- Feb 24, 2004
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Originally posted by sirpoopsalot on Oct 22, 2009:
Patriarch HarryPalms - Fury/Rabies druid
I always meant to try a Rabies druid at some point. And since my first Fury druid was my 3rd or 4th character and I'm a little richer these days, I always meant to revisit that skill too.
So I did both together.
Also, this guy got parked for bassano's tournament, and Fabian's gambling thread has motivated me to get back on that horse (if only for a short time), but the Grief & Fortitude were designated for Harry. So I decided it was time to finish him off. But remembering his progress pre-tournament is a little vague, since all those MF runs overtaxed all 4 of my braincells.
The Usual:
LCS (Fury)
LCS (Rabies)
Skills:
20 Rabies
20 Poison Creeper
20 Fury
20 HoW
7+ Werewolf
2 Ravens (I wanted the max of 5 Ravens available, so I had to spend a 2nd hard point)
1 Lycan., Grizzly, prereq's.
+11 Shape Shifting skills
+3 Summoning skills
Gear:
Grief Phaseblade (+356)
Fortitude AP
Stormshield (rare jewel with: -req's, 26 fResist, 5% ED, 1-15 Lightning dmg)
Jalal's (29/7 Ruby jewel of Bliss)
Highlord's
Trang's Gloves
Thundergod's Vigor
Goreriders
Ravenfrost (19/244)
Rare ring (7/4 leech, 11 resists, 119 AR, +1 max damage)
Switch: Lower-Resists Wand (level3 charges) + 3xPoison Facet Trolls nest (+10/-10)
Charms:
6x Spiritual GC's (+22 life, +4 max damage, 1-3 lightning damage)
1x Shimmering GC of Life (15/18)
1x Shimmering LC of Vita (7/34)
3x Fine SC of Inertia
2x Ruby SC of Balance
1x Amber SC of Balance
TP Tome + Keys
Merc: Might aura
eth Reaper's Toll (Amn)
Guillaume's Face (15 resists jewel)
eth Treachery
Finds:
- Hellforge: Io/Io ... that's like 5 characters in a row with crappy runes
- Rising Sun (Flayer Dungeon Level1, Hell)
- Steel Large Charm of Vita (65/27, somewhere in Act4 or 5 Hell)
Notes:
- Rabies & Fury are both capable skills, but I had a small complaint about the disparity of power between them. Fury was a lot stronger, so if I went through on lower /players settings I really didn't even need to bother with Rabies (even for PI's). And on higher settings Rabies was a little slower than I'd want to tolerate for very long. So although the build was very solid, and could kick butt very well, I don't see a lot of point to combining the two together (unless you have significantly worse gear than I did - in which case it would work rather well).
- Fury vs. Zeal: I've done a few zealots now, but before I did my first one it had probably been over a year since I'd retired my previous Fury druid. So I wanted to compare the builds with the knowledge I've picked up over the years. I was pleased by how they're somewhat similar (especially in playstyle), but still quite different in the approach you take to building one and being effective. The paladin has some advantages (more diversity from auras, etc.), while the druid has others (minions for crowd control, Feral Rage for leech, etc).
- Slow(ish) Blocking + Interruptable Attack was one area where I wasn't particularly pleased with Harry. My only non-IronMaiden NDE's were because of this happening around archers. If it weren't for this I'd prefer it to a zealot, but as it was, it irritated me enough to still prefer the zealot (by a small margin). However, I may (someday) ditch rabies and go with a higher investment into a pure FuryWolf (i.e. more in WW, Lycan. and/or Grizzly) to see how they stack up then. Next time I'll also strongly consider a low-blocking shield (Lance Guard has 20% Deadly strike... :scratchchin.
- Although the ravens weren't really necessary for me, I did notice that my HoW and Grizzly tended to do better at staying alive with them around. So I used them a lot. As for the HoW, even with 20 points it died so much that it was the justification for the Grizzly and Ravens (read: more targets for monsters = safer HoW).
- Since it seems like 3 out of 6 facets that I find are crappy-rolled poison facets (and 2 out of 6 are crappy-rolled fire facets), I figured the Troll's Nest might be a good idea for making Rabies a little stronger. It really wasn't necessary, but oh well. I was also planning to try using the wand + Rabies around IronMaiden, but that also turned out to be unnecessary. I couldn't think of any other good choice for switch except CtA, but I decided to try for a little originality for a change (and with softcore, ~1500 life and de-shifting to prebuff, CtA isn't an especially great fit either).
- I didn't encounter any Burning Souls until WSK2 in Hell, but when I did, I took a moment to bask in their Lightning bolts and get healed by my 90% resists and +20 points of absorb. That's always nice.
- I played /players8 through Nightmare, /p5 through Act1 Hell, /p3 through Act3, and /p1 for the last couple of acts. I had a couple of deaths - once in Nightmare to something stupid (don't really remember beyond it being my fault entirely) and once in Hell to IronMaiden-deshift + a muscle-spasm-click that made me whack an Oblivion Knight a 2nd time while under IM.
Overall:
I'm glad I did it, though it's not exactly the most original build. With my rich-man's gear the hybrid approach seems like not as good of a fit for me, but it would probably work well for folks with more modest equipment.
It was nice to (re)learn how each skill stacks up. This is only my 3rd druid ever (a mediocre Ribcracker Furywolf and a Hunter/Summoner previously) and this time I enjoyed the nuances of the class a little more than the other times. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably do full-physical and Rabies/FireClaws builds someday (as well as the long-awaited/never-started Windy). I think those will both be better alternatives for me.
Patriarch HarryPalms - Fury/Rabies druid
I always meant to try a Rabies druid at some point. And since my first Fury druid was my 3rd or 4th character and I'm a little richer these days, I always meant to revisit that skill too.
So I did both together.
Also, this guy got parked for bassano's tournament, and Fabian's gambling thread has motivated me to get back on that horse (if only for a short time), but the Grief & Fortitude were designated for Harry. So I decided it was time to finish him off. But remembering his progress pre-tournament is a little vague, since all those MF runs overtaxed all 4 of my braincells.
The Usual:
LCS (Fury)
LCS (Rabies)
Skills:
20 Rabies
20 Poison Creeper
20 Fury
20 HoW
7+ Werewolf
2 Ravens (I wanted the max of 5 Ravens available, so I had to spend a 2nd hard point)
1 Lycan., Grizzly, prereq's.
+11 Shape Shifting skills
+3 Summoning skills
Gear:
Grief Phaseblade (+356)
Fortitude AP
Stormshield (rare jewel with: -req's, 26 fResist, 5% ED, 1-15 Lightning dmg)
Jalal's (29/7 Ruby jewel of Bliss)
Highlord's
Trang's Gloves
Thundergod's Vigor
Goreriders
Ravenfrost (19/244)
Rare ring (7/4 leech, 11 resists, 119 AR, +1 max damage)
Switch: Lower-Resists Wand (level3 charges) + 3xPoison Facet Trolls nest (+10/-10)
Charms:
6x Spiritual GC's (+22 life, +4 max damage, 1-3 lightning damage)
1x Shimmering GC of Life (15/18)
1x Shimmering LC of Vita (7/34)
3x Fine SC of Inertia
2x Ruby SC of Balance
1x Amber SC of Balance
TP Tome + Keys
Merc: Might aura
eth Reaper's Toll (Amn)
Guillaume's Face (15 resists jewel)
eth Treachery
Finds:
- Hellforge: Io/Io ... that's like 5 characters in a row with crappy runes
- Rising Sun (Flayer Dungeon Level1, Hell)
- Steel Large Charm of Vita (65/27, somewhere in Act4 or 5 Hell)
Notes:
- Rabies & Fury are both capable skills, but I had a small complaint about the disparity of power between them. Fury was a lot stronger, so if I went through on lower /players settings I really didn't even need to bother with Rabies (even for PI's). And on higher settings Rabies was a little slower than I'd want to tolerate for very long. So although the build was very solid, and could kick butt very well, I don't see a lot of point to combining the two together (unless you have significantly worse gear than I did - in which case it would work rather well).
- Fury vs. Zeal: I've done a few zealots now, but before I did my first one it had probably been over a year since I'd retired my previous Fury druid. So I wanted to compare the builds with the knowledge I've picked up over the years. I was pleased by how they're somewhat similar (especially in playstyle), but still quite different in the approach you take to building one and being effective. The paladin has some advantages (more diversity from auras, etc.), while the druid has others (minions for crowd control, Feral Rage for leech, etc).
- Slow(ish) Blocking + Interruptable Attack was one area where I wasn't particularly pleased with Harry. My only non-IronMaiden NDE's were because of this happening around archers. If it weren't for this I'd prefer it to a zealot, but as it was, it irritated me enough to still prefer the zealot (by a small margin). However, I may (someday) ditch rabies and go with a higher investment into a pure FuryWolf (i.e. more in WW, Lycan. and/or Grizzly) to see how they stack up then. Next time I'll also strongly consider a low-blocking shield (Lance Guard has 20% Deadly strike... :scratchchin.
- Although the ravens weren't really necessary for me, I did notice that my HoW and Grizzly tended to do better at staying alive with them around. So I used them a lot. As for the HoW, even with 20 points it died so much that it was the justification for the Grizzly and Ravens (read: more targets for monsters = safer HoW).
- Since it seems like 3 out of 6 facets that I find are crappy-rolled poison facets (and 2 out of 6 are crappy-rolled fire facets), I figured the Troll's Nest might be a good idea for making Rabies a little stronger. It really wasn't necessary, but oh well. I was also planning to try using the wand + Rabies around IronMaiden, but that also turned out to be unnecessary. I couldn't think of any other good choice for switch except CtA, but I decided to try for a little originality for a change (and with softcore, ~1500 life and de-shifting to prebuff, CtA isn't an especially great fit either).
- I didn't encounter any Burning Souls until WSK2 in Hell, but when I did, I took a moment to bask in their Lightning bolts and get healed by my 90% resists and +20 points of absorb. That's always nice.
- I played /players8 through Nightmare, /p5 through Act1 Hell, /p3 through Act3, and /p1 for the last couple of acts. I had a couple of deaths - once in Nightmare to something stupid (don't really remember beyond it being my fault entirely) and once in Hell to IronMaiden-deshift + a muscle-spasm-click that made me whack an Oblivion Knight a 2nd time while under IM.
Overall:
I'm glad I did it, though it's not exactly the most original build. With my rich-man's gear the hybrid approach seems like not as good of a fit for me, but it would probably work well for folks with more modest equipment.
It was nice to (re)learn how each skill stacks up. This is only my 3rd druid ever (a mediocre Ribcracker Furywolf and a Hunter/Summoner previously) and this time I enjoyed the nuances of the class a little more than the other times. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably do full-physical and Rabies/FireClaws builds someday (as well as the long-awaited/never-started Windy). I think those will both be better alternatives for me.
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