Thoughts on a single player PvM build

[Doctor Clock]

To start off, I'd like to say that I enjoy odd/gimped builds (2h Paladins, Daggermancer, Holy Bolt Paladin), just as a disclaimer so I don't get any "this will kill too slow" comments. If my idea will abosolutely fail for some reason, please let me know how. I don't know a whole lot about Druids.

I'd like to make a Rabies/Summon build, perhaps with a bow thrown in for good measure (probably an upped WWS, I don't have much else). I really like poison damage, and I am intent on making a Druid that uses Rabies in one way or another, and a summoner seems like the most likely route to actually take advantage of the long duration of Rabies.

Planned strategy: Essentially, run in, bite, run out, let the poison take its effect while the summons and merc do their thing, stand back and let loose arrows until there are only corpses.

Rough skill placement:

20 Rabies
20 HoW
20 Grizzly
20 Dire Wolves
Rest into Poison Creeper

Rough gear outline:
Jalas
Maras
WWS//Plague Bearer and shield (undecided on shield) on switch.
Skin of the Vipermagi
Trangs gloves?
Ravenfrost//rare ring
Razortail? Nosferatu's Coil?
Goreriders

I don't have access to DWeb nor the runes for Bramble. Does Trearchery's ctc Venom benefit Rabies in any way? My skill points will be tight, any suggestions in that area? I'll probably use a Delerium helm on my Merc for extra crowd control as I don't think I'll be using Shockwave at all. Any input, suggestions, or feedback would be appreciated.

[Verashiden]

Max Creeper at the expense of Griz.

Unsynergized Rabies won't kill ANYTHING once hell comes around.

I would put at least one point into Fury so you can get a little hands on if you get bored watching Rabies work. If you do this, then you won't be using a Bow switch though. Instead you'd have a good melee weapon switch.

Other than that the build looks fine, might trade Viper for Spirit Shroud for the CBF.

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Ravenfrost also provides CBF so Viper may be a better option with the extra res. Looks pretty good, and im not sure how venom will effect rabies.

[Verashiden]

But then Smoke would be better.

Venom doesn't do anything to Rabies, it won't help either though.

[rapdancin]

so i was wondering how this build worked out for you; the gear doesnt seem that expensive, and i was thinking of playing this untwinked...is it possible? ive read conflicting things about rabies and the creeper, so id like to know before i start whats up

[superjayson]

not really. i mean you will have some success for a while, but sooner or later you're going to hit a huge wall.

[Verashiden]

It's not good untwinked.

[rapdancin]

what about something like

20 Fury
20 HoW
20 Grizzly
20 Dire Wolves
Rest into Poison Creeper

[Verashiden]

Creeper, for all intents and purposes, is a one point wonder. I'd rather have you max Lycan if you're going that route.

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

If you plan to kill with poison, you may be better off making it as much of a Rabies build as possible, and then getting a lot of Spirit Wolves with an Oak to increase their staying power, and a holy freeze merc. The idea being, meat shield to hold the swarm while the poison does it's job. And they can actually kill the poison immunes with the help of the merc. Recastable meat shield with staying power is great. You can let them do the tanking while you infect and watch the slow burn spread. Would be cool.

Cheers,

[FoxyG]

Creeper, for all intents and purposes, is a one point wonder. I'd rather have you max Lycan if you're going that route.
creeper is rabies' synergy, meaning it needs 20 hard points to be efficient. maxing lycan really won't help. life and duration? he's not going to be standing around as a wolf, he wants to get in, get out and let his rabies spread while his summons tank.

20 Creeper
20 Rabies
20 Dire
20 Grizzly
rest to pre-reqs and spirits...?

[Verashiden]

That was in response to Rapdancin, Fox. He's not building Rabies.

[FoxyG]

ah yes i see. apologies