Arakaali's Fang - Mechanics and Analysis

Video guide: https://youtu.be/5jfmQSv1wrs

Text Based Overview for the Video

Spawning the Spiders:
-18 Max spiders at any time
-Dual Wield seems to have no effect on rate of spawning or max number of spiders
-Spiders spawn in random bursts of 2-18 spiders at once
-Requires player to get credit for kill to spawn
***THIS CAN BE WORKED AROUND BY USING DOT DAMAGE***
Poison damage from SRS/animate weapons/the spiders themselves/ or beacon of corruption clouds will cause you to get credit for the killing blow and spawn more spiders
Can spawn off of writhing jar worm kills

Supported by Gems in Dagger sockets

Doesn't Work:
Empower
Trigger Gems
Increased Duration
Area of Effect
Spell Echo
Convocation

Does Work:
Multistrike (triple jump)
Culling Strike
Poison
Minion Speed / Damage
Fortify
Added Damage (added fire works so they must be doing at least some phys damage)

Overall Impression:
Dagger stats are OK, but it's held back by low attack speed / crit chance.
15% poison is the only damage related thing it really has going for it.
Might work endgame for a United in Dream / Animate Weapon poison minion build as it gives 18 attackers at the cost of losing a shield.
Probably not worth it but I haven't played that build much and didn't fully optimize the minion damage on the spiders in my testing (I was mostly just testing mechanics).

Just wanted to get some info out there and see if anyone else was inspired to invest more into a full fledged build.

Let me know if there's anything you want for me to test further in comments

Great video, very informative. I've been experimenting with a different build:
- necromancer with same ascendancies
- lowlife with 8 auras: anger, wrath, hatred, haste, grace, discipline, clarity, purity of elements
- shavs, prism guardian, alpha's howl are the most notable items (and the dagger of course)
- main skill is shock nova for now, around 20k dps fully buffed
- spiders supported by melee splash, multistrike, faster attacks

The main issues I see with the dagger:
- slow attack speed
- anti-synergy with offerings since it requires corpses
- anti-synergy with itself: the more damage the spiders have, the less likely it is that you get the final blow, thus spawning less spiders (also the lower damage you yourself have, since you invested in their damage)
- bad spider AI: they do not follow you, prioritize random targets
- spiders unaffected by convocation: you essentially have to start over when targeting a far away pack. This behaviour for SRS and skeletons can be justified; you can just recast those manually.
- if your build revolves around the spiders, the dagger doesn't offer any bonuses sadly (besides the skill itself). So just replace the dagger with united in dreams, use animate weapons or srs, and your build is now 3x stronger

Some further thoughts:
- the 18 cap is most likely a bug, it should be 20 as the text says
- the poison damage trick is a bug afaik (I recall Mark saying so in a different context, but not 100%)
- skill duration passives from the skill tree affect the spiders and the gem does not - probably a bug as well

Overall, the spiders' damage is quite alright for low-mid tier maps, probably for high tier as well, needs further testing. The sustainability however would need some improvement.

If it's a proq skill, simply put a spell totem in the dagger and enjoy max spiders all day every day.

Peace,

-Boem-

"

moxaj92 wrote:

The main issues I see with the dagger:
- slow attack speed
- anti-synergy with offerings since it requires corpses
- anti-synergy with itself: the more damage the spiders have, the less likely it is that you get the final blow, thus spawning less spiders (also the lower damage you yourself have, since you invested in their damage)
- bad spider AI: they do not follow you, prioritize random targets
- spiders unaffected by convocation: you essentially have to start over when targeting a far away pack. This behaviour for SRS and skeletons can be justified; you can just recast those manually.
- if your build revolves around the spiders, the dagger doesn't offer any bonuses sadly (besides the skill itself). So just replace the dagger with united in dreams, use animate weapons or srs, and your build is now 3x stronger

Yeah- I agree with you on basically all points.

"

Boem wrote:

If it's a proq skill, simply put a spell totem in the dagger and enjoy max spiders all day every day.

Peace,

-Boem-

Just tested.
Doesn't work.

But I'm honored to get my first Peace,Boem response!
Community achievement unlocked.

"

Kinch45 wrote:

"

Boem wrote:

If it's a proq skill, simply put a spell totem in the dagger and enjoy max spiders all day every day.

Peace,

-Boem-

Just tested.
Doesn't work.

But I'm honored to get my first Peace,Boem response!
Community achievement unlocked.

Well then it's not a proqed summon skill i reckon.

It works fine with the scourge claw, massive army of wolves was good times.

Happy testing though, it's always fun to come up with concepts that beat the odds and prove something can muster end-game.

Peace,

-Boem-

"

Boem wrote:

It works fine with the scourge claw, massive army of wolves was good times.

Peace,

-Boem-

...why don't we combine the two in a whacky blade flurry build? Is unlikely to work, but likely to be fun.

"

FCK42 wrote:

"

Boem wrote:

It works fine with the scourge claw, massive army of wolves was good times.

Peace,

-Boem-

...why don't we combine the two in a whacky blade flurry build? Is unlikely to work, but likely to be fun.

I did reave cast on crit skeletons already with scourge so uhm....

It was "ok" but mostly fun :)

Peace,

-Boem-

I just realized that animated weapons do teleport to you when far away - adding just this to the spiders would help tremendously.