PvP pure rabies druid

[wooginator]

I've never seen a really solid or complete guide to one of these and a lot of what little I've seen seems to criticize rabies druids for being very slow. This makes no sense to me, so I've cobbled together what I think would make a good pure rabies build and I'd like some commentary if everyone would be so kind. The idea would be to get ridiculous amounts of faster run walk and obscene levels of AR.

Gear (this is ideal gear, not realistic gear)

Enigma for the frw
Cerebus' Bite for the massive AR boost, probably shael'd
Angelics
Trang's belt for cannot be frozen
IK boots because they give life, 110 AR, and 40% frw
A phase blade with 4 shaels and 2 100 AR/15% ias jewels
Either an SS with a facet or a Headhunter's Glory with 3 facets
9x shapeshift/frw grand charms
10x 36 AR/frw small charms

And on switch...
Harmony Bow (that's essential because the level 10 vigor lets you run like all hell)
Probably a good idea to keep a six socketed giant thresher with the same runes/jewels in your stash for a higher attack range.

All of that faster run walk gear allows you to run at 10.70 yards per second, assuming you don't hit anything with feral rage. To give perspective, charge without vigor goes at 9 yards per second.

Skills:

Max Rabies
Max Poison Creeper
Max Werewolf (for attack rating)
Max Lycanthropy
The rest of your points into either oak sage or heart of wolverine (more AR!)

With this set-up you can easily get something in the neighborhood of 40k AR if not more, allowing you to hit most of your targets with rabies on your first try. And if you don't, that phase blade allows you to attack at 4 frames and so you get plenty of chances.

The strategy would be to hit them with rabies and run like all hell. If you can manage it, infect something near them like a monster as you pass by and they chase you or a summoned minion. It's easier to infect someone by contact than to hit them.

So what does everyone think?

[LLD]

Poison is too easy too negate, I personally wouldn't make one.
But in pub games I think you could have some fun.

[wooginator]

It's not that easy to negate. Unless it's possible to get -100% poison length. Cause that'd be badass. But also, this build would be really, really fun in free for all games because if you get one person they will infect everyone else. Especially ww barbs or smiters. And for as long as the rabies lasts that person will be a carrier, even if they drink an antidotep potion.

[crawlingdeadman]

It's not that easy to negate.

yes it is. (http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2522/gaspnopoison.jpg)

[LLD]

yes it is. (http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2522/gaspnopoison.jpg)

Agreed.
Also if someone put on death gloves what then, are you gonna just run the hell away?
Personally I also frown on super defensive play, which is what the rabies would have too do after they get a bite in.

[wooginator]

True, true. Also, I was talking gm duels, which antidote is not. And nice thing about rabies, if they use an antidote potion and get near anyone else such as a monster, a summon/hireling, or another player they're hostiled to, they'll infect that person and get reinfected.

[Timmy]

Use death web and maybe bramble if you can miss the 45 frw from enigma. Will boost damage alot.

[wooginator]

Of course, but it's important you be able to get away. As for death web, it limits you to a nine frame rabies. In nine frames you can get owned.

[wooginator]

Anyway I've opted to stick with my fury rabies pvper and found he's not half bad at all in melee duels. As long as I stick to melee duels and don't try to spread him across every class, cause even if I switch out all his gear (which makes him a hell of a lot less effective) he doesn't have enough resists to fight elemental characters. Harmony on switch works great though. Even teleporting bvcs have a hard time catching me if I run the right curves and keep an eye on them.

[Raith]

as long as you hit and then run/walk away, theyll go down to 1hp then you can just hit them one more or whatever.

[wooginator]

actually, they won't go down to one hp. They'll die. Rabies does that.

[syphon45]

Of course, but it's important you be able to get away. As for death web, it limits you to a nine frame rabies. In nine frames you can get owned.
If you keep your Death's Web on weapon switch and hit with your fast weapon then switch to the Death's Web and back the -% resistance will be applied even though you didn't hit with it. This would of course mean you can't use your harmony though.

[Raith]

well rabies rock!

[Verashiden]

... You DO know about the Rabies switch trick, right?

[Raith]

switch to dwebs and monarch and let it drain faster? =p

[wooginator]

Oh, I'm well aware of the trick. And it's a sweet one. But I like my harmony. If I managed to get seven faster run walk shapeshift grand charms (I need two to have fhr to hit the 86 breakpoint) and 10x steel small charms of inertia (frw, 30-36 ar) then I'd be willing to give that up I think.

Well my druid is almost done so I thought maybe I'd post some of his stats/gear. He's not pure rabies, but you still max the skill and its synergy so damage is similar.

Cerebus Bite with Shael rune for FHR
Enigma for frw and strength
Stormshield with cham
Angelics
Dungos
Grief pb with -25% enemy poison resist (could anyone give some insight as to how much more damage -5% poison resist adds? I calculated it at somewhere like 1000 damage but that'd only be if it took effect, i.e they weren't super stacked, and the calculations for -res to damage are tricky)
Shadowdancers (faster hit recovery and dexterity)
Trang's Gloves for obvious reasons
Harmony Crusader Bow on switch (though I might make it in a chu-ko-nu or demon crossbow so that I can hit stuff faster if I need to hit it)

Inventory:

14/20 anni
17/12 torch
8x SS grand charms, one of which has faster hit recovery, one has faster run walk and I think one or two have life.
Assorted small charms of vita and a few 30-35 attack rating ones, two or three frw ones.

Rabies does 29-30k damage over 18.8 seconds. With angelics I have 27k attack rating which is pretty solid. My fury damage I cant' really post because of the grief glitch. I've got about 4.4k life without oak sage.

Here's an interesting idea, tell me what you guys think: What if I had a harmony demon crossbow as my main weapon and a rabies switch (Death web 20/20 monarch) on switch? A demon crossbow harmony will attack with rabies as fast as a grief pb, and it'll fury one frame slower than grief. It'll do a hell of a lot less fury damage though.

[Narc]

Here's an interesting idea, tell me what you guys think: What if I had a harmony demon crossbow as my main weapon and a rabies switch (Death web 20/20 monarch) on switch? A demon crossbow harmony will attack with rabies as fast as a grief pb, and it'll fury one frame slower than grief. It'll do a hell of a lot less fury damage though.

If you're only planning on doing melee duels (I think you mentioned that), I'd suggest using a shield.

[Uncle_Mike]

@ wooginator - double posting is frowned upon, tripple posting is even worse :)

You can edit your posts if you want to add something.

posts merged.

[wooginator]

lol. I wasn't really aware of the edit button. Heh. And yeah, it didn't seem good, but these things occurred to me in rapid succession and I had to put 'em down.

[Raith]

imo zons will eat you alive when you switch to harmony. :/

[LLD]

imo zons will eat you alive when you switch to harmony. :/

Any melee char will snack on him with it on.

[wooginator]

Zons eat me alive in any case. As for any melee char, that's why with my current set-up I hit first, get a little distance between me and them, and then switch to harmony.

[SlainByPain]

Harmony + CoA might be the best vs. bowazons. Your block will be at 25% when chasing anyway, so it's probably best to hit her as fast as possible.

However, this is just in theory.

[harconst]

i have a hybrid wolf myself , so i though i would share my thoughts on a pure rabies wolf.
First , i guess you could use bramble as well , vs chars that you come at you ( smiters ie ) , and that you don't need frw vs them. That would mean though , that you won't be able to stat after eni :( .
Second , etomb , is still a nice choice for chasing casters. And , since you won't need the physical damage of it , you can even use a non eth one , filled with 3 * 15ias / res jewels for stack and fast attack ( 6 frames i think , too bored to check it atm ).
Furthermore , you could use something like a gris caddy with the above jewels for general pub weapon , for when you need block. Doom is an option too i guess , but too slow compared to the above weapon.
Last but not least , when facing chars that outstack your - res from your dweb , it is better that you used a facet'ed sword ( 6* facets ) + facet monarch. You will receive a nice damage boost that way.
ps: A 3 shape /9x life amu , with a ravenfrost + a bk seems like a better choice for me. That way ,you can remove the cham from the ss ( how would you avoid getting frozen with your 2 hand weapon? ). Jah the storm please :).

Good luck with your wolf , it will be lots of fun i think.


edit: wooooot , 444 posts!

edit2: ohh , and jalals ofc / frw diadem when needed. if diadem has 20 str too , you can stat after it. The ar bonus from cerebus is minimal compared to jalal , since you get lots of ar % bonus from werewolf + rabies already.

[wooginator]

Well, I've put a lot of work into my hybrid, and he really uses fury very little if at all. I need to get him vita/ss gcs, most of his are plain, and a 6 facet crystal sword. But that's it. Here's his gear.

Doom ettin axe (more damage, cheaper, plus it hits the same breakpoints as a zerker for a werewolf druid, and the +2 skills means more damage. The holy freeze aura I subbed in for harmony in that it slows down people who chase me instead of speeding me up, for a similar effect)
Angelics (30k attack rating ftw)
Cham'd SS
Shadow Dancers (dexterity means more ar and more block, plus 30% fhr so I can recover at 3 frames)
Dungos
Trang's Gloves
Um'd Jalal's (I could have put something better in it but this was what I had around. I don't need to shael it as I can hit the 86% breakpoint without that).
9x ss grand charms
torch
anni

Stash:
3 ss ammy for prebuff
spirit for prebuff
fleshrend for prebuff
harmony repeating crossbow against casters. This lets me attack with rabies at seven frames, and helps me keep up with/stay away from casters, since I don't need a shield against them. My resists are low, so this works best against hdins and bone necros. I've tried a lot of switch gear, as far as I can, and I just can't really build up enough resists to beat elemental characters without really revamping my gear.

[SlainByPain]

Doom is considered BM (holy freeze) most of the time, but if you don't care about that then it's certainly a good choice.

[wooginator]

I always thought it was too, but I haven't had any complaints yet.