Poison Creeper

[wally]

hm...the HF merc is definitely a thought (and an HF merc fits in with the general 'geddon shockbear strategy--I also supplement it with FireClaws in order to be more independent of 'geddon's less situationally dependable consistency--the average damage over time is very satisfying), but I was thinking more along the lines of (re) summoning spirits, though that also might be more trouble than it's worth.


Some experimentation is to be done (at least, once I make it back home to my own computer...)

[wally]

I'm not sure how i'm going to make this work but here's a prototypical char sketch to graft Poison Creeper onto an existing build while still trying to maximize it's usefulness (i.e. making monster groups clump).

The easiest way to get monsters to clump repeatedly without having to resort to charges of Attract, is to chum the water, and watch the monster mass nucleate. Three ways to do this: 1) merc 2) minions and 3) self and or other party members :)

The druid also doesn't have very many monster manipulation skills but foremost among them is Shockwave, followed by Hurricane, a distant second.

So the attempt to incorporate both into a single playable survivable build is going to be a challenge as Hurricane cannot be recast in wereform, and surprise surprise, shockwave can't be cast unless you're a bear. So putting aside the playability argument for the moment--if one were to try and put the two together (remembering that Hurricane is a cast and forget type spell--and we'll want to use shockwave more anyway), it would make sense to make Hurricane last a long time and the wereform not last too long.

These two limitations rule out a Maulbear as the skill requires you to be in wereform for quite awhile to make full use of it (though it should be noted that if you nix the use of Hurricane, the Maulbear way opens up quite nicely). So the other tack is to try and Fireclaw--which is nice since it also provides a nice way of dealing with single targets.

So the sketch looks something like: max poison creeper and max fireclaws, substantial investment into both cyclone armor, shockwave, and oak sage. little or no lycanthropy, 1 point into hurricane. Leftover points go into fireclaw synergies. Holy Freeze Merc.

Two weapon setups--fast fireclaw (ideal is 110% IAS phaseblade) and then other weapon to deal with FI/PI or FI/heavily P resistant. Stats mainly go into Vit and Dex (for blocking). Str to carry second weapon. (Buriza might be nice since the added Dex also benefit physical damage on the xbow)

So general tactics involve letting the merc wake things up and attract monsters using his aura. Then, when they come into range, Hurricaning them to slow them down until the desired clumps form. Shockwave. Poison. Fireclaw. Fireclaw. Fireclaw. Poison. Fireclaw. Fireclaw. Fireclaw. Rinse, repeat.

So far, i've got a wee little druid at lvl 25 running around with max creeper, and i've committed very little to the sketch outline so far. Any suggestions on changes, equipment, gear?

speaking of--how rare are -% PR gears?

[QuickShifter]

As for Monster manipulation. At least in 1.09 feral rage made a werewolf pretty unstopabel if combined with Fury and a decent weapon (IK maul), hence my idea of using a werewolf together with the holy freeze merc. I dont know however how usefull feral rage is in 1.10 since there has been additional resctrictions to leeching.

I would think a holy freeze merc together with a reaperstoll (33% chance to cast decrepify) and high level oak sage would make a good punching bag. Add hwanins refuge for static field

Best Regards

[AtomicKitKat]

I can not think of a related line of research, unless, perhaps, spamming Plague Javalins might experience a similar effect (I've not looked this up for plausibility nor tested it). Most AoE attacks are meant to hit every frame or have a NextDelay. That a poison based AoE would have this oddity is, of course, likely to be overlooked, due to "poison doesn't stack" being approximately correct. Certainly someone could examine every missile (missiles.txt) to see if there is another such quirk (perhaps MvP).

I haven't tested with Plague Javelins yet, but while making Mimosa(heh, will explain eventually, as and when I have the time to draw up the build), I tested Poison Javelin with /players 8 in the Cold Plains. Preliminary(read, about 6 saves and retries and countless corrupted rogues later) testing shows that it does indeed stack. At least, soundwise it does(you will hear a LOT more grunts/poisoned sounds than expected) However, they have to all be standing within the same portion of the trail(although each portion probably has its own set of missiles that can be overwritten with this bug) They certainly seemed to die slightly faster when I could get them lined up(always throw it about 30 degrees left or right of the mobs trailing you, then sidle the same way so the mobs move into the path) If someone could actually test this, perhaps by making the poison last 0.1 seconds, as mentioned before, it would be much appreciated. :)

[Alram]

I wrote an extensive detailed guide about 2 builds based on the Poison Creeper in v1.09. It has been present on the Basin for a long time.
Poison Creeper: shockbear and summoner guides