It is my understanding that Bramble no longer ranges from 25-50% psn skill dmg - is that true? If so, what is the new range?

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

20-40

What a shitty change. I assume it was done to further nerf rabies. It was a pretty useless runeword to begin with, now it won't be used it all. Templar's was always better. The only use it really had was for buffing venom, which is quite mediocre to begin with. Seems to me a lot of the fun, "obscure" builds have just been taking hit after hit from recent patches(removal of a lot of the oskills, charge skills, A1 mercs doing more aoe/dmg than most casters, etc.).

This.

poison builds have taking a major beating this patch and when you look at the dps on poison builds I can't see why. It's little wonder alot of the usual players have called it a day with this patch. All anyone is left with are shitty cookie cutter builds. Bore me more plz

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To be honest, my rabies druid still seems to do just fine damage. I am not sure why anyone would complain about this build unless of course they haven't played it or they have unrealistic expectations of what builds are supposed to do.

I have been running him through A4 Hell and the first few maps were super easy. River of Flame is a little slower when I run in to maraliths and especially unique maraliths - but otherwise my poison is taking things down just fine. The ability to switch to a heavy hitting 2h weapon in wereform overcomes any speed bumps.

As for the unique maraliths they seem to stop most people in their tracks and personally I think they are overkill rather than psn dmg being too weak. Don't even get me started on packs of champ Maraliths (or any of the other fruitcake super mob monsters that Soulmancer added).

Regarding bramble though - I don't think this was a good change, if anything I would have just reduced the dmg range from 25-50% to 40-50%. If you are going to spend those kind of runes you should get good bang for your buck. As long as I am day dreaming about actually being able to change items, I might as well go all the way:

Current Bramble: Ral, Ohm, Sur, Eth

+50% Faster Hit Recovery
+300 Defense
Level 16 Thorns Aura when Equipped
+25 Life After Each Kill
+20-40% to Poison Skill Damage
Poison Resist +100%
Level 16 Spirit of Barbs (33 Charges)
Fire Resist +25%
-6% to Enemy Lightning Resistance
-6% to Enemy Magic Resistance
Regenerate Mana 20%

Blue's Bramble Ral, Gul, Mal, Eth
+50% Faster Hit Recovery
+300 Defense
+20 to all resists
+30-40% to Poison Skill Damage
+250 to Attack Rating
Level 10 Spirit of Barbs (33 Charges)
Fire Resist +25%
-6% to Enemy Poison Resistance
Magic Damage Reduced by 12
Regenerate Mana 20%

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

damage and duration of rabies and fury damage atm? as a yard stick, 32k psn nova over 3 secs, 195k strike over 7.4 secs on a level 85 necro with -140 enemy res

as another yardstick, level 82 fury druid 11k-20k fury 70% life leech, max ds 4,3,3,3 fpa fury with 45%dr.

almost any build is out damaging rabies atm including my shitty meteorsin. I could list my entire account and i would be hard pushed to find anything doing less damage than rabies. That includes end of norm - start of nm chars. Its pointless arguing about it with you though as you just clam up and say I want all builds to be overpowered. When a build is dealing half the damage (nicely geared) of every other build out there I would call that a bad build. Anyway, wrong topic, i apologise.

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That means you PureRage.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

I have unrealistic expectations of what a build should be able to do?

considering I have played every single char class this season alone, multiple builds in each class, I still have no idea what a build should be capable of? I have a broad range of types of damage i can compare against each other. almost all the builds I have built have been fine, Phoenix sin is pretty garbage, How do I know this? because i have many other builds to compare it too.

I know exactly what a build should be able to do. Perhaps you can enlighten me to your damage, fury and rabies. I would put bets on the fact that your low level fury being WAY more powerful than dedicated rabies dps.

You should look at your own quote and think about the bull you are coming off with. It is you sir who has unrealistic expectations of what a build can do. you think every other build is doing "as well" as your rabies druid when the fact is the build is a joke. I would rather not play a build, who is (in act 4 hell) being out damaged by most level 65-70 builds. being carried through is not my idea of fun, you may aswell make a pure passive zon if thats your kinda thing. providing maxed inner sight and slow missiles is still a contribution right?

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Did I stutter?



No argument, you most likely do know exactly what a build should be able to do based on your extensive experience with the wide variety of builds you have played. That isn't what I am saying though. I am saying that your expectations for builds are unrealistic. For example.....



Of course it does. Physical damage will always outpace elemental damage in this mod. Add in that fast damage will always outpace slow damage due to the crazy IAS that is available in this mod and rabies has two strikes against it. Not only can fast physical dmg outpace it (fury), but fast elemental dmg can outpace it too (fireclaws, frostbite). Rabies is without a doubt the lowest DPS build of the group.

That doesn't mean it sucks though. The skill works just fine because it plays so differently. I don't do damage fast (just ask anyone who plays with my druid), but I do damage consistently and eventually I kill things. It is also incredibly safe too. Run in, smack - wait 8 seconds, run in again, smack. Was in a party that got stuck at a Physical Immune Chimera in A3 Hell and they got to see it first hand as I was the only party member able to take the boss down. Was perhaps one of the most relaxing boss fights for the party as everyone sat around and chatted waiting for my repeated applications of poison knocked the boss down. I barely had to touch any potions since I could stand a good distance from the Chimera and avoid its elemental attacks.

Rabies build is just fine - does great damage in a unique manner to other druids. Some people just have crazy ideas of what builds are supposed to do. Like you.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

you just kinda kicked your own ass there. I know what a build should be able to do, so my expectations are not unrealistic. What other builds do you have that you can compare your druid to?

Lets try it another way. A chantress with 7k chant (level 75ish sorc) deals damage at a pretty slow pace yet still far outdamages rabies with an exploding arrows bow. (14k per arrow as the damage is added to the hit AND the explosion) thats not including the added fire damage to everything in the party. yes rabies provides oak but so can every other druid build out there

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Well you see, I also happen to know what other builds are capable of. Some of it through personal experience and other aspects through just being thoroughly experienced with the game and how it works.

You seem to be missing the point though. Other builds are better than rabies. That is known. That is not new. Every build in this game is not equal.

If you want a powerful build, dont play a rabies druid - pick some cookie cutter build instead.

However, we dont need to make every build in the game super powered. Also don't forget that I am in favor of

[a] boosting rabies oriented items
[b] adding a small boost to the skill

I just oppose this nonsense view that rabies is "broken" or "unplayable". As I seem to be repeating myself here - some of you have unrealistic expectations - possibly brought on by only playing strong builds, or in strong teams, or with strong items.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

Bold: wrong, you have no idea what other builds are capable of, by your own admission. You know what [b]pre patch builds were capable of. Wasn't it you who said I have no idea what im talking about with regards to rabies as I hadn't played one this patch?

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You're the one with an executioner's justice in act 3, so I wouldn't be going off about strong items. And the whole point of this mod is to have a strong team, so that's no argument to use against him. I'm sure we've all played strong builds, but when it takes 10 minutes to clear a few monsters then your build isn't good.

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this says it all

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Agreed - only takes a few seconds for a rabies druid to clear a few monsters. Generally 8 seconds since that is the timer on rabies. I guess by your definition that makes rabies a good build?

How come you only show up in threads to give me a hard time? You have a hard-on for me or something?

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

I was referring to harder trash, like the champion marliths you pointed out, and without twink gear of course.

And to answer your question, simply because I disagree.

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In the games I have played, most every build runs in to a wall against Champ Maraliths. I was running through NM A4 with a very well equipped Fireclaws druid doing 2FPA attack and even that build slowed down against champ maraliths despite being able to rip through the rest of the game with relative ease.

In a solo game, my rabies druid dispatches a unique maralith in about 2-4 minutes tops. Very acceptable in my opinion.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

I'm well aware that most builds get hit hard by champ marliths. However, you're saying you're killing them with rabies, which you're probably just killing them with fury and executioner's justice, or else I guarantee you wouldn't be able to kill them without some uber twinks. I'm arguing against rabies as a build on its own, not fury.

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They go down with rabies. Try the build out if you want - it works though.

It is a little slower than other builds, but that is compensated by safety. I don't need to stand next to the Maralith to do the dmg, I can stay back and let my psn do the work.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

and when I have skele mages I can stand back and so can the mages! DOUBLE BONUS!!!

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“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”