Witch Doctor Discussion

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#caUdPT!bYU!aYZaaZ

my build. Just spam firebats and keep your cooldowns at cooldown. Basically before engagigng run you check if you can resummon ur giant (cooldown), charge in with spirit walk and use soul harvest followed by fetish army if up. get back and just firebat the heck out of them while enjoying your 300% mana recharge. I use firedarts because I got some +firedamage items and in the rare cases I can't use firebats because I am out of mana for some reason :D

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NeonFlare Finland. May 21 2012 16:43. Posts 913

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I've been wondering if anyone ever actually uses the "Spirit spells return mana over time" passive and built succesful build around it, most other passives I've seen in some sort of build. Would it use Spirit Barrage and Haunt with Pierce the Veil, Vision Quest etc. ?

nam nam Sweden. May 21 2012 16:49. Posts 4534

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On May 21 2012 16:43 NeonFlare wrote:
I've been wondering if anyone ever actually uses the "Spirit spells return mana over time" passive and built succesful build around it, most other passives I've seen in some sort of build. Would it use Spirit Barrage and Haunt with Pierce the Veil, Vision Quest etc. ?

I've tried it on a character early nightmare and I kind of like it. I use soul harvest, spirit walk and mass confusion. I guess it depends on how mana dependent you are. I have no idea if it's viable long term.

udgnim United States. May 21 2012 16:53. Posts 6446

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completed NM on my Witch Doctor

did anyone else find Diablo difficult solo? I was starting to consider buying equip upgrades for the first time through GAH.

the problem I was dealing with was that if Gargantuan went down. My WD isn't able to tank Diablo, but Diablo will eventually teleport on top of me anyways because there's nothing drawing its aggro so I'm just running around hoping I live long enough for Gargantuan to get off CD.

the Diablo fight seems like it would be easier if done with 2 or more people

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Dommk Australia. May 21 2012 17:02. Posts 4462

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Save Spirit Walk and Horrify+100% Armor Rune for unavoidable attacks or if you screw up and get caught in his prison.

Grab an ability like Haunt too as you have to run around a lot. Spirit Barrage also works well since you want to keep your distance and it homes in on targets in the general area.

If the fight is taking a long time then healing from abilities like Hex or Passives like Blood Ritual (if you use Poison Darts as your main damage) end up returning quite a bit of health over the course of the fight. Fetish Army with 90second cd helps too

Flummie Netherlands. May 21 2012 17:03. Posts 363

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On May 21 2012 16:53 udgnim wrote:
completed NM on my Witch Doctor

did anyone else find Diablo difficult solo? I was starting to consider buying equip upgrades for the first time through GAH.

the problem I was dealing with was that if Gargantuan went down. My WD isn't able to tank Diablo, but Diablo will eventually teleport on top of me anyways because there's nothing drawing its aggro so I'm just running around hoping I live long enough for Gargantuan to get off CD.

the Diablo fight seems like it would be easier if done with 2 or more people

keep in mind that as a WD you can use spirit walk after diablo throws you down if you get caught in the cages.

Spirit walk to the other side of the room and keep running away from him while shooting firebats or something could work out for you. How much HP do you have?

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Asvhald Spain. May 21 2012 17:32. Posts 112

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On May 21 2012 16:43 NeonFlare wrote:
I've been wondering if anyone ever actually uses the "Spirit spells return mana over time" passive and built succesful build around it, most other passives I've seen in some sort of build. Would it use Spirit Barrage and Haunt with Pierce the Veil, Vision Quest etc. ?

I have. I actually use it for boss fights, and I have found that, with this build =>http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#egUdSQ!bXf!ZacZbY (or a slight deviation of it), I don't even need an autoattack, can attack full-time and don't go OOM like ever (edit: this is without relying on the mana restoring rune for Big Bad Voodoo). The rotation is easy: pop Haunt, then 3-4 Spirit Barrages (depending on your attack speed), rinse and repeat. You can switch Soul Harvest/Locust Swarm/Big Bad Voodoo for things like Hex or Fear or whatever you feel you need for the particular boss.

I must say, as of now, I have found the mana-returning rune in Spirit Barrage very important in getting to the point where you can DPS non-stop and not be OOM at any point.

Edit 2: Forgot to say, currently Act 1 Hell, level 53.

Last edit: 2012-05-22 01:55:10

Latty Germany. May 21 2012 18:11. Posts 545

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mhh seems like i play completely different than the most people here.

i use Zombie Dogs on 1, the dog explosion with mana restore on 2, Spirit barrage with multiple target rune on 3, Gargantuam with that enrage rune on 4, darts with mana restore rune on mouse 1 and fire bats/ haunt on mouse 2.

so basically while running through maps you can blast away everything. fire bats / spirit barrage kills everything while dogs/gargantuam tanks the whole stuff. if i hit some rares ill spam spirit barrage and fire bats / haunt detonate the dogs and spam again,

at bossfights i just use spirit barrage / haunt, restore mana with darts and go on like this.

until now its incredible effective. lvl 48 about to finish nightmare. playing with a buddy.

only gets stressful when a teleport mob with hard melee hits ports besides me and i get blocked somehow. then i wish i had spirit walk but .. meh :D

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StatX Canada. May 21 2012 21:43. Posts 343

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I play a WD as main (now lvl 52 in Hell).

I use Fire Bomb with the ground persistent aoe on left click and grasp of the dead with increased damage on right click.

Other than that, I use Harvest with life drain, Locust Swarm with the mana per mob affected, Toxic Cloud with the Acid Spit rune and gargatuan as Big Stinker (AoE poison damage).

For passive, I use increased mana pool and regen, reduced damage for me and my pets along the passive that summon small fetish pets (this one will change eventually).

So far, mobs are easy enough to kill and and I rarely die. I do however keep selling unwanted yellows and buying better gear through the auction house and I currently have ~26k HP.

Last edit: 2012-05-21 22:00:29

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Kuni Austria. May 21 2012 21:59. Posts 710

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I started with Inferno Act1 yesterday and have been going since the end of nightmare with this kind of build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aSURdT!ZcV!aacaZZ

But I really consider switching the Gargantuan with something useful now. He has done his deed all the way through hell, but in Inferno he dies in 5 seconds and is practically worthless. Maybe Haunt for a single target dot, acid for another aoe and then switch to the spirit walk mana regen rune? Not sure yet. Locust with pestilence usually kills all the low-mid tier mobs on the screen by itself.

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painprophet Romania. May 21 2012 22:15. Posts 33

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On May 20 2012 07:58 DERPDERP wrote:
I've soloed normal/nm/hell with these skills

Passives
Jungle fortitude, Vision Quest and Rush of Essence

Poison dart splinters (flaming dart when u have the dmg and att spd)
Soul harvest with the healing rune
Spirit walk with the mana rune
Sleeping giant gargantuan
ACID CLOUD SPAM FOR DA DMGZ

Spamming acid cloud to mobs then spirit walking in the middle of the fight soul harvest for 5 stacks and double your dmg aswell as heal yourself, then spam some more acid

For weapons I've found the highest dps weapons (whether it is an axe or a wand whatevs) the best. The offhand/dagger thing isn't working out when u have a crappy gear

This build is beautiful. I am successfully farming Act I - INFERNO with it although it took me some time to get used to it. After successfully landing a Soul harvest I simply one shot any pack of trash mobs with Acid Cloud (note that I have a 900 dps 2h weapon).

I made a few small changes to the initial build posted here. I am using the 3 poison darts instead of the flamind dart simply because it has higher dps (or at lest this is what the tips say: 3x60% > 160%). I am using the mana rune on Soul harvest instead of the healing one.

Secret of this build is to use the Spirit walk offensively not defensively and to keep your 4 CDs active at any time. Against some pack of champion mobs (those with teleport or vortex) you have to use Spirit walk/Soul harvest reactively after they teleport.

Here's my adaptation of the build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aiUdZT!ZfU!acZaaZ

Many thank to the original poster, I was beginning to think WD cannot solo Inferno.

dezi

Germany. May 21 2012 22:54. Posts 1417

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What do you guys look for at weapons? First obv is the damage (not the DPS - DPS just helps to sort the listed stuff at the AH), second might be attackspeed (if you prefer fast / slow attacks), next should be stats - i like to be able to add a gem and have a good chunk of vita on it but what else?

Currently i like %life per damage dealt - with f.e. Zombie Bear crits around 20k at my level (55) this helps to be in the face of the mobs a little longer, also helps at boss fights to negate random aoe damage, ...

I mostly run together with a Barb (who uses a shield and plays like one of those old school tanks) with Zombie Bear, Walk, Harvest, Garg (soon to be Bruiser), Hex, Grasp - Vision Quest, Jungle Fort. and Blood Ritual.

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Heh_ Singapore. May 21 2012 23:10. Posts 2245

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This is my current build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hidgZa!bXY!bZZbaa It's similar to the one StatX mentioned. It has mass AoE, and works very well against huge mobs. It kills groups of enemies almost as quickly as killing a single target (good AoE, shitty focus fire). The last skill can be switched to gargantuan (for soloing) or big bad voodoo (for burst killing rares/bosses). Should I change these skills or runes around? I feel like spirit barrage is the weakest; I don't like zombie charger or locust swarm because they're short ranged..

Also, can someone explain to me the use of corpse spiders and poison frogs? The former appears to have shitty dps, either single target or groups, while the latter drinks up mana (I need something cheap to spam so I can shoot something when I used up my available mana pool).

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udgnim United States. May 22 2012 05:27. Posts 6446

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entered Act 1 Hell with my Lvl 51 WD. ran into an elite pack. decided my weapon was lacking and my build was lacking (no burst).

bought my first item from GAH (40K 1H weapon) and then changed up my build from being bursty to more sustain because my DPS doesn't seem to be high enough to pull off burst in Hell.

bursty build used in NM: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hiPdXT!YWU!ZbZZYY

sustain build for Hell: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#bcPdXT!bXU!baYZYY

biggest change was giving up Pierce the Veil & Gruesome Feast and replacing them with Spiritual Attunement & Blood Ritual

now I can just hold down RMB and Dire Bats spam for a while

Last edit: 2012-05-22 05:29:48

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Whole United States. May 22 2012 06:37. Posts 4940

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I'm currently near the end of Act II on Nightmare using this build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hcdZUP!XWV!ZaZaZZ

I really like it. It is flexible and not too gimmicky, but I feel like I'm having too much mana issues. I only have about 580ish mana, so I can only use my bats 3 times after doing Sprint -> Harvest -> Slow combo. So, do I need better gear, or perhaps I should switch either Firebomb or Fetish Army for a mana spell? (I like both spells btw, but I wouldn't mind switching either if I could use Direbats more.) And are the mana returning primary spells even worth it? Maybe I should switch the Pierce the Veil to Spiritual Attunement?

edit: I'm trying Mana Darts instead of Firebomb. Huge improvement!

Last edit: 2012-05-22 12:31:35

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TS-Rupbar Sweden. May 22 2012 06:46. Posts 1053

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Last edit: 2012-05-22 07:42:04

BurningSera United Kingdom. May 22 2012 08:04. Posts 5189

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doing act4 hell with this 'extreme' build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#QUfdRT!UbX!ZZcZac

lvl60 i have 8.5k dps and 22k hp:

gargantuan for tanking+stun
use hex for healing+disable solo enemy
soul rape for healing at this stage
big bad voodoo goes mana factory
ghost walk for escape or being a quick cd spell to activate the passive Vision quest

all of that just for the unlimited nuking with

ZOMBIE BEARS!!!!

the good thing with d3 is that you can mix and match all the spells as you wish. i have changed my set of build so many times since normal (from the zombie dog+explosion, acid rain spamming, solo wd build for boss etc).

in the end i found that valor buff is very unfair to WD because we always need to change our skills depend on the enemies due to WD has the best cc spells.

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udgnim United States. May 22 2012 12:42. Posts 6446

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getting my ass handed to me too often in Act 1 Hell

changing my build to replace Horrify with Spirit Walk (should have made this change long ago) has helped, but my Witch Doctor doesn't hold up well once Gargantuan dies and Gargantuan has been dieing more often

so I think I'm just going to give my WD a GAH makeover. I have 900K to work with. WD is Lvl 53.

I think Int & Vit are obvious stats to value. what other mods are good for WD?

also, I wish there was an easy way to determine DPS difference between 2H and 1H/off hand in AH. my WD is using a 296 blue 2H weapon found in A1 Hell and it seems that is near the top range of DPS for 2Hs & 1H/off hand set ups in the 53 level range, but I don't really know since I can only guesstimate 1H/off hand DPS.

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Whole United States. May 22 2012 12:59. Posts 4940

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On May 22 2012 12:42 udgnim wrote:
getting my ass handed to me too often in Act 1 Hell

changing my build to replace Horrify with Spirit Walk (should have made this change long ago) has helped, but my Witch Doctor doesn't hold up well once Gargantuan dies and Gargantuan has been dieing more often

so I think I'm just going to give my WD a GAH makeover. I have 900K to work with. WD is Lvl 53.

I think Int & Vit are obvious stats to value. what other mods are good for WD?

also, I wish there was an easy way to determine DPS difference between 2H and 1H/off hand in AH. my WD is using a 296 blue 2H weapon found in A1 Hell and it seems that is near the top range of DPS for 2Hs & 1H/off hand set ups in the 53 level range, but I don't really know since I can only guesstimate 1H/off hand DPS.

from what I read, you want a fast attack speed to cast and run easier and kite...so I wouldn't use a 2h since they're slower.

Last edit: 2012-05-22 13:00:09

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Blitzkrieg0 United States. May 22 2012 13:38. Posts 4708

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On May 22 2012 12:59 Whole wrote:

Show nested quote +

from what I read, you want a fast attack speed to cast and run easier and kite...so I wouldn't use a 2h since they're slower.

Plus shields are required to survive for the most part.

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