I feel like impale is clashing with multi, I'd rather reposition with strafe and let multi do all the aoe. Strafe does nice damage when you are down to 1-2 mobs, and multi is infinite for 3+. Dark cloud or sentry could easily take it's place. But I'm glad strafe/multi is getting some love, my favorite part about the build is that they are both pure weapon damage, cold soj literally slows everything around you.
Synchopants are really good id the mid MPs. If the MP is too low, you aren't cast enough to make a lot of them and you are moving too fast for them to sustain any dps. If the MP is too high, they die off too fast. Try them with firebats, it cast twice over it's cast time and you can register fresh casts by clicking bats instead of holding it down.
http://eu.battle.net...UdYT!acg!baZZYa
that's what I'm using, blood ritual gives my pets 400+lps alone, which is way more sustain for your pets than zombie handler
If you are using it only to get the lps then you are essentially using two slots to get 400lps on your pets. Not very effective.
it also gives you lps and makes you spells cheaper. The build I use has no primary, so I save a ton of mana with blood ritual.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WQYhXO!Tge!aaZcac
That is my build. Every piece needs resistance and intellect and the pieces that can have crit should. I have 41% crit chance and the procs feel about right, make sure to get nice crit rolls on your shield and gloves and look for explosive mods on the helm. You don't need much vit, diamond skin/energy armor/safe passage sends your effective hp through the roof with just a little loh, 500-600 is fine. Crit damage seems like the obvious luxury stat, especially if you can afford to get it with lifesteal, but attack speed can be really huge if you can get some. If you have ~700res buffed, 35%crit, and 500loh you could definitely handle a1/2 no problem. I use a fire weap to give the group conflagration, but you can also use cold blooded for solo since its bugged right now, or you can use a lightning weap and go paralysis.
I think the sacrifice build will be manageble, even with those massive nerfs.
First i would like to say that i think Grave Injustice is 100% essential in this build. You have 3 abilities to spawn dogs (Mass Confusion, Summon Zombie Dogs and BBV) all with long cooldowns. Reducing cooldown by enemies killed drastically increase the ratio in which you can respawn more dogs. Assuming all those abiltiies are able to summon 4 dogs, you can respawn 4 dogs every 24 seconds (avarage). Taking in consideration you have certain chances from Next of Kin and Circle of Life to trigger you will little more dogd then that. Now if you manage to kill 24 monsters every 12 seconds you can theorically free spam sacrifice non stop.
This is why you can't count only on sacrifice. The buold have to somewhat solid in order to save sacrifices for Elite monsters.
Also i think the whole health globes + gruesome feast thingy will not work. Gruesome Feast duration is super small... I feel like you will pick globes after the fight and gets buffed when all enemies are dead and before you gace the next group the buff will wear off. Also the health globe drop ration from Final Gift is horrible.. Relying in such small chances just to buff your int for a couple of seconds is not a good strategy.
Only 2 skills, 2 passives, and one rune are absolutely mandatory. This will keep the combo pretty much operational and leaves you with 4 skill slots and 1 passive slot to work with. You are right, you cannot count on Sacrifice, sometimes the combo will simply fizzle. You really need 2 more dps spells, an aoe and a single target. Something like Dart/Swarm or Dire Bats/Cloud. Since you now have two mana drains, you need sustain. This is why people pick Gruesome Feast, it is either that or Spiritual Attunement and Feast wins out when you consider the int buff and the obvious synergy with Final Gift, which already stood out as one of the best runes for Sac. There are only 2 skill slots left, and we desperately need either Grasp of he Dead, Horrify, or Spirit Walk and the combo could really use some gas, either Confusion or Big Bad Voodoo. I think Horrify and Spirit Walk are best when you are using their runes specifically for hp/mana sustain, so I take Grasp. Grasp almost seems core to the build, Grave Injustice nearly lets you cast it at your discretion and it has great utility in clumping monsters together. Confusion beats BBV because it actually facilitates kills, has 1/2 the cooldown(should stagger nicely with Dogs cooldown,) and clumps monsters together like Grasp.
This is my PVM Sacrifice combo build. The build, first and foremost, revolves around Sacrifice, Zombie Dogs, and all three of the passives; Circle of Life, Grave Injustice, and Gratuitous Feast. Nearly every skill and rune selection is about either proccing Dog summons or maximizing Grave Injustice for the purposes of casting Zombie Dogs or Confusion (Devolution.)
Zombie Dogs (Final Gift) - Dogs are this build's best friend (lawl,) acting as tanks, Sacrifice fodder, and health globe generators alla Final Gift. Life link rune is tempting, but I already feel pretty safe with Unbreakable Grasp and pairing Final Gift with Gratuitous Feast makes BOTH mana and health sustain a non-issue. The cooldown is significant, but is easily manipulated by Grave Injustice and your dog count is easily maintained through Next of Kin, Circle of Life, and Devolution.
Sacrifice (Next of Kin) - Sacrifice is your room clearer and your boss nuke. The damage is simply tremendous, up to 600% weapon damage an a target that is hit by all 3 dogs and it should be easy to clump to dogs together on bosses as they are typically alone for most of the fight. Sacrifice is free and has no cooldown and I plan to use it liberally, though timing is everything. Sac is both free and has no cooldown, so always Sac the remaining dogs before resummoning, there is no downside. It is important Sac the last dog, Saccing with 3 dogs is almost always optimal as it maximizes your chances of gaining you a spare dog. Any singletons from procs should be milked as tanks, you can always Sac it in an emergency for the burst, but otherwise you can just wait for Dogs to cool down or for your dog count to grow to 3 naturally. I'm looking forward to chaining multiple Sacs off the back of multiple triple Kin procs.
Mass Confusion (Devolution) - Confusion is a perfect fit with this build. Firstly, hitting a large pack can easily net you 3 dogs, Devolution's 50% proc rate should turn out to be insanely reliable. Saccing your dogs on the confused clump could cause a cascade of rune procs that could clear a whole room. Note the the cooldown is 60 seconds just like Zombie Dogs and these two abilities should be staggered to maintain your dog count. My favorite subtlety to Confusion is that the confusion effect itself will cause monsters to clump together even further, making Sacrifice that much more devastating.
Grasp of the Dead (Unbreakable Grasp) - As if you needed such strong kiting with endless exploding mini tanks, but hey, you never know. At 80% speed reduction with Unbreakable Grasp, the mobs may as well be standing still and Grave Injustice should allow you to blanket huge areas. Casting this ahead of chasing enemies should cause them to clump up around the edges, enabling large triple Sacs. The damage is actually quite a supplement and should add up quickly with Sacs and Firebombs. This build has no hard escape like Spirit Walk or Horrify, which is why this skill is so important and why it needs to be at 80%.
Firebats (Dire Bats) - The dps skills aren't so important to the build, so I decided just to pick skills that seemed reliable. Dire Bats' rune description makes me think it should function similarly to something like Disintegrate and I couldn't ask for anything better on sustained, single-target damage front.
Firebomb (Conflagration) - This could easily be Acid Cloud or Locust Swarm, but I was kinda diggin the fire theme that was goin on and I feel like Conflagration would add more damage potential than any of the other runes for Cloud or Swarm, 28 yards is an insane radius even if it's just 35% WD. With solid Grasp kiting, Conflagration could be consistently damaging every monster you are fighting.
Gruesome Feast (Passive) - So what apparently all I need is one passive and one rune(Final Gift) and I don't have to worry about sustain ever, I'm cool with that. I love how this skill rewards you so much for kicking ass, keeping that 50% Intellect buff stacked will be challenging and effective.
Circle of Life (Passive) - Pretty self explanatory, this is what keeps the combo engine purring. Since the cooldowns on Zombie Dogs and Confusion are your biggest limiting factors, Circle really covers your ass, giving you tanks and burst when you get unlucky and don't proc anything on a triple Sac. In large scale AOE situations, the mass procs could really boil over into huge Sac combos.
Grave Injustice (Passive) - The regen from Injustice is really consistent but it will be a blip compared to Feast, it's just the cherry on top of my absolute favorite mechanic in the whole game. It practically lets you cast Grasp of the Dead at your discretion and stagger a Zombie Dogs and a Confusion at the beginning of every large conflict. It will actually cool down your skills at the rate in which you need them based on the number of monsters you are encountering, friggin awesome. Both Injustice and Circle mean that you will be required to gear for substantial +gold radius, but I'm cool with that 'cause I'm lazy and junk, and just like +light radius in D2, I have a feeling that +GR will be thrown around as a bonus stat everywhere, especially on witch doctor gear.
I think this build is super powerful, it has huge burst potential, both AoE and single target, built in tanks, a mass CC, blanket snares, powerful sustain considering the cheap mana costs, one of the strangest min/maxing opportunities in +gold radius and one of the strongest min/maxing opportunities in Gruesome Feast with int stacking. Well that was fun, and no, I won't proofread it, proofreading is for suckers, NOW GIVE ME BETA
"4. Give a very quick little summary of your build,..." lol
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oh yes because Diablo 2 pvp didn't revolve around Enigma at all
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that's what I'm using, blood ritual gives my pets 400+lps alone, which is way more sustain for your pets than zombie handler
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That is my build. Every piece needs resistance and intellect and the pieces that can have crit should. I have 41% crit chance and the procs feel about right, make sure to get nice crit rolls on your shield and gloves and look for explosive mods on the helm. You don't need much vit, diamond skin/energy armor/safe passage sends your effective hp through the roof with just a little loh, 500-600 is fine. Crit damage seems like the obvious luxury stat, especially if you can afford to get it with lifesteal, but attack speed can be really huge if you can get some. If you have ~700res buffed, 35%crit, and 500loh you could definitely handle a1/2 no problem. I use a fire weap to give the group conflagration, but you can also use cold blooded for solo since its bugged right now, or you can use a lightning weap and go paralysis.
Crit % > Resist All = Armor > LoH(up to~500) > Intellect > Attack Speed > Crit Damage
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Anyway I've been rolling WD and I haven't played today, but I was using http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hZYVTU!Za!.aZZaa, sacrifice is so boss :3
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So what you did is successfully guess the day the announcement would be made.
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Cluster/Strafe spam. Notice how Prep combos with Vengeance and how it is the only thing that requires discipline mid combat.
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#..YS..21bcW!bS!...Z
Only 2 skills, 2 passives, and one rune are absolutely mandatory. This will keep the combo pretty much operational and leaves you with 4 skill slots and 1 passive slot to work with. You are right, you cannot count on Sacrifice, sometimes the combo will simply fizzle. You really need 2 more dps spells, an aoe and a single target. Something like Dart/Swarm or Dire Bats/Cloud. Since you now have two mana drains, you need sustain. This is why people pick Gruesome Feast, it is either that or Spiritual Attunement and Feast wins out when you consider the int buff and the obvious synergy with Final Gift, which already stood out as one of the best runes for Sac. There are only 2 skill slots left, and we desperately need either Grasp of he Dead, Horrify, or Spirit Walk and the combo could really use some gas, either Confusion or Big Bad Voodoo. I think Horrify and Spirit Walk are best when you are using their runes specifically for hp/mana sustain, so I take Grasp. Grasp almost seems core to the build, Grave Injustice nearly lets you cast it at your discretion and it has great utility in clumping monsters together. Confusion beats BBV because it actually facilitates kills, has 1/2 the cooldown(should stagger nicely with Dogs cooldown,) and clumps monsters together like Grasp.
This is my current version
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#VeYSZQ!cbS!acbZZZ
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http://us.battle.net...YSZQ!cbS!acbZZZ
This is my PVM Sacrifice combo build. The build, first and foremost, revolves around Sacrifice, Zombie Dogs, and all three of the passives; Circle of Life, Grave Injustice, and Gratuitous Feast. Nearly every skill and rune selection is about either proccing Dog summons or maximizing Grave Injustice for the purposes of casting Zombie Dogs or Confusion (Devolution.)
Zombie Dogs (Final Gift) - Dogs are this build's best friend (lawl,) acting as tanks, Sacrifice fodder, and health globe generators alla Final Gift. Life link rune is tempting, but I already feel pretty safe with Unbreakable Grasp and pairing Final Gift with Gratuitous Feast makes BOTH mana and health sustain a non-issue. The cooldown is significant, but is easily manipulated by Grave Injustice and your dog count is easily maintained through Next of Kin, Circle of Life, and Devolution.
Sacrifice (Next of Kin) - Sacrifice is your room clearer and your boss nuke. The damage is simply tremendous, up to 600% weapon damage an a target that is hit by all 3 dogs and it should be easy to clump to dogs together on bosses as they are typically alone for most of the fight. Sacrifice is free and has no cooldown and I plan to use it liberally, though timing is everything. Sac is both free and has no cooldown, so always Sac the remaining dogs before resummoning, there is no downside. It is important Sac the last dog, Saccing with 3 dogs is almost always optimal as it maximizes your chances of gaining you a spare dog. Any singletons from procs should be milked as tanks, you can always Sac it in an emergency for the burst, but otherwise you can just wait for Dogs to cool down or for your dog count to grow to 3 naturally. I'm looking forward to chaining multiple Sacs off the back of multiple triple Kin procs.
Mass Confusion (Devolution) - Confusion is a perfect fit with this build. Firstly, hitting a large pack can easily net you 3 dogs, Devolution's 50% proc rate should turn out to be insanely reliable. Saccing your dogs on the confused clump could cause a cascade of rune procs that could clear a whole room. Note the the cooldown is 60 seconds just like Zombie Dogs and these two abilities should be staggered to maintain your dog count. My favorite subtlety to Confusion is that the confusion effect itself will cause monsters to clump together even further, making Sacrifice that much more devastating.
Grasp of the Dead (Unbreakable Grasp) - As if you needed such strong kiting with endless exploding mini tanks, but hey, you never know. At 80% speed reduction with Unbreakable Grasp, the mobs may as well be standing still and Grave Injustice should allow you to blanket huge areas. Casting this ahead of chasing enemies should cause them to clump up around the edges, enabling large triple Sacs. The damage is actually quite a supplement and should add up quickly with Sacs and Firebombs. This build has no hard escape like Spirit Walk or Horrify, which is why this skill is so important and why it needs to be at 80%.
Firebats (Dire Bats) - The dps skills aren't so important to the build, so I decided just to pick skills that seemed reliable. Dire Bats' rune description makes me think it should function similarly to something like Disintegrate and I couldn't ask for anything better on sustained, single-target damage front.
Firebomb (Conflagration) - This could easily be Acid Cloud or Locust Swarm, but I was kinda diggin the fire theme that was goin on and I feel like Conflagration would add more damage potential than any of the other runes for Cloud or Swarm, 28 yards is an insane radius even if it's just 35% WD. With solid Grasp kiting, Conflagration could be consistently damaging every monster you are fighting.
Gruesome Feast (Passive) - So what apparently all I need is one passive and one rune(Final Gift) and I don't have to worry about sustain ever, I'm cool with that. I love how this skill rewards you so much for kicking ass, keeping that 50% Intellect buff stacked will be challenging and effective.
Circle of Life (Passive) - Pretty self explanatory, this is what keeps the combo engine purring. Since the cooldowns on Zombie Dogs and Confusion are your biggest limiting factors, Circle really covers your ass, giving you tanks and burst when you get unlucky and don't proc anything on a triple Sac. In large scale AOE situations, the mass procs could really boil over into huge Sac combos.
Grave Injustice (Passive) - The regen from Injustice is really consistent but it will be a blip compared to Feast, it's just the cherry on top of my absolute favorite mechanic in the whole game. It practically lets you cast Grasp of the Dead at your discretion and stagger a Zombie Dogs and a Confusion at the beginning of every large conflict. It will actually cool down your skills at the rate in which you need them based on the number of monsters you are encountering, friggin awesome. Both Injustice and Circle mean that you will be required to gear for substantial +gold radius, but I'm cool with that 'cause I'm lazy and junk, and just like +light radius in D2, I have a feeling that +GR will be thrown around as a bonus stat everywhere, especially on witch doctor gear.
I think this build is super powerful, it has huge burst potential, both AoE and single target, built in tanks, a mass CC, blanket snares, powerful sustain considering the cheap mana costs, one of the strangest min/maxing opportunities in +gold radius and one of the strongest min/maxing opportunities in Gruesome Feast with int stacking. Well that was fun, and no, I won't proofread it, proofreading is for suckers, NOW GIVE ME BETA
"4. Give a very quick little summary of your build,..." lol
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