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I haven't seen this posted anywhere else, but there are several Barb runes that cause enemies to explode (or similar effects) when they're killed or crit. I'm wondering how viable a build that utilizes these effects would be:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#cVYP!!aaaa

I haven't filled out the remaining 2 skills or passives, but those skills are the basis of the build. I think personally I'd opt for one of the two reactive skills (Overpower, Revenge) and War Cry to round out the actives...what do you all think?

Quote from Plaguemask

I'm wondering about the more picky descriptions. For example, the WD passive "Rush of Essence" returns twice as much of the mana cost of some spells. So will that combine with "Peirce of Veil" which increases mana cost of all spells by 30%?

I would assume so, since the increased mana cost from Pierce the Veil is applied when (or even before) the spell is cast, and the mana return from Rush of Essence occurs after the spell is cast.

Quote from Knucker

Quote from brimg

Also, beware that though the passive increases Max Dogs to four, the skill still summons three, so it will take 60 sec to get four out starting fresh.

For some reason, I think that Blizzard would make the skill summon 4 dogs when you have the passive, but I could be wrong.

This is supposedly the formula for Zombie Dogs (remember, green text scales, and even at level 1, it's summoning 3, so it has to change somewhere, somehow):

Summon 3 + (PowerTag.Witchdoctor_Passive_ZombieHandler."Script Formula 1") zombie dogs from the depths to fight by your side.

Summon zombie dogs from the depths to fight by your side.

Dogs Summoned: 3 + (PowerTag.Witchdoctor_Passive_ZombieHandler."Script Formula 1")

Quote from wigglies

Does being a newer member affect my chances of winning? I'm not sure how far reputation goes in relation to this contest.

No. We've definitely had 1-post wonders win these kinds of contests before.

He's got Mantra of Evasion active at the very start (and probably for most of the vid). It's the circly stuff around everything's feet.

Quote from PakstraX

• I think that it is a bit foolish to relay on Health Globes for a little extra damage, if you won't be in the middle of the fight at the start of it, so I removed all the runestones and passives connected to it.
• Instead of Grasp of the Dead, I've put in Hex for extra damage (but I cant decide between Alabaster and Obsidian).

From everything we've seen, 1 Attack = 1% damage increase, so a 50% damage increase is nothing to sneeze at IMO. If you take gear into account, a well-geared level 60 WD could probably add several hundred percent to their damage with Gruesome Feast. I definitely think it's worth it, but that's just my opinion.

Quote from PakstraX

• Added some extra damage through Big Bad VooDoo, that could aid not only you but your allies as well, instead of 75% of spawning zombie dogs. VooDoo is 120s cooldown and gives 75%, and Mass Confusion is 60s cooldown and gives 99%.

This is a good point that I took into consideration, but instead of just re-runing BBV, I decided to replace it entirely. I put in Indigo Spirit Barrage instead, as that gives me a good spammable AoE damage spell so I don't have to rely so heavily on having dogs up to sacrifice all the time. I think with proper CD management of the Summon and Confusion, I could still have dogs up *most* of the time and Sacrifice them as necessary. Grasp of the Dead and Spirit Barrage should be sufficient for those times that I don't have dogs out.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ZYTijg!YdX!baZYaa

Some tentative damage numbers for this build (again, not even taking gear into account, so these will presumably be much higher in practice):

• Sacrifice: 107-178 * 1323% (max possible Attack buff from skills) = 1,415-2,355 * 1.2 (Pierce the Veil) = 1,698-2,826. If all 4 explosions hit one target, we'd be looking at 6,792-11,304.
• Spirit Barrage: 36-71 * 1323% = 476-939 * 1.2 = 571-1,127 per bolt (4 bolts with Well of Souls).
• Soul Harvest (Alabaster): 146-167 * 1323% = 1,931-2,209 * 1.2 = 2,318-2,651 (affects 5 targets).
• Grasp of the Dead: 21 damage/sec * 1323% = 278 * 1.2 = 333 damage/sec.

Quote from Obelyx113

I think there will be an issue in that you only have 1 damage dealing ability in Cleave. Earthquake is a 120 second CD, and Leap Attack and Ground Stomp do 40% and 30% weapon damage respectively. So you will rely on spamming cleave, which will pull all enemies around closer every time you hit it, making the Leap Attack and Ground Stop runes redundant.

Exact points I was going to make.
I was looking at utilizing the mechanic on Cleave for a Tank build, but I'm not sure how much I like it...

I feel like you're making the argument that the skill animation is what will make it OP?

You can only have one Mantra active at a time, and swapping them out will remove any associated effects (like the shield buff).

Quote from superfula

Just prior to that they show the zombies climbing up three-high on each other's shoulders. I wonder if that is Zombie Charger....

It's Wall of Zombies with an Alabaster rune.

Quote from deetic

Does Molten Arrow still exist in the game? I can't see it in the calculator

It's Elemental Arrow.

Quote from superfula

If the fetish just stays where you cast it, then it doesn't sound so great unless the area is huge.

Pretty sure he doesn't move.
See 1:30.

I like the looks of a similar build, but mine focuses more on stacking ridiculous amounts of Attack to increase damage substantially:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ZYTQjg!YdX!baZaaa

• Zombie Dogs and Grasp are runed to synergize with the Gruesome Feast passive, which grants up to a 50% bonus to attack.
• Big Bad Voodoo and Mass Confusion are obviously runed to generate Zombie Dogs, since the summoning skill has a 60sec cooldown and the only real offensive skill in the build is Sacrifice, so a constant stream of dogs is a requirement.
• Sacrifice is runed to increase Attack (up to 160% for 60 seconds).
• Soul Harvest fills out the build with another possible bonus of 630 Attack.
• Since Zombie Dogs (again, 60sec CD) and Grasp are the only skills in the build with mana costs, and neither of them are that steep, Pierce the Veil is an obvious choice to boost my damage even more.
• Zombie Handler increases the max dogs to 4, which synergizes with the Provoke the Pack rune effect on Sacrifice.

With this build, I can gain a maximum bonus of +630 flat to Attack, and another 210% bonus, for a total possible Attack bonus of 1323 (without even taking gear into consideration). Add another +20% to all damage from Pierce the Veil, and I think we're looking at probably the hardest-hitting combination of any class. Of course, its dependence on Dogs is a definite limitation, especially on boss fights, and cooldown management of Zombie Dogs, BBV, and Confusion will be key. I'm going to go watch Dexter instead of trying to figure out a rotation for those, but...I think if you can figure out the CDs, this build will tear shit apart!

Quote from tangmcgame

Considering the massive difference between the numbers on healing abilities and damaging ones, I'm guessing that healing abilities either don't currently or won't ever scale with gear. They only scale with leveling. Of course, this is 100% speculation, so take it for the guess it is.

Yeah, Attack specifically says "Increases damage by x%" on the character screen, so I think it's safe to assume that heals won't scale with most gear (there's always a possibility of +healing effects affixes and the like).

A couple comments:

Quote from PiousFlea

Mantras:
- Mantra of Evasion Backlash rune (Dodgeball Monk) does a percent of weapon damage, and will hit harder with slower weapons.

Point taken, but this is a build built around dodge, which requires dual wield for The Guardian's Path passive dodge bonus.

Quote from PiousFlea

Spirit Generators:
On first blush, you would think that all Spirit Generators would favor fast weapons, since you'd generate more Spirit that way. This is mostly true. However, there are two notable exceptions:

- Sweeping Wind: The wind damage maxes out at 60% weapon damage per second. Weapon damage is not normalized in Diablo 3, which means that a slow weapon will have higher top-end damage. While it will take longer to get Sweeping Wind fully charged, it will do dramatically more damage with a slower weapon.

- Exploding Palm (Essence Burn rune): The chain-reaction bleed is based on weapon damage, which means it will hit harder with a slower weapon.

Your points on damage for these skill are again well-taken, but damage isn't the concern of your post. You're talking about difficulty generating Spirit quickly enough, in which case faster weapons/DW will (seemingly) always be superior. Damage of those skills is a different argument. There's obviously going to be a trade-off. I feel like your post is kind of covering two topics that don't relate to each other within the context of your argument, if that makes sense. Are we talking about the damage of skills or the ability to generate Spirit effectively with a slow, 2H weapon, as your first paragraph would imply?