Bullseye’s SS Druid guide.
First of all, skill is essential here of course, but if you don’t have the coin to throw into this build, it will never be as good as you could hope. That being said of course, it could still be a fine character for fun with just a small chunk, so I will try my best to add in a bunch of different gear options 
Some questions you may have:
Is a rabies/fury druid even worth throwing money into?
Well the first thing I will tell you is that they are VERY fun to play with, and if your rich it’s always nice to have “that” char to embarrass pubs with. So if your bored of PvP, or you just want a character for a lot of fun with it is definitely worth it.
What kind of damage will I achieve?
Well you can reach upwards of 70k Rabies damage I believe with your flash switch (I only got to about 65k), about 7k fury with EbotdZ, and 9k+ fury with Etomb for casters.
WTF is a flash switch?!?!
Well basically a flash switch is hitting the opponent with rabies and then switching to your other gear (Gear that will increase rabies damage ofc) which will then take over for damage. Rabies damage is calculated by what gear you have on at that very second, not by what gear you hit them with.
Why not a dream helm or shield to finish them off when the poison takes them down to 1 health? And what makes rabies so good?
Simple, rabies is a lot different than any other poison attack. First of all it CAN kill your opponent without you finishing them off (unless they are in town of course). Secondly rabies CANNOT be cured by an antidote potion, so there isn’t a real “quick solution” to beat it. Lastly, rabies is transferred when your enemies get close to eachother or attack each other! Ex: If I infect a barb, then the barb while trying to ww me hits another character your hostile with, it will transfer rabies the that character as well! eZ combo kills :]
Rabies Gear first: (Fury gear is a whole other story!)Helm:Jalal’s - Second to none IMHO.. Unless you’re REALLY Lacking that AR bonus you could always use Cerebus, but with the +2 druid skills boosting your synergies, and oak you cant afford to lose damage and life. + Jalal’s already gives +20%
Armor:Bramble – Hands down this is the sexiest runeword for rabies, thorns aura although almost nerfed in PvP always looks sexy!
Other options: Jeweler’s armor w/ life or FHR socketed with facets, Enigma if you go hybrid style for its FRW and DR, the 2skills always helps!
Amulet:Crafted amulet with 2 druid/ss and dual stats ~ Magic amulet 3ss w/ high life, or you could always use maras for another option to hold you over until you rake in that sexy ammy you’ve been trying to craft!
For AR Boost: Angelics
(Personally I use a 2ss/20str/16dex/8fcr/4%regen/15mf/other stats ammy for the massive amount of stats I can save)
Shield: SS of course. (Socket w/ a sexy jewel (NOT FACET THOUGH! Psn damage is for your flash switch)
Weapon: This is where the druid gets complicated; there are a few choices to run through.
Vs Most I grab an EbotdZ. This has high damage, good speed, and the 30 stats obviously help a lot
Vs zons / desynch chars if it bothers you, run to your stash for a DoomZ no explanation needed
Other options: Grief PB – good speed nice additional damage.
Belt:Dungos is my personal fav whether your dueling melee or not.
Other options: Arach for damage boost and slow
Rings:This area has a lot of debate and it’s really up to you for what rings to use here.. For AR if you need it vs. smiters angelics is the way to go.
Personally I favor a raven/BK for extra dex for saving stats when going max block, the dex and ar for well.. AR. And the cannot be frozen is VERY NICE. And ofc. BK gives me nice life and a boost in damage
Other options: dual stat rings, Bul kathos x 2, ravens x 2
*I advise always having 1 raven on
Boots:Hard one here.. if you don’t mind unperms grab some nice duped boots with tri res, frw, and FHR.
Other options: Treks, Waterwalks
Gloves:Do I need to even say this? Trangs FTW.
Switch weapons - Dweb(5/5 facet)/2020 poison monarch
Other options: Cta/spirit, Plague bearer w/ 5/5 facet/2020 shield
CHARMS-Depending on gear you may want to switch out some lifers for FHR charms, but:
9x SS Lifers/FHR, Torch, Anni, 10 x 3/20/20’s OR 20/5’s if u need res
Personally if I’m just pubbing I don’t even BO.. I just strap on my flash switch gear and go. If you are in private you will prebuff your bo
FURY GEAR.
Short and sweet here
Weapon/shield #1: EbotdZ/SS
Armor: Nigma/Fort
Helm: Same as rabies
Ammy/rings: Same as rabies gear
Belt: Same as rabies gear (feeling repetitive here -.-‘)
Gloves: Rends
Boots: Same as rabies usually for me, but Wtravs or Gores work well
Weapon switch: Etomb reaver. No other choice here IMO.. socket with zod and 2 x 40/15’s if 3 socket. (HUGE range and damage, obviously give a lot of other advantages I don’t need to point out even)
I guess Ebotd polearm would also work, but it just doesn’t stand up to an Etomb :<
CHARMS: Same as Rabies
SKILLS
This is where you make the build your own, many like to switch up points between oak, lycanthropy, and wolf.. but heres my set:
Max:
Oak
Rabies
Fury
Poison Creeper
Lycanthropy
Rest into wolf (if you have any left 
)
1 into wolves, ravens,(make sure you have these)
*OPTIONAL – cyclone armor, won’t make a big difference but looks sexy haha
DUELING STRATEGIES:
Ok I’m no expert ofc, but here is how I stayed alive in pubs and privs
QUICK TIPS~
*Vs any Melee, when they get close WALK DO NOT RUN. Running decreases the chance to block and this is vital for dueling melee, make sure you are ready to hit “r” whenever you see that barb or smiter on your minimap! Switch out of walk only if running from chars (only BvC and WWsins) all others you should be able to walk away fine.
*Always precast ravens and vine! (Ofc oak too DUH)
*Always recast oak as it dies
Amazons ~
Bow – eZ as pie, strap on DoomZ if your feeling like humiliating them, but it’s not needed… If they run from you just chase and get a rabies in, (it should only take one swing) they will have no choice but to stop and try to shoot you back, fury them for the eZ kill
Java – Not so easy unfortunately… When they use FC you are fucked without sorb, grab tgodz and wisps if FC but if they don’t then follow a few east steps ~ Dodge the furys when ranged, and this shouldn’t be hard to do, precast all summons you have BUT DO NOT LET WOLVES RUN AHEAD OF YOU! If she pokes a wolf infront of you, the charged bolt WILL end up hitting you in the face. Circle her and try your best to rabies and run, flash switch and she will be the one chasing you.
Assassins ~
Trapper ~ Make sure you have full res, and if you really don’t want to die strap on tgods (you shouldn’t need anything more) This will be a hard battle as she will Mind blast the fuck out of you, and the only way your going you kill her is if you have a good FHR rate, and she has low MB stun. Distract her with summons, circle her and pounce.
WW Sin ~ Much easier than a trapper, they will actually chase you most of the time. Rabies and flash switch, dodge a few ww’s and if you feel confident switch back to EbotdZ and fury her to death.
Kicksin ~ Easiest, Rabies and run, or just fury her to death if shes weak
Necros ~
PnB - Hardest you will face. Pull out the Etomb and hope to god the tele near you, if they take range and spam your fucked. If they get on screen and bone prison, your fucked. Run like a madman and hope you have enough FHR to escape bone prisons
Poison – Fairly easy without revive stack. Stay away at first and have etomb out and ready for when they get fed up of having low range, they will tele close enough to (usually) 1 hit fury them.
Summon – You wont kill the good ones, they will decrep your face off and use mages range to pwn you overtime, but if they ever get close enough you can take out nearly the whole army with a good rabies. You don’t see many of these out there anyways so don’t worry too much!
Barbarian ~
BvC – They were always pretty easy for me unless had VERY nice psn res and reduce. Wait for them to tele, step away from ww and walk and shift click rabies them. Flash switch and run a few steps, rinse repeat if still at high health, or just shift-fury them with EbotdZ
Singer – Never really faced one, but would imagine that it wouldn’t be too hard
Leap barb – Swat them in the face, I dunno there just an annoyance nothing terribly scary
Paladin ~
Hammerdin – usually eZ without mods, have etomb out and wait for them to tele on you, stay away from hammers and never charge into them. Once they tele on you, take a quick step away and shift click fury for a nice slice of ranged pwnage, rinse repeat.
(If they charge simply have out ebotdz/ss and walk and follow upper guide whilst throwing in a random rabies or two for good measure if they run) Desynchers aren’t harder, just take more effort.
Smiter – This is where you may have some troubles, but the “kings” of melee CAN be outclassed. Have all summons out, make sure you hide in your wolves incase they miss you and smite your furry friends instead, walk into them and get a rabies in, the hardest part is not taking the first hit, and if you sink your teeth into them first you’ve usually won! Flash switch and walk away slowly as they try to charge your face of to no avail!
Foh – stack res as much as possible… not much advice as I haven’t encountered many good ones, they will charge away, foh, charge away, foh but try luring them in by staying far enough off screen so that they cannot foh, as they charge in try to rabies there face off and flash switch and run for your life!
V/t – just a big losing battle here, Save and Exit
Sorceress –
Fire – Hardest of the 3 usually, avoid fire balls until they get fed up of missing, as they tele in do your best to circle around them and Etomb-fury there head clean off.. unless they are es it should be a 1-2 hit KO
Lightning – If es try to get close enough to rabies, even if its just with your Etomb, it should eat away there health and they will die in a matter of time, enjoy your prosperous looting!
Nova – fairly hard but they chase you, stack as much as possible and have etomb ready to shift fury! It’s a very quick battle but can go either way
Orb – Just a joke.. dual ravens = no damage at all so watch as they whine and hit and run worse than all the rabies druids in the realm, one shot should take them
Blizz – Don’t get lured in too easily, let them come to you first, keep distance and punce when they miss a blizz
Druids ~
Windies – I usually grab the etomb and shift fury while side stepping, but there are many ways to go about this, see which works best for you by practicing.
SS Druids – Treat these chars like smiters, these can be the best duels you have with your char so enjoy them!
~LAST BUT NOT LEAST, LAUGH AND SAY "HAH RAPED BY AN SS DRUID!" This post was edited by BuLLsEyE-PwNaGe on Dec 7 2006 11:32pm