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Season 2 Start

Earlier today we got news of on when Season 2 starts - on Friday, February 13th. Click the banner to see it.

Update to 4-Piece Sets

When replying to a thread on people's favorite Pet Builds, Tyvalir gave us some exciting information: that the developers plan to tweak all current 4-piece sets (like Tal Rasha's and Immortal King's), hopefully for Patch 2.2. Hopefully it allows them to compete with 6-piece sets and bring more end-game gear choices to RoS. Read below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Right now, my favorite pet build uses Fetish Army with Zunimassa's Haunt - mostly because it's fun to watch dozens of my minions swarm and topple a monster twenty (or even thirty) times their size. They pack a mean punch as it is, and they'll become even more powerful when the set gets a 6 piece bonus in a future patch.

That said, there are plenty of viable options for other classes (as others have said):
Barbs have Immortal King's Call for potentially constant Call of the AncientsI've seen Monks do cool stuff with Mystic Ally (plusMonkey King's Garb)Demon Hunters have Sentry and Companion (as in today's Play Your Way)Wizards have Hydra to bolster their Firebird's Finery set bonus damageCrusaders have some pretty awesome builds using variations of Phalanx 
Like you, I'm curious to know what people's favorites are in different scenarios. Which are the coolest looking? Which are the best (or three best, even) for fastest T6 Rift clear speeds? Which require you to be super active or less active? There are lots of options, and plenty of room for individual interpretation…

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Future patch?

That's right. Our current plan is to release updated versions of the 4 piece sets, along with the new 6 piece sets shown at BlizzCon (Delsere's Magnum Opus, Wrath of the Wastes and Unhallowed Essence), in patch 2.2.0.

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I prefer the WD with 23 fetishes, but it has a big downside.
They scatter instead of staying close by.
I would like to see aggressive, passive and defensive toggles put in for the various pet classes.

I have the same problem: while my Fetishes are generally pretty smart, they tend to scatter all over the place. Having a way to direct them (like you described) might add a layer of challenge - and hopefully reward - to playing a Witch Doctor running Zunimassa's Haunt and Fetish Army.

I’ll be sure to pass your idea on to the development team. Thanks for this, Grumm!

Carnevil Build Tip

KirkLucKhan made a post over at reddit comparing, with math (!), what is better for a Carnevil Witch Doctor - a Swamp Land Waders or a Cain's Habit (with the set bonus attackspeed). Check the snippet below, or the full post. The short answer is that in most cases the Cain's set attackspeed benefits the build more. Check it out!

Which is better for a "standard" [DoD / Zunis / Aughild's / Unity / RoRG] Carnevil / DoD build: Swamp Land Waders (SLW) and random good legendary gloves, or Cain's gloves / pants set?
Relevant to the discussion is the fact (discussed elsewhere on this forum) that Fetishes' Carnevil poison dart damage has IAS baked into every shot. Because they shoot at the rate you shoot, this means any IAS bonus double dips. For example, if you have zero IAS on your gear but a Gogok of Swiftness, then going from 0% to 15% IAS increases your effective damage output by ~32% (1.15x damage per dart x 1.15x darts / second = 1.3225x).

With that in mind, let's consider the following (admittedly BiS-geared) situation: You have 40% Poison damage from Bracers and Amulet, and are using lvl 40 enforcer (27% pets damage). This puts your elemental bonus at 67%. Let's also say you have 21% IAS on your gear ([EDIT: forgot Gloves! Kids, don't post at 2:30am.] , RoRG and Witching Hour), and an additional 15% from Gogok, (EDIT: forgot paragon 10%), plus 7% on weapon for an effective 8% IAS. [Note: the weapon IAS is multiplicative, not additive, with other gear IAS, so your attack speed bonus here is 1.07 * 1.46 = 1.5622.]
In this situation, 20% poison from SLW boosts elemental damage from 167% to 187%, for a damage boost of 11.98%.

In comparison, using the pants and glove slot for Cain's 8% IAS bonus increases your attack speed bonus from 56.22% (1.07 x 1.46 = 1.5622) to 64.78% (1.07 x 1.54 = 1.6478). As mentioned before, IAS double dips with Carnevil builds, because darts damage has IAS baked in, but you also fire more shots per second. Hence, the raw damage increase from this Cain's bonus would be (1.6478 / 1.5622)² , or 11.3% more damage.
... (continues) ...

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TL;DR: For a standard, well-geared Carnevil / DoD build, Cain's is almost always superior to Swamp Land Waders. If you run more IAS than on Gloves, RoRG, Belt, and Paragon; or less elemental than on Amulet and Bracers, it becomes more favorable to use SLW. [Edited since posting; I forgot gloves originally!]

Fire Raekors

Barbarian has arguably two good elements for his Raekor set in Patch 2.1.2: Fire and Physical. While the latter is generally considered better at higher GRs, while you are still perfecting your gear Fire can be a good alternative, and very strong in T6. With that in mind, MeatHeadMikhail has put together a video showcasing some gameplay, and explaining skill and item choices. Watch below!