Basic ideas: Survivability and decent aoe/single target damage. Stay close to monsters and tank as much damage as I can for my team.
Firebats-Dire bats: Love it in the beta, and although vampire bats does more damage, I really like the line nuke aspect of it making it more of a controllable "aoe",
Haunt-Draining Spirit: I have no primary skill so mana will be very valuable to me. Also does great single target damage and spreads on its own. Throw about 3 out into a fight and let them work their magic while spamming bats.
Summon Dogs-Leeching Beasts: Great distractions and little bits oh health regen to keep me sustained.
Soul Harvest-Siphon: Great damage buff and a great heal since I have to get close to use it (and for one of my passives). Keeps me alive and my damage worthwhile.
Mass Confusion-Mass Hysteria: My oh shit button and also my CC. Distracts and stuns enemies and keeps them occupied if I get too focused. With Grave Injustice passive should be up quite often.
Gargantuan-Unsure of rune: Another tank distraction with decent damage. Mostly there to peel for me and teammates.
Passives: Zombie Handler + Jungle Fortitude: Used in combination to keep me and my pets alive since I plan on being in the fray.
Grave injustice: Provides everything I need to stay close and do damage.
Don't rage at any terms I use please. I just call things how I see them
Hmmmm...you are too far ahead of yourself simply because it will definitely take a while even for a hard core player to reach Inferno. And by that time we will know everything about our spells, which means that your (as well as every current build based on theory crafting) will be changed many many many times before you reach inferno.
1. Fire bats - you might want to replace it with Zombie Charger (with any rune) because it will deal more dmg to a single and AOE. Acid Cloud (in any rune) seems a nice replacement to Firebats in that slot.
2. Haunt - well it is still quite unclear is it better than Locust Swarm. Anyways, whichever spell you choose between these two will be a good choice. However, Draining Spirit rune for Haunt is 100% useless (unless they change the amount) because these 10.2 mana per second is way tooo insignificant comparing to thousands and thousands of mana you will have in manapool by the time you reach inferno difficulty. That being said, Locust Swarm probably is a better choice because of runes that provide max damage output.
3. Mass confusion - it has 60 sec CD and that can probably be too long in inferno difficulty. However, Horrify is probably a better choice than Mass confusion simply because it has 20 sec CD and provides equally effective CC which is more practical for group play. And 20 second cd would definitely work better with Grave Injustice -- you would be able to practically spam Horrify while other players and pets peel.
4. Zombie handler passive - somehow it seems trivial for a group play. But, you might consider replacing it with Circle of Life (which will give you all 3 zombie dogs permanently until they die), and in that case you could replace the Summon Zombie Dogs spell for another spell.
5. Jungle Fortitude - while it definitely is important for higher difficulties later on, Pierce of Veil passive might be a better choice for a team play when you have a melee to tank for you. And also, that 30% mana incraese from Pierce of Veil will be completely insignificant to thousadns of mana in mana pool afteer you start grinding hell or inferno gear.
1) I choose firebats over those two for a few reasons, one is the mana cost, two is the range. Firebats is my main damage and spam ability so the lower the cost for the damage it does the better. Zombie charger (besides bears) does less damage and has a much shorter range. Acid cloud costs a ton of mana and does significantly less damage. although it has a decent aoe.
2) Haunt vs Locust I've looked into. Haunt, 575% over 12 seconds = 48% dps. Locust swarm 360% over 8 seconds = 45% dps. Not much but still. I also prefer the rune choices on haunt over locust. I also highly doubt we will have thousands and thousands of mana to spend. If you look at the soul harvest runes, the life rerturn is 2171 per affected enemy while the mana is 39. Obviously mana will not reach into the thousands otherwise I would take Spiritual Attunement passive and be golden.
3) I do not like horrify because I do not want enemies running away and potentially into my team. Also if you look at effectiveness Horrify and Mass Confusion are equally effective. Horrify 20 second cd, 4 second duration. 20/4 = 5. Mass confusion 60 second cooldown, 12 second duration. 60/12 = 5. I also prefer the rune choices on mc over horrify. CDs will hopefully be of little issue with grave injustice + items.
4&5) I really want my dogs to stay alive without me having to spam them when off cd. Pierce the Veil is great but I already am using lots of mana and soul harvest is granting me plenty of dps.
Thanks for your input I really like to see my build through fresh eyes and all your points were well thought out
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ceYdjT!TdZ!accZbZ
Basic ideas: Survivability and decent aoe/single target damage. Stay close to monsters and tank as much damage as I can for my team.
Firebats-Dire bats: Love it in the beta, and although vampire bats does more damage, I really like the line nuke aspect of it making it more of a controllable "aoe",
Haunt-Draining Spirit: I have no primary skill so mana will be very valuable to me. Also does great single target damage and spreads on its own. Throw about 3 out into a fight and let them work their magic while spamming bats.
Summon Dogs-Leeching Beasts: Great distractions and little bits oh health regen to keep me sustained.
Soul Harvest-Siphon: Great damage buff and a great heal since I have to get close to use it (and for one of my passives). Keeps me alive and my damage worthwhile.
Mass Confusion-Mass Hysteria: My oh shit button and also my CC. Distracts and stuns enemies and keeps them occupied if I get too focused. With Grave Injustice passive should be up quite often.
Gargantuan-Unsure of rune: Another tank distraction with decent damage. Mostly there to peel for me and teammates.
Passives: Zombie Handler + Jungle Fortitude: Used in combination to keep me and my pets alive since I plan on being in the fray.
Grave injustice: Provides everything I need to stay close and do damage.
Don't rage at any terms I use please. I just call things how I see them
1. Fire bats - you might want to replace it with Zombie Charger (with any rune) because it will deal more dmg to a single and AOE. Acid Cloud (in any rune) seems a nice replacement to Firebats in that slot.
2. Haunt - well it is still quite unclear is it better than Locust Swarm. Anyways, whichever spell you choose between these two will be a good choice. However, Draining Spirit rune for Haunt is 100% useless (unless they change the amount) because these 10.2 mana per second is way tooo insignificant comparing to thousands and thousands of mana you will have in manapool by the time you reach inferno difficulty. That being said, Locust Swarm probably is a better choice because of runes that provide max damage output.
3. Mass confusion - it has 60 sec CD and that can probably be too long in inferno difficulty. However, Horrify is probably a better choice than Mass confusion simply because it has 20 sec CD and provides equally effective CC which is more practical for group play. And 20 second cd would definitely work better with Grave Injustice -- you would be able to practically spam Horrify while other players and pets peel.
4. Zombie handler passive - somehow it seems trivial for a group play. But, you might consider replacing it with Circle of Life (which will give you all 3 zombie dogs permanently until they die), and in that case you could replace the Summon Zombie Dogs spell for another spell.
5. Jungle Fortitude - while it definitely is important for higher difficulties later on, Pierce of Veil passive might be a better choice for a team play when you have a melee to tank for you. And also, that 30% mana incraese from Pierce of Veil will be completely insignificant to thousadns of mana in mana pool afteer you start grinding hell or inferno gear.
I hope this helped you in a way.
1) I choose firebats over those two for a few reasons, one is the mana cost, two is the range. Firebats is my main damage and spam ability so the lower the cost for the damage it does the better. Zombie charger (besides bears) does less damage and has a much shorter range. Acid cloud costs a ton of mana and does significantly less damage. although it has a decent aoe.
2) Haunt vs Locust I've looked into. Haunt, 575% over 12 seconds = 48% dps. Locust swarm 360% over 8 seconds = 45% dps. Not much but still. I also prefer the rune choices on haunt over locust. I also highly doubt we will have thousands and thousands of mana to spend. If you look at the soul harvest runes, the life rerturn is 2171 per affected enemy while the mana is 39. Obviously mana will not reach into the thousands otherwise I would take Spiritual Attunement passive and be golden.
3) I do not like horrify because I do not want enemies running away and potentially into my team. Also if you look at effectiveness Horrify and Mass Confusion are equally effective. Horrify 20 second cd, 4 second duration. 20/4 = 5. Mass confusion 60 second cooldown, 12 second duration. 60/12 = 5. I also prefer the rune choices on mc over horrify. CDs will hopefully be of little issue with grave injustice + items.
4&5) I really want my dogs to stay alive without me having to spam them when off cd. Pierce the Veil is great but I already am using lots of mana and soul harvest is granting me plenty of dps.
Thanks for your input I really like to see my build through fresh eyes and all your points were well thought out