Is this build all about stacking as much int as possible only?Is crit%/crit damage important or just a luxury?
I bought yesterday cheap 1050 dps knife with 10%as, 600 loh, max mana and regen but without socket. So i am thinking how crit damage interact with this build because i am a bit confused (dinged 60 as wd 2 days ago so i am not yet that familiar )
It's helpful but overpriced for WD imo. If you're on a budget, get some crit % from cheaper pieces (mojo, gloves) and a bit of crit dmg where you can but don't go out of your way. My weapon doesn't have crit dmg OR a socket... but because of that I got a 1200 dps 1 hander with 142 int, 80 vit, and 2.5% lifesteal for only 10M. If I wanted to add crit dmg to that... well... I didn't find any on the AH at all with that much dps... and the ones in the 1000-1100 range were 50M+... that's just not worth it.
The reason crit dmg is not as good is because once you start getting GOOD gear, you'll be 1 shotting white mobs without a crit. This means all the crit % + crit dmg that you have is mostly wasted. When your crit is only helping you on tremors and elites, it starts to lose it's value a lot. That's not to say it's worthless, it's far from it... but it is a very expensive stat to add to your gear and you can faceroll act 3 without it.
I run a quite similar build and I have two suggestions for improvement, depending on gear or playstyle.
I personally run with the umbral shock rune for spirit walk. I find that the two second walk is really not necessary in
this build as you are almost constantly spirit walking. Also, umbral shock combos really well with the vengeful spirit rune.
This means I activate spirit walk, run in, soul harvest them and everything that survives dies from umbral shock.
A second skill I do not agree with ( might depend on gear) is horrify. I understand your reasoning, but from my experience the Gargantuan provides the same level of protection, if not better, while constantly dealing damage and killing random single monsters.
Additionally, horrify makes the monsters scatter, which is something you dont want with this build. Therefore I feel like the Gargantuan is the better choice in this slot, if you are not craving for a pure survival skill.
You don't understand how you're supposed to use horrify in this build. When I use horrify, I use it before I enter a pack. Horrify is only used for the 100% armor increased. If there was a way to turn off the fear, I would do it. For example, I use it between every pack in the fields of slaughter because there's a lot of ranged monsters that hits me (and millions of monsters that occasionally melee me pretty good). I'll also use it before I engage an elite pack. Horrify is 100 times better than garg for this build.
I tried umbral shock... I couldn't stand having a 2 second spirit walk because even with a 3 second spirit walk, a lot of times I can't make it to a pack. This is pretty important now that I added vengeful spirit because I want to spirit walk into the middle of the pack of enemies and hit vengeful (which usually kills all the weaker monsters). If walk fails before I reach the pack, not only is my travel time increased, but my vengeful spirit will hit less monsters (and it will be more risky that I take a lot of hits). Thanks for the suggestions though! Other people may enjoy it more.
@windwalk... what is your gear like? I had around 45k DPS (before soul harvest) when I first started this build. Do you have enough pickup radius gear? I would suggest at least 20 for this build. Make sure you're close enough that Grave Injustice is proccing with every kill.
Any of you use Life steal? I am considering getting manajumas carving knife, just not sure if its worth it (Its pretty expensive with 90% crit and socket)
It helps a lot with reflects damage and with keeping your health topped off in general. It's worth it.
Any of you use Life steal? I am considering getting manajumas carving knife, just not sure if its worth it (Its pretty expensive with 90% crit and socket)
It helps a lot with reflects damage and with keeping your health topped off in general. It's worth it.
Do you find it worth it not to have socket and crit dmg on weapon? For me the dmg increase in going those compared to raw dps is huge
It's up to you how much you want to spend. If you want crit + socket + lifesteal + decent DPS... you'll pay over 10x the price to get something with less DPS.
If you plan on using this build though, you need to keep in mind that a bear crit (even with very little to no crit dmg) will kill almost anything. So yeah... your DPS number will increase by a lot but how much of that is overkill? Solely relying on that number can cause problems. It does make elites melt faster though so it depends on your current gear if you're happy with the speed of elite kills. When I'm using my regular gear I have a stone of jordan and elites just melt so I don't care a bit about crit dmg or a socket on my weapon.
If you want to gear for crit/crit damage (and perhaps a bit more pickup radius) you can use Acid Cloud. Of course there are pros and cons to both Zombie Charger and Acid Cloud - I personally don't like to be handicapped by positioning so bears have always been a bit tenuous for me to use. The lower coefficient with Acid Cloud allows that crit & crit damage to be less wasteful on farming runs. Acid Rain gives it a humongous area of effect, although you do partially lose out on the DoT portion. Lob Blob Bomb is spammable if that's your thing.
Between Acid Cloud and Zombie Charger it should be possible to find something that works well for you, I'd think. Zombie Bears is definitely the brute force option and probably works a bit better for farming, I'd imagine. Shame I can't get myself to put that spell on my bars, heh.
Thanks for the good advice. The only thing I disagree with is your advice about using Tyrael's might. I think the 4 piece zuni set is HUGE and you need the chest if you're going to use Thing of the Deep. Also, lifesteal is very important for making reflects damage packs easier... sometimes the health globes don't drop at 50% health and that's when you can have trouble (not dying but you'll have to wait for spirit walk to come back). Lifesteal isn't needed (I don't have it on my MF weapon) but it does help out a lot if you have it.
Personally, I run out of mana on extra health massive units (like tremors) so some of your advice is a bit based on your current gear (you seem to have a ton of +mana regen/max mana/zbear reduction pieces).
I'll try the movespeed boost on horrify and see if I really need the armor boost at my gear level. I've had that rune on my mental checklist to try once I start removing some of my MF gear so we'll see how it goes. Mass confusion seems like an interesting skill to have. I may have to try it instead of dogs but I think I might start dying on trash without my dogs... I don't think my gear is at your level yet in terms of survivability.
How do you stand breaking down doors/objects with zbears? It's so slow and cumbersome. Even if I never used darts for damage it still saves a lot of time in the keeps breaking down doors. My keep clears are much slower when I only have zbears on my bar. I don't think BBV really adds much when you're killing elites in 2-3 seconds anyway. Also, there are times where I can't be close enough to use zombie bears due to molten/arcane if it's an enemy that runs away.
You must have some wicked gear for that to actually work out for you. For me, it was an expensive and frustrating experience.
1.) I don't know how you function with only having zbears for an attack. Anything that runs away is an extreme pain (even worse if it's molten). You need a ranged skill.
2.) I couldn't survive without having zdogs out to distract. It wasn't an issue for early Act 3 but the later stuff in Act 3 was killing me (both trash and elites).
3.) I liked having the speed glyph for horrify but it made reflects damage and certain trash packs a huge headache. I must not have the gear yet to pull this off. Possibly once I get rid of my magic find....
4.) I can't stand Mass Confusion. The very first pack I used it against was knockback.... it took 2-3 times longer to kill because the stupid mobs would punt each other to different parts of the map. I know this was an odd situation but I was not a fan. I did not experience a noticeable increase in kill time either so.... not worth it.
Thanks for the input. My gear cannot handle it though or I simply don't like the playstyle. Maybe it will work better for others.
I'm running Zombie Bears these days in my Act 3 farming runs, and I'm loving it. Probably not looking back, either. I don't necessarily have the gear to support the build you've suggested here, but my build is similar and I'm loving it! Thanks for the food for thought!
Since I can't post links yet, for those Witch Doctors who want to go Zombie Bears (because it really is the best way to farm efficiently) and cannot afford 4pc Zuni. Replace Gruesome Feast with Circle of Life and Horrify with Sacrifice - Pride rune. With 20+ yards of pick up radius you will have no trouble creating dogs to explode for mana. I've used that spec since 1.04 until I obtained my 4pc Zuni and it was a lot of fun.
edit: I'd also advise to use the Templar as your follower, his heals are always useful considering you will be in the face of mobs most of the time.
It depends what your goal is. Do you want to challenge yourself with higher monster levels or do you just want to farm as quickly and efficiently as possible?
This will still be the best farming spec imo but if you want to turn up the monster level, this spec won't be as good. That said, no matter what spec you're using, if you turn up the monster level you're also losing efficiency. I wouldn't use this spec for the infernal machine either.
When I found out how well GF/GI synergized I pretty sniped a totd and this build is what I came up with all the way down to the gear, great to find a similar build online.
I swapped BBV for horrify for the extra dps and attack speed since Im a bit gimped right now due to not wanting to upgrade jewelry til 1.05. (70kdps)
I used the Garg instead of dogs since my build is slightly more focused on burst damage and his restless giant rune really helps with that.
With +24% MS and splinters/bears has been great. Rushing from mob to mob and just blowing cooldowns just doesnt seem to get old to me. Streaming a slow wave of zombie bears which wreck everything has entertained me for 100+ a3 runs haha.
In regards to RD , Ill get close as posssible and spam bears/bbv while in jaunt, while using soul siphon everytime its up , doesnt matter if you get 1 or 5 stacks, need it primarily for the heal and killing some white mobs to reset the CD can be a good idea at times. If they dont die I can always choose to proc Spirit vessel while throwing out more bears and running away at the last second for some space if I need to.
Bump for a great build
Cant link profile so you can search up kittyslayer#1360
EDIT*
Also in preparation of higher mp levels Im lookin to get a Visage while keeping the zuni set bonus by using the set offhand. Goal is for 100mana/sec so that + VQ = 130 m/s. Im hopin the flow of mana gives me a wider array of options to test out high mana requirement builds which effectively boost my dps by not going OOM however the raw damage numbers wouldnt show in the profile.
Replace helm and weapon. You want +mana regen and +mana for your helm. If you have enough mana for your bear, get a higher dps weapon. If not, get a knife with +mana regen and maybe +mana.
Replace helm and weapon. You want +mana regen and +mana for your helm. If you have enough mana for your bear, get a higher dps weapon. If not, get a knife with +mana regen and maybe +mana.
Replace helm and weapon. You want +mana regen and +mana for your helm. If you have enough mana for your bear, get a higher dps weapon. If not, get a knife with +mana regen and maybe +mana.
Replace helm and weapon. You want +mana regen and +mana for your helm. If you have enough mana for your bear, get a higher dps weapon. If not, get a knife with +mana regen and maybe +mana.
Replace helm and weapon. You want +mana regen and +mana for your helm. If you have enough mana for your bear, get a higher dps weapon. If not, get a knife with +mana regen and maybe +mana.
I have over 300 hours into my WD. She is my main, and I have tried many many different builds including the zero CD zombie dog. And Although the Zombie dog build offers more survivability with a decent dps output. This Zombie bear build is by far the best for farming paragon and elites.
The only thing I change up is I use Manitou as my secondary DPS, I find that I spend so much time trying casting bears another castable wasnt productive.
I have 33% CC with 350% CD 0% LOH and 600 Resis all. I barely die and its sped up my act three runs by tens of minutes. As far as WD farming goes this is the best build.
I have over 300 hours into my WD. She is my main, and I have tried many many different builds including the zero CD zombie dog. And Although the Zombie dog build offers more survivability with a decent dps output. This Zombie bear build is by far the best for farming paragon and elites.
The only thing I change up is I use Manitou as my secondary DPS, I find that I spend so much time trying casting bears another castable wasnt productive.
I have 33% CC with 350% CD 0% LOH and 600 Resis all. I barely die and its sped up my act three runs by tens of minutes. As far as WD farming goes this is the best build.
Can you post your profile? thnx
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It's helpful but overpriced for WD imo. If you're on a budget, get some crit % from cheaper pieces (mojo, gloves) and a bit of crit dmg where you can but don't go out of your way. My weapon doesn't have crit dmg OR a socket... but because of that I got a 1200 dps 1 hander with 142 int, 80 vit, and 2.5% lifesteal for only 10M. If I wanted to add crit dmg to that... well... I didn't find any on the AH at all with that much dps... and the ones in the 1000-1100 range were 50M+... that's just not worth it.
The reason crit dmg is not as good is because once you start getting GOOD gear, you'll be 1 shotting white mobs without a crit. This means all the crit % + crit dmg that you have is mostly wasted. When your crit is only helping you on tremors and elites, it starts to lose it's value a lot. That's not to say it's worthless, it's far from it... but it is a very expensive stat to add to your gear and you can faceroll act 3 without it.
You don't understand how you're supposed to use horrify in this build. When I use horrify, I use it before I enter a pack. Horrify is only used for the 100% armor increased. If there was a way to turn off the fear, I would do it. For example, I use it between every pack in the fields of slaughter because there's a lot of ranged monsters that hits me (and millions of monsters that occasionally melee me pretty good). I'll also use it before I engage an elite pack. Horrify is 100 times better than garg for this build.
I tried umbral shock... I couldn't stand having a 2 second spirit walk because even with a 3 second spirit walk, a lot of times I can't make it to a pack. This is pretty important now that I added vengeful spirit because I want to spirit walk into the middle of the pack of enemies and hit vengeful (which usually kills all the weaker monsters). If walk fails before I reach the pack, not only is my travel time increased, but my vengeful spirit will hit less monsters (and it will be more risky that I take a lot of hits). Thanks for the suggestions though! Other people may enjoy it more.
@windwalk... what is your gear like? I had around 45k DPS (before soul harvest) when I first started this build. Do you have enough pickup radius gear? I would suggest at least 20 for this build. Make sure you're close enough that Grave Injustice is proccing with every kill.
It helps a lot with reflects damage and with keeping your health topped off in general. It's worth it.
It's up to you how much you want to spend. If you want crit + socket + lifesteal + decent DPS... you'll pay over 10x the price to get something with less DPS.
If you plan on using this build though, you need to keep in mind that a bear crit (even with very little to no crit dmg) will kill almost anything. So yeah... your DPS number will increase by a lot but how much of that is overkill? Solely relying on that number can cause problems. It does make elites melt faster though so it depends on your current gear if you're happy with the speed of elite kills. When I'm using my regular gear I have a stone of jordan and elites just melt so I don't care a bit about crit dmg or a socket on my weapon.
Between Acid Cloud and Zombie Charger it should be possible to find something that works well for you, I'd think. Zombie Bears is definitely the brute force option and probably works a bit better for farming, I'd imagine. Shame I can't get myself to put that spell on my bars, heh.
Thanks for the good advice. The only thing I disagree with is your advice about using Tyrael's might. I think the 4 piece zuni set is HUGE and you need the chest if you're going to use Thing of the Deep. Also, lifesteal is very important for making reflects damage packs easier... sometimes the health globes don't drop at 50% health and that's when you can have trouble (not dying but you'll have to wait for spirit walk to come back). Lifesteal isn't needed (I don't have it on my MF weapon) but it does help out a lot if you have it.
Personally, I run out of mana on extra health massive units (like tremors) so some of your advice is a bit based on your current gear (you seem to have a ton of +mana regen/max mana/zbear reduction pieces).
I'll try the movespeed boost on horrify and see if I really need the armor boost at my gear level. I've had that rune on my mental checklist to try once I start removing some of my MF gear so we'll see how it goes. Mass confusion seems like an interesting skill to have. I may have to try it instead of dogs but I think I might start dying on trash without my dogs... I don't think my gear is at your level yet in terms of survivability.
How do you stand breaking down doors/objects with zbears? It's so slow and cumbersome. Even if I never used darts for damage it still saves a lot of time in the keeps breaking down doors. My keep clears are much slower when I only have zbears on my bar. I don't think BBV really adds much when you're killing elites in 2-3 seconds anyway. Also, there are times where I can't be close enough to use zombie bears due to molten/arcane if it's an enemy that runs away.
You must have some wicked gear for that to actually work out for you. For me, it was an expensive and frustrating experience.
1.) I don't know how you function with only having zbears for an attack. Anything that runs away is an extreme pain (even worse if it's molten). You need a ranged skill.
2.) I couldn't survive without having zdogs out to distract. It wasn't an issue for early Act 3 but the later stuff in Act 3 was killing me (both trash and elites).
3.) I liked having the speed glyph for horrify but it made reflects damage and certain trash packs a huge headache. I must not have the gear yet to pull this off. Possibly once I get rid of my magic find....
4.) I can't stand Mass Confusion. The very first pack I used it against was knockback.... it took 2-3 times longer to kill because the stupid mobs would punt each other to different parts of the map. I know this was an odd situation but I was not a fan. I did not experience a noticeable increase in kill time either so.... not worth it.
Thanks for the input. My gear cannot handle it though or I simply don't like the playstyle. Maybe it will work better for others.
edit: I'd also advise to use the Templar as your follower, his heals are always useful considering you will be in the face of mobs most of the time.
This will still be the best farming spec imo but if you want to turn up the monster level, this spec won't be as good. That said, no matter what spec you're using, if you turn up the monster level you're also losing efficiency. I wouldn't use this spec for the infernal machine either.
I swapped BBV for horrify for the extra dps and attack speed since Im a bit gimped right now due to not wanting to upgrade jewelry til 1.05. (70kdps)
I used the Garg instead of dogs since my build is slightly more focused on burst damage and his restless giant rune really helps with that.
With +24% MS and splinters/bears has been great. Rushing from mob to mob and just blowing cooldowns just doesnt seem to get old to me. Streaming a slow wave of zombie bears which wreck everything has entertained me for 100+ a3 runs haha.
In regards to RD , Ill get close as posssible and spam bears/bbv while in jaunt, while using soul siphon everytime its up , doesnt matter if you get 1 or 5 stacks, need it primarily for the heal and killing some white mobs to reset the CD can be a good idea at times. If they dont die I can always choose to proc Spirit vessel while throwing out more bears and running away at the last second for some space if I need to.
Bump for a great build
Cant link profile so you can search up kittyslayer#1360
EDIT*
Also in preparation of higher mp levels Im lookin to get a Visage while keeping the zuni set bonus by using the set offhand. Goal is for 100mana/sec so that + VQ = 130 m/s. Im hopin the flow of mana gives me a wider array of options to test out high mana requirement builds which effectively boost my dps by not going OOM however the raw damage numbers wouldnt show in the profile.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Belzeboss69-1354/hero/1943311
I currently have 80m.
Thnx.
Replace helm and weapon. You want +mana regen and +mana for your helm. If you have enough mana for your bear, get a higher dps weapon. If not, get a knife with +mana regen and maybe +mana.
I use a skorn on the wd and tearing act3 apart.
http://us.battle.net...1/hero/26046265
Im thinking buying zunimasa helm +mana 200 int and another piece for the int bonus.
get a helm with crit so you don't need to upgrade in a future.
The price diference is hugee! Ill get a crit one after the patch
The only thing I change up is I use Manitou as my secondary DPS, I find that I spend so much time trying casting bears another castable wasnt productive.
I have 33% CC with 350% CD 0% LOH and 600 Resis all. I barely die and its sped up my act three runs by tens of minutes. As far as WD farming goes this is the best build.