29 replies to this topic

[insect]

So, I was playing around in MP10 for bit and trying to find a build that would let me do constant high DPS.  I tried Bears build (works for me up through MP7 because they die before mana is gone), acid cloud, and other main-stream builds.  Nothing worked because of mana problems or the elites would have some affix that was just unbearable (no pun intended).

Spoiler

So, I was watching my WW barb friends just roflstomp MP10 and I thought about how I might do that.  Thus, I landed on this build:
Main - Darts/Splinters
Secondary - Firebats/Cloud of Bats
1 - Spirit Walk/Honored Guest
2 - Soul Harvest/Siphon
3 - Confusion/Paranoia
4 - BBV/Rain Dance (could also use Slam Dance if you have ~75+ mana regen)

Passives: Jungle Fortitude, Gruesome Feast, Grave Injustice

So, with the life-steal and DPS of the firebats, plus constant regen (use Voodoo when completely empty), I could just stand in anything and life-steal everything to keep full HP.  The constant DPS beat the bears and acid cloud because bats are so much cheaper and I never had to kite anything... just stand and kill, move a tiny bit when you need health globes.

So, basic premise - get high DPS with moderate life-steal (I have 2.9%), stand and deliver the DPS while mobs flock to you.

Only problems I had were knockback mobs - keeps resetting your fire-bats damage and arcane if 2-3 beats hit at once.  Reflect is a nightmare, always, but no biggy with some LoH.

Note: Couldn't use links cause of 10-post rule, boo!

Changed up the Build a bit (Copied from Post Later in this Thread):

So, I couldn't quite get the Cloud of Bats build to work: 1) no ranged DPS and 2) Still OOM, just slower.  So I scrapped it and looked for other ways to get high DPS with range and not run out of mana.

So, try this:
LC - Firebomb + Ghost Bomb
RC - Locust Swarm + Searing Locusts
1 - Zombie Dogs + Leeching Beasts
2 - Spirit Walk + Healing Journey
3 - Soul Harvest + Vengeful Spirit
4 - Spirit Barrage + Manitou

Passives: Jungle Fortitude, Pierce the Veil, and Fetish Sycophants

To make this work you need about 120-130K unbuffed DPS, ~1500 LoH or some LoH with LS.  Also, you need attack speed gear.

Basically, manitou plus locusts do most of the DPS - it's not bursty like bears, but you can sustain the DPS.  Dogs hold the line for spamming firebomb (which with the AoE does a lot of DPS and heals you like crazy if you have LS).  Finally, because of AS and spamming firebomb, you get up 7-8 fetishes per elite.  They further hold the line/soak damage, but also do 20% damage a hit, so when you have 7-8 out it's like having a Gargantuan's DPS (yes they run in and out, so DPS is sporadic that's why 7-8 are needed to get to 100% more damage being put out).  

I like this build for a few reasons:  1) Rarely OOM - must accidently do 2 Locusts or 2 Manitous to run out, 2) Pick up radius is a thing of the past, 3) High sustained DPS, 4) Hardly take ranged hits anymore cause all the pets get in the way, 4) You can run this build on any MP and still do just fine (no noticeable farming time differences in MP 1-5).

Try it out!  I definitely think you could choose between Soul Vessel and Jungle Fort though - just depends on what you like.

Profile: Insect#1546

Edited by insect, 07 November 2012 - 09:27 PM.

[datajunkee]

Could you post your battle tag so I can look up your profile?  I'm interested in following how your build might change as well as look at your gear/stat details.

My DPS is right around 105k base so I'm interested in giving this a shot for sure.

[insect]

Sure thing!

Insect#1546

[datajunkee]

Thanks, I'm going to give this a shot and hope to provide feedback and share my experience with it.

[arandan]

already tested this build a long time ago, it works but it is so mind numbing that I don't think anyone sane would be able to continue playing with it.
I mean... might as well get your dog to keep 1 mouse button pressed for you, right?

[insect]

Tweaked the build a bit for more survivability - Changed out for Dogs that absorb damage with confusion.

Also changed out Soul Harvest Siphon for Soul Harvest Vengeful Spirit

Edited by insect, 23 October 2012 - 11:06 PM.

[Xoth]

<p>

insect, on 23 October 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

So, basic premise - get high DPS with moderate life-steal (I have 2.9%), stand and deliver the DPS while mobs flock to you.

Thats pretty much what I do. Only with AC (slow burn) / Rain of Toads and LOH instead of life steal.
You said AC did not work for you. Do bats deal that much more damage? I mean effectivly delivered damage, not tooltip numbers.

[Grabbler]

Going for this build without TotD and not using a Skorn with 6% life steal seems like a waste. Am i missing something?

Plus Cloud of bats has absolutely terrible radius... Even with bears range mobs are a pain. And here we got many times worse radius plus you have to stand in place for several seconds to maximize the damage. It'll be total hell killing range elites.

Edited by Grabbler, 24 October 2012 - 10:18 AM.

[insect]

Xoth, on 24 October 2012 - 07:58 AM, said:

insect, on 23 October 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

So, basic premise - get high DPS with moderate life-steal (I have 2.9%), stand and deliver the DPS while mobs flock to you.

Thats pretty much what I do. Only with AC (slow burn) / Rain of Toads and LOH instead of life steal.
You said AC did not work for you. Do bats deal that much more damage? I mean effectivly delivered damage, not tooltip numbers.

No, the damage is not higher, but I find mana to be less of a concern and it's less "kitey" so DPS time is maximized.  Maybe with some more LoH (looking to get some once I can change out Uhkapian for a good String of Skulls, so I can change Pox to a Unity and I want a Ouroboros) it will be better.  With this, if I have 3-4 mobs around me it's pretty much always constant DPS and I steal 5-6K every 1.5s.

Grabbler, on 24 October 2012 - 09:14 AM, said:

Going for this build without TotD and not using a Skorn with 6% life steal seems like a waste. Am i missing something?

Plus Cloud of bats has absolutely terrible radius... Even with bears range mobs are a pain. And here we got many times worse radius plus you have to stand in place for several seconds to maximize the damage. It'll be total hell killing range elites.

I have +19 PuR on my armor. TotD is not required.  If I could afford a Skorn with 6% LS, I would... They are currently about 500 million gold.

Yes the radius is bad, but see my reply to the other person.  And yes, ranged mob suck, but dart works to burn them down quickly when required.  I find this build to be best in Act I because of the number of purely melee mobs.

[datajunkee]

It was certainly effective in the middle of large trash groups.  However, like Grabbler said, ranged mobs were a little rough...god forbid you ran into Wasps in Act II.  :-P   I understand darts can take care of them and perhaps I just need to give the build a little more time to grow on me.

On the plus side, it was definitely mana efficient.  I enjoyed it for sure.

[Grabbler]

Killing elite mobs 1 by 1 with poison darts on high MP takes so long... But maybe this build can be good for coop. For tanking...) And leaving range mobs to the others.

[insect]

datajunkee, on 24 October 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

It was certainly effective in the middle of large trash groups.  However, like Grabbler said, ranged mobs were a little rough...god forbid you ran into Wasps in Act II.  :-P   I understand darts can take care of them and perhaps I just need to give the build a little more time to grow on me.

On the plus side, it was definitely mana efficient.  I enjoyed it for sure.

Glad you did!  It's something different and viable I think.

Grabbler, on 24 October 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

Killing elite mobs 1 by 1 with poison darts on high MP takes so long... But maybe this build can be good for coop. For tanking...) And leaving range mobs to the others.

Yes, I've done some coop with a cyclone monk - absolute rape.  Sucks them in to us and I'm just firebatting away... everything melts so fast.

[Grabbler]

How about changing Mass Confusion for something like Locust Swarm or Haunt to use against range mobs?

[luizdeh]

Because plague bats

[NeutroNova]

Dont take offense to this but this build much too dependent on multiple variables. Which is unfortunate because I wish WD's had more versatile builds. I have 110K dps with 800 LOH and and 2.8 life steal. In MP 10 I would die if there weren't at least 4 mobs beside me. The range of cloud of bats sucks and the poison bats is only frontal cone. Both require you to be immobile and they both tick far less then rain of toads.

I personally and unfortunately did not find this nearly as good as a bears, of PC build.

[Grabbler]

Well, the advantage of this build lies in the fact that you don't need different items. So it's not a problem to switch from it back to bears or whatever you want. Btw, what's a PC build?

[NeutroNova]

Grabbler, on 25 October 2012 - 06:41 AM, said:

Well, the advantage of this build lies in the fact that you don't need different items. So it's not a problem to switch from it back to bears or whatever you want. Btw, what's a PC build?

My apologies I meant acid cloud.

[Fizbini]

wouldnt acid rain be more dps... and it has a very high coefficient for LOH and bigger radius.  just mix that with some acid rain less mana items.

[Grabbler]

Fizbini, on 25 October 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

wouldnt acid rain be more dps... and it has a very high coefficient for LOH and bigger radius.  just mix that with some acid rain less mana items.

a) There are NO less mana items for Acid Rain.
More DPS? lol. 234-468% vs 150%

[Fizbini]

Grabbler, on 25 October 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

Fizbini, on 25 October 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

wouldnt acid rain be more dps... and it has a very high coefficient for LOH and bigger radius.  just mix that with some acid rain less mana items.

a) There are NO less mana items for Acid Rain.
More DPS? lol. 234-468% vs 150%

guess ur right about the reduction to mana   but u can still get plenty of mana regen items and +crit on acid rain items.  plus its not 150%  its 115% + 150% over 3 sec,  does it stack if u cast it twice?  plus it has a huge radius and range.. wont be bothered by running ranged elites

im just a huge fan of acid rain because it makes me immortal with high all resistance and LOH,  mixed with rain of toads and a skorn procing 10k damage because of the high coefficient.

plus u could go slow burn for 115%  + 300% over 6 seconds...  does anyone know if it stacks... like if i cast it three times in a row will the damage over time overlap or just refresh

Edited by Fizbini, 25 October 2012 - 07:24 PM.