Cyclone Armour
1 Hurricane
and
20 Werewolf
20 Oak Sage
20 Rabies
20 Lycranthrope
20 Grizzly Bear, if you can get it there, along with the prerequisites.
I do apologize that i cannot give you a detailed growth of these 2 methods, because i do not excel int his department, but i just wanted you, as a reader, to consider your options. Also, about methods pertaining to Fury and such, i strongly do not recommend wasting time there, maybe just a single point, but most of the time, you will not use it, because your traditional damage is low, so it's just a waste of your 4 mana for that Fury swipe. Rather cast a 40k+ rabies
Okay, for these 2 methods, you won't get poison creeper, so i would suggest finding a good friend who will rush you to level 60 so that you may wear your ring. Till you get that ring, these 2 builds are seriously subpar to A. However, once you do, you'll just lose on the damage spree by a few 1000s...so it's cool.
Okay, till you do get your rings, i would suggest wearing decent rings, like Raven Frost or angelic Amulets, mostly your call, because honestly, the Rabies Druid , regardless of the deviation, mostly have a strong backbone when it comes to life, because of the similarity of stats, you mostly anything works.
I hope that miniguide helps all those who are looking for the deviation version, as for equipment wise, these are a few things to consider for those who are safety players
a) Wear Chains of Honours to solve the non-max-resistance in hell mode, damage drops, so the game is slower paced, but you still live longer, it's like pressing slow motion in Matrix.
b) For damage reduction, wear equipments like Verdungo sash i think, they are many other good damage reduction equipments, i'll leave it to you to find them.
c) Try to get other -% damage equipments, if you are really afraid of death.
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PvP and a little section on it
Okay, regarding PvP, there are a few things to keep in mind, and you have to constantly keep this in mind.
a) You have to be at least level 80+ to be a good Pvp player, in all good assumption that your opponent is godly. (This is to avoid those blasphemous statements like "If this, if that")
b) You are going to need the hurricane Version of Rabies Druid, with the Cold effect. After some consideration, this is in fact the ONLY build capable of fighting people with the least RISK involved. This is due to the nice slow involved, even then, this is highly assuming that your opponent does not have potions, if he does, it might take a while, but as long as you have him frozen, you are fine, if you have are fighting a melee character with a Raven frost ring, you are in trouble. Hit him as he hits you, and hope for the poison to kill him first, it's the only way.Rabies druids were never ultimately built for PvP, they are strong, but at the same time, inexplicably weak to certain soft spots, all characters are, no build is perfect, hence the need for "classes"
c) As many resistance as possible, coupled with -% damage modifiers. This will help keep you alive long enough to poison them.
d) For the general build, you are going to need some luck, and some hope that your opponent stops suddenly, out of the blue, and you can poison him.
e) IF you really are a fan of PvP, let me know, i'll try to update this section later. Till then. I hope this helps.
Lastly, for the PvP section, damage is not a problem, the trick is trying to survive longer, for you to plan more attacks, but because of all the reduction in PvP, i generally dislike using Poison as a method of killing in PvP, already the guy's got like 75% resistance, and after further damage modifiers, he'll take very little total damage, over such a long period, not practical.
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Photographs for the Skeptical.
[url="http://www.weblogimages.com/v.p?uid=PoisonWolf&pid=319848&sid=INO78DNQW5"]Druid Photo A
[/url]
Druid Photo B
- This consists of my Original Guide Wolf, using a Call To Arms as a secondary weapon, with level 6 Battle Orders, just for referencing sake. Notice the life boost, damage drop.
I will add more photos with passing time, including the those who use the carrion ring Glitch.
There it is, enjoy.
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Conclusion
This is about the conclusion for the guide, and i hope it helped you, i will update certain parts of the guide as i come along, the if there are changes, i'll tell you here, at the conclusion section, so check this part out if you are looking for changes. Hope you enjoted it, do have a nice day.
Updates: Made some changes for increased presentability. Colour wise.
Updates: Thanks for pointing it out,King rookie,appreciate the help,changed it.
Updates: Edited the Mercenary part.
Updates: Added a Hotkey section.
Updates: Added an extra picture.
