The problem is our mana regen and passives, and yeah it's pretty terrible. For some reason they thought that it'd be worth it to alternate between 2-3 different spells rather than use 1 and have more CC. It's really not at all. And having VQ just discourages people from using more than 1 spell even more.
You're not really going to find more innovative ways to play the class... it's all really simple. The best builds involve VQ so that you can spam the highest damage abilities we have.
It's been this way from day 1... VQ is too good and our other passives are too bad... and because you use so many cds already in Inferno, there's usually no reason not to get it.
The only "innovative" thing you can do right now really is use %CC, which if you've tried it with 4+ gear in all slots, is really overpowered and is guaranteed to be nerfed. You can make a LoH tank build as well but it really doesn't differ much from other VQ builds.
Your making all this too black and white and stating opinions. Not the case at all. I run with another WD who uses the VQ/Bears build with similiar gear to what I have. We both do the equal damage, just stronger in different situations. In places we can stand still, his damage is better, but when we need to be on the run, my constant dot and aoe damage wins out. Also, +critchance is good for any WD spec and not overpowered, simply a nice addition to your gear set. When I speak of innovation, I mean the way in which you play, not your gear set up. VQ/Bears/Bats, LoH tank build, my firebomb/aoe spec. These are all viable ways to play. Just letting people know that theres more than one or two ways to play so as not to get bored. If you think spamming one ability is fun, then, more power to you. Blizzard doesn't ever seem to think so, so look for a nerf on this in the future.
Your comment about mana regen sounds like complaining rather than adjusting. Spiritual Attunement is a great way to get and keep some of that mana you say we don't have. (20% plus mana and 1% to mana every second) not sure how this is a bad passive and not a good choice for mana. This passive cuppled with Pierce the Veil and Spirit Walk(IMO necessary skill) with Honored guest rune is a great way to keep your mana and damage rolling w/o relying on VQ to give us a full mana bar. If your having problems staying alive, utilize your health pots as a timed healing cd.
Depending on what spec you choose to roll with, make sure that you get, for ex. +10% damage to lucust swarm on your helm if that's an ability your using or plus crit chance to Rain of Toads. Modifying your gear set/passives to your playstyle is key to maximizing your abilities potential.
Id go with splinter bear build, safe and easy. Can throw some CC in there to make it more playable if your having troubles kiting.
Anyone else tired of running bears. My god, how boring is that. I'm sure you'll see a nerf to that monotonous build in the future. Put everything on CD and use this one skill. Seems like a waste of 4 abilities that could be used to diversify and increase the fun of playing a WD. Really reminds me of playing a BM hunter back in BC, just spam this one button for an I win. No wonder people are getting bored with playing already.
We as a community need to find more innovative ways to play the class so we don't fall into that boring rut. WD have soo many cool spells that IMO just take time to master.
The answer is yes to darts, when I was running that build I had tons +atkspd and lacked mana.
Easy" is just a word for Lazy people. Although I don't think there's anything wrong with be lazy Happy hunting.
Fire bomb is weak as hell when it comes to single target damage, roll the bones does not make you hit your target twice. This means it lands on 85*1.2=102. Perhaps the weakest single target damage ingame. The only one of the firebombs runes that does more single target damage is the ghost bomb rune and that one isnt popular because the intial blast of 85% is as small as fire bomb normally is.
Locust swarm has the big flaw of not being ranged which means you have to survive applying it on act3-4 and that requires good gear. It is also expensive paired with pierce the veil. Using spirit walk in the beginning of the fight to get out isnt good because its your best escape spell which you want to keep off cd at any time.
I agree with everything your saying in this. The reason for Roll the Bones rune is for solo work. With all the large white mob packs it really helps keep everything manageable. I also had major issues running out of mana with Darts. My onehander has a reduction to mana cost on firebomb so that's another reason it's become my main go to.
The way I use locust swarm is I utilize a white mob to get the swarm on the elites. More often than not you'll have a few mobs mixed in at the beinning with the elites/blues. Locust swarm I reapply right after I drop a grasp, which helps to get me that necessary time to get it in there. From my experience, if you plan it right you can run right up there and use it and not get hit, just have to know your range to use it. I'm sure this is true for most abilities, just have found this to be the best fit for me soo far. Doesn't mean I won't change my mind. The one really cool thing I like about swarm is that it will keep jumping from room to room in say keep depths, which really helps quickly clear my path to kite. If I didn't use firebomb I would most likely use Darts with Splinters, but lack of aoe damage was getting me swarmed in act 4.
I'm not sure how much more we can talk on this topic, I've gotten more feedback than expected, and thanks for that. I'll contiune to try to figure out this WD class we all love soo much. It's the one guide I haven't seen yet on MMO, so I"m looking to take a stab at it sometime soon. Thanks again for all the information. Talk to you all soon.
In looking at this again, the problem I have with this build is you have no high damage skill beyond paranoia. Sure, you can get one shot that maybe does some damage to champ packs, but in my experience, not that much. After that, you have to put up with 80% damage.
And what Act are you in? I know in Act 1, 58k dps high enough that you could probably get a Spirit Barrage build to work if you wanted to. It's high enough that you probably one shot whites, even with firebomb (in act 1).
This just brings me back to something I said earlier - Blizzard really needs to release an optional "average" gear pack for each act in Inferno that you can use after you clear the act. Not so much to compare classes, but to compare builds. With my lousy unbuffed 12k DPS, there is little chance I can be convinced by someone with 58k DPS that something like this can work, just because that is 100% counter to my experience where I am.
If you read some of my earlier post, I said that the dps number you look at is not what you should pay attention to. It will lead you in the wrong direction. Also, the dps boost you get through atkspd is a fasade. Don't believe the number you see on the screen. Read your intel tooltip. Increase to percent damage and increase to all resist in a 10 intel to 1 resist ratio. Anyone who has played these kind of games for a long time knows that anything percentage based when it come to damage is really good. Should I hit harder or shoot faster is always a question up for debate. Well with all the running and kiting we have to do as WDs I choose to hit harder.
My increases to damage comes from my helm(+10% to locust swarm damage), paranoia for the 20% increase damage to all within the ability area and Big Bad VooDoo with slam dance giving you +20percent atkspd/30% increased damage for 20 sec. After these abilities are on cd you need to make sure to keep your grasp and locust swarm on the mobs. Firebomm (which is 85% wepdmg not the 80% you quoted) should be used right after grasp while the adds are slowed or anytime you can get a little distance between you and the mobs. If your not rolling consistant damage with these abilities your doing something wrong.
And I think you answered your own question "with my lousy unbuffed 12k dps", did you just hit 60, have you acquired "any" gear. You could spend 3000gold per gear piece and get to 20k dps. Sounds like your lazy and quoting an unreasonable number to start doing even act 1 inferno, maybe even act 4 hell, lol. My friends and I still had to run hell for a bit to do act 1 inferno after we hit 60.
I've finished all content including ponyland on a constant to answer the other question. I nevermind throwing ideas back and forth with people but please refrain from making laughable claims about how your 12k dps doesn't cut it. I'm sure most if not all people had problems with stats that low no matter what set up they were running.
I'm on vacation till saturday, but I'll make up that video when I get back. Should be a good visual aid to go with the run down.
1.) From my experience, reflects damage will completely destroy you if you use AoE attacks against them. To make matters worse you don't have any heals (soul harvest, hex, blood rit).
2.) Roll the bones doesn't hit the same target twice so I'm not sure what you're getting at with your comparison to darts.
Again, what are your stats? It's pretty important to know what is required for a build because this is a specialty build that won't work at all until you reach a certain gear threshold.
And answer:
1. In response to SH, Hx, and Blood Rit. Although these abilities are great in theory let me explain some of their downfalls synergisticly (is that a word, lol???)
a. Hex- with I'm assuming hedge magic. Imo this heal is soo minor that the damage benefit from the jinx rune outweighs any healing benefit hedge could offer. Rememeber that the tooltip reads, "sometimes heals for said amount". Maybe good for inferno act 1 to mess around with but not viable for 2-4. Above all this is a controlled CC that doesn't work on all mobs and if you are going to use it jinx is the way to go.
b. Soul Harvest- again another ability that sounds great for the damage increase and healing from the rune, but falls short on boss fights with no adds. You only stand to get one stack to intel and a minor heal. Really good for bears IMO, but for this build it falls a little behind to the other damage increasing options avaliable to you. If you are going to use this I suggest the rune that increases the duration. Get your 5 stack and hold on to it. You don't want to constantly be running yourself into mobs to gain stacks or to recieve a heal that, like I said is very minor. Great way to get yourself killed or pop your Vessel before you want to.
c. Blood ritual- lets do some math. Say you have 30k health. 1% of 30,000 is 300 heath per second. 300x60 sec = 18000 health over a minute. Think about that. Really worth it? Should you just not use any mana abilites? The more abilities you use the less the benefit. Even though the the ability is more effecive the more health you have my answer is no, not even if you have mana problems. Balance is the key and if you have 50k health I can almost gaurentee that you've slacked in stats somewhere in your set up. Might be wrong in all cases but for the majority of peopIe out there with sub godlike gear it's another passive that just falls short.
2. Comparision to darts- as a single target spell darts will win out, but we all know that you can't switch to another spell at the boss and maintain your 5 stack. So do you choose the spell that deals damage to all enemys, which is what you encounter the majority of the time on the way to the boss. Or, do you prey that you do enough damage outside of darts to compensate for the loss in aoe damage. Up to you, but I think firebomb is the clear over all winner, atleast for me and my playstyle.
3. Current stats- 1.34 atkspd, 190% increased crit damamge, 23% crit hit chance, 2026 intel, 0 mana regen, 104 plus to max mana, 33k health, 500 resist to all, helm has +10% to swarm damage(very key :)) and 58k dps.<-------(remember that even if this number shows higher with atkspd not the way you want to go).
All of the healing options you suggested won't defend against a one shot, which is what you'll encounter in the later acts without a decent health bar and resistances. If you can't find gear for upgrades continuously upgrade your gems(remember you'll have them for life). If your having health bar problems snag a decent purple gem and put it in a helm with a socket. Helps a lot.
I'd also like to state that I ran this same build with 1800 intel, 100 percent increased crit dmg, and 15 percent crit hit chance. With the nerf to atkspd, it caused me to try and choose some more benefical options.
Hope this helps answer the questions you asked. Be easy
I'm not sure how you have the mana required for this build. You must have a lot of +max mana and +mana regen items because locust swarm + pierce is killer.
What is your gear like? It sounds like you just outgear the content and could pretty much use any build effectively. I don't see how this build is anywhere near as good as a dart build without having god like gear. You don't really have a good single target spell and it's all AoE.
How do you handle reflects damage? You have 0 healing.
No worries, glad to answer questions.
1. Mana- only have max mana on my offhand, which puts me at 1004 mana with the passive with no plus to mana regen. Also your spirit walk with the rune and spiritual attunement will give you the necessary mana regen to maintain your dps. Remember that there's no need to do anything with swarm until it falls off. Don't just spam it. Waste of time and that "mana" that your not supposed to have. (just pokin you a bit).
2. Healing- Heath Pot, LoH and damage convered to life on weapon. Remember to that you can use spirit walk offensivly and defensivly. You don't take damage while in spirit walk so its good to use right after you lay your aoe down. If your dealing with reflet damage there's a few things to keep in mind.
a. Make sure that if your doing infero acts 2-4 you need to have a minimum of 25k health and close to 500 resist.
b. Don't use your health pot too early. Many times people will use it right when you take damage.
Reflect damage is the only time I feel you have to micro manage your health bar. Keep your aoe in line with your spirit walk as well as utilizing the Spirit Vessel passive and you'll do fine.
3. Darts- Only hits one target with 3 darts for 60 percent weapon damage on each dart. Firebomb hits all targets within 8 yards for 85% wepdmg and bounces twice to trailing targets. This can equate to 85% x3= 255% potential weapon damage going out per use of the ability compared to 60% x3= 180% per use of ability.
4. How's my gear. I have an extremely good one hander and offhand for the +mana. Besides that, my gear doesn't seem any more overpowered than anyone else who's been playing since launch. I concentrate less on atkspd and more on crit chance/crit damage/intel. The effectiveness of atkspd decreases the more you have to move, which like I stated before, kiting is and should be the WD bread and butter. The best gear is determind by spec to buff you skills. You wouldn't want atkspd running bears, you would instead want the most intel/wepdmg/critdamage. I believe that the witch doctor is the one class that allows you more room to make different ability choices. Even corpse spiders can be viable if you get plus damage to the ability.
Lastly, filling dps dead time with stong, consistant aoe is a benefit, not a hinderence, "especially as lower gear levels", darts is great, but if you can't use it all the time, then it's a waste. And as far as firebomb not being a good damaging spell, I beg to differ.
Knowing when and where to use your abilities while using this spec creates a dynamic playstyle that is truly fun. Granted you might have to spend some time in act 1 and 2 to grab so gear, but that's synonomus for anyone.
As I said. I'll be making a video to show how this build is viable and works great in any situation. When you speak of having to line things up, I would imagine that you run a bears or firebats build with VQ, which requires no skill at all imo. Cds on the above listed abilities work great. When you have swarm ticking for 40k, grasp for 30-40k with increased damage from totem and confussion i don't see how your damage falls short. Even normal sustained damage is good in this guild. I've seen as high as 130k crits from firebomb(will be shown in the video), and have had no problems with acts 1-4 thusfar. All builds get better with gear and proper stats choices. Remember too that getting to the boss with a 5 stack would and should be the main goal, and this is where I believe other builds fall short. Your question about Belial posses and intresting question about the two preceding bounes from firebomb. Although I haven't had a issue on the fight I haven't varified if the other two boucnce hit as well. Will check tonight. For your other question about travel time, it works fine during poison phase, while the other abilities keep up your dps durring times where you have to move a lot.
Yeah, I don't see how you can run a WD without using darts. I've tried a few builds that didn't use it. They just don't pan out well; especially against elites and bosses - where it matters most.
Spec some people should try: *(I use a logitech G5 mouse so some ablitites will be attached to extra mouse buttons)
1. Left Click- Firebomb (roll the bones rune). This is your main attack. Deals a high ammount of aoe damamge with the ability to crit to all targets within 8 yards, bouncing twice more in the same direction dealing equal damamge. Imo this is great for all trash you have to deal with durring the later acts.
2. Right Click- Grasp of the dead (eels rune). The slow from this is pinnacle to kiting which, imo should be the main playstyle of the class. The other side to this is the increased damage. Any ability you choose should in some way always be dealing damage to your enemys. Until you get more used to the class you may want to use the rune to increase to 80% slow, but it will take longer to kill enemys.
3. Mouse button 4- "SPIRIT WALK"- (honored guest rune). This abliity should be used strategicly to move yourself in and out of dealing damage and in and out of danger. The rune will get you back the necessary mana to maintain a consistant flow of offense. Almost a necessary skill for any wd in my opinion.
4. Mouse button 5-
Two choices here depending on playstyle: (both work great in group or solo situations)
a. Hex (jinx rune). Great cc for kiting and killing on the run (which you'll be doing a lot). Jinx gives you an increase of 20% damage to the hex'd target making it great for elite packs and not so much for bosses. Still very effective but not useable in all situations.
b. Mass Confussion- (paranoia). This is what I currently use. Although the cd is a minute long, it lines up perfectly for use on elite packs and bosses. The 20% increased damage to all enemy affected in abilities area creates great synergy to this builds aoe strengths.
5. "D" keyboard button- Locust Swarm (Searing Locust Rune)- Awesome progressive aoe. With a bit of luck this ability will tear through any trash mob or elite. Works as a great "set it and forget it talent". Run in and blow this on the first enemy you see and watch the show. I've seen up to 50k ticks from this as it shreds the masses.
6. "A" keyboard button- Big Bad VooDoo (Slam Dance Rune)- Can you say bloodlust. 20% increased attackspeed and 30% increased damage with the attached rune. Nuff said on this ability :).
7. "W" keyboard button- bound to the move ability in keybinds. How many of us have tried to move out of a corner or away from a group with out left mouse click and just kept attacking. The keybind will eliminate the chance of this happening. Very important skill.
To give you guys and example of an opener with this spec it would go something like this:
1. Run in locust swarm and grasp of the dead
2. Spirit walk if you have to while using Mass confussion
3. Move back and start your firebomb.
4 If you've found a good ammount dps time, drop that VooDoo totem.
5. Use grasp to kite while reapplying swarm when it falls off.
*Saving your spirit walk for those pesky jailer, vortex and waller ablities will also help.
Passives:
1. Pierce the Veil: Although this makes for more mana, I believe the damage is necessary. Spirit walk will help with balance.
2. Spirit Vessel: Required IMO. Play like a tiger when this abliity has not been activated and like a kitten when it is. Those of you who run this will know what I mean.
3. Spiritual Attunement: More mana ftw!!!!
Finese is the key to playing this build which is what I believe to be the most fun part about it. Hope this helps a few people. I'll have a video up soon for a visual reference. Peace.
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#1 Blackthornes:
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+427LoH
+12% Life
+life regen 181
+14.9% chance to inflict bleed of 146-250
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+37 str.
+135 dex
+54 int
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+4.0% crit hit chance
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Your making all this too black and white and stating opinions. Not the case at all. I run with another WD who uses the VQ/Bears build with similiar gear to what I have. We both do the equal damage, just stronger in different situations. In places we can stand still, his damage is better, but when we need to be on the run, my constant dot and aoe damage wins out. Also, +critchance is good for any WD spec and not overpowered, simply a nice addition to your gear set. When I speak of innovation, I mean the way in which you play, not your gear set up. VQ/Bears/Bats, LoH tank build, my firebomb/aoe spec. These are all viable ways to play. Just letting people know that theres more than one or two ways to play so as not to get bored. If you think spamming one ability is fun, then, more power to you. Blizzard doesn't ever seem to think so, so look for a nerf on this in the future.
Your comment about mana regen sounds like complaining rather than adjusting. Spiritual Attunement is a great way to get and keep some of that mana you say we don't have. (20% plus mana and 1% to mana every second) not sure how this is a bad passive and not a good choice for mana. This passive cuppled with Pierce the Veil and Spirit Walk(IMO necessary skill) with Honored guest rune is a great way to keep your mana and damage rolling w/o relying on VQ to give us a full mana bar. If your having problems staying alive, utilize your health pots as a timed healing cd.
Depending on what spec you choose to roll with, make sure that you get, for ex. +10% damage to lucust swarm on your helm if that's an ability your using or plus crit chance to Rain of Toads. Modifying your gear set/passives to your playstyle is key to maximizing your abilities potential.
Anyone else tired of running bears. My god, how boring is that. I'm sure you'll see a nerf to that monotonous build in the future. Put everything on CD and use this one skill. Seems like a waste of 4 abilities that could be used to diversify and increase the fun of playing a WD. Really reminds me of playing a BM hunter back in BC, just spam this one button for an I win. No wonder people are getting bored with playing already.
We as a community need to find more innovative ways to play the class so we don't fall into that boring rut. WD have soo many cool spells that IMO just take time to master.
The answer is yes to darts, when I was running that build I had tons +atkspd and lacked mana.
Easy" is just a word for Lazy people. Although I don't think there's anything wrong with be lazy
I agree with everything your saying in this. The reason for Roll the Bones rune is for solo work. With all the large white mob packs it really helps keep everything manageable. I also had major issues running out of mana with Darts. My onehander has a reduction to mana cost on firebomb so that's another reason it's become my main go to.
The way I use locust swarm is I utilize a white mob to get the swarm on the elites. More often than not you'll have a few mobs mixed in at the beinning with the elites/blues. Locust swarm I reapply right after I drop a grasp, which helps to get me that necessary time to get it in there. From my experience, if you plan it right you can run right up there and use it and not get hit, just have to know your range to use it. I'm sure this is true for most abilities, just have found this to be the best fit for me soo far. Doesn't mean I won't change my mind. The one really cool thing I like about swarm is that it will keep jumping from room to room in say keep depths, which really helps quickly clear my path to kite. If I didn't use firebomb I would most likely use Darts with Splinters, but lack of aoe damage was getting me swarmed in act 4.
I'm not sure how much more we can talk on this topic, I've gotten more feedback than expected, and thanks for that. I'll contiune to try to figure out this WD class we all love soo much. It's the one guide I haven't seen yet on MMO, so I"m looking to take a stab at it sometime soon. Thanks again for all the information. Talk to you all soon.
If you read some of my earlier post, I said that the dps number you look at is not what you should pay attention to. It will lead you in the wrong direction. Also, the dps boost you get through atkspd is a fasade. Don't believe the number you see on the screen. Read your intel tooltip. Increase to percent damage and increase to all resist in a 10 intel to 1 resist ratio. Anyone who has played these kind of games for a long time knows that anything percentage based when it come to damage is really good. Should I hit harder or shoot faster is always a question up for debate. Well with all the running and kiting we have to do as WDs I choose to hit harder.
My increases to damage comes from my helm(+10% to locust swarm damage), paranoia for the 20% increase damage to all within the ability area and Big Bad VooDoo with slam dance giving you +20percent atkspd/30% increased damage for 20 sec. After these abilities are on cd you need to make sure to keep your grasp and locust swarm on the mobs. Firebomm (which is 85% wepdmg not the 80% you quoted) should be used right after grasp while the adds are slowed or anytime you can get a little distance between you and the mobs. If your not rolling consistant damage with these abilities your doing something wrong.
And I think you answered your own question "with my lousy unbuffed 12k dps", did you just hit 60, have you acquired "any" gear. You could spend 3000gold per gear piece and get to 20k dps. Sounds like your lazy and quoting an unreasonable number to start doing even act 1 inferno, maybe even act 4 hell, lol. My friends and I still had to run hell for a bit to do act 1 inferno after we hit 60.
I've finished all content including ponyland on a constant to answer the other question. I nevermind throwing ideas back and forth with people but please refrain from making laughable claims about how your 12k dps doesn't cut it. I'm sure most if not all people had problems with stats that low no matter what set up they were running.
I'm on vacation till saturday, but I'll make up that video when I get back. Should be a good visual aid to go with the run down.
And answer:
1. In response to SH, Hx, and Blood Rit. Although these abilities are great in theory let me explain some of their downfalls synergisticly (is that a word, lol???)
a. Hex- with I'm assuming hedge magic. Imo this heal is soo minor that the damage benefit from the jinx rune outweighs any healing benefit hedge could offer. Rememeber that the tooltip reads, "sometimes heals for said amount". Maybe good for inferno act 1 to mess around with but not viable for 2-4. Above all this is a controlled CC that doesn't work on all mobs and if you are going to use it jinx is the way to go.
b. Soul Harvest- again another ability that sounds great for the damage increase and healing from the rune, but falls short on boss fights with no adds. You only stand to get one stack to intel and a minor heal. Really good for bears IMO, but for this build it falls a little behind to the other damage increasing options avaliable to you. If you are going to use this I suggest the rune that increases the duration. Get your 5 stack and hold on to it. You don't want to constantly be running yourself into mobs to gain stacks or to recieve a heal that, like I said is very minor. Great way to get yourself killed or pop your Vessel before you want to.
c. Blood ritual- lets do some math. Say you have 30k health. 1% of 30,000 is 300 heath per second. 300x60 sec = 18000 health over a minute. Think about that. Really worth it? Should you just not use any mana abilites? The more abilities you use the less the benefit. Even though the the ability is more effecive the more health you have my answer is no, not even if you have mana problems. Balance is the key and if you have 50k health I can almost gaurentee that you've slacked in stats somewhere in your set up. Might be wrong in all cases but for the majority of peopIe out there with sub godlike gear it's another passive that just falls short.
2. Comparision to darts- as a single target spell darts will win out, but we all know that you can't switch to another spell at the boss and maintain your 5 stack. So do you choose the spell that deals damage to all enemys, which is what you encounter the majority of the time on the way to the boss. Or, do you prey that you do enough damage outside of darts to compensate for the loss in aoe damage. Up to you, but I think firebomb is the clear over all winner, atleast for me and my playstyle.
3. Current stats- 1.34 atkspd, 190% increased crit damamge, 23% crit hit chance, 2026 intel, 0 mana regen, 104 plus to max mana, 33k health, 500 resist to all, helm has +10% to swarm damage(very key :)) and 58k dps.<-------(remember that even if this number shows higher with atkspd not the way you want to go).
All of the healing options you suggested won't defend against a one shot, which is what you'll encounter in the later acts without a decent health bar and resistances. If you can't find gear for upgrades continuously upgrade your gems(remember you'll have them for life). If your having health bar problems snag a decent purple gem and put it in a helm with a socket. Helps a lot.
I'd also like to state that I ran this same build with 1800 intel, 100 percent increased crit dmg, and 15 percent crit hit chance. With the nerf to atkspd, it caused me to try and choose some more benefical options.
Hope this helps answer the questions you asked. Be easy
No worries, glad to answer questions.
1. Mana- only have max mana on my offhand, which puts me at 1004 mana with the passive with no plus to mana regen. Also your spirit walk with the rune and spiritual attunement will give you the necessary mana regen to maintain your dps. Remember that there's no need to do anything with swarm until it falls off. Don't just spam it. Waste of time and that "mana" that your not supposed to have. (just pokin you a bit).
2. Healing- Heath Pot, LoH and damage convered to life on weapon. Remember to that you can use spirit walk offensivly and defensivly. You don't take damage while in spirit walk so its good to use right after you lay your aoe down. If your dealing with reflet damage there's a few things to keep in mind.
a. Make sure that if your doing infero acts 2-4 you need to have a minimum of 25k health and close to 500 resist.
b. Don't use your health pot too early. Many times people will use it right when you take damage.
Reflect damage is the only time I feel you have to micro manage your health bar. Keep your aoe in line with your spirit walk as well as utilizing the Spirit Vessel passive and you'll do fine.
3. Darts- Only hits one target with 3 darts for 60 percent weapon damage on each dart. Firebomb hits all targets within 8 yards for 85% wepdmg and bounces twice to trailing targets. This can equate to 85% x3= 255% potential weapon damage going out per use of the ability compared to 60% x3= 180% per use of ability.
4. How's my gear. I have an extremely good one hander and offhand for the +mana. Besides that, my gear doesn't seem any more overpowered than anyone else who's been playing since launch. I concentrate less on atkspd and more on crit chance/crit damage/intel. The effectiveness of atkspd decreases the more you have to move, which like I stated before, kiting is and should be the WD bread and butter. The best gear is determind by spec to buff you skills. You wouldn't want atkspd running bears, you would instead want the most intel/wepdmg/critdamage. I believe that the witch doctor is the one class that allows you more room to make different ability choices. Even corpse spiders can be viable if you get plus damage to the ability.
Lastly, filling dps dead time with stong, consistant aoe is a benefit, not a hinderence, "especially as lower gear levels", darts is great, but if you can't use it all the time, then it's a waste. And as far as firebomb not being a good damaging spell, I beg to differ.
Knowing when and where to use your abilities while using this spec creates a dynamic playstyle that is truly fun. Granted you might have to spend some time in act 1 and 2 to grab so gear, but that's synonomus for anyone.
I really like the discussion though. Keep it up.
Spec some people should try: *(I use a logitech G5 mouse so some ablitites will be attached to extra mouse buttons)
1. Left Click- Firebomb (roll the bones rune). This is your main attack. Deals a high ammount of aoe damamge with the ability to crit to all targets within 8 yards, bouncing twice more in the same direction dealing equal damamge. Imo this is great for all trash you have to deal with durring the later acts.
2. Right Click- Grasp of the dead (eels rune). The slow from this is pinnacle to kiting which, imo should be the main playstyle of the class. The other side to this is the increased damage. Any ability you choose should in some way always be dealing damage to your enemys. Until you get more used to the class you may want to use the rune to increase to 80% slow, but it will take longer to kill enemys.
3. Mouse button 4- "SPIRIT WALK"- (honored guest rune). This abliity should be used strategicly to move yourself in and out of dealing damage and in and out of danger. The rune will get you back the necessary mana to maintain a consistant flow of offense. Almost a necessary skill for any wd in my opinion.
4. Mouse button 5-
Two choices here depending on playstyle: (both work great in group or solo situations)
a. Hex (jinx rune). Great cc for kiting and killing on the run (which you'll be doing a lot). Jinx gives you an increase of 20% damage to the hex'd target making it great for elite packs and not so much for bosses. Still very effective but not useable in all situations.
b. Mass Confussion- (paranoia). This is what I currently use. Although the cd is a minute long, it lines up perfectly for use on elite packs and bosses. The 20% increased damage to all enemy affected in abilities area creates great synergy to this builds aoe strengths.
5. "D" keyboard button- Locust Swarm (Searing Locust Rune)- Awesome progressive aoe. With a bit of luck this ability will tear through any trash mob or elite. Works as a great "set it and forget it talent". Run in and blow this on the first enemy you see and watch the show. I've seen up to 50k ticks from this as it shreds the masses.
6. "A" keyboard button- Big Bad VooDoo (Slam Dance Rune)- Can you say bloodlust. 20% increased attackspeed and 30% increased damage with the attached rune. Nuff said on this ability :).
7. "W" keyboard button- bound to the move ability in keybinds. How many of us have tried to move out of a corner or away from a group with out left mouse click and just kept attacking. The keybind will eliminate the chance of this happening. Very important skill.
To give you guys and example of an opener with this spec it would go something like this:
1. Run in locust swarm and grasp of the dead
2. Spirit walk if you have to while using Mass confussion
3. Move back and start your firebomb.
4 If you've found a good ammount dps time, drop that VooDoo totem.
5. Use grasp to kite while reapplying swarm when it falls off.
*Saving your spirit walk for those pesky jailer, vortex and waller ablities will also help.
Passives:
1. Pierce the Veil: Although this makes for more mana, I believe the damage is necessary. Spirit walk will help with balance.
2. Spirit Vessel: Required IMO. Play like a tiger when this abliity has not been activated and like a kitten when it is. Those of you who run this will know what I mean.
3. Spiritual Attunement: More mana ftw!!!!
Finese is the key to playing this build which is what I believe to be the most fun part about it. Hope this helps a few people. I'll have a video up soon for a visual reference. Peace.