I'm in act II of nightmare, level 42. 648 (without Soul Harvest) damage with 10.2k HP. I use this build as pure DPS/burst spec, and not relying on CC such as Hex, etc.
Here is the build. I may switch Locust Swarm for Acid Cloud with Lob Blob Bomb, or Zombie Charger with Wave of Zombies or Explosive Beast.
I hardly ever die.I basiclaly Spirit Walk in, Soul Harvest, use Locust Swarm to get my mana regen going, and then spam Dire Bats. If I start to get a little low on mana I use Spirit Barrage, and then continue to use Dire Bats.
Seems like a solid build, I might try it out!
I have a suggestion that may or may not work well for your build. Basically I find the Gruesome Feast passive inconsistent other than getting a bit of mana from health orbs after you have cleared a group. Don't get me wrong, if you have a full stack of soul harvest and collect 5 orbs, your int goes through the roof. But that is hard to maintain and can put you at risk while collecting orbs, it is also next to useless on most boss fights.
If mana generally isn't an issue I would try the Pierce the Veil passive (20% more damage for 30% mana costs) and see if you aren't mana starved. I think that passive will be amazing once we are all geared out and have insane mana pools and regen. If that is keeping you mana starved then try a different passive perhaps a more defensive one. I personally really like Spirit Vessel ( 2 second cooldown reduction on Soul Harvest/ Spirit Walk/ Horrify aswell as letting you escape death once every 90 seconds) but I spam spirit walk every time it is up for the 30% mana it gives. It came in very handy on NM Belial saving my ass from death a few times lol. If you rarely die now you will never die with that passive.
If you switch out one of your attacking skills to something with a cooldown you can take advantage of the 300% mana regen from Vision Quest. You never have to worry about running out of mana with that passive working and this could free up some of your mana oriented runes for more damage/utility.
Of course this is all suggestions and you know your play style better than me. If you have no problem keeping the gruesome feast buff up than there is really no reason to change it. Although I really would change it on most boss fights.
I'm going to try out Pierce the Veil and see how it goes. If I have problems with it I'll try going with Vision Quest and replacing Insect Swarm with another spell. What cooldown would you suggest?
I'm going to try out Pierce the Veil and see how it goes. If I have problems with it I'll try going with Vision Quest and replacing Insect Swarm with another spell. What cooldown would you suggest?
I used Pierce the Veil for a while but I didn't have many mana regen abilities and was starved a lot. I think it might work well for your build though. As for which cooldown to use with Vision Quest, I prefer a longer cooldown so you don't have to be spam it all the time. In fact I changed my build to 3 long cooldowns and got rid of Soul Harvest (I realize most people won't want to do this lol). If you want a short cooldown I would go with Hex, as it is usefull in every situation. If you want a longer one I would choose Mass Confusion with either devolution rune or paranoia(lvl 46 you might have to wait a few levels for it). Another possible skill would be zombie wall with the Pile On rune. Its a 25 second cooldown and would give you an extra attack for 765% damage. You need level 49 to get it though, and I am only level 46 and haven't tested how it works.
You may find that you have to spam the shorter cool down spells at non optimal times. This is why I got rid of soul harvest , half the time I would end up using it no where near an enemy just to regen mana for bat spam. It might work better with your build though because you should have more mana to begin with so you can take the time to use it properly. Here I will link my build in case you are curious, It is a bit slower on the regular mobs(like taking an extra couple bats to kill a group) but when I pop the cooldowns on Elites they die FAST. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ecUjPT!bVU!baZYZZ
My other Vision Quest build was the same 2 offensive skills and Garg but with Hex, Soul Harvest and Spirit Walk. It worked well for the most part but I was having a tough time managing all the cooldowns while spamming bats. Plus I wanted to try out some new stuff out.
Here is the build. I may switch Locust Swarm for Acid Cloud with Lob Blob Bomb, or Zombie Charger with Wave of Zombies or Explosive Beast.
I hardly ever die.I basiclaly Spirit Walk in, Soul Harvest, use Locust Swarm to get my mana regen going, and then spam Dire Bats. If I start to get a little low on mana I use Spirit Barrage, and then continue to use Dire Bats.
Feel free to give criticism or give suggestions.
I have a suggestion that may or may not work well for your build. Basically I find the Gruesome Feast passive inconsistent other than getting a bit of mana from health orbs after you have cleared a group. Don't get me wrong, if you have a full stack of soul harvest and collect 5 orbs, your int goes through the roof. But that is hard to maintain and can put you at risk while collecting orbs, it is also next to useless on most boss fights.
If mana generally isn't an issue I would try the Pierce the Veil passive (20% more damage for 30% mana costs) and see if you aren't mana starved. I think that passive will be amazing once we are all geared out and have insane mana pools and regen. If that is keeping you mana starved then try a different passive perhaps a more defensive one. I personally really like Spirit Vessel ( 2 second cooldown reduction on Soul Harvest/ Spirit Walk/ Horrify aswell as letting you escape death once every 90 seconds) but I spam spirit walk every time it is up for the 30% mana it gives. It came in very handy on NM Belial saving my ass from death a few times lol. If you rarely die now you will never die with that passive.
If you switch out one of your attacking skills to something with a cooldown you can take advantage of the 300% mana regen from Vision Quest. You never have to worry about running out of mana with that passive working and this could free up some of your mana oriented runes for more damage/utility.
Of course this is all suggestions and you know your play style better than me. If you have no problem keeping the gruesome feast buff up than there is really no reason to change it. Although I really would change it on most boss fights.
I used Pierce the Veil for a while but I didn't have many mana regen abilities and was starved a lot. I think it might work well for your build though. As for which cooldown to use with Vision Quest, I prefer a longer cooldown so you don't have to be spam it all the time. In fact I changed my build to 3 long cooldowns and got rid of Soul Harvest (I realize most people won't want to do this lol). If you want a short cooldown I would go with Hex, as it is usefull in every situation. If you want a longer one I would choose Mass Confusion with either devolution rune or paranoia(lvl 46 you might have to wait a few levels for it). Another possible skill would be zombie wall with the Pile On rune. Its a 25 second cooldown and would give you an extra attack for 765% damage. You need level 49 to get it though, and I am only level 46 and haven't tested how it works.
You may find that you have to spam the shorter cool down spells at non optimal times. This is why I got rid of soul harvest , half the time I would end up using it no where near an enemy just to regen mana for bat spam. It might work better with your build though because you should have more mana to begin with so you can take the time to use it properly. Here I will link my build in case you are curious, It is a bit slower on the regular mobs(like taking an extra couple bats to kill a group) but when I pop the cooldowns on Elites they die FAST. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ecUjPT!bVU!baZYZZ
My other Vision Quest build was the same 2 offensive skills and Garg but with Hex, Soul Harvest and Spirit Walk. It worked well for the most part but I was having a tough time managing all the cooldowns while spamming bats. Plus I wanted to try out some new stuff out.