Spirit Walk (Mana Regen rune): First off this skill is amazing. If you don't have it in your build, you're either not in inferno yet or just a terrible witch doctor. Increased movement speed, absorbs 50% of your life worth of damage and regenerates 30% of your mana over 2 seconds with the Honored Guest rune. Incredible. Essential for kiting, emergency damage absorption and mana regen.
Poison Dart (Splinters rune): This is my main attack. With the Splinters rune it does 180% weapon damage assuming all 3 darts hit the target. Low mana cost and high single target damage make it great for both trash and bosses. Simple.
Wall of Zombies (Pile On or Barricade rune): This is the only aoe attack in my build and a personal favourite of mine. High damage, long cooldown, awesome looking and incredibly hard to aim. Does a whopping 765% weapon damage with a 25 second cooldown. It takes a while to learn how to aim with it but with practice it becomes worth it. This attack isn't really a staple in the witch doctor build so you can choose another skill if you want, but be wary of the mana cost of other aoe skills since I don't use any of the mana regen passives. A personal strategy of mine is to use the hex skill to de-mobilize champions/bosses, then drop the zombies on them while they can't move. *Edit* I've actually switched to the Barricade rune now since it helps with kiting by blocking the path of monsters and also does a nice amount of damage too.
Grasp of the Dead (80% Slow rune): Essential for kiting both mobs and bosses. The Unrelenting Grip rune slows enemies down to a crawl making them easy to kite and also to drop Wall of Zombies on. Also does a fair amount of aoe damage as well. (Great for slowing treasure goblins too!)
Hex (Healing Rune): Another awesome skill that I think is completely underrated. For champions and rares in inferno, this skill makes them slighty easier to deal with by controlling one of them while you deal with the rest. It does work on some bosses like Zoltun Kulle/Belial and gives you a good opportunity to line up a Wall of Zombies attack. The heal rune provides an instant heal of about 1800 as soon as you use the skill, and will keep healing you periodically throughout the duration.
Horrify (Extra Radius rune): This skill is just a random crowd control button that can be switched out for any other skill in the WD arsenal really. I used to use Mass Confusion but switched to Horrify for the shorter cooldown. I don't really use this skill on bosses, it's mainly for champs and mobs that get too close to you. My other choice for this slot is Haunt with the health regen rune to use on bosses. Haunt does a fair bit of damage, only has to be cast every 12 seconds and returns a bit of health in the process. *Edit* I've actually switched Horrify out for Soul Harvest since it gives you a pretty sweet DPS boost and makes farming whimsyshire much easier.
Notes on other skills (feel free to contribute):
Big Bad Voodoo: Pretty good in co-op games but I dislike it due to its long cooldown. Use it in place of Horrify if you like it. Fetish Army: Also dislike due to its long cooldown Gargantuan and Zombie Dogs: Ahaa, are you serious Blizzard?! Absolutely useless in inferno. Both get 1 shot and deal little damage. Avoid at all costs. (Although I do sense a buff coming in the future for these to make them viable. Maybe scaling their life and damaging in proportion to the witch doctor) Firebomb: Can replace Poison Dart for champs and trash since it does have nice aoe but for bosses its better to use Poison Dart since it does more damage. Mass Confusion: Another great crowd control spell aside from horrify, however the cooldown does seem a bit too long even with the 45 second cooldown rune. Soul Harvest: A very viable skill all around that gives you a nice DPS boost. However I dislike having to constantly run into mobs to apply it over and over. Use it in place of Horrify if you like.
Passives:
Jungle Fortitude: A very general passive with straight 20% damage reduction. I found that with this passive, a lot of attacks that would've one-shot me in inferno just brought me down to very low health instead, allowing me to use a potion and Hex heals to heal myself back up quickly. If you still get one-shot a lot even with this passive then switch it to something else. *EDIT* I use Spiritual Attunement now.
Spiritual Attunement: Just a great mana regen passive. I've started using this since switching to a 1-hander increases your attack speed a lot and you spend more mana so I use this passive to compensate. Jungle Fortitude doesn't really help much after Act 1 inferno anyways.
Spirit Vessel: Sweet Jesus this passive has saved my ass so many times. I never really liked this passive at first, but playing in inferno makes you see how viable it really is. Basically it saves you from death every 90 seconds and puts you in spirit walk mode allowing you to make a quick escape. You WILL die a lot in inferno and this skill is just a lifesaver (literally huehuehue). But wait that's not all! The passive also reduces the cooldown on Spirit Walk by 2 seconds! Whaaaat, shit I'm sold.
Pierce the Veil: Straight up 20% damage increase at a cost of 30% more mana on all your skills. Since the bread and butter of the build is Poison Dart (10 mana per cast) you don't really have to worry about mana anyways. Zombie Wall and Grasp will bring your mana down a fair bit but this is countered by using spirit walk for that 30% mana back. This passive gives you that extra DPS boost that is quite needed in inferno.
I have heard about the zombie bear build and tried it myself. Choosing all the mana regen passives and spamming zombie bears for high damage. However I didn't care for it much for 3 reasons:
-you miss out on other great passives and have to keep your other skills on cooldown.
-you have to get in reasonably close range to use.
-it seemed that even with all the mana regen skills and passive you still couldn't spam it endlessly.
Gear:
I focus on gear that gives you both intelligence and vitality. Some attack speed on rings/amulets will boost your DPS nicely too. Act 1 inferno is pretty forgiving on gear and stats but before you go into Act 2, you want to aim for at least 30k health and 20k DPS. Buy a nice weapon off the AH if you need to. I didn't go into Act 2 until I had a 966 damage 2-hander which I bought off the AH for about 1.7 million gold (they are much cheaper now). Do Act 1 Nephalem Valor farm runs if you need some cash. My gear as of May 24th: youtube.com/watch?v=g3jsaCmZE1Y
My gear as of June 6th: Check the Diablo kill video at the bottom. Gear is at the beginning.
Follower:
I use the Templar as a follower. His heals are quite usual in most situations even though his aggro is absolute crap. Just stack his gear with as much strength as you can get for some extra DPS.
His skills: Heal - basic heal with 15s cooldown Loyalty - extra life regeneration Charge - does a nice 3 second stun Guardian - heals you and knocks back enemies when you are low health
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining.
Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those. Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts. Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies. Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them. Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk Although you can't use Spirit Walk to run through the walls, you can just use it to run through the monsters and kite them the other way. Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do. Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
Boss Kill Videos:
Skeleton King:
A very simple and pretty easy fight. Not much of an explanation necessary, kill adds asap and avoid his swirling swing. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) so you probably won't kill him as fast a I did.
Queen Araneae:
A pretty straightforward fight. She only really has one attack, spitting poison in melee range. She will charge you and use the attack so just move out of range (Spirit Walk if you have to). She also spits spiderwebs at you which slow you down. You can just walk out of these if you have time or use Spirit Walk to remove the snare. At a couple of intervals she will disappear and spawn a few adds. Just put down Grasp to slow them and pick them off with Poison Dart. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) and made a lot of lazy mistakes which you might not be able to do with lesser stats.
The Butcher:
I found the fight quite challenging the first few times I did it, but it was quite easy to master with practice. You do need a reasonable amount of DPS for this fight since there is an enrage timer (3 minutes I think) where the floor will fill up completely with fire. Stay at a reasonable range from him so you don't get melee'd and have time to react to his attacks.
He has a hook attack where he will point at you, then send a hook in your direction which will drag you back to him and perform a melee slam which will most likely 1-shot you. You can avoid this attack easily by just moving out of the way when he points at you. If you do get caught, use Spirit Walk immediately and you will be able to run away without getting melee'd.
He also has a ranged attack which sends out a bunch of chains in a cone area and hits you for about half your health or more. When you get hit by this attack, use a potion and the Hex skill to bring your health back up to full. If these are on cooldown then use a health well. You want to try to stay at full health at all times.
Lastly he will have a charge attack which is quite visible and easy to dodge. After he charges into the wall he will be stunned for a couple seconds which is a good time to use Pile On zombies for a nice damage chunk.
Magda:
A pretty simple fight at the beginning of Act 2. In fact, I found a lot of regular mobs in Act 2 were harder than this fight -.- She only has 1 ranged attack which you have to watch out for. It's a big ball of purple/blueish flies that moves pretty slowly but follows you, so just run until it disappears. At regular health intervals she will go invulnerable and spawn 4 melee adds. Just kite them with Grasp/Hex and kill with Darts and Pile On. Repeat until dead.
Zoltun Kulle:
This was the longest boss fight I've done to date, mainly because of all the kiting. At all points during the fight you want to stay a good distance from Zoltun so you have time to react to his fireball attack. The first phase is just kiting the 2 big construct monsters with Grasp and killing them with Darts and Pile On. Hex does not work on the constructs but does work on Zoltun (more on that later)
There are 3 attacks from Zoltun that you have to watch out for.
Fireball - Shoots a pretty fast fireball at you that can can just dodge. If you are in close range of Zoltun this will most likely kill you.
Falling Rocks - As soon as the ground starts to shake, run and don't stop until all the rocks have fallen. Use Spirit Walk if you have to. This attack can one-shot you if you're not careful.
Tornadoes - Fairly easy to dodge.
Once the 2 constructs were killed, I kited Zoltun around in a circle and tried to keep him just a bit off-screen. Use Darts to damage him but be prepared to move for fireballs. A common strategy that I used was to pop Spirit Walk, run right past him and use Hex, then turn around and drop Pile On to do some nice damage.
As far as I know, there is no enrage to this fight so just focus on good dodging and he will be killed eventually.
Belial:
Prepare your anus
Had to change by build to this one: http://us.battle.net...dUQP!WVZ!aaYZbb you'll see why during the fight.
Strategy explained during the video, sorry if I sound like shit.
Ghom:
Not really much to say here, it's an incredibly easy fight for ranged classes in general. Just kite him around in a circle and avoid the gas clouds. The small slimes can be killed easy enough. Use Grasp and Zombie Wall to help kiting.
Cydaea:
This fight was a bit overwhelming at first but once you figure out how to deal with the spider adds it's pretty easy. First off, she only has one ranged attack which spreads out more the farther you are from her. So try to keep a safe distance to be able to dodge her attack. The little spiders she spawns don't have to be DPS'd directly and you can let Grasp take care of them for you.
Use Darts to attack her when she's down on the ground and watch out for little spider spawns. At certain health intervals she will disappear into the air and small spiders will start spawning wherever you are standing. Try running in a zig-zag pattern to get the spiders lumped together and use Grasp and Zombie Wall to slow them and kill them.
Once she's back on the ground continue DPSing her with Darts and repeat for the rest of the fight.
There is a sweet spot that I found where if she is located at the top of the map, you can stand just offscreen below her and spam her with Darts and she won't even move. Check out 5:40 to see the sweet spot in action
Azmodan:
Build used for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UQRX!ZWV!aacYaZ
A rather challenging fight that required a lot of moving around and timing. I did another walkthrough video like Belial that explains the fight step by step.
Iskatu:
I was able to use my normal build for this fight. Just kite everything around in a circle and use Grasp for slowing and damage as well. Throw up a Zombie Wall when you can even though they walk through it, it's still pretty good damage. Use Spirit Walk and Horrify when things get too messy. When the boss comes out try to hit him with Darts as much as possible but you still have to keep kiting everything during the whole fight.
Rakanoth:
Ugh, I hate to say it but I caved in to the zombie bears build for this fight. It's just too damn impossible to do with any other builds I've tried. The boss himself isn't so hard to do, but it's those GODDAMN tongue fucker adds that one-shot you on top of the boss as well. So here's the build for zombie bears: http://us.battle.net...UdQP!UWV!cYZYZb
- Start off outside the encounter and get 5 stacks of Soul Harvest from trash mobs. (use Soul to Waste Rune so the stacks last 60 seconds)
- Run inside, summon zombie dogs and start the fight.
- Aggro the boss and Spirit Walk down into the bottom corner.
- Use Fetish Army, Big Bad Voodoo and start spamming bears.
- Use Spirit Walk again whenever it comes off cooldown.
You will most likely get one shot due to his ranged attack but the Spirit Vessel passive will save you from death. You should be able to down him before he does that attack again.
Diablo:
Witch Doctor build for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UjRT!bWV!aaaaaZ
Finally Diablo himself. The fight is pretty long and challenging so props to Blizzard for that. Despite the strategy I used, you still need a lot of practice and luck to kill him. Strategy explained during the video, works for all ranged classes as well.
Looks pretty good, one thing that concern me what about when you meet alot of champs groups ? you always kill them one by one ? as wall of zombies combined with grasp of dead does not seems to be enough aoe to kill it.. what about this build with locus swarm ? you cast this once and it affect every one you can see on your monitor...
im just asking because im using that just fine..
also isnt 1hand + offhand better for poison darts due to atk speed ? or better is buy 2hand and then balance atk speed with your gear
im currently focusing on vitality inteligence and resist all, and if possible then atk speed but to get combination of 4 stats you like is really rare so how do you balance atk speed / defensive stats ??
ive got over 35k hp
something like 200 resist of all
and when used soul harvest my dmg is about 20k
and still im getting screwed in act 2...
butcher farming seems to be boring.. thinking more of farming cow level on inferno... (still have to finish key :-( )
I tried a build like this but it was so slow killing anything compared to bears/bats. Also... it's pretty much impossible to kill an illusionist pack and the mobs in Act 2 run through grasp VERY quickly.
I really like your build, any chance you can show/explain your stats?
Also how did you manage to get past phase 2 belial, I always seem to struggle with doing enough dps to him to push him to phase 3 whilst keeping in control of the naga spawns, I just eventually get overrun and die.
I'm sitting 36k hp and 20k damage/3.1k armor and while I don't get 1 hit anymore during the fight I still am unable to get to phase 3 of the fight
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining. Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those. Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts. Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies. Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them. Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk Although you can't use Spirit Walk to run through the walls, you can just use it to run through the monsters and kite them the other way. Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do. Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
Looks pretty good, one thing that concern me what about when you meet alot of champs groups ? you always kill them one by one ? as wall of zombies combined with grasp of dead does not seems to be enough aoe to kill it.. what about this build with locus swarm ? you cast this once and it affect every one you can see on your monitor...
im just asking because im using that just fine..
also isnt 1hand + offhand better for poison darts due to atk speed ? or better is buy 2hand and then balance atk speed with your gear
I haven't tried Locust Swarm at all so I can't really judge it. I dislike the idea of getting into close range to use it but if it works for you then great. I might try it sometime when there's lots of mobs close together.
Also I'm unsure about the difference between 2-hand and 1-hand combos simply because I haven't tested both of them and compared damage. All I know is that 1-handers will increase your attack speed quite a bit causing you to use more mana since you are casting spells faster. I feel I will be switching to 1-handers in the future because right now I see 1-hand weps on the AH around 1000 DPS and 2-hand weps for 1300 DPS. So a 1-hander combined with a high damage modifier offhand could outperform in terms of damage. ALSO, witch doctor offhand can have an affix that increases Poison Dart damage by ~10%
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining. Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those. Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts. Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies. Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them. Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk Although you can't use Spirit Walk to run through the walls, you can just use it to run through the monsters and kite them the other way. Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do. Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
I like how people tell me I should stop complaining about the game 1 shotting me and say it's because I have crappy gear. What you say above seems to imply that the only way to play the game (Even with good gear) is to kite. That is my compliant with Inferno, you have no choice but to kite every single mob. I'm a bit sad to see that things one shot you even though you claim to do alright in Inferno. I'm not interested in kiting every mob, it's not what the WD class is and it's just really boring. There's a reason why I picked a WD and not a wizard... I wanted to use pets and I didn't want to kite every single mob. ::sigh::
Yes unfortunately once you hit Act 2 and even more so in Act 3, you will be getting one-shot by pretty much everything. I'm even thinking of changing the Jungle Fortitude passive because I still get one-shot with it in Act 3. I have a feeling that pets will be buffed since a lot of people are complaining about them on the official forums and they are just useless right now.
Couldn't agree more Ruppgu. My suggestion is to hang in there. Blizzard is hearing the angry cries of thousands of unhappy customers that were promised they would be able to use tons of viable skill / rune combinations. Blizzard has said numerous times the last few days that first they need better class balance before they can adjust the difficulty of Hell / Inferno.
agree with kiting sh1t.. WD must get buffed as per my opinion they should not be kiting class... WD is not DH or WIZ... PETS must be buffed as their scaling is uber low... WD should be able to kill all noob packs with his pets.. as it was in D2 summoner necro was also able to clear all kind of trash / mini - bosses with Pets. but nowadays blizzard must think that summoner class does not need pets to progress...
stick with the kiting and W8 for the patch that will fix all this crap i would say..
Added Ghom and Cydaea videos. Ill be doing another walk-through video like Belial for Azmodan since he turned out to be a lot more challenging than I though.
how do you deal with plagued affix? because your main damage is poison and they have high poison resist
i run completely different build, but my biggest problem ist plagued because of the resist
Never really noticed a difference I guess. I suppose they just take longer to kill
I just beat Belial this weekend (finally had some time to play over the long weekend). I have some good advice for people trying it. I was having trouble avoiding his single slam attack in Phase 3 and I was using a fairly slow 2 handed weapon. I'd usually die because the attack animation was preventing me from moving quick enough. I decided to buy a decent 1 hander off the AH and sure enough, I beat him on my 2nd attempt after I did that. It's a lot easier fight with a 1 hander.
I used mostly the same build as Xago but I picked up Gruesome Feast instead of Jungle Fort. The hardest part for me was burning him down in P2 before too many adds came and this helped a lot.
I wouldn't say I've beaten Act 2 though... I still can't kill 75% of the rare packs in Act 2... oh well though. Act 3 lickers piss me off so much.....
Only variation I use is the hex glyph for +damage, but considering changing it for those damn reflects damage packs. Currently up to 65k DPS and down to 20k HP, been soloing pony level for days now. More WD need to use this instead of the stupid bears build, though I too have had to resort to it for killing certain bosses quickly (before getting instagibbed). I hope to eventually have the resist, armor, and hp to survive, but for now this lets me kite and kill everything.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
First off, my everyday witch doctor build here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZRkdU!bWV!aaaaYZ
Explanation for my choices
Spirit Walk (Mana Regen rune): First off this skill is amazing. If you don't have it in your build, you're either not in inferno yet or just a terrible witch doctor. Increased movement speed, absorbs 50% of your life worth of damage and regenerates 30% of your mana over 2 seconds with the Honored Guest rune. Incredible. Essential for kiting, emergency damage absorption and mana regen.
Poison Dart (Splinters rune): This is my main attack. With the Splinters rune it does 180% weapon damage assuming all 3 darts hit the target. Low mana cost and high single target damage make it great for both trash and bosses. Simple.
Wall of Zombies (Pile On or Barricade rune): This is the only aoe attack in my build and a personal favourite of mine. High damage, long cooldown, awesome looking and incredibly hard to aim. Does a whopping 765% weapon damage with a 25 second cooldown. It takes a while to learn how to aim with it but with practice it becomes worth it. This attack isn't really a staple in the witch doctor build so you can choose another skill if you want, but be wary of the mana cost of other aoe skills since I don't use any of the mana regen passives. A personal strategy of mine is to use the hex skill to de-mobilize champions/bosses, then drop the zombies on them while they can't move.
*Edit* I've actually switched to the Barricade rune now since it helps with kiting by blocking the path of monsters and also does a nice amount of damage too.
Grasp of the Dead (80% Slow rune): Essential for kiting both mobs and bosses. The Unrelenting Grip rune slows enemies down to a crawl making them easy to kite and also to drop Wall of Zombies on. Also does a fair amount of aoe damage as well. (Great for slowing treasure goblins too!)
Hex (Healing Rune): Another awesome skill that I think is completely underrated. For champions and rares in inferno, this skill makes them slighty easier to deal with by controlling one of them while you deal with the rest. It does work on some bosses like Zoltun Kulle/Belial and gives you a good opportunity to line up a Wall of Zombies attack. The heal rune provides an instant heal of about 1800 as soon as you use the skill, and will keep healing you periodically throughout the duration.
Horrify (Extra Radius rune): This skill is just a random crowd control button that can be switched out for any other skill in the WD arsenal really. I used to use Mass Confusion but switched to Horrify for the shorter cooldown. I don't really use this skill on bosses, it's mainly for champs and mobs that get too close to you. My other choice for this slot is Haunt with the health regen rune to use on bosses. Haunt does a fair bit of damage, only has to be cast every 12 seconds and returns a bit of health in the process.
*Edit* I've actually switched Horrify out for Soul Harvest since it gives you a pretty sweet DPS boost and makes farming whimsyshire much easier.
Notes on other skills (feel free to contribute):
Big Bad Voodoo: Pretty good in co-op games but I dislike it due to its long cooldown. Use it in place of Horrify if you like it.
Fetish Army: Also dislike due to its long cooldown
Gargantuan and Zombie Dogs: Ahaa, are you serious Blizzard?! Absolutely useless in inferno. Both get 1 shot and deal little damage. Avoid at all costs. (Although I do sense a buff coming in the future for these to make them viable. Maybe scaling their life and damaging in proportion to the witch doctor)
Firebomb: Can replace Poison Dart for champs and trash since it does have nice aoe but for bosses its better to use Poison Dart since it does more damage.
Mass Confusion: Another great crowd control spell aside from horrify, however the cooldown does seem a bit too long even with the 45 second cooldown rune.
Soul Harvest: A very viable skill all around that gives you a nice DPS boost. However I dislike having to constantly run into mobs to apply it over and over. Use it in place of Horrify if you like.
Passives:
Jungle Fortitude:A very general passive with straight 20% damage reduction. I found that with this passive, a lot of attacks that would've one-shot me in inferno just brought me down to very low health instead, allowing me to use a potion and Hex heals to heal myself back up quickly. If you still get one-shot a lot even with this passive then switch it to something else.*EDIT* I use Spiritual Attunement now.
Spiritual Attunement: Just a great mana regen passive. I've started using this since switching to a 1-hander increases your attack speed a lot and you spend more mana so I use this passive to compensate. Jungle Fortitude doesn't really help much after Act 1 inferno anyways.
Spirit Vessel: Sweet Jesus this passive has saved my ass so many times. I never really liked this passive at first, but playing in inferno makes you see how viable it really is. Basically it saves you from death every 90 seconds and puts you in spirit walk mode allowing you to make a quick escape. You WILL die a lot in inferno and this skill is just a lifesaver (literally huehuehue). But wait that's not all! The passive also reduces the cooldown on Spirit Walk by 2 seconds! Whaaaat, shit I'm sold.
Pierce the Veil: Straight up 20% damage increase at a cost of 30% more mana on all your skills. Since the bread and butter of the build is Poison Dart (10 mana per cast) you don't really have to worry about mana anyways. Zombie Wall and Grasp will bring your mana down a fair bit but this is countered by using spirit walk for that 30% mana back. This passive gives you that extra DPS boost that is quite needed in inferno.
I have heard about the zombie bear build and tried it myself. Choosing all the mana regen passives and spamming zombie bears for high damage. However I didn't care for it much for 3 reasons:
-you miss out on other great passives and have to keep your other skills on cooldown.
-you have to get in reasonably close range to use.
-it seemed that even with all the mana regen skills and passive you still couldn't spam it endlessly.
Gear:
I focus on gear that gives you both intelligence and vitality. Some attack speed on rings/amulets will boost your DPS nicely too. Act 1 inferno is pretty forgiving on gear and stats but before you go into Act 2, you want to aim for at least 30k health and 20k DPS. Buy a nice weapon off the AH if you need to. I didn't go into Act 2 until I had a 966 damage 2-hander which I bought off the AH for about 1.7 million gold (they are much cheaper now). Do Act 1 Nephalem Valor farm runs if you need some cash.
My gear as of May 24th: youtube.com/watch?v=g3jsaCmZE1YMy gear as of June 6th: Check the Diablo kill video at the bottom. Gear is at the beginning.
Follower:
I use the Templar as a follower. His heals are quite usual in most situations even though his aggro is absolute crap. Just stack his gear with as much strength as you can get for some extra DPS.
His skills:
Heal - basic heal with 15s cooldown
Loyalty - extra life regeneration
Charge - does a nice 3 second stun
Guardian - heals you and knocks back enemies when you are low health
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining.
Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those.
Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts.
Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies.
Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them.
Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk Although you can't use Spirit Walk to run through the walls, you can just use it to run through the monsters and kite them the other way.
Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do.
Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
Boss Kill Videos:
Skeleton King:
A very simple and pretty easy fight. Not much of an explanation necessary, kill adds asap and avoid his swirling swing. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) so you probably won't kill him as fast a I did.
Click here for Skeleton King kill. Maxed out number of youtube links in thread
Queen Araneae:
A pretty straightforward fight. She only really has one attack, spitting poison in melee range. She will charge you and use the attack so just move out of range (Spirit Walk if you have to). She also spits spiderwebs at you which slow you down. You can just walk out of these if you have time or use Spirit Walk to remove the snare. At a couple of intervals she will disappear and spawn a few adds. Just put down Grasp to slow them and pick them off with Poison Dart. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) and made a lot of lazy mistakes which you might not be able to do with lesser stats.
Click here for Queen Araneae kill. Maxed out number of youtube links in thread
The Butcher:
I found the fight quite challenging the first few times I did it, but it was quite easy to master with practice. You do need a reasonable amount of DPS for this fight since there is an enrage timer (3 minutes I think) where the floor will fill up completely with fire. Stay at a reasonable range from him so you don't get melee'd and have time to react to his attacks.
He has a hook attack where he will point at you, then send a hook in your direction which will drag you back to him and perform a melee slam which will most likely 1-shot you. You can avoid this attack easily by just moving out of the way when he points at you. If you do get caught, use Spirit Walk immediately and you will be able to run away without getting melee'd.
He also has a ranged attack which sends out a bunch of chains in a cone area and hits you for about half your health or more. When you get hit by this attack, use a potion and the Hex skill to bring your health back up to full. If these are on cooldown then use a health well. You want to try to stay at full health at all times.
Lastly he will have a charge attack which is quite visible and easy to dodge. After he charges into the wall he will be stunned for a couple seconds which is a good time to use Pile On zombies for a nice damage chunk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uc_G55_qaQ
Magda:
A pretty simple fight at the beginning of Act 2. In fact, I found a lot of regular mobs in Act 2 were harder than this fight -.- She only has 1 ranged attack which you have to watch out for. It's a big ball of purple/blueish flies that moves pretty slowly but follows you, so just run until it disappears. At regular health intervals she will go invulnerable and spawn 4 melee adds. Just kite them with Grasp/Hex and kill with Darts and Pile On. Repeat until dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtOB3QYiFmw
Zoltun Kulle:
This was the longest boss fight I've done to date, mainly because of all the kiting. At all points during the fight you want to stay a good distance from Zoltun so you have time to react to his fireball attack. The first phase is just kiting the 2 big construct monsters with Grasp and killing them with Darts and Pile On. Hex does not work on the constructs but does work on Zoltun (more on that later)
There are 3 attacks from Zoltun that you have to watch out for.
Fireball - Shoots a pretty fast fireball at you that can can just dodge. If you are in close range of Zoltun this will most likely kill you.
Falling Rocks - As soon as the ground starts to shake, run and don't stop until all the rocks have fallen. Use Spirit Walk if you have to. This attack can one-shot you if you're not careful.
Tornadoes - Fairly easy to dodge.
Once the 2 constructs were killed, I kited Zoltun around in a circle and tried to keep him just a bit off-screen. Use Darts to damage him but be prepared to move for fireballs. A common strategy that I used was to pop Spirit Walk, run right past him and use Hex, then turn around and drop Pile On to do some nice damage.
As far as I know, there is no enrage to this fight so just focus on good dodging and he will be killed eventually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDABp8OyA9U
Belial:
Prepare your anus
Had to change by build to this one: http://us.battle.net...dUQP!WVZ!aaYZbb you'll see why during the fight.
Strategy explained during the video, sorry if I sound like shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcV8iKXgNT8
Ghom:
Not really much to say here, it's an incredibly easy fight for ranged classes in general. Just kite him around in a circle and avoid the gas clouds. The small slimes can be killed easy enough. Use Grasp and Zombie Wall to help kiting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2vD451cTF0
Cydaea:
This fight was a bit overwhelming at first but once you figure out how to deal with the spider adds it's pretty easy. First off, she only has one ranged attack which spreads out more the farther you are from her. So try to keep a safe distance to be able to dodge her attack. The little spiders she spawns don't have to be DPS'd directly and you can let Grasp take care of them for you.
Use Darts to attack her when she's down on the ground and watch out for little spider spawns. At certain health intervals she will disappear into the air and small spiders will start spawning wherever you are standing. Try running in a zig-zag pattern to get the spiders lumped together and use Grasp and Zombie Wall to slow them and kill them.
Once she's back on the ground continue DPSing her with Darts and repeat for the rest of the fight.
There is a sweet spot that I found where if she is located at the top of the map, you can stand just offscreen below her and spam her with Darts and she won't even move. Check out 5:40 to see the sweet spot in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtAr-91iTlM
Azmodan:
Build used for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UQRX!ZWV!aacYaZ
A rather challenging fight that required a lot of moving around and timing. I did another walkthrough video like Belial that explains the fight step by step.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKrkcuW7KaU
Iskatu:
I was able to use my normal build for this fight. Just kite everything around in a circle and use Grasp for slowing and damage as well. Throw up a Zombie Wall when you can even though they walk through it, it's still pretty good damage. Use Spirit Walk and Horrify when things get too messy. When the boss comes out try to hit him with Darts as much as possible but you still have to keep kiting everything during the whole fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=582NswRKU84
Rakanoth:
Ugh, I hate to say it but I caved in to the zombie bears build for this fight. It's just too damn impossible to do with any other builds I've tried. The boss himself isn't so hard to do, but it's those GODDAMN tongue fucker adds that one-shot you on top of the boss as well. So here's the build for zombie bears: http://us.battle.net...UdQP!UWV!cYZYZb
- Start off outside the encounter and get 5 stacks of Soul Harvest from trash mobs. (use Soul to Waste Rune so the stacks last 60 seconds)
- Run inside, summon zombie dogs and start the fight.
- Aggro the boss and Spirit Walk down into the bottom corner.
- Use Fetish Army, Big Bad Voodoo and start spamming bears.
- Use Spirit Walk again whenever it comes off cooldown.
You will most likely get one shot due to his ranged attack but the Spirit Vessel passive will save you from death. You should be able to down him before he does that attack again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kio_QQG_Pf8
Diablo:
Witch Doctor build for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UjRT!bWV!aaaaaZ
Finally Diablo himself. The fight is pretty long and challenging so props to Blizzard for that. Despite the strategy I used, you still need a lot of practice and luck to kill him. Strategy explained during the video, works for all ranged classes as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu1OliCGH5E
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
im just asking because im using that just fine..
also isnt 1hand + offhand better for poison darts due to atk speed ? or better is buy 2hand and then balance atk speed with your gear
im currently focusing on vitality inteligence and resist all, and if possible then atk speed but to get combination of 4 stats you like is really rare so how do you balance atk speed / defensive stats ??
ive got over 35k hp
something like 200 resist of all
and when used soul harvest my dmg is about 20k
and still im getting screwed in act 2...
butcher farming seems to be boring.. thinking more of farming cow level on inferno... (still have to finish key :-( )
thanks for answer.
I tried a build like this but it was so slow killing anything compared to bears/bats. Also... it's pretty much impossible to kill an illusionist pack and the mobs in Act 2 run through grasp VERY quickly.
Also how did you manage to get past phase 2 belial, I always seem to struggle with doing enough dps to him to push him to phase 3 whilst keeping in control of the naga spawns, I just eventually get overrun and die.
I'm sitting 36k hp and 20k damage/3.1k armor and while I don't get 1 hit anymore during the fight I still am unable to get to phase 3 of the fight
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining.
Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those.
Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts.
Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies.
Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them.
Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk Although you can't use Spirit Walk to run through the walls, you can just use it to run through the monsters and kite them the other way.
Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do.
Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
I haven't tried Locust Swarm at all so I can't really judge it. I dislike the idea of getting into close range to use it but if it works for you then great. I might try it sometime when there's lots of mobs close together.
Also I'm unsure about the difference between 2-hand and 1-hand combos simply because I haven't tested both of them and compared damage. All I know is that 1-handers will increase your attack speed quite a bit causing you to use more mana since you are casting spells faster. I feel I will be switching to 1-handers in the future because right now I see 1-hand weps on the AH around 1000 DPS and 2-hand weps for 1300 DPS. So a 1-hander combined with a high damage modifier offhand could outperform in terms of damage. ALSO, witch doctor offhand can have an affix that increases Poison Dart damage by ~10%
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
I like how people tell me I should stop complaining about the game 1 shotting me and say it's because I have crappy gear. What you say above seems to imply that the only way to play the game (Even with good gear) is to kite. That is my compliant with Inferno, you have no choice but to kite every single mob. I'm a bit sad to see that things one shot you even though you claim to do alright in Inferno. I'm not interested in kiting every mob, it's not what the WD class is and it's just really boring. There's a reason why I picked a WD and not a wizard... I wanted to use pets and I didn't want to kite every single mob. ::sigh::
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
stick with the kiting and W8 for the patch that will fix all this crap i would say..
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
http://www.diablofan...inferno-videos/
I used mostly the same build as Xago but I picked up Gruesome Feast instead of Jungle Fort. The hardest part for me was burning him down in P2 before too many adds came and this helped a lot.
I wouldn't say I've beaten Act 2 though... I still can't kill 75% of the rare packs in Act 2... oh well though. Act 3 lickers piss me off so much.....
Your build is pretty easy and nice. I must try it later