Dogs up in front distracting things and healing. Firebomb and Locust Swarm for damage. Mass confusion for CC/amplify damage as needed. Spirit walk for escape. Soul harvest for extra damage and mana regen. Could switch dogs to gargantuan and mass confusion to another CC if they seem to work better in practice.
already posted in another thread but this is my group slow support build for inferno. This wd will pretty much never die with spirit walk runed as well as soul harvest. Also because of vision quest ill have unlimited mana due to 5/6 spells having cooldowns. This also works very well to boost my pet damage and all spells by 20% with pierce the veil since I have no mana issues.
Pretty heavy focus on life leech and zombie dogs. It's the best build I could come up with having not actually played the game and not knowing what I like and dislike.
This build is focused on having as many useful pets as possible. I chose a spammable damaging spell over something like corpse spiders for my last spell because I wanted something other than what the necromancer was in D2. I wanted something other than the tedium of sitting back and watching my minions kill everything. However, I still runed it so that it spawns a slime on cast.
I changed a few things around. The slime blob seemed cool, but the increased radius and damage from indigo seemed better.
My place really was here. I was too foolish and stubborn to notice. But, what I truly hoped for then was here. Why do I always realize it When I've already lost it.
Here is the build i'm going with, has great survivability and awesome dmg, I think this is the best build i have seen so far. I'm not just saying that because its mine either. Take a look and let me know.
Likely just a crap build that was born out of my fetish for uniformity and order, but the premise is obvious: High damage spirit spell spamming with a larger than normal mana pool, higher cost spells, and mana-return runes to aid in keeping the blue ball filled.
If the premise is sound (big if) and proves somewhat efficient there may even be room to inject some life-leeching via runes or an alternative spell or two. Probably performs a lot better in a party and probably far too liberal an approach for a first HC build, but something that immidiately came to mind when I was fiddling with the skill calc.
Here is the build i'm going with, has great survivability and awesome dmg, I think this is the best build i have seen so far. I'm not just saying that because its mine either. Take a look and let me know.
Pretty heavy focus on life leech and zombie dogs. It's the best build I could come up with having not actually played the game and not knowing what I like and dislike.
Since everyone is explaining their build, I'll explain mine.
My focus was on the Passive Blood Ritual, which takes 50% of spell mana cost from life instead of mana. Now obviously this would mean the ability to cast, literally, twice as many spells, and is a viable build with enough life leech. Also, life is a much more available resource then mana.
Zombie Dogs - Alabaster Runestone - This ability will be on my bar for 2 reasons. 1) I need to summon the dogs at the beginning of each login (see Mass Confusion and Big Bad Voodoo for explanation of why I don't need to cast it again after the first one) and 2) I want the dogs summoned by Mass Confusion and Big Bad Voodoo to have a runestone effect, which I'm not sure is possible unless the ability is on your bar. Also the life leech from the dogs is important because of Blood Ritual.
Spirit Walk - Alabaster Runestone - This is my "oh shit" button. If my life gets too low I just pop spirit walk and regen 48% health. Pretty self explanatory when considering Blood Ritual, again. My Spirit Walk is more for the healing than anything else, secondarily it works to run away, but it will not be a damage spell for me.
Soul Harvest - Crimson Runestone - Tons of healing, AOE spell. I wanted at least 2 actual direct damage spells. I didn't want DoT or poisons or frogs or whatever, just straight damage.
Locust Swarm - Golden Runestone - My build will be spending a LOT less mana than the average WD, because of Blood Ritual, however I don't believe that to be an excuse to not have SOME form of mana leech, which is why I chose this ability. I might switch this ability with Golden Runestoned Spirit Barrage, instead, since Locust Swarm is kind of AoE-ish, like Soul Harvest, and it would be nice to have a ranged damage spell like Spirit Barrage. I'll determine which is best for the build once the game is live, of course.
Mass Confusion - Alabaster Runestone - This is where it starts getting fun. Because of the alabaster runestones on this ability and Big Bad Voodoo my build would absolutely *never* need to re-summon zombie dogs after the initial cast. Mass Confusion is up once per minute, and Big Bad Voodoo is up every two minutes, which should be plenty. I assume the dogs won't have tons of health, but the alabaster runestone in my Zombie Dogs ability will give them extra survivability, while providing me with more health to spend on spells. I expect some dogs will be wasted, disappearing at 50% health and being replaced by a full health dog and such, but I figure that will be a rare circumstance. Also, this ability is fantastic crowd control, which I wanted from at least 1 spell.
Big Bad Voodoo - Alabaster Runestone - Big Bad Voodoo seems like a must-have spell for anyone who plans to party with other people. As far as I can tell the only real buff the WD has for party members is BBV. So if you want to actually be useful to other people, and not just yourself, you GOTTA GET BBV. And since my build is all about dog-spawning, I've got the alabaster runestone in it.
Spiritual Attunement - I may change this passive depending on health/mana pool sizes. If my mana is a lot higher than my health I'll probably get Pierce the Veil instead, for added health and mana leech plus more damage of course. The real question is whether or not passives like Pierce the Veil and Death Trance are effected by Blood Ritual. Meaning, if I have Blood Ritual and Pierce the Veil, do my spells cost 15% more mana and 15% more health instead of 30% more mana? Also, if I have Blood Ritual and Death Trance, do my spells cost 50% mana and 40% health when I'm below 50% health? The answers to these questions would of course factor into my decision for Passives.
Blood Ritual - This is the base for the entire build. Also 2% health per second is nice.
Death Trance - Increased survivability, which is important for someone with Blood Ritual. Pretty self explanatory. Might swap this with Pierce the Veil and run with Spirit Attune/Blood Rit/PtV, depending on many factors.
Well that's my build. A lot of "if"s and "maybe"s and "depending on"s, but I think it could be fun. It's got CC, AoE, survivability, pets, spirit walk, and a buff.
I honestly don't think that the Alabaster runestone on the Zombie dogs is worth it. From what I've seen so far, zombie dogs do close to no damage. For healing, I had hex with Golden, but you could also do Big Bad Voodoo with Obsidian.
Of course, all of this is really speculation at this point. With the Hex rune, how often is periodically? I would choose the obsidian rune in Big Bad Voodoo if Hex was a good alternative with Alabaster.
I'm having some troubles coming up with a perfect build because they all seem so viable.
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My place really was here. I was too foolish and stubborn to notice. But, what I truly hoped for then was here. Why do I always realize it When I've already lost it.
I honestly don't think that the Alabaster runestone on the Zombie dogs is worth it. From what I've seen so far, zombie dogs do close to no damage. For healing, I had hex with Golden, but you could also do Big Bad Voodoo with Obsidian.
Of course, all of this is really speculation at this point. With the Hex rune, how often is periodically? I would choose the obsidian rune in Big Bad Voodoo if Hex was a good alternative with Alabaster.
I'm having some troubles coming up with a perfect build because they all seem so viable.
I had a feeling it might be the case. I'll probably still try it. I need as much health leech as possible, and I'm not sure if spirit walk and soul harvest will be enough. I'll go with Life Link if the healing isn't good enough from the alabaster stone.
I honestly don't think that the Alabaster runestone on the Zombie dogs is worth it. From what I've seen so far, zombie dogs do close to no damage. For healing, I had hex with Golden, but you could also do Big Bad Voodoo with Obsidian.
Of course, all of this is really speculation at this point. With the Hex rune, how often is periodically? I would choose the obsidian rune in Big Bad Voodoo if Hex was a good alternative with Alabaster.
I'm having some troubles coming up with a perfect build because they all seem so viable.
I had a feeling it might be the case. I'll probably still try it. I need as much health leech as possible, and I'm not sure if spirit walk and soul harvest will be enough. I'll go with Life Link if the healing isn't good enough from the alabaster stone.
Indigo rune seems amazing to me. As long as your dogs stay alive you only take 30% damage?
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My place really was here. I was too foolish and stubborn to notice. But, what I truly hoped for then was here. Why do I always realize it When I've already lost it.
I honestly don't think that the Alabaster runestone on the Zombie dogs is worth it. From what I've seen so far, zombie dogs do close to no damage. For healing, I had hex with Golden, but you could also do Big Bad Voodoo with Obsidian.
Of course, all of this is really speculation at this point. With the Hex rune, how often is periodically? I would choose the obsidian rune in Big Bad Voodoo if Hex was a good alternative with Alabaster.
I'm having some troubles coming up with a perfect build because they all seem so viable.
I had a feeling it might be the case. I'll probably still try it. I need as much health leech as possible, and I'm not sure if spirit walk and soul harvest will be enough. I'll go with Life Link if the healing isn't good enough from the alabaster stone.
Indigo rune seems amazing to me. As long as your dogs stay alive you only take 30% damage?
Yeah, that's the Life Link runestone. I think that one might actually be a better choice over alabaster regardless of healing. 70% damage reduction any time I have a dog out? Deal.
I wanted a build that was high damage(with lower emphasis on DoTs), low downtime, and super mobile.
Horrify / Grasp for CC, kiting, and a bit of dps. I prefer Horrify to Hex and Mass Confusion because:
I'm trying to minimize the utility spells I have in favor of straight up damage, homie. Therefore, my utility spells better kick some serious ass.
I'm not sure how fast the Hexer guy will be Hexing kids.
Mass Confusion is on too long of a CD.
Swarm / Firebomb for AE dps, Dart for a nuke.
Dogs with Life Link and Death Trance to mitigate damage from Blood Ritual, which I got since Pierce the Veil seems pretty amazing.
I think this will do some amazing damage, but my concern is a lack of utility. I will have to kite well to make it work. I may have to grab a Gargantuan or something if this doesn't work well. I also considered Sacrifice with the Obsidian runestone but I can't afford to ever be without my dogs, and I can do more damage with grasp. I'm not really sure whether 12s Horrify or 26 yard range is better, so I could go either way with that. Also, Indigo runestone might be better for Poison Dart, but we shall see.
My idea for spirit doctor, Two direct attacks, two monster CC's(one to snare, one to really amp up the dmg), one helath regen, one mana regen/escape method. Got blood rital to help with spamminess of attacks, pierce the veil to increase attack effectivness, and rush of essence since im dealing with spirit attacks to help offset the increased mana cost from pierce the veil.
My idea for spirit doctor, Two direct attacks, two monster CC's(one to snare, one to really amp up the dmg), one helath regen, one mana regen/escape method. Got blood rital to help with spamminess of attacks, pierce the veil to increase attack effectivness, and rush of essence since im dealing with spirit attacks to help offset the increased mana cost from pierce the veil.
technically, I think pierce the veil's effects would only improve the mana regen per second, meaning they benefit each-other.
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Here's my initial thought: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#fSjZUg!bXY!ZYZaZb
Dogs up in front distracting things and healing. Firebomb and Locust Swarm for damage. Mass confusion for CC/amplify damage as needed. Spirit walk for escape. Soul harvest for extra damage and mana regen. Could switch dogs to gargantuan and mass confusion to another CC if they seem to work better in practice.
Comments/criticisms?
What's your build?
already posted in another thread but this is my group slow support build for inferno. This wd will pretty much never die with spirit walk runed as well as soul harvest. Also because of vision quest ill have unlimited mana due to 5/6 spells having cooldowns. This also works very well to boost my pet damage and all spells by 20% with pierce the veil since I have no mana issues.
Pretty heavy focus on life leech and zombie dogs. It's the best build I could come up with having not actually played the game and not knowing what I like and dislike.
This build is focused on having as many useful pets as possible. I chose a spammable damaging spell over something like corpse spiders for my last spell because I wanted something other than what the necromancer was in D2. I wanted something other than the tedium of sitting back and watching my minions kill everything. However, I still runed it so that it spawns a slime on cast.
I changed a few things around. The slime blob seemed cool, but the increased radius and damage from indigo seemed better.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#RZdhQP!XeU!YYaacb
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#eYTZfb!dXb!ccaZZZ
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#XkehPf!bea!YcbYcZ
"Can't wait to run around with a bad ass voodoo doll, big scary mask and crazy sacrificial dagger!"
Likely just a crap build that was born out of my fetish for uniformity and order, but the premise is obvious: High damage spirit spell spamming with a larger than normal mana pool, higher cost spells, and mana-return runes to aid in keeping the blue ball filled.
If the premise is sound (big if) and proves somewhat efficient there may even be room to inject some life-leeching via runes or an alternative spell or two. Probably performs a lot better in a party and probably far too liberal an approach for a first HC build, but something that immidiately came to mind when I was fiddling with the skill calc.
you have zero mana leech and zero life leech.
Since everyone is explaining their build, I'll explain mine.
My focus was on the Passive Blood Ritual, which takes 50% of spell mana cost from life instead of mana. Now obviously this would mean the ability to cast, literally, twice as many spells, and is a viable build with enough life leech. Also, life is a much more available resource then mana.
Zombie Dogs - Alabaster Runestone - This ability will be on my bar for 2 reasons. 1) I need to summon the dogs at the beginning of each login (see Mass Confusion and Big Bad Voodoo for explanation of why I don't need to cast it again after the first one) and 2) I want the dogs summoned by Mass Confusion and Big Bad Voodoo to have a runestone effect, which I'm not sure is possible unless the ability is on your bar. Also the life leech from the dogs is important because of Blood Ritual.
Spirit Walk - Alabaster Runestone - This is my "oh shit" button. If my life gets too low I just pop spirit walk and regen 48% health. Pretty self explanatory when considering Blood Ritual, again. My Spirit Walk is more for the healing than anything else, secondarily it works to run away, but it will not be a damage spell for me.
Soul Harvest - Crimson Runestone - Tons of healing, AOE spell. I wanted at least 2 actual direct damage spells. I didn't want DoT or poisons or frogs or whatever, just straight damage.
Locust Swarm - Golden Runestone - My build will be spending a LOT less mana than the average WD, because of Blood Ritual, however I don't believe that to be an excuse to not have SOME form of mana leech, which is why I chose this ability. I might switch this ability with Golden Runestoned Spirit Barrage, instead, since Locust Swarm is kind of AoE-ish, like Soul Harvest, and it would be nice to have a ranged damage spell like Spirit Barrage. I'll determine which is best for the build once the game is live, of course.
Mass Confusion - Alabaster Runestone - This is where it starts getting fun. Because of the alabaster runestones on this ability and Big Bad Voodoo my build would absolutely *never* need to re-summon zombie dogs after the initial cast. Mass Confusion is up once per minute, and Big Bad Voodoo is up every two minutes, which should be plenty. I assume the dogs won't have tons of health, but the alabaster runestone in my Zombie Dogs ability will give them extra survivability, while providing me with more health to spend on spells. I expect some dogs will be wasted, disappearing at 50% health and being replaced by a full health dog and such, but I figure that will be a rare circumstance. Also, this ability is fantastic crowd control, which I wanted from at least 1 spell.
Big Bad Voodoo - Alabaster Runestone - Big Bad Voodoo seems like a must-have spell for anyone who plans to party with other people. As far as I can tell the only real buff the WD has for party members is BBV. So if you want to actually be useful to other people, and not just yourself, you GOTTA GET BBV. And since my build is all about dog-spawning, I've got the alabaster runestone in it.
Spiritual Attunement - I may change this passive depending on health/mana pool sizes. If my mana is a lot higher than my health I'll probably get Pierce the Veil instead, for added health and mana leech plus more damage of course. The real question is whether or not passives like Pierce the Veil and Death Trance are effected by Blood Ritual. Meaning, if I have Blood Ritual and Pierce the Veil, do my spells cost 15% more mana and 15% more health instead of 30% more mana? Also, if I have Blood Ritual and Death Trance, do my spells cost 50% mana and 40% health when I'm below 50% health? The answers to these questions would of course factor into my decision for Passives.
Blood Ritual - This is the base for the entire build. Also 2% health per second is nice.
Death Trance - Increased survivability, which is important for someone with Blood Ritual. Pretty self explanatory. Might swap this with Pierce the Veil and run with Spirit Attune/Blood Rit/PtV, depending on many factors.
Well that's my build. A lot of "if"s and "maybe"s and "depending on"s, but I think it could be fun. It's got CC, AoE, survivability, pets, spirit walk, and a buff.
Of course, all of this is really speculation at this point. With the Hex rune, how often is periodically? I would choose the obsidian rune in Big Bad Voodoo if Hex was a good alternative with Alabaster.
I'm having some troubles coming up with a perfect build because they all seem so viable.
I had a feeling it might be the case. I'll probably still try it. I need as much health leech as possible, and I'm not sure if spirit walk and soul harvest will be enough. I'll go with Life Link if the healing isn't good enough from the alabaster stone.
Indigo rune seems amazing to me. As long as your dogs stay alive you only take 30% damage?
Yeah, that's the Life Link runestone. I think that one might actually be a better choice over alabaster regardless of healing. 70% damage reduction any time I have a dog out? Deal.
Witch Doctor - Game - Diablo III
I wanted a build that was high damage(with lower emphasis on DoTs), low downtime, and super mobile.
Horrify / Grasp for CC, kiting, and a bit of dps. I prefer Horrify to Hex and Mass Confusion because:
I'm trying to minimize the utility spells I have in favor of straight up damage, homie. Therefore, my utility spells better kick some serious ass.
I'm not sure how fast the Hexer guy will be Hexing kids.
Mass Confusion is on too long of a CD.
Swarm / Firebomb for AE dps, Dart for a nuke.
Dogs with Life Link and Death Trance to mitigate damage from Blood Ritual, which I got since Pierce the Veil seems pretty amazing.
I think this will do some amazing damage, but my concern is a lack of utility. I will have to kite well to make it work. I may have to grab a Gargantuan or something if this doesn't work well. I also considered Sacrifice with the Obsidian runestone but I can't afford to ever be without my dogs, and I can do more damage with grasp. I'm not really sure whether 12s Horrify or 26 yard range is better, so I could go either way with that. Also, Indigo runestone might be better for Poison Dart, but we shall see.
So, what do you guys think of it?
My idea for spirit doctor, Two direct attacks, two monster CC's(one to snare, one to really amp up the dmg), one helath regen, one mana regen/escape method. Got blood rital to help with spamminess of attacks, pierce the veil to increase attack effectivness, and rush of essence since im dealing with spirit attacks to help offset the increased mana cost from pierce the veil.
technically, I think pierce the veil's effects would only improve the mana regen per second, meaning they benefit each-other.