Project Diablo 2 - Rabies Druid - Testing Plague v. Plague Bearer v. Grief

[@guuiness]

Haven’t gotten to watch this one yet but watched most of your last video on rabies. I’ve been playing it this season and really enjoy the build, especially as a casual gamer on a crappy laptop on the road , so l can’t really play a character that requires a lot of button smashing. Really chill build. Lawsuit, in the last video you said the vigor merc sucks at staying alive. While I would definitely agree with that as a rule, however, when I put shaftstop, vamp gaze, razor tail and at least a 2 socket pus spitter, she hasn’t died very often unless there are some bad mods on the map. 100% pierce and the fast attack speed proc lower resist a lot. Definitely not bragging about my gear, again I’m a casual and I’m lucky to play five hours a week, but if anyone curious my character name is led_druid. Cheers.

[@Lawlsuit]

Yeah i had a +80 life, 27 PDR, crafted armor with 2 jahs in it and a string and she just runs into things like an idiot. TBH, im starting to like the plague... im running the act 3 shock merc with it and while it clunky as all hell, it does work.

[@guuiness]

@@Lawlsuit yeah she isn’t the smartest, but if I just hit a pack with rabies and keep moving, she normally doesnt have time to stand around like an idiot. I’m satisfied at least but I’ve mostly just been doing torajon jungle , arreat battlefield and bastion keep. I’m sure the higher tier maps she’ll get merked more often. with the shock merc, are you using innocence and warshrike? Apologies if you show it in the video, just don’t have time to watch until tomorrow at the earliest. Just curious the rationale behind that merc.

[@Lawlsuit]

@@guuiness its not in this video. just junk gear testing it

[@cozycade]

This build looks like such a blast! Gonna have to try this one out.

[@ajmakab]

Fun fact, griz caddy with a -10% poison res slam with 5 5/5 facets. 5/-15% beats out +4 on plague bearer and hits the same ias frames as a pb grief Hidden tech, tell no one else

[@고무통-j4y]

can -10% gris beats 4os +5 rabies bearer?

[@iimadethug]

i think you auto too much and its skewing your results. once you get enough damage i find grief better for the playstyle late since ur basically just tagging and needing to survive is more important. there is a damage sweet spot tho. i also hate river of blood

[@SR-Jensen]

Greif is the way to go good speed and leech. I was also using coh instead of bramble

[@sunshower6560]

I pretty much will only run Plague Bearer with four 5/5s.

[@Lawlsuit]

I'm actually thinking of sticking with the plague, weirdly enough. Testing it with a jalals instead of the spirit keeper first.

[@sunshower6560]

@@Lawlsuit Spirit Keeper is used for bossing. I can tell you that much. Pretty much every other scenario in existence favors Jalal’s Mane. How come you choose Plague? Random Lower Resist proc that your mercenary already gives you? Native pierce that you already get from facets in a Plague Bearer? The +2 skills that are beaten by Plague Bearer’s +5? The Cleansing Aura that is almost irrelevant for how tanky you are?

[@Lawlsuit]

@@sunshower6560 Yeah I've nabbed a jalal's for mapping, but the bearer's damage compared to the plague just doesn't seem to be there. I like the cleansing aura for just facerolling into curse packs. You have enough damage to one slap everything with plague and you get the added benefit of the curse reduce. I admit it FEELS awful - its so slow on attacking but if I'm running the slap and run style I'm going plague. I've even got the bearer and grief up for sale I'm so sold on it.

[@sunshower6560]

@@Lawlsuit I’m running Plague Bearer and I face roll curse packs anyways. I need to look at what Plague has on it and remind myself, but I’m going to be honest, Plague Bearer with facets is better damage than Plague. There’s no way it beats Plague Bearer in damage. I would choose Plague for hardcore and Grief for an early starter weapon before a jeweled Plague Bearer, though I guess you can really go either at the end of the day. They’re about the same. Make sure you’re stacking Feral Rage. EDIT: Yeah, you’re giving up three skills and 20% poison skill damage for Cleansing Aura. It’s up to you, but yeah, Plague Bearer cannot be outperformed in damage, except for map bosses, which Grief may perform slightly better for while using Feral Rage. For Tristram, Diablo, and Rathma, I still would use Plague Bearer.

[@Lawlsuit]

@@sunshower6560 yeah its less damage. its about 4k off the top with my bad facets. I had a 3 rabies base so it's still 5 skills its just the 20% poison damage you're losing for the cleansing aura, which I like.

[@CoolDude-of7cd]

When you get the XP event it's nice to go into chat and let people know so they can juice the game with you. I know you wouldn't do that for a video, but I'd just like to see more people do it. Share the wealth like a good commie, comrades.

[@frequentsee3815]

How do you do that without game closing? Sry first season

[@CoolDude-of7cd]

@@frequentsee3815 it should be permed at that point unless ur a god at mapping. just shout out the chat real quick and tell people to spread the word while you look for an experience shrine.