Poisonous Ray, Skippable on a Bane?

For quite a long time now I've had a Bane which I love to play. I have yet to respec him after the inherent Fitness changes and just this week got him his Patron pool. It's time to respec, and in looking over a prospective build I realized I had forgotten to include Poisonous Ray in there. I've had that power all along and have come to really like it.

So, question to the masses, do you consider Poisonous Ray a skippable power for a Bane? Or should I be reworking my build to get it included?

i think its prolly one of the best ranged mace attacks, stacking with venom grenade if you went the gun route you can easily get dmg ticks of like 70-110 depending on the enemy resists

Blah. Ok then, back to the drawing board. Thanks for the input!

Non-powergamer here, but I can say that when I was playing my bane with a friend's bane, and we both used Poisonous Ray, we were very pleased with the results.

Yeah like said, poisonous ray is probably the last mace blast you want to skip. If you wish to build purely melee bane somehow, then I guess it is skippable.

Yes it's skippable, at least depending on your build and what you skipped it for.

Even considering the extra -res multiplier for single target DPA:
- If your build is Gun based Single Shot, Burst, and Bayonet are better choices.
- If your build is Mace Based Pulverize and Shatter are better choices. Crowd Control will be slightly lower DPA, but is AoE, and if it hits two targets is also a better choice. I consider Crowd Control at least even with Poisonous Ray, if not more desirable. On average I hit 3 targets with it, and it's no slacker even if it hits only 1.
- Poisonous Ray with Venom is a better choice than: Pummel, Bash, and Mace Beam.
- If hitting less than 3 targets, Poisonous Ray is better than Heavy Burst, Mace Beam Blast, Mace Beam Volley. But if you hit more than 3 or more targets, the AoEs are better.
- If hitting less than 2 targets, Poisonous Ray is better than Venom or Frag. But you need Venom to leverage Poisonous Ray. If hitting 2 or more targets, the AoEs are better. Depending now how much you prefer x8 vs x1, frag is likely more desirable, even if a bit less efficient vs 1 target, given that most of the game favors AoE. Unless you are building specifically to be a Single Target Specialist.
- Also Note, Switching between gun and mace powers causes redraw, which significantly lowers DPA, it's best to not mix them if you either don't have to, or at least to only do so as an informed choice or playstyle. My huntsman mixes Gun and Mace on purpose, knowing that it's best to minimize the swapping. I primarily use the gun in a completely separate and self contained chain, then move in close and use another completely separate and self contained chain to put the smackdown on hard targets with the mace. Mixing the two willy nilly destroys your sustained dps.

Up to this point my Bane has been all melee with Poisonous Ray as the only ranged attack. I have loved the attack, but in reworking a new build for IO sets and going over some builds here on the forums, I completely forgot to put Poisonous Ray into the build.

My build consists of all the melee mace powers and also includes Venom Grenade. I don't have it available on me at the moment to post it here, but I think I can switch out a power such as CJ to get Poisonous Ray into the build.

Before Shatter Armor, I took Poisonous with other melee mace attacks but when I have access to Shatter Armor, I got rid of it.

The damage is not bad but it is still on the "slow" side. My only range attack is Venom Grenade.