DiabloFans

Quote from pax77»

Thank you for that in-depth guide! This is my first season playing WD and still trying to figure it out. One question - you have to cast Locust Swarm only once into the grouped mobs? And after which time do I have to recast it?

Thank You!

Thanks for comment! The Locust swarm will last almost forever due to the passive creeping death. It will spread rather quickly throughout the group with the pestilence rune. I usually do not have to recast locust swarm during a single fight unless something went wrong and it feels like the fight is going on forever. In that scenario I will recast just to make sure. In terms of a single target fight, like the rift guardian, I tend to error a little more on the cautious side of things, and recast every couple hexl casts. Hope this helped!

Thank you for the guide! I have mana issue when using pierce the veil. How do you keep you mana full? Against rift guardian my mana is mostly empty...

I am always contemplating to put on rush of essence

Quote from Drizzle00»

Thank you for the guide! I have mana issue when using pierce the veil. How do you keep you mana full? Against rift guardian my mana is mostly empty...

I am always contemplating to put on rush of essence

Rush of Essence is a viable choice, however what you need to keep in mind is that your job in the group is to kill the large density. The monk's job is to kill the Rift Guardian. If you replace pierce the veil with Rush of essence, the mana issues on the rift guardian will not be nearly as bad, however you will end up losing a large portion of dps during the density which hinders your ability to do your specific job in the group. If you find that you are carrying or doing lower level stuff, or even if you are running double WD, its not a bad choice to be made.

Thanks for the guide! I had the gears for this but opted to play DH since it was my main. (back to D3 from Season 2). Just started learning how this build works yesterday. Some questions I would like to ask:

1) Do I have to follow the rotation? What I'm currently doing is Soul Harvest, Hex, Haunt, Locust Swarm & Firebats.

2) Is it better to use Staff of Chiroptera and cube Sacred Harvester? Or Vile Hive is too good to let go?

3) Do I need Coils of Spider? (currently wearing this and cubed mantle of Channelling so my Lakumba is just sitting in my inventory)

4) I don't quite understand how Hex works? When I cast Hex it does the job, but i realize sometimes enemies are hexed automatically?

Currently using Grave Injustice instead of Pierce The Veil but it's okay bcuz I'm not pushing high GRs yet. Just doing around 60-80 range. Trying to up gems so I can augment my Ancient gears in order to be able to push higher GRs. Just got back from Season 2 so my Paragon is around 820 now.

Thanks! Great build!

Quote from tikusmati»

Thanks for the guide! I had the gears for this but opted to play DH since it was my main. (back to D3 from Season 2). Just started learning how this build works yesterday. Some questions I would like to ask:

1) Do I have to follow the rotation? What I'm currently doing is Soul Harvest, Hex, Haunt, Locust Swarm & Firebats.

2) Is it better to use Staff of Chiroptera and cube Sacred Harvester? Or Vile Hive is too good to let go?

3) Do I need Coils of Spider? (currently wearing this and cubed mantle of Channelling so my Lakumba is just sitting in my inventory)

4) I don't quite understand how Hex works? When I cast Hex it does the job, but i realize sometimes enemies are hexed automatically?

Currently using Grave Injustice instead of Pierce The Veil but it's okay bcuz I'm not pushing high GRs yet. Just doing around 60-80 range. Trying to up gems so I can augment my Ancient gears in order to be able to push higher GRs. Just got back from Season 2 so my Paragon is around 820 now.

Thanks! Great build!

Thank you for your support! I will try to answer each question in turn.
1) The rotation section becomes a priority list more than a rotation. The biggest thing to note here is that you keep the buffs rolling at all times if/when possible. If there is a particular order at the beginning that works better for you, then go for it!
2) In my opinion, it is better to cube the Staff of Chiroptera. The stats you can gain from having both a main hand as well as an off hand are just too good to pass up. The crit bonuses and area damage as well as firebats that could roll on both weapons is a super nice boost. That being said, I do not think it is completely useless to use the staff until you get a better set up to drop.
3) Coils of the Spider. This item is worth keeping. Though I did not cover it in my build, those would take the place of your Mantle of channeling for the solo pushing version of this build. They offer a little bit more survivability when you do not have access to the support classes. As for the group build, I feel that the added armor fromt he Lakumba is the better choice.
4) Hex is there for a small amount of crowd control, as well as the added 15% damage buff towards those enemies. I am not 100% sure why they are being hexed on their own, unless its after you cast the spell, there is a shamman that hexes enemies for a brief time. It is possible to kill one of the original hexed, and for the shamman to hex something else? Sorry I am not clear on this, but I will do some research and see if I can find more info for you best I can.
Again, the grave injustice is substituted for the solo build. I am glad to see that your thinking is spot on! Glad your having fun and enjoying the Witch Doctor. I will try to do my best to find an answer for the question I could not answer. In the meantime, thanks again and may RNGsus be on your side!

You've answered most of my questions! That cleared of some clouds in my mind

1) Wait a minute, you can roll Firebats Dmg on Sacred Harvester?

2) Yes, the shaman hexes enemies after I cast the spell. I guess that is just how it works. Wouldn't complain for more hexed enemies aren't we

I was a zdps WD back in Season 2 as well. Still have the build with me, but I guess it's not that useful now.

Quote from Sludgepoison»

Quote from tikusmati»

Thanks for the guide! I had the gears for this but opted to play DH since it was my main. (back to D3 from Season 2). Just started learning how this build works yesterday. Some questions I would like to ask:

1) Do I have to follow the rotation? What I'm currently doing is Soul Harvest, Hex, Haunt, Locust Swarm & Firebats.

2) Is it better to use Staff of Chiroptera and cube Sacred Harvester? Or Vile Hive is too good to let go?

3) Do I need Coils of Spider? (currently wearing this and cubed mantle of Channelling so my Lakumba is just sitting in my inventory)

4) I don't quite understand how Hex works? When I cast Hex it does the job, but i realize sometimes enemies are hexed automatically?

Currently using Grave Injustice instead of Pierce The Veil but it's okay bcuz I'm not pushing high GRs yet. Just doing around 60-80 range. Trying to up gems so I can augment my Ancient gears in order to be able to push higher GRs. Just got back from Season 2 so my Paragon is around 820 now.

Thanks! Great build!

Thank you for your support! I will try to answer each question in turn.
1) The rotation section becomes a priority list more than a rotation. The biggest thing to note here is that you keep the buffs rolling at all times if/when possible. If there is a particular order at the beginning that works better for you, then go for it!
2) In my opinion, it is better to cube the Staff of Chiroptera. The stats you can gain from having both a main hand as well as an off hand are just too good to pass up. The crit bonuses and area damage as well as firebats that could roll on both weapons is a super nice boost. That being said, I do not think it is completely useless to use the staff until you get a better set up to drop.
3) Coils of the Spider. This item is worth keeping. Though I did not cover it in my build, those would take the place of your Mantle of channeling for the solo pushing version of this build. They offer a little bit more survivability when you do not have access to the support classes. As for the group build, I feel that the added armor fromt he Lakumba is the better choice.
4) Hex is there for a small amount of crowd control, as well as the added 15% damage buff towards those enemies. I am not 100% sure why they are being hexed on their own, unless its after you cast the spell, there is a shamman that hexes enemies for a brief time. It is possible to kill one of the original hexed, and for the shamman to hex something else? Sorry I am not clear on this, but I will do some research and see if I can find more info for you best I can.
Again, the grave injustice is substituted for the solo build. I am glad to see that your thinking is spot on! Glad your having fun and enjoying the Witch Doctor. I will try to do my best to find an answer for the question I could not answer. In the meantime, thanks again and may RNGsus be on your side!

Sorry let me clarify a little bit. No, you cannot roll Firebats damage on the Sacred Harvester. You can however, roll both Firebats AND area damage on the Vile Hive, allowing you to roll additional area damage or crit on the Sacred Harvester. I simply meant that by running the Two hander, you could potentially be losing out on an extra set of usefull stats, while only gaining primary stat in return. Primary stat can easily be added on with Caldesan's later on. Hope that cleared up the fogginess of my last post!

i think the passive on vile hive that adds the pestilence rune is too important to lose..... spreading vile hive passively makes sure your ring of emptiness is always proccing on density mobs

Quote from spork1»

Is the Vile hive secondary really that good?

If you use wilkens reach or zuni offhand you can get ad, +firebats AND vitality since the special skill on those are rerollable.

When running 2-3 man groups or double bats you need to swap taeguk --> stricken otherwise rg never dies.

Topaz in helm depends a bit on barb and rg.

On shoulder I prefer int/vit/ad/life%.

But with a good barb and monk with a lot of globes 90+ is a breeze almost no matter what variants och and a good rolled staff is also very viable.