I normally play with a barbarian and wizard that smash big groups of mobs but fall short on single target damage, so I took a spirit barrage build much like yours and focused it a lot more on blowing up champion packs and bosses.
The whole idea is to buff your spirit barrage damage as much as possible and be able to continually cast. As long as you can cast spirit barrage for 10 seconds with your initial mana pool it will always be free if you have Rush of Essence.
Spirit Barrage: Well of Souls - Well of Souls is more damage than the other runes, single target included if you are standing close enough to the monster.
Sacrifice: Provoke the Pack - Nice chunk of area damage but more used for the 15% or 20% damage buff whenever Zombie Dogs is off cooldown. Can be up all the time if you want to use the Tribal Rights passive.
Summon Zombie Dogs: Burning Dogs - Mostly used for the Sacrifice buff but also good for keeping mobs off the entire group. The rune is just personal preference, I like Burning Dogs for the extra area damage.Big Bad Voodoo: Slam Dance - 20% attack speed buff and 30% damage buff makes your spirit barrage eat through single targets. Buffs you, buffs the group, what more could you ask for?
Fetish Army: Legion of Daggers - You could really put whatever skill you wanted here, I just use this as another cooldown when I run into a champion pack or start a boss fight.
Gargantuan: Big Stinker - You can see I am somewhat biased towards pets, Gargantuan is just another body to keep mobs off you and the party and is more free damage to groups. I find Big Stinker more consistent in the general sense, could easily be whichever rune you want.
Passives: Plenty of room to change around passives to make this work for your gear.
Rush of Essence - This is required. As long as you can cast Spirit Barrage for a full 10 seconds without running out of mana, you will be able to cast forever.
Blood Ritual - 10% reduced mana cost probably the most efficient to save mana here.
Pierce the Veil - Best damage rune for any build, can make the mana tricky but there are other ways to deal with that.
Spiritual Attunement : Also an option here. I find it not as efficient as Blood Ritual though. If you remove Pierce the Veil this passive also seems like overkill.
Zombie Handler: Effectively another 5% damage buff and more sacrifice damage.
Tribal Rights: I used this for a while because I could not sustain Spirit Barrage cast with Pierce the Veil. This reduces your cooldowns which makes them more flexible. Reduces Summon Zombie Dogs below 30 seconds, or very close to it at least, so you can keep Provoke the Pack up forever instead of just 2/3rd the time.
On mana: At first it seemed gear dependent to me, but there are plenty of things to play around with to manage the mana cost without changing your gear.
-Spirit Barrage: The Spirit Is Willing is probably the easiest way. Reduces your area and single target damage but could be well worth it.
-Play with your paragon levels. Max mana and resource cost reduction specifically. Decide if you want to lower your damage here or not.
-Play with your passives. Plenty of options above.
This already looks a lot like your build, just without acid cloud as an area bomb and more damage buffs instead of mana replenishment. I just find on champion packs and bosses I rather chain cast a spell doing 600% weapon damage with more sheet damage buffs than have to worry about mana and cast corpse bomb for 525% weapon damage. Again, my group damage ends up being a bit lower, but I have played solo with this build as well and the large single target damage still kills groups of mobs fairly quickly.
Conculsion: You get to cast longer (10s vs 3s) if you're on a slow weapon and will have a higher cumulative damage, all other factors held constant, however you do not do higher DPS. The DPS at the 3s mark is equal.
Very right.
If the weapon dps is equal, the skill dps will be equal, weapon speed is irrelevant (well it is already calculated in dps). The speed does however change the cost of the spell over time, which is what the op is trying to get across (I think).
The cost does not change the dps of the skill while it is being cast. Cost only changes how long you can cast the spell. Thus weapon speed changes your resource management.
That is useful information, but the way it was presented is fairly confusing.
Careful with the Sugar-free gum. A lot of them are sweetened with Sorbitol. Sorbitol is used in hospitals as a laxative. Too much of these gums could seriously hinder your gaming session.
Some have switched to xylitol as a sweetener, but you should still check the label. Xylitol is also a sugar-alcohol and has a laxative effect about 1/10th the strength of Sorbitol.
to prevent the chat pverflowing with quest lines you can go into sound options and turn of qust chatter in Chat boxes, and have talk bubbles over speaking characters' heads. The talk bubbles include things like 'do you see that enemy over there!'
The "Quest Dialog Subtitles" option also opens the Journal whenever you pick up a lore book.
I wish the two behaviors were separate options because the Journal opening and covering half the screen bothers me...
On one hand you can use it to kick people who are afking on your game (I've seen some of this in the beta). The person joins the game, stays in New Tristram and gains a ton of experience and gold from the party finishing quests. That is pretty bad imho. You cannot do anything about this, except leave and start a new game. Currently I'm not 100% positive whether monster difficulty is increased by this behaviour.
I have had this happen in nearly every public game I make/join. It actually encouraged me to stop playing public games altogether.
Two people would be out fighting the minions of hell and one or two would be either afk in Tristram or running around in an area we had already cleared for no reason (like Old Tristram Road when we were in the Defiled Crypts). They would wait until an event was triggered, port in for the event and stand in the corner still doing nothing.
This behavior makes for a poor co-op experience.
Adding someone to my friends list just to leave and reform the game doesn't sound particularly appealing to me, so a kick option would be helpful.
they only die to his whirlwind attack, if you have some life on hit items it should be enough for his normal attacks (it heals the dogs too)
This. His whirlwind attack does more than triple damage on the first swing. Zombie dogs do not have the AI to run away while he does his VERY obvious attack animation. I imagine they did this so players had to think during the fight and could avoid a very large chunk of his damage.
I only tend to lose my zombie dogs when I run into two champion packs at once or they stand in three grotesque explosions, both of which seem like acceptable deaths because those situations would nearly kill my character anyway.
Edit: Just tested on my barb to see the numbers again, first swing of his whirlwind hit me for anywhere from 64-86 and each subsequent swing hit me for 12-17. Changed from "triple damage" to "more than triple"...
To quote the health systems page a bit: "When you do battle with stronger foes, like "rare" and "champion" monsters, you're likely to see medium-sized health globes emerge before these monsters are killed, as they reach certain health percentages or are stripped of their defenses."
"Each boss battle includes a custom-designed means of utilizing these globes to regain health."
Stack thorns damage and life regen for the Zombie Dogs and Gargatuan. Fetish Army for a damage cooldown, and use Wall of Zombies for mob control. Supplement with AoE damage from Firebomb: Conflagration and Grasp of the Dead: Groping Eels.
1
The whole idea is to buff your spirit barrage damage as much as possible and be able to continually cast. As long as you can cast spirit barrage for 10 seconds with your initial mana pool it will always be free if you have Rush of Essence.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#gVYQPT!fcW!ZcYbbY
Actives:
Spirit Barrage: Well of Souls - Well of Souls is more damage than the other runes, single target included if you are standing close enough to the monster.
Sacrifice: Provoke the Pack - Nice chunk of area damage but more used for the 15% or 20% damage buff whenever Zombie Dogs is off cooldown. Can be up all the time if you want to use the Tribal Rights passive.
Summon Zombie Dogs: Burning Dogs - Mostly used for the Sacrifice buff but also good for keeping mobs off the entire group. The rune is just personal preference, I like Burning Dogs for the extra area damage.Big Bad Voodoo: Slam Dance - 20% attack speed buff and 30% damage buff makes your spirit barrage eat through single targets. Buffs you, buffs the group, what more could you ask for?
Fetish Army: Legion of Daggers - You could really put whatever skill you wanted here, I just use this as another cooldown when I run into a champion pack or start a boss fight.
Gargantuan: Big Stinker - You can see I am somewhat biased towards pets, Gargantuan is just another body to keep mobs off you and the party and is more free damage to groups. I find Big Stinker more consistent in the general sense, could easily be whichever rune you want.
Passives: Plenty of room to change around passives to make this work for your gear.
Rush of Essence - This is required. As long as you can cast Spirit Barrage for a full 10 seconds without running out of mana, you will be able to cast forever.
Blood Ritual - 10% reduced mana cost probably the most efficient to save mana here.
Pierce the Veil - Best damage rune for any build, can make the mana tricky but there are other ways to deal with that.
Spiritual Attunement : Also an option here. I find it not as efficient as Blood Ritual though. If you remove Pierce the Veil this passive also seems like overkill.
Zombie Handler: Effectively another 5% damage buff and more sacrifice damage.
Tribal Rights: I used this for a while because I could not sustain Spirit Barrage cast with Pierce the Veil. This reduces your cooldowns which makes them more flexible. Reduces Summon Zombie Dogs below 30 seconds, or very close to it at least, so you can keep Provoke the Pack up forever instead of just 2/3rd the time.
On mana: At first it seemed gear dependent to me, but there are plenty of things to play around with to manage the mana cost without changing your gear.
-Spirit Barrage: The Spirit Is Willing is probably the easiest way. Reduces your area and single target damage but could be well worth it.
-Play with your paragon levels. Max mana and resource cost reduction specifically. Decide if you want to lower your damage here or not.
-Play with your passives. Plenty of options above.
This already looks a lot like your build, just without acid cloud as an area bomb and more damage buffs instead of mana replenishment. I just find on champion packs and bosses I rather chain cast a spell doing 600% weapon damage with more sheet damage buffs than have to worry about mana and cast corpse bomb for 525% weapon damage. Again, my group damage ends up being a bit lower, but I have played solo with this build as well and the large single target damage still kills groups of mobs fairly quickly.
0
I'll be the old guy that has Kuru, still blasting as many demons as the rest. To me it makes him feel much much stronger.
0
Very right.
If the weapon dps is equal, the skill dps will be equal, weapon speed is irrelevant (well it is already calculated in dps). The speed does however change the cost of the spell over time, which is what the op is trying to get across (I think).
The cost does not change the dps of the skill while it is being cast. Cost only changes how long you can cast the spell. Thus weapon speed changes your resource management.
That is useful information, but the way it was presented is fairly confusing.
0
Careful with the Sugar-free gum. A lot of them are sweetened with Sorbitol. Sorbitol is used in hospitals as a laxative. Too much of these gums could seriously hinder your gaming session.
Some have switched to xylitol as a sweetener, but you should still check the label. Xylitol is also a sugar-alcohol and has a laxative effect about 1/10th the strength of Sorbitol.
http://consumerist.com/2008/01/dont-chew-15-sticks-of-sorbitol-sweetened-gum-per-day.html
1
The "Quest Dialog Subtitles" option also opens the Journal whenever you pick up a lore book.
I wish the two behaviors were separate options because the Journal opening and covering half the screen bothers me...
0
I have had this happen in nearly every public game I make/join. It actually encouraged me to stop playing public games altogether.
Two people would be out fighting the minions of hell and one or two would be either afk in Tristram or running around in an area we had already cleared for no reason (like Old Tristram Road when we were in the Defiled Crypts). They would wait until an event was triggered, port in for the event and stand in the corner still doing nothing.
This behavior makes for a poor co-op experience.
Adding someone to my friends list just to leave and reform the game doesn't sound particularly appealing to me, so a kick option would be helpful.
0
For example the first swing of the Skeleton King's Whirlwind attack does significantly more damage than each subsequent swing.
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This. His whirlwind attack does more than triple damage on the first swing. Zombie dogs do not have the AI to run away while he does his VERY obvious attack animation. I imagine they did this so players had to think during the fight and could avoid a very large chunk of his damage.
I only tend to lose my zombie dogs when I run into two champion packs at once or they stand in three grotesque explosions, both of which seem like acceptable deaths because those situations would nearly kill my character anyway.
Edit: Just tested on my barb to see the numbers again, first swing of his whirlwind hit me for anywhere from 64-86 and each subsequent swing hit me for 12-17. Changed from "triple damage" to "more than triple"...
0
To quote the health systems page a bit: "When you do battle with stronger foes, like "rare" and "champion" monsters, you're likely to see medium-sized health globes emerge before these monsters are killed, as they reach certain health percentages or are stripped of their defenses."
"Each boss battle includes a custom-designed means of utilizing these globes to regain health."
The rest here - http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/health.xml
What percentages? What are the chances? How does each boss encounter change?
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Who/What is that on the right side of the Blizzard Downloader picture? Looks awesome.
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YRRW4
74MWV
Z689V
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Sadly this is the only case I could actually find! I am a little surprised it has managed to survive for 10 years.
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http://us.battle.net...YPkT!aTW!cacZbY
Stack thorns damage and life regen for the Zombie Dogs and Gargatuan. Fetish Army for a damage cooldown, and use Wall of Zombies for mob control. Supplement with AoE damage from Firebomb: Conflagration and Grasp of the Dead: Groping Eels.