I REALLY feel like with the build above, you could go a lot of different ways with the 6th active skill. Like I mentioned you could easily switch to Acid Cloud if you want a different type of damaging ability, or, if you are doing PVP you might want to pick up another CC to help harass opponents. Hell you could even pick up a pet just to use as a quick distraction/dmg ability, and since you have locust swarm in the build you can empower that pet if wanted.
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If by empower you mean cast the locust swarm on the pets to give them disease damage, I'm pretty sure they removed that when they added skill runes into the mix. Their argument was that if you didn't want your locust swarm to make your zombie dogs diseased, they usually ended up that way anyway because they are usually right by the enemies you are targeting and get hit accidentally.
Now with runes implemented, you just socket in a rune that adds disease or fire or whatever you want, and they get the buff when summoned.
The witch doctor will easily be able to fight without pets. He/she has horrify, spirt walk, & confusion for crowd control. Then he has plenty of damage skills to clear the screen like locust swarm, spirit barrage, & acid cloud. The witch doctor could act like a wizard by not using pets at all just fine. I think the class will play better if you use the pets, though.
For the record, the "sacrifice" spell on the arena videos seem to deal as much damage, if not more, than Firebomb. Multiply that by 3 pets and you have a spell 3 times more damaging than your bread and butter one, albeit harder to hit.
On the DH gameplay video from last year, you can see the WD recovering mana from using Sacrifice, so I'd also assume his pets will have uses other than just a distraction/dps increase
Focusing on his pets isn't necessary, but I'm sure it's going to be pretty powerful, even for PvP.
i agree that sacrifice will do plenty of damage. i was just listing some elemental attacks. corpse explosion was awesome with the necromancer in d2 so i'm sure sacrifice will be just as awesome.
I think the class will play better if you use the pets, though.
Thats the arguement im really most worried about :-) If a pet-less build is not as viable as one focused on pets, most players will use pets, and players who don't stand to be criticized for not bringing their A-Game to the table :-)
I have a lot of hope after reading the active and passive skills list on this site :-) *Fingers crossed*
I believe that a pet-less build will be perfectly viable. I think the class was designed to run with pets for strategy purposes but blizzard has said that each class is a lot more adaptable then they were in d2. Each d3 class has active skills for 1 vs 1, aoe, & crowd control. Each class has a designed strategy for slaying monsters but each class can do whatever they want. (especially with the skills being able to be swapped out whenever you want with no skill points). If you want to play a witch doctor without pets then do so. It will completely be viable.
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If by empower you mean cast the locust swarm on the pets to give them disease damage, I'm pretty sure they removed that when they added skill runes into the mix. Their argument was that if you didn't want your locust swarm to make your zombie dogs diseased, they usually ended up that way anyway because they are usually right by the enemies you are targeting and get hit accidentally.
Now with runes implemented, you just socket in a rune that adds disease or fire or whatever you want, and they get the buff when summoned.
Edit: Raptorbonz42 beat me to it, missed his post