Plague would be so cool if it could be built in a shield (as well as a weapon). It would gives a reason for an poison Amazon to craft, have better fits an some builds, and the base rune conversion also fits nicely:
Plague: Cham + Shael + Um
20% Chance to cast level 12 Lower Resist when struck
25% Chance to cast level 15 Poison Nova on striking
Its a cool idea for sure. But I want some love for my poison dagger Necro… I will love you forever, even though you broke my heart when I was so very young :’(
Whatever is better for the dagger necro, to have it as a dagger or shield, I want that. (Using both a dagger and shield is a boring option).
I agree that swapping the procs to be Lower Resist on Striking and Poison Nova when struck feels better.
My preference would be if we can’t have both, to at least make this a shield rune word. In it’s current state I see it rarely used. If it was a shield and chance to proc lower resist on hit I could see it as best in slot for builds.
Could be an interesting test along with Dweb instead of spirit too for a poison necro. Or on a rabies druid. Lots of interesting implications.
At the very least, it shouldn’t be swords only. Add it to some other weapons.
Don’t forget there is the Medusa’s Gaze shield already. I could see this runeword being made to support BOTH swords and shields though.
Changing lower resist from “when struck” to “on striking” will not really be compatible with the Act 3 merc, which is who I think this runeword is designed for.
I noticed today the original Plague had Enhanced Damage to Demons instead of Enhanced Damage. Maybe on a shield it makes sense for that to come back instead of enhanced defense? I can see a case for either but mostly I just want this to be a shield rune word as it just feels better that way.
Ok Shield sounds good also. So up to this point, we need Plague to be in: a sword, claw, dagger and Shield to dual wield the RW. Capital and no sarcasm. For real.
I agree. Claws, daggers, shield would tie nicely to assassin, poison dagger necro, and poison amazon. Sword feels most like druid to me (and it’s already on sword).
I played a little of the amazon tonight on the PTR. The changes to Plague Javelin made it feel like a useable skill. Poison Javelin damage was over 60 seconds which is comical, but I don’t mind as long as one of the 2 is useable and the other is a synergy. As I was playing I kept going back to Plague as a shield runeword would fit so well with Plague Javelin.
Basically you want a Spirit, Infinity, Ravenfrost, plus an UM rune all in the same shield. Make the Lower Resist cast when you block while also removing CBF. Might not be to OP then.
I am suggesting the rune word as it is be allowed to be created in the shield. By making it a shield the CBF is due to Cham rune and Resist is due to the UM rune.
He’s saying that he feels your request is too OP - without realizing who would use this item and how those items he listed would be impacted by the change.
For his snarky response:
Spirit is already too powerful for the runes it uses. Spirit is also a caster shield - focusing only on the +2 skills is a pretty narrow way of looking at the two in comparison.
Infinity is not the same as proccing a level 12 Lower Resistance (-57 resistance). Infinity doesn’t lower poison resistance where as Lower Resistance does, they are two different use cases and LR is specifically needed for poison builds. Infinity is also an aura which requires nothing more than being near something.
Ravenfrost is a powerful unique that is used in many builds, not just poison-focused builds. The cham rune here gains a lot of value in a shield which was the intent of creating plague, include cham in more runewords to give the rune more value in general. This is how it would create more value.
The Um Rune Shields without any resistance make itemization very restrictive in other slots - 22 all res isnt a lot but it certainly helps keep the choices less restrictive.
