Path Of Exile Resource #14 - Rat's Nest Unique Item Review

Rat's Nest in Path Of Exile is a unique ursine pelt that when equipped grants the player 15 percent increased attack speed, up to 75 percent increased global critical strike chance, 150 percent increased evasion rating, up to 25 percent increased rarity of items found, 10 percent increased movement speed, and 10 percent reduced character size. This unique has a maximum evasion rating of 648 if all armorer's scraps have been applied to the unique. 3d art for the Rat's Nest unique was added in June of 2016. This unique has changed since it's original introduction into the game in April of 2013.

Item Usefulness Information - This unique is best suited for range based character builds and melee based character builds due to its unique modifiers. The 15 percent increased attack speed is great for range and melee based characters since most range and melee based attack skills are enhanced by attack speed and not cast speed. The increased attack speed granted by the unique can also benefit spell based character builds that utilize whirling blades in their setup, since whirling blades becomes more effective with increased attack speed. The 75 percent increased global critical strike chance is best for range based character builds since most range based builds spec into critical strike nodes on the passive skill tree to enhance their damage output. Since most melee builds utilize Resolute Technique on the passive skill tree, and since there aren't many great easy to obtain critical strike nodes in most melee characters passive skill trees, the increased global critical strike chance that the unique provides isn't good in most cases for melee based character builds. The 150 percent increased evasion rating is great for range builds that scale evasion as their main source of defense against enemies, as well as any builds that utilize Iron Reflexes in their setup. The up to 25 percent increased rarity of items found is a good passive boost to players who want their characters to find more rare items while playing. The 10 percent increased movement speed is best for range based character builds since moving is the primary way range based builds can get around. Blink arrow and Phase Run, which are the only movement skills that bow users can utilize, have cooldowns, and as such means that scaling movement speed as your primary way of moving around is best. The 10 percent increased movement speed also helps your build clear quicker if you are a range based build that has a good damage output beforehand, since it will make the time it takes to kill a pack of enemies and run to the next pack less. The 10 percent increased movement speed also can help your survivability, since it means you can dodge enemies attacks easier by moving out of the way. The 10 percent increased movement speed is not as great for melee based characters builds or spell based character builds, since whirling blades is by far the best movement skill to utilize if your build can utilize it, which most melee and spell based character builds can. The 10 percent reduced character size is negligible, and does not provide a boost to your character. You cannot use this unique in the early stages of the game, since it's level requirement is level 55. In the late stages of the game, this unique is great for range and melee based builds that want to greatly increase their damage output, want to have increased clear speed, and want to have increased survivability.

Informative Links -
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Rat%27s_Nest - additional information regarding the Rat's Nest unique
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Whirling_Blades - additional information regarding the Whirling Blades movement skill gem
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Resolute_Technique - additional information regarding the Resolute Technique keystone passive skill
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Iron_Reflexes - additional information regarding the Iron Reflexes keystone passive skill
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Blink_Arrow - additional information regarding the Blink Arrow movement skill gem
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Phase_Run - additional information regarding the Phase Run movement skill gem