Very nice calculations. Great to see damage per mana ;). What is the point of this build? Is it to support groups as pure dps, while other tank for you and heal?
This is more of a glass-cannon type of a build. You can kite, while you are low hp (bats, haunt, dart), or do huge AoE (bats, toads, spiders, grasp), but you shouldn't let anyone get near you. So I would say you should use this only if you have a tank.
Seeing that some top tier sets have been previewed on the Community Site, I've started crunching some numbers.
If a player would obtain 4 pieces (all items except the Mojo) of the Zunimassa's Spirit, and the complete Manajuma's Ritual, he/she would gain, on average, the following stats:
3099.75 Armor
+0.785 Attacks Per Second
+55.5 Poison Resistance
+40 Resistance to all elements
+38 Life After Each Kill
+58 Mana per Kill (Witch Doctor Only)
+700.5 Mana (Witch Doctor Only)
+38% Critical Hit Damage
+12% Movement Speed
+90.5% Life
Regenerates 24.9 Life per Second
Attackers Take +31 Damage
+285.5% Damage
+22.5% Casting Speed
+214.5 Defense
20% Damage Dealt is Converted to Life
+23 to all Attributes
+245 Life
27% Better Chance of Finding Magical Items
+8 Random Properties
The maximum stats that could be gained are:
3723 Armor
+60 Poison Resistance
+40 Resistance to all elements
+39 Life After Each Kill
+59 Mana per Kill (Witch Doctor Only)
+800 Mana (Witch Doctor Only)
+40% Critical Hit Damage
+12% Movement Speed
+100% Life
Regenerates 28.4 Life per Second
Attackers Take +32 Damage
+25% Casting Speed
+217 Defense
20% Damage Dealt is Converted to Life
+23 to all Attributes
+245 Life
29% Better Chance of Finding Magical Items
+8 Random Properties
Leaving your weapon with:
135.71 to 589.18 Damage
Average: 362,445
2.21 Attacks Per Second
--------------
801.00345 Damage per second
Now. I applied the average damage to some runed skills. The following is the list of 6 highest DPS skills:
I would like to hear your thought on the following ideas:
Adding 1 more skill slot. Not an actual skill to use but 1 more slot with a hotkey. Currently, there are 5 slots hotkeyed to numbers 1-5. I'd like to see 6 of them, 1 for every skill we can have.
Possibly making 1 slot specially for consumables.
Making the HP green when poisoned. I didn't see this happening in playthroughs. Also, that was the main reason that they didn't use that color in any of the resource bars.
I wasn't looking through the forums, but I'm fairly sure that some of these have already been posted... sorry if that is the case.
It should definitely be changed. You shouldn't need a good weapon to summon a good pet or call forth the forces of nature, unless your weapon is some kind of a wand or similar equipment to "help you channel" that spell etc. Stuff like low damage weapons with:
+ Skill
+ Type of Skill (Mastery)
+ School of Skill (Skill Tree)
+ Spell Damage
+ Cast Rate
+ Spell Crit Rate
+ Spell Crit Damage
+ Resource Regen
+ Max Resource
are what I would expect a caster to use, as opposed to high DPS of just high max damage.
I'm aware that the changes are not final, and that there are more items to be added, but for now, looking at what was presented to us, I feel that there should be more follower's items. More items of the same level with different (perhaps random) effects. Not much was given to wok with, so maybe it works just like what I described.
Socketing rings and amulets? That's one of the things that I missed in D2. Rings and amulets are basically jewelry and adding more jewels into them was logical... I hope we'll have this in the final release.
Scrolls are all good in my opinion. Scroll of Companion is weird, and I don't know if I'll use them. They could be useful, though... Scroll of Reforging is a nice addition. I'm not sure if they could be used on Rare, Legendary or Set item, but I hope they can.
I like the jewel designs, although it's not news, I just don't like the socketing bonuses. They have different a bonus only on helms, and not very good ones either. Using an extremely rare jewel for a +xp bonus on a Level 60 character is just not something that I would do. Neither would I waste such on +gold, or +magic find. If I have perfect gear, I don't want magic find on them... OK, I'm aware of AH sales, but I don't want to grind gear just so I can sell it, I want to find it so I can keep it. I hope they change it on the final release.
Unattuned Runes are good too. I can see their AH price being low, and me just mass buying them! Looking through the skill calculator, there are some skills that I would use in builds, in which I don't have a higher preference for any of the 5 Runes, as all of their effects are good for the job. Also, I guess they will be the only Tier 7 Runes that will be available to Gold AH.
Now for the biggest change to the game... the +%weapon damage change.
In D2, I loved the caster type characters, as they didn't depend so much on their weapon to deliver damage. If I died and had to get my corpse, I didn't have much problems as all of my skills stayed useful even without the gear. Now, that casters depend on their weapon... I don't know... Maybe WD can benefit from this, but I don't want to see Wizards going all Barbarian, or holding Two-Handed Maces and Swords (except for in specifically made builds for that).
What is very interesting is that all of these builds are viable! They all have their weaknesses and strengths. Although, all are based around the same concept, they are all in some sense very different.
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!
I've looked through your build, I really like it, but I would make some changes.
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.
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%.
Instead of Grasp of the Dead, I've put in Hex for extra damage (but I cant decide between Alabaster and Obsidian).
0
This is more of a glass-cannon type of a build. You can kite, while you are low hp (bats, haunt, dart), or do huge AoE (bats, toads, spiders, grasp), but you shouldn't let anyone get near you. So I would say you should use this only if you have a tank.
1
If a player would obtain 4 pieces (all items except the Mojo) of the Zunimassa's Spirit, and the complete Manajuma's Ritual, he/she would gain, on average, the following stats:
3099.75 Armor
+0.785 Attacks Per Second
+55.5 Poison Resistance
+40 Resistance to all elements
+38 Life After Each Kill
+58 Mana per Kill (Witch Doctor Only)
+700.5 Mana (Witch Doctor Only)
+38% Critical Hit Damage
+12% Movement Speed
+90.5% Life
Regenerates 24.9 Life per Second
Attackers Take +31 Damage
+285.5% Damage
+22.5% Casting Speed
+214.5 Defense
20% Damage Dealt is Converted to Life
+23 to all Attributes
+245 Life
27% Better Chance of Finding Magical Items
+8 Random Properties
The maximum stats that could be gained are:
3723 Armor
+60 Poison Resistance
+40 Resistance to all elements
+39 Life After Each Kill
+59 Mana per Kill (Witch Doctor Only)
+800 Mana (Witch Doctor Only)
+40% Critical Hit Damage
+12% Movement Speed
+100% Life
Regenerates 28.4 Life per Second
Attackers Take +32 Damage
+25% Casting Speed
+217 Defense
20% Damage Dealt is Converted to Life
+23 to all Attributes
+245 Life
29% Better Chance of Finding Magical Items
+8 Random Properties
Leaving your weapon with:
135.71 to 589.18 Damage
Average: 362,445
2.21 Attacks Per Second
--------------
801.00345 Damage per second
Now. I applied the average damage to some runed skills. The following is the list of 6 highest DPS skills:
Plague of Toads (crimson) - 1730/toad (5191 total)
Haunt (any) - 145/s (2175 total)
Firebats (crimson) - 1649/s
Poison Dart (crimson) - 1605
Wall of Zombies (alabaster) - 1414
Acid Cloud (crimson) - 1414
Compared with the amount of mana needed, the next list of skills contains the most economic:
Grasp of the Dead (crimson) - 78,78/mana
Corpse Spider (indigo) - 40,77/mana (if a baby spider bites 1x each sec)
Plague of Toads (crimson) - 24,60/mana
Haunt (any) - 20,52/mana
Poison Dart (crimson) - 9,12/mana
Zombie Charger (alabaster) - 4,98/mana
This led me to making this build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ZcVaWY!Zdc!ZbZZYZ
0
We might be looking at something like this:
3 lv7 > lv8
3 lv8 > lv9
2 lv9 + gemdust > lv10
2 lv10 + 2gemdust > lv11
2 lv11 + 3gemdust > lv12
1 lv12 + 4gemdust > lv13
1 lv13 + 5gemdust > lv14
0
I wasn't looking through the forums, but I'm fairly sure that some of these have already been posted... sorry if that is the case.
0
0
+ Skill
+ Type of Skill (Mastery)
+ School of Skill (Skill Tree)
+ Spell Damage
+ Cast Rate
+ Spell Crit Rate
+ Spell Crit Damage
+ Resource Regen
+ Max Resource
are what I would expect a caster to use, as opposed to high DPS of just high max damage.
0
0
I'm aware that the changes are not final, and that there are more items to be added, but for now, looking at what was presented to us, I feel that there should be more follower's items. More items of the same level with different (perhaps random) effects. Not much was given to wok with, so maybe it works just like what I described.
Socketing rings and amulets? That's one of the things that I missed in D2. Rings and amulets are basically jewelry and adding more jewels into them was logical... I hope we'll have this in the final release.
Scrolls are all good in my opinion. Scroll of Companion is weird, and I don't know if I'll use them. They could be useful, though... Scroll of Reforging is a nice addition. I'm not sure if they could be used on Rare, Legendary or Set item, but I hope they can.
I like the jewel designs, although it's not news, I just don't like the socketing bonuses. They have different a bonus only on helms, and not very good ones either. Using an extremely rare jewel for a +xp bonus on a Level 60 character is just not something that I would do. Neither would I waste such on +gold, or +magic find. If I have perfect gear, I don't want magic find on them... OK, I'm aware of AH sales, but I don't want to grind gear just so I can sell it, I want to find it so I can keep it. I hope they change it on the final release.
Unattuned Runes are good too. I can see their AH price being low, and me just mass buying them! Looking through the skill calculator, there are some skills that I would use in builds, in which I don't have a higher preference for any of the 5 Runes, as all of their effects are good for the job. Also, I guess they will be the only Tier 7 Runes that will be available to Gold AH.
Now for the biggest change to the game... the +%weapon damage change.
In D2, I loved the caster type characters, as they didn't depend so much on their weapon to deliver damage. If I died and had to get my corpse, I didn't have much problems as all of my skills stayed useful even without the gear. Now, that casters depend on their weapon... I don't know... Maybe WD can benefit from this, but I don't want to see Wizards going all Barbarian, or holding Two-Handed Maces and Swords (except for in specifically made builds for that).
0
It was my first choice, but I think that the Pack stacks, and if so, It would come more handy in inferno and hell
0
This is my new build. Please let me know what you think.
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0
I'm SO LOOKING FORWARD to playing this game!!!
0
Yogscast released 3 BETA footage videos of them playing CO-OP.
Check your battlenet accounts
0
I've looked through your build, I really like it, but I would make some changes.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ZdTQjg!UdX!ZcZZaa