Great topic - what an awesome class! Everything I had hoped for and my build is working perfectly as I had imagined. Obviously I'm spirit focused. Still undecided on passives - I'm only level 32 and there are so many yet to unlock. Spiritual attunement and blood ritual have been staples and it will be hard to lose the resource gains they offer at this point.
Positive:
Direbats was pretty nasty - I ended up switching though because I was putting myself in dangerous positions trying to line targets up to maximize damage. That and I realllly wanted spirit barrage.
Spirit barrage: At first a disappointment - it was draining mana too quickly for the damage it did, BUT I didn't give up on it and the mana return on the first rune makes it quite strong. When you drain yourself and spirit walk/honored guest is down - it can really keep you going. I now have well of souls runeword and the damage is now insane - I sometimes wonder how I down packs so quickly, its a set it and forget it spell. The additional spirits allow you to manuever while spewing out dps.
Spirit walk/honored guest: Simply amazing, keeps me going more than I ever would have imagined and the ability to keep casting while walking is just insane.
Mass confusion: I've only lamented the cooldown once or twice, honestly. Reaaaalllly looking forward to mass hallucination. 60 seconds is perfect in between most scary/large packs.
Gargantuan: I see a common theme here. This badboy is amazing.
Negative:
Mostly passives here. Pierce the veil is almost unmanageable at this point, it just devours my mana pool. Will have to see with runes how I can better manage mana and this passive as I level.
Fetish Army: To quote someone else above... 2 minutes is a LOOOONG time. They go away too quickly to be feasible at this point and mass confusion gets the same group/bomb dps and control utility that this skills would otherwise offer. That and the gargantuan is tough to swap out and this is the only swapable skill position on my bar at this point.
Otherwise, I haven't played around with many other active skills. I knew what build I wanted going into this character and everything has met expectations.
Neutral:
Soul harvest: I knew this would deliver, hasn't exceeded or missed expectations.
Haunt: Again, just as I expected - the healing from consuming spirit is nice, but right in line with what I expected. Not enough to get overconfident and just enough to keep me going.
1
Positive:
Direbats was pretty nasty - I ended up switching though because I was putting myself in dangerous positions trying to line targets up to maximize damage. That and I realllly wanted spirit barrage.
Spirit barrage: At first a disappointment - it was draining mana too quickly for the damage it did, BUT I didn't give up on it and the mana return on the first rune makes it quite strong. When you drain yourself and spirit walk/honored guest is down - it can really keep you going. I now have well of souls runeword and the damage is now insane - I sometimes wonder how I down packs so quickly, its a set it and forget it spell. The additional spirits allow you to manuever while spewing out dps.
Spirit walk/honored guest: Simply amazing, keeps me going more than I ever would have imagined and the ability to keep casting while walking is just insane.
Mass confusion: I've only lamented the cooldown once or twice, honestly. Reaaaalllly looking forward to mass hallucination. 60 seconds is perfect in between most scary/large packs.
Gargantuan: I see a common theme here. This badboy is amazing.
Negative:
Mostly passives here. Pierce the veil is almost unmanageable at this point, it just devours my mana pool. Will have to see with runes how I can better manage mana and this passive as I level.
Fetish Army: To quote someone else above... 2 minutes is a LOOOONG time. They go away too quickly to be feasible at this point and mass confusion gets the same group/bomb dps and control utility that this skills would otherwise offer. That and the gargantuan is tough to swap out and this is the only swapable skill position on my bar at this point.
Otherwise, I haven't played around with many other active skills. I knew what build I wanted going into this character and everything has met expectations.
Neutral:
Soul harvest: I knew this would deliver, hasn't exceeded or missed expectations.
Haunt: Again, just as I expected - the healing from consuming spirit is nice, but right in line with what I expected. Not enough to get overconfident and just enough to keep me going.