I currently think it’s too weak.
I’d like to see it tested in Hell difficulty.
It would be more noticeable if tested on a herd of cows in the Cow Level.
I’m not even expecting something like the Necromancer’s Poison Nova.
But at the very least, it should feel like it’s actually doing some damage.
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Rabies, like all poison skills needs to be built around. Rabies with full build annihilates the cows. But yeah the duration is the problem with rabies.
Just finished Hell with my Rabies build. Shortening the timer is fine for places that are very dense and the whole place catches the contagion quickly. But for most of the game, you actually want the timer on for as long as possible to kite affected enemies to new ones.
So to help Rabies, it’s not as simple as just shortening the timer. Sure we all want more damage, but from my experience I also want the timer longer.
I’ve mentioned in a different post about Rabies, what it could use is some sort of mastery. Something that reduces enemy poison resistance. That solves the issue we all have with it—it increases poison damage AND length, BUT calculates the DOT before adding the extra time.
If I were to suggest anything? give Poison Creeper a “reduce enemy poison resistance by 1%” from levels 16-20. Total of 5%. Poison Creeper is nuts for the first few acts, and falls off around Act4. So it would help both skills too.
I can probably test this using Hero Editor and see how it plays. I’m curious how dominating Poison Creeper is with that kind of a buff.
It would be nice but 5% isn’t really going to make a big difference in the parts of the game where poison rabies is struggling. I remember using the sunder charm this season with rabies and using the rabies unique weapon and still it was not great.
It’s not a big number, but you should expect lower numbers for “ -X% enemy poison resistance” because it’s more effective than other magic damage.
I’m also comparing it to a free facet which is hard to get. And since the character is extremely gear dependent, it would by nice to have a little something before you get the gear to help the build. But it’s maybe something worth testing on what that number should be.
The other important part I’m trying to get at, it’s not as simple as just reducing the time of the DOT effect. I keep reading “Just reduce the timer on Rabies”, but that is not how you fix this skill. People say that because they just want more damage, but the point of the skill is to have enemies poisoned for as long as possible. “ -X% enemy poison resistance” is a stat that fixes both issues of the skill not doing enough damage, AND not staying on long enough. It’s just testable proposal maybe the dev’s AI scraper will search at some point.
Edit: sunder charm is not really something to consider when talking about builds. Sunder charms purpose is simply to break the game and let you farm where your character typically couldn’t before. You can’t get one on a play through, and it’s supposed to be more of a late endgame type item. Most people won’t ever see one for instance.
I’ve described Rabies as a feast or famine build before ( pun intended), where it’s good it feels really good. And when it’s bad it’s like you burned 40 points on nothing. I don’t mind it feeling like this. But if it’s going to be this polarizing of a skill, it would be nice if it worked amazingly in the areas it works well in—cows, chaos sanctuary, worldstone keep/chamber, halls of pain.
this would actually solve most of the problems though. You would just reapply rabies more often and it would increase the damage dramatically.
the sunder charm lowers enemy poison resistance now. more than 5%. Thats what I was saying, that the -enemy resistance isn’t doing much without a high amount of it.
Sure, reduce the timer = more damage. And you’re Rabies, so just reapply the damage. Easy enough. But then you might as well just be playing Poison Necro.
The point of Rabies is to allow it to spread. If you don’t have the time, it’s difficult to let it do it’s thing. Also, Rabies can easily be a hybrid build with it’s low investment. Rabies/Fury, Rabies/Summons, Rabies/Fire Claws. It would be cool if it leaned into that more if the timer was longer so swapping back and fourth wasn’t so aggravating.
Sunders don’t actually lower the poison resistance by the way. What they do is take an immune monster and put their resist to 95% of that immunity, then -enemy resists apply. So sunders do nothing to an already non-immune monster. So it makes sens that a sunder would do nothing, because in all honesty they don’t really do anything. Unless you’re trying to target farm an area your build otherwise couldn’t.
you want a longer timer? it’s already years too long.
the crafted sunder literally lower enemy poison resistance up to 10%. Have you not played the warlock expansion?
You’re making it sound like I also don’t want more damage. And I agree it doesn’t do enough damage, but reducing the timer hurts the skill too. That’s what I’m getting at.
And I have played the new expansion quite a bit actually. But I’ve never gotten a new sunder, and I don’t really care about them. They’re not necessary to play the game. I’m more of a playthrough/speedrunner/hardcore guy. Not into endgame stuff other than ubers.
except it doesn’t. it only makes it better.
right so as I was saying the 5% buff isn’t enough to make rabies usable. It’s still bad even with 10% from sunder
So you just want to argue. Ok
Reducing the timer just because you want more damage is a short sighted way of fixing this skill. Like I said earlier the point of the skill is to let it spread while you can swap and do other stuff before having to reapply it. Which I have to do often even with the timer the way it currently is.
If you want a a poison build that just does damage, go and play poison necro. Because that’s the territory your encroaching on when you just say, “ I want more damage. Just reduce the timer.”
And I’m assuming now you’re talking about Renewed Sunders, because Latent Sunders don’t do anything to resistances. Cool, -10% didn’t seem like enough. I think it’s a number worth testing though. What’s a good amount Rabies could get without needing items? I don’t know myself? But the point being adding a mastery type effect for Rabies builds would feel like the best way to help this skill.
I think the charms prove that it isn’t the best way
Which charms? Because if you mean sunders, old or new, then you’re misunderstanding how they work.
The projection is staggering. Let’s recap here for a minute.
You: claimed 5% -ER would help rabies
Me: claimed it wouldn’t because I used the -10% ER sunder charm last season and it wasn’t impactful.
You: the charms don’t do that.
Me: Yes they do
You: you don’t understand how the charms work.
??? Bruh thats literally what one of the rolls on the charm is, is -ER.
I feel like I’m talking to a wall
And I’ll help you walk through it.
What’s the best weapon with Rabies?
It’s a dual weapon situation
Plague Bearer to apply Rabies
Deathweb on swap to up it’s damage while you’re AFK, since other damage interrupts poison damage.
Correct. Why is it Death’s Web?
Because theres literally nothing else you can do to improve the damage.
And how is Death’s Web increasing damage?
-50% EPR
You’re acting like you’ve got a big gotcha but you don’t.
Death web isn’t the best weapon. Plague Bearer is. Death web is only good because you can increase the damage further with the weapon swap trick.
-50% enemy poison resistance isn’t good enough on it’s own. Otherwise you would juyst use D.Web and not Plaguebearer.
I think you’re confusing “additional damage trick” with “the best possible way to buff rabies”
Additionally 50% is significantly more than 5% and 10%. So backto OG point. 5% rabies buff is not impactful enough to help rabies.
The goal with buffing rabies should be helping it get off the ground. Rabies is a GG gear build. little things like 5% enemy resist just help the GG gear more, but doesn’t really turn the build online earlier. Thats the biggest problem with rabies. This is easily accomplished by lowering the duration of rabies. ofcourse it can be done otherways, but a little -enemy poison resistance won’t accomplish that goal.
thats the point I’ve been making.