Tikiliadin Visage- A helmet that allows for the WD to achieve perma-fear
Sacrifice- A skill that allows for you to sacrifice a Zombie dog, usually Provoke the pack which gives a 20% increase damage per dog sacraficed
So we call it Tiki/Sac for short, however with zuni massa, focus restraint, alot of people are dropping the sac. YOu would only really use sacrifice now if your running a broken promises build, in which you use NO crit chance on your gear what do ever.
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
This is a list of the items that had the biggest impact on Witch Doctors for the upcoming patch (2.2). These items, may or may not have started off the way they are listed now, but it is safe to say these are in their finalized forms. If anything Changes I will go back and amend them
Zunimassa Gloves
* Added to allow for the 6 Piece set Bonus
* Takes away from the Possibility of running Tasker & Theo with Unity for Greater Rift play
Understandable why Blizzard wouldn't want Tasker & Theo to combo in with Unity. Pet build WD's with their improved damage, toughness, and skill improvement we would end up terrorizing the solo leader boards. I know a lot of people may not agree with this statement, but Zuni/SMK build can easily hit GR 46-48, while having a "Fishing potential" of Greater Rift 50-54 next season.
Zunimassa Pants
* Was Added after Player feedback to the Developers
* Enabled use of Unity ring with 6 Piece Zuni Sets.
These pants were included, after initial feedback with the Zuni set. Without having an additional piece to work with, it automatically made it so that a Player had to use Zunimassa Pox, and Ring of Royal Grandeur to get any viability out of the build. It was a solid choice to add an additional Zuni piece to the pants slot, being it is the most flexible area to work with.
Zunimassa Off Hand
*The picture you see isn't of the current PTR updated version*
* Added an additional 5th affix: *Increase Fetish Army Damage 25-30%*
* You can't re-roll this item to have *Increase Skill Damage*, unless you are rolling the new 5th affix off this item
The change to the 5th affix won't do anything for CarnEvil Builds, they still will be rolling "Increased Poison damage" on their off hands. For Zuni/Smk builds the New affix is a welcome "buff", having the additional 10-15% increased damage to Fetish army can't do anything but help.
Belt of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
* Allows for us to drop Fetish Sycophants passive, and run an alternative one
* Opens up options for 2 Hander's to generate Fetishes in a more reliable manner.
* Multiple builds for Witch Doctor, have flexibility in-regards to what pants we use.
* Works extremely well with Zunimassa's new 6 Piece set bonus.
*Just for a side note, the fetishes are the same ones from "Fetish Sycophants" Passive, meaning if you ran the passive with the pants you could only have "15" "Fetish Sycophants" at one time
Haunting Girdle
Not to much to say about the Haunting Girdle. The ability to have a double cast on the Poisoned Spirit is "ok", but with the inclusion of the "Belt of Transcendence" I'm 99.9% Sure that most Witch Doctors would prefer to have 15 Fetishes that provide additional damage, and toughness over simply having an additional haunt per cast. I think they item will find its uses, but only really in early stages of development in newly created/seasons Witch Doctor.
Homunculus
* New 5th affix: Increases Sacrifice Damage
* Secondary Affix Change: A Zombie dog is produced every 2 seconds, down from 4-6 seconds.
Very nice buff to this item. Zombie dog generation with this item is phenomenal, which allows us to maintain multiple stacks of Sacrifice "Provoke the Pack". This, and focus & restraint made the "Tiki Sac" Build for Witch Doctors the top end build on PTR for Witch Doctors.
Little Man's Finger
This is a highly entertaining ring, and is example of when blizzard does it "right". It isn't part of a "set", it has a solid legendary effect, and versatility to be inserted into many different builds. The only thing I worry about, is what the drop rate % will be once it hits live servers.
* Reduces the Cool down of "ONE" of our skills by 1 second for each time we use a mana spender
For zDPS, and early Witch Doctor Builds this will be a very useful ring. The only thing that holds this ring back is of the randomness of which skills will be reduced by one second, but shouldn't be to much of a problem in zDPS builds due to them benefiting from any of their long cool down skills be reduced.
Broken Ring of Promises
* After 5 non crit Consecutive hits your Critical Chance is increased by 100% for 3 seconds
**My original thoughts for how the initial way that the ring works**
*Depending on how blizzard is going to treat this ring, a lot of things can get pretty silly. In theory you could eliminate all of the Critical Chance in your Build, run pure attack speed with Critical Damage, you could easily maintain a 100% up time on the effect of the ring. I'd imagine Blizzard will add an additional stipulation in the form of "This effect can only occur once every <insert number here> seconds. Back in the "original ptr" Legendary Gem testing phase, Enforcer gem secondary provided pets with 40% increased critical chance increase or pets, needless to say this never mate it to the light of day on the live servers.*
**How the item works now.**
Pets no longer triggers the effect.
Apparently the Crit chance granted by the effect, carries over to your pets. With this being allowed, this ring would provide, an interesting way to itemize a WD for TIki/Sac play, or simple in efforts to Min-Max without worrying about the Crit Chance Stat whats so ever. Tiki/Sac could get a lot out of this ring until a Focus/Restraint were found, however if the WD prefers not to run focus and restraint, this would be the next viable option in Tiki/Sac play, while still allowing for a Unity ring to be used.
Focus & Restraint
I'm quite surprised to see this ring, not receive any additional alterations towards it. With the Tiki/Sac Build it turns it into a monster. The only reason this is possible to run this build in higher Greater rifts w/o unity is due to the fact Tiki/sac uses "Perma Fear" on the monsters, and runs high toughness. Blizzard can still make alterations to the ring set, but if they don't expect the top Leader Boards to reflect this set use, along with the traditional Tiki/Sac we have been using.
**Long story short**
* If you can use these rings in your build, DO IT.
In-Geom
*My original thought upon this weapon is as follows:*
* Nothing to complicated with this One-Handed weapon
* Reduces our base skills cool down from 4-6 seconds
This item, could be a really big game changer in a couple of our major builds, but most specifically our ZDPS group build. I would go more into detail about this item, however I'm pretty confident that this item will not make it through the PTR test phase, but if it does I will revisit and update this section.
**The current State of the weapon**
Almost useless, in its current state. I have to agree with the nerf to this weapon, as its previous form would of been game breaking for some classes. I would however hope Blizzard will address this issue, as I do not enjoy them spending development time on items, that end up being completely useless.
**Changes to Witch Doctor Active/Passive Skills & Set Items**
In terms of "Quality of Life" Changes for WD's Blizzard knocked it out of the park. A lot of our skills that haven't been used in a while will be use full. Hopefully in the future Blizzard can keep going back, and addressing the issues of some skills that are next to never used by most WD's. However one skill change, Spirit Walk, has unfortunately left the Jade build in ruins, and weakening the overall survivability of the WD.
* Enemies hit by your mana spenders take 275% additional from your pets.
* Gloves, and Pants have been including to obtain the 6 piece bonus.
The initial damage increase from 100% ---> 150% -----> 275% was defiantly needed to make this set bonus competitive with other classes set items, and builds. I would like to see a solid 300% implemented by blizzard, but isn't really necessary. I will say this however, reducing all Major 6 Piece Set items, for all classes to only requiring 5 pieces would defiantly add a lot more flexibility, and item combinations for all classes.
**Raiment of the Jade Harvester**
Blizzard made some changes to the Jade Harvester set for the better. I will say the only complaint I have about these changes is that, the (2) piece set bonus, should be the (4) piece set requirement, and drop the (4) Piece bonus to only (2) Piece requirement.
**(2) Set Bonus**
* When Haunt lands on an enemy already affected by Haunt, it instantly deals 10 seconds worth of Haunt damage
**(4) Set Bonus**
* Soul Harvest gains the effect of every rune
**(6) Set Bonus**
* Amount of DoT time detonated (via creeping death) increased from 30 to 40 seconds (This just increases Damage of the Harvest).
The overall set changes to the Jade set are fantastic HOWEVER.... The mechanics of what made the Jade Build so successful was related to the way Spirit walk worked so well with the build. With the changes to Spirit Walk, the Jades survivability within large mobs of groups is gone. Thus rendering the build useless.
**Things Blizzard could do to save the set:**
* Increase the Dot Time detonation cap from 40 to about 70-100 Seconds
This may seem like a little much, but if it proves to be to powerful Blizzard could always reduce it. If our survivability changes that's ok, we can make
due, but need something in compensation to make up for losing out on it.
* Allow for the 6 piece Bonus of Jade, to remove the Cool Down restraint placed upon Spirit Walk
Pretty straight forward here, reverts Spirit Walk to how it use to be only if you have 6 pieces of the Jade Set running. I think this would be a simple solution, and it wouldn't require Blizz to increase the damage any further with the jade build.
* Enable ,after Harvesting, a Scaling Damage absorption shield base upon how many enemies you landed harvest on.
I dunno if this would be more trouble than what its worth, but it would allow for the Witch Doctors toughness to be depending on how effect, and how often the player could cast soul harvest on enemies. This would no doubt cause more programming inside of the game, but I think it would make the play-style more interesting. However out of the 3 solutions/ideas I've listed the other teo are much easier to implement.
* Hex will now turn all enemies within a 12 yard radius into chickens, instead of just 1 enemy
* Increased the maximum range for both Hexing enemies and healing friendlies
* Minimum time between Hex casts by the Fetish Shaman increased from 3 to 4 seconds
* Duration for which enemies can be Hexed reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
A beautiful change to a spell that hasn't been in Witch Doctor use. It provides Crowd control, damage amp, and it doesn't cost any mana. It works on trash mobs, and elites and should be included in any build when you feel you are lacking a skill to finish rounding out your build.
**Fetish Army "Fetish Ambush"**
*Weapon damage dealt by each Fetish when it is summoned increased from 250% to 680%
I'm gonna keep this short. Unless your using some sort of cold pet build this changes is worthless. The damage from summoning the fetishes isn't worth it due to, the damage loss from taking the fetishes off their current target while due to summoning them.
**What Blizzard should of done**
* "Summon 5 Fetishes of Cold property, that "Cleave/Splash Attack" for a "% of the damage it deals* To all enemies within "Insert Radius" *Health Globe pick Up radius improves the Cleave/Splash area* up to a maximum "20 yards"
It would be nice for a Cold pet build, if the main focus of pets were to be "Cleave/Splash" damage.
**Spirit Walk**
* Cool down reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
* This ability does not start its cool down until after its effects expire
This change has no effect on pet builds, but Ruins the Jade Build. I won't go to much into how bad this change is, because it would take hours, but a couple of ideas on how they could fix this issue.
* Decrease the Cool Down to 6-8 Seconds
* Allow for it to be affected by Grave Injustice, even if the WD is still under the effects of the skill.
* Give a Small 1-2 Seconds of invulnerability when a WD comes out of its effect.
* Implement an item that increases the duration of Jaunt Spirit walk Rune for every enemy you kill while under the effects of it.
They have said they would take into some consideration to helping with the Spirit Walk nerf, but we haven't seen anything yet. So until then I expect 99.9% of the Witch Doctors will be running pet builds for season 3.
**Soul Harvest**
* Intelligence bonus granted by each enemy harvested increased from 2% to 3%
Great solid change here, I have no complaints. Will syn-energize with Gruesome feast, and builds that build a lot of intelligence.
* Skill Rune - Languish Has been redesigned Increases your Armor by 30% and reduces enemy movement speed by 80%
I don't mind the change that it increases armor, but it is a little weird since pre-patch 2.0 Horrify Frightening aspect had its Armor nerfed from 100% increased armor all the way down to 30%. They could of alternatively left "Frightening Aspect" at 100% increased armor, or reduced it down to 60%. The biggest errors in the balancing process is when you devote time to changing, or developing a certain skill to be a certain way, and then undermining that change, later through buffing of other skills, and or items. To add armor to soul harvest is a little silly at this point.
**What I hope they do:**
* Change Horrify FA* to give 60% increased armor, and change Languish for soul harvest to something else entirely
* Change Soul Harvest Languish, to 60% Increased armor, and Change Horrify FA* to something else entirely
**Haunt**
* Skill Rune - Consuming Spirit Life per second increased from 2682 to 4291 Damage type changed from Cold to Fire
Haunt now has every single element possible. With that being said, no one is going to use this skill, hopefully they look back into this in the future.
* Skill Rune - Poisoned Spirit Bug Fixes Fixed an issue that prevented this rune from increasing the damage of itself
Glad that this was addressed, and patched.....nothing to see here people.
**Plague of Toads "Rain of Toads"**
* Proc coefficient has been reduced
Not a Big deal since Fetish Sycophants (Passive Skill) chances have been buffed by 5% (Making it a 15% chance to proc fetishes with an attack)
**Summon Zombie Dogs "Final Gift" ---> "Chilled to the Bone"**
*Skill Rune - Final Gift Has been removed, Replaced with: Chilled to the Bone
* Enemies hit or hit by Zombie Dogs are Chilled for 3 seconds and take 10%-15% increased damage from all sources
This was a fantastic change, and it does Two things:
* Nerfs the Legacy Zero Dogs Build, that was only obtainable if you played the original vanilla Diablo
* Provides us extra damage on any enemies the zombie dogs are attacking
Way to go blizzard, nice to see a Cold rune property for zombie dogs, let alone have a rune effect that actually is very solid.
**Fetish Sycophants "Passive Skill"**
* 15% Chance to spawn a fetishes pet , after successfully landing an attack on an enemy
Up from 10% can't really complain about that, I'll take the extra 5% increase
* At the time of spawning, what ever is your highest elemental Damage, these fetishes take on that property
Fantastic quality of life change, this will allow for a lot of alternative builds to function much better, and optimize all their elemental damage for pets to one type.
These legendary gems is a nice change of pace. They've included one new defensive spell, and one new offensive spell. The defensive one looks like a solid choice with early level mitigation, but will fall wayside once Double unity combo is found. And Ice blink might aid Cold pet builds, but unfortunately is the weakest out of all elements for pet based builds.
* Your Cold skills now apply Chill effects and your Chill effects now slow enemy movement speed by an additional 5%
* The additional movement speed reduction is increased by .4% per rank
* At rank 25 you gain 10% increased chance to critically strike Chilled or Frozen enemies
This combined with Bane of the Trapped shall yield some very interesting results. Also depending on how well the movement speed reduction scales could literally leave enemies standing in their place unable to come directly at you. The 10% Crit chance is also nice, meaning you could drop Crit chance of some pieces of your gear, and run other stat affix's.
**Mutilation Guard**
* Gain 10% melee damage reduction
* Melee damage reduction is increased by 1% per rank
* At rank 25 while below 50% life, you may move through enemies unhindered
I wish they would change from Melee damage reduction to "all damage reduction", but hey for what its worth it is a step in the right direction. It will help people out early on in seasons, and provide them decent damage mitigation until people are able to find toughness through their gear, or Double Unity combo.
Focus & Restraint takes this build to the next level, with the Perma Fear the Tiki Helm provides, and toughness increases to pet WD's, you won't need to run Unity ring anymore. The Damage increase provided from F& R takes it to another level higher then CarnEvil. If no changes happens to F & R expect to see this build on Season 3 Leader Boards
**2. Zuni CarnEvil**
CarnEvil was already a build showing a lot of promise, but with the ability to use the new 6 piece Zuni set with it, allowed this build that topped out in the mid forties, be able to run all the way into the mid fifty's. Very easy set to build for, and gaining popularity, this build will re-occur it's self in the top 50 WD's on any server, quite easily.
My personal favorite, out of the new builds that are coming out of PTR. Very easy to run, not a lot of weakness outside of the lack of AOE damage, and overall just a lot of fun. This is a good alternative for players who may tire of tiki/sac, and CarnEvil builds. I will be personally running this build for Season 3.
Same build as above, only difference this version runs Unity, and Stone Of Jordan as opposed to Focus & Restraint
**5. CarnEvil**
Same Build as above, just not running the 6 piece Zuni set along with it
**6. Jade**
Not gonna spend to much time talking about this build, in its current state on ptr it is in shambles. Hopefully Blizzard does some re balancing, tuning to make this build at least competitive with others.
Tikiliadin Visage- A helmet that allows for the WD to achieve perma-fear
Sacrifice- A skill that allows for you to sacrifice a Zombie dog, usually Provoke the pack which gives a 20% increase damage per dog sacraficed
So we call it Tiki/Sac for short, however with zuni massa, focus restraint, alot of people are dropping the sac. YOu would only really use sacrifice now if your running a broken promises build, in which you use NO crit chance on your gear what do ever.
resource generator. or a primary skill
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag:
http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Diablo Fans Link to where I keep the growing list of all WD information:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/95384-debos-2-1-witch-doctor-compendium
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
Final Coverage for Witch Doctors PTR Patch 2.2 (Season 3)
Here is the Early coverage of Patch 2.2 on PTR, to see how development started
Early Witch Doctor Coverage
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
New Items that effect/work with Witch Doctors
This is a list of the items that had the biggest impact on Witch Doctors for the upcoming patch (2.2). These items, may or may not have started off the way they are listed now, but it is safe to say these are in their finalized forms. If anything Changes I will go back and amend them
Zunimassa Gloves
Understandable why Blizzard wouldn't want Tasker & Theo to combo in with Unity. Pet build WD's with their improved damage, toughness, and skill improvement we would end up terrorizing the solo leader boards. I know a lot of people may not agree with this statement, but Zuni/SMK build can easily hit GR 46-48, while having a "Fishing potential" of Greater Rift 50-54 next season.
Zunimassa Pants
These pants were included, after initial feedback with the Zuni set. Without having an additional piece to work with, it automatically made it so that a Player had to use Zunimassa Pox, and Ring of Royal Grandeur to get any viability out of the build. It was a solid choice to add an additional Zuni piece to the pants slot, being it is the most flexible area to work with.
Zunimassa Off Hand
The change to the 5th affix won't do anything for CarnEvil Builds, they still will be rolling "Increased Poison damage" on their off hands. For Zuni/Smk builds the New affix is a welcome "buff", having the additional 10-15% increased damage to Fetish army can't do anything but help.
Belt of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
Haunting Girdle
Not to much to say about the Haunting Girdle. The ability to have a double cast on the Poisoned Spirit is "ok", but with the inclusion of the "Belt of Transcendence" I'm 99.9% Sure that most Witch Doctors would prefer to have 15 Fetishes that provide additional damage, and toughness over simply having an additional haunt per cast. I think they item will find its uses, but only really in early stages of development in newly created/seasons Witch Doctor.
Homunculus
Very nice buff to this item. Zombie dog generation with this item is phenomenal, which allows us to maintain multiple stacks of Sacrifice "Provoke the Pack". This, and focus & restraint made the "Tiki Sac" Build for Witch Doctors the top end build on PTR for Witch Doctors.
Little Man's Finger
This is a highly entertaining ring, and is example of when blizzard does it "right". It isn't part of a "set", it has a solid legendary effect, and versatility to be inserted into many different builds. The only thing I worry about, is what the drop rate % will be once it hits live servers.
*Side note did a little written guide for this*
Link to Small Mans Finger Guide
Ring of the Zodiac
For zDPS, and early Witch Doctor Builds this will be a very useful ring. The only thing that holds this ring back is of the randomness of which skills will be reduced by one second, but shouldn't be to much of a problem in zDPS builds due to them benefiting from any of their long cool down skills be reduced.
Broken Ring of Promises
**My original thoughts for how the initial way that the ring works**
*Depending on how blizzard is going to treat this ring, a lot of things can get pretty silly. In theory you could eliminate all of the Critical Chance in your Build, run pure attack speed with Critical Damage, you could easily maintain a 100% up time on the effect of the ring. I'd imagine Blizzard will add an additional stipulation in the form of "This effect can only occur once every <insert number here> seconds. Back in the "original ptr" Legendary Gem testing phase, Enforcer gem secondary provided pets with 40% increased critical chance increase or pets, needless to say this never mate it to the light of day on the live servers.*
**How the item works now.**
Apparently the Crit chance granted by the effect, carries over to your pets. With this being allowed, this ring would provide, an interesting way to itemize a WD for TIki/Sac play, or simple in efforts to Min-Max without worrying about the Crit Chance Stat whats so ever. Tiki/Sac could get a lot out of this ring until a Focus/Restraint were found, however if the WD prefers not to run focus and restraint, this would be the next viable option in Tiki/Sac play, while still allowing for a Unity ring to be used.
Focus & Restraint
I'm quite surprised to see this ring, not receive any additional alterations towards it. With the Tiki/Sac Build it turns it into a monster. The only reason this is possible to run this build in higher Greater rifts w/o unity is due to the fact Tiki/sac uses "Perma Fear" on the monsters, and runs high toughness. Blizzard can still make alterations to the ring set, but if they don't expect the top Leader Boards to reflect this set use, along with the traditional Tiki/Sac we have been using.
**Long story short**
In-Geom
*My original thought upon this weapon is as follows:*
This item, could be a really big game changer in a couple of our major builds, but most specifically our ZDPS group build. I would go more into detail about this item, however I'm pretty confident that this item will not make it through the PTR test phase, but if it does I will revisit and update this section.
**The current State of the weapon**
Almost useless, in its current state. I have to agree with the nerf to this weapon, as its previous form would of been game breaking for some classes. I would however hope Blizzard will address this issue, as I do not enjoy them spending development time on items, that end up being completely useless.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**Changes to Witch Doctor Active/Passive Skills & Set Items**
In terms of "Quality of Life" Changes for WD's Blizzard knocked it out of the park. A lot of our skills that haven't been used in a while will be use full. Hopefully in the future Blizzard can keep going back, and addressing the issues of some skills that are next to never used by most WD's. However one skill change, Spirit Walk, has unfortunately left the Jade build in ruins, and weakening the overall survivability of the WD.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
Set Changes:
**Zunimassa 6 Piece Set**
The initial damage increase from 100% ---> 150% -----> 275% was defiantly needed to make this set bonus competitive with other classes set items, and builds. I would like to see a solid 300% implemented by blizzard, but isn't really necessary. I will say this however, reducing all Major 6 Piece Set items, for all classes to only requiring 5 pieces would defiantly add a lot more flexibility, and item combinations for all classes.
**Raiment of the Jade Harvester**
Blizzard made some changes to the Jade Harvester set for the better. I will say the only complaint I have about these changes is that, the (2) piece set bonus, should be the (4) piece set requirement, and drop the (4) Piece bonus to only (2) Piece requirement.
**(2) Set Bonus**
**(4) Set Bonus**
**(6) Set Bonus**
The overall set changes to the Jade set are fantastic HOWEVER.... The mechanics of what made the Jade Build so successful was related to the way Spirit walk worked so well with the build. With the changes to Spirit Walk, the Jades survivability within large mobs of groups is gone. Thus rendering the build useless.
**Things Blizzard could do to save the set:**
This may seem like a little much, but if it proves to be to powerful Blizzard could always reduce it. If our survivability changes that's ok, we can make
due, but need something in compensation to make up for losing out on it.
Pretty straight forward here, reverts Spirit Walk to how it use to be only if you have 6 pieces of the Jade Set running. I think this would be a simple solution, and it wouldn't require Blizz to increase the damage any further with the jade build.
I dunno if this would be more trouble than what its worth, but it would allow for the Witch Doctors toughness to be depending on how effect, and how often the player could cast soul harvest on enemies. This would no doubt cause more programming inside of the game, but I think it would make the play-style more interesting. However out of the 3 solutions/ideas I've listed the other teo are much easier to implement.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**Witch Doctor Skills Changes**
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**Hex**
A beautiful change to a spell that hasn't been in Witch Doctor use. It provides Crowd control, damage amp, and it doesn't cost any mana. It works on trash mobs, and elites and should be included in any build when you feel you are lacking a skill to finish rounding out your build.
**Fetish Army "Fetish Ambush"**
I'm gonna keep this short. Unless your using some sort of cold pet build this changes is worthless. The damage from summoning the fetishes isn't worth it due to, the damage loss from taking the fetishes off their current target while due to summoning them.
**What Blizzard should of done**
It would be nice for a Cold pet build, if the main focus of pets were to be "Cleave/Splash" damage.
**Spirit Walk**
This change has no effect on pet builds, but Ruins the Jade Build. I won't go to much into how bad this change is, because it would take hours, but a couple of ideas on how they could fix this issue.
They have said they would take into some consideration to helping with the Spirit Walk nerf, but we haven't seen anything yet. So until then I expect 99.9% of the Witch Doctors will be running pet builds for season 3.
**Soul Harvest**
Great solid change here, I have no complaints. Will syn-energize with Gruesome feast, and builds that build a lot of intelligence.
I don't mind the change that it increases armor, but it is a little weird since pre-patch 2.0 Horrify Frightening aspect had its Armor nerfed from 100% increased armor all the way down to 30%. They could of alternatively left "Frightening Aspect" at 100% increased armor, or reduced it down to 60%. The biggest errors in the balancing process is when you devote time to changing, or developing a certain skill to be a certain way, and then undermining that change, later through buffing of other skills, and or items. To add armor to soul harvest is a little silly at this point.
**What I hope they do:**
**Haunt**
Haunt now has every single element possible. With that being said, no one is going to use this skill, hopefully they look back into this in the future.
Glad that this was addressed, and patched.....nothing to see here people.
**Plague of Toads "Rain of Toads"**
Not a Big deal since Fetish Sycophants (Passive Skill) chances have been buffed by 5% (Making it a 15% chance to proc fetishes with an attack)
**Summon Zombie Dogs "Final Gift" ---> "Chilled to the Bone"**
This was a fantastic change, and it does Two things:
Way to go blizzard, nice to see a Cold rune property for zombie dogs, let alone have a rune effect that actually is very solid.
**Fetish Sycophants "Passive Skill"**
Up from 10% can't really complain about that, I'll take the extra 5% increase
Fantastic quality of life change, this will allow for a lot of alternative builds to function much better, and optimize all their elemental damage for pets to one type.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**New Legendary Gems**
These legendary gems is a nice change of pace. They've included one new defensive spell, and one new offensive spell. The defensive one looks like a solid choice with early level mitigation, but will fall wayside once Double unity combo is found. And Ice blink might aid Cold pet builds, but unfortunately is the weakest out of all elements for pet based builds.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**Ice blink (Season 3 Exclusive)**
This combined with Bane of the Trapped shall yield some very interesting results. Also depending on how well the movement speed reduction scales could literally leave enemies standing in their place unable to come directly at you. The 10% Crit chance is also nice, meaning you could drop Crit chance of some pieces of your gear, and run other stat affix's.
**Mutilation Guard**
I wish they would change from Melee damage reduction to "all damage reduction", but hey for what its worth it is a step in the right direction. It will help people out early on in seasons, and provide them decent damage mitigation until people are able to find toughness through their gear, or Double Unity combo.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**Witch Doctor Build Rankings (As of Current PTR Testing)**
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
**1. Focus & Restraint Tiki Sac**
Focus & Restraint takes this build to the next level, with the Perma Fear the Tiki Helm provides, and toughness increases to pet WD's, you won't need to run Unity ring anymore. The Damage increase provided from F& R takes it to another level higher then CarnEvil. If no changes happens to F & R expect to see this build on Season 3 Leader Boards
**2. Zuni CarnEvil**
CarnEvil was already a build showing a lot of promise, but with the ability to use the new 6 piece Zuni set with it, allowed this build that topped out in the mid forties, be able to run all the way into the mid fifty's. Very easy set to build for, and gaining popularity, this build will re-occur it's self in the top 50 WD's on any server, quite easily.
I did a side guide on this:
Link to Zuni/Carn Build
**3. Zuni SMK**
My personal favorite, out of the new builds that are coming out of PTR. Very easy to run, not a lot of weakness outside of the lack of AOE damage, and overall just a lot of fun. This is a good alternative for players who may tire of tiki/sac, and CarnEvil builds. I will be personally running this build for Season 3.
I did a side guide on this:
Link to Zuni/SMK Guide
**4. Tiki Sac**
Same build as above, only difference this version runs Unity, and Stone Of Jordan as opposed to Focus & Restraint
**5. CarnEvil**
Same Build as above, just not running the 6 piece Zuni set along with it
**6. Jade**
Not gonna spend to much time talking about this build, in its current state on ptr it is in shambles. Hopefully Blizzard does some re balancing, tuning to make this build at least competitive with others.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
Overall Thoughts about the Witch Doctor Class, for season 3 Video:
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+