Firebat is a awesome spell. It has great damage and area of effect. It's biggest weakness, however, is the high Mana cost.
Blood ritual allows me to greatly increase my mana at the cost of sacrificng health. With it, i can spam firebats for two times longer then normal! The lifesteal bats might reduce the cost, allowing for longer uses. Hopefully my damage is high enough, to point i won't use any HP to cast firebats. To reach that goal i've Soul Harvest (+600 Attack!) and Vermin, boosting my firebats damage and the amount of HP i leech with it.
Wall of Zombies with extra slow effect allows me to protect myself to safely use firebats (since it's range is kinda short). Grasp of the Dead does not only helps me to control big crowds, it also increase the drop rate of globes. This is really important because it helps me with Gruesome Feast damage bonus and allows me to recover the HP lost in spamming zombie walls for defence.
Spirit Walk allows me to reach easilly reach those globes, and the crinsom rune allows me to do that and damage my enemies at the same time.
Fetish Army comes for boss/champion/rare monster situations were snare effect sin't enough for survival. I might use Gargantua instead if the fetish is not tanky enough.
Heads up, the linked build doesn't include Blood Ritual, but Spiritual Attunement instead.
I don't think this build will work well (though I can't be positive). But I can't see a build using only one main damage skill, and rune-ing that for survivability (if you go life-leech). Bats would really have to eat up everything in sight for this to work, which means it would have to be balanced by a huge mana cost to keep it in check. Then your build tries to get around that, with lots of life steal. But right now Firebats mana cost is not that out of line with other skills (two other damagers cost as much, one more), and 15% mana as health is not much. Also, taking Zombie Wall, Grasp, and Spirit Walk seems like much overkill.
In conclusion, either Firebats is unbalanced and overpowered, or the build is unbalanced and underpowered.
Unless I am missing something, there seems to be some discontinuity in your build. You have two skills (grasp and zombie wall) and one rune stone (golden on zombie wall) devoted to keeping enemies at bay but your main damage spell only works on 'nearby' enemies (reading the alabaster rune stone on the bats). So you're going to CC mobs to prevent them from getting to you..and then move close to them and use bats? Soul harvest's damage component doesn't help either since it's short ranged too (15 yards).
I'd swap the bats' alabaster rune stone for the crimson one (reading the text, it seems like dire bats are more of a ranged nuke). I would then replace soul harvest or zombie wall with one of the other 'vermin' (just because taking a passive that benefits only one skill seems like a waste).
Using spirit walk to pick up globes feels kind of awkward. I mean, spirit walk seems like it's supposed to be used in an 'oh sh!t' situation not for mobility. If you want to preserve this playstyle I'd swap spirit walk with horrify with the alabaster rune stone. That way you can horrify, run in, get the health globes, and go back to nuking.
Unless I am missing something, there seems to be some discontinuity in your build. You have two skills (grasp and zombie wall) and one rune stone (golden on zombie wall) devoted to keeping enemies at bay but your main damage spell only works on 'nearby' enemies (reading the alabaster rune stone on the bats). So you're going to CC mobs to prevent them from getting to you..and then move close to them and use bats? Soul harvest's damage component doesn't help either since it's short ranged too (15 yards).
I'd swap the bats' alabaster rune stone for the crimson one (reading the text, it seems like dire bats are more of a ranged nuke). I would then replace soul harvest or zombie wall with one of the other 'vermin' (just because taking a passive that benefits only one skill seems like a waste).
Using spirit walk to pick up globes feels kind of awkward. I mean, spirit walk seems like it's supposed to be used in an 'oh sh!t' situation not for mobility. If you want to preserve this playstyle I'd swap spirit walk with horrify with the alabaster rune stone. That way you can horrify, run in, get the health globes, and go back to nuking.
I would think any Witch Doctor that is going to be spamming short range spells on the front lines will still want a slow such as Grasp, so they can stay right on that edge between the oncoming masses and freedom, and not get overwhelmed.
Heads up, the linked build doesn't include Blood Ritual, but Spiritual Attunement instead.
I don't think this build will work well (though I can't be positive). But I can't see a build using only one main damage skill, and rune-ing that for survivability (if you go life-leech). Bats would really have to eat up everything in sight for this to work, which means it would have to be balanced by a huge mana cost to keep it in check. Then your build tries to get around that, with lots of life steal. But right now Firebats mana cost is not that out of line with other skills (two other damagers cost as much, one more), and 15% mana as health is not much. Also, taking Zombie Wall, Grasp, and Spirit Walk seems like much overkill.
In conclusion, either Firebats is unbalanced and overpowered, or the build is unbalanced and underpowered.
Theres not only one offensive ability. Grasp of the Dead and Zombie Walls deals damage too.
Firebats are a channeling spell (like Desintegrate and Ray of Frost). Theres no reason to pick Firebats and a second Spammable/Direct Damage skill since the WD can't cast two spells at the same time. So the way to go is pick Firebats and a DoT (cast the DoT and then Firebats, stacking the damage of both skills). Among DoT options i choose Grasp of the Dead because it is also a CC ability and it's mana cost is really low (leaving more mana to be spent in Firebats).
Also Firebats have the highest mana cost BY FAR (among spammable WD skills). Remember it costs 350 mana per second, not per cast. Maybe Acid Cloud is the only skill that drinks mana faster then Firebats, but Acid Cloud is not execly spammable since stacking two clouds in the same place have no effect.
The prove that Firebats alone is a great way to deal damage is that it was severely nerfed in the last patch. I could kill Leoric in 4 seconds with it, now i need 10...
Unless I am missing something, there seems to be some discontinuity in your build. You have two skills (grasp and zombie wall) and one rune stone (golden on zombie wall) devoted to keeping enemies at bay but your main damage spell only works on 'nearby' enemies (reading the alabaster rune stone on the bats). So you're going to CC mobs to prevent them from getting to you..and then move close to them and use bats? Soul harvest's damage component doesn't help either since it's short ranged too (15 yards).
Theres no contraction between slowing down enemies and using short ranged spells (as long as those spells are not melee). Grasp of the Dead effects a area that be almost fully effected by Firebats. When i use both the result is using Firebats and not allow enemies to reach and damage me (so i use the best Wd damaging skill and avoid it's weak point). In the Beta Firebats + Grasp of the Dead remained my favorite WD combination after many hours and testing.
I've to agree Zombie Wall might not be the best choice (dogs are problably better).
I'd swap the bats' alabaster rune stone for the crimson one (reading the text, it seems like dire bats are more of a ranged nuke). I would then replace soul harvest or zombie wall with one of the other 'vermin' (just because taking a passive that benefits only one skill seems like a waste).
I've no intetion in playing ranged. Firebats cone shaped AoE benefits from mid-close range combat. Also the strategy of this build is fully empower Firebats by avoiding it's weak points (close range / crazy mana cost). So i focus on close range survability and mana cost reduction.
Picking only one of the 4 Vermin skills is not a waste. Picking two is a waste, waste of active skill slots. Basically because those 4 spells are all spammable. Since you can't cast two spells at the same time, theres no need to pick more then one.
One can say that picking two of those spells give more versatility, allowing you to alternate attacks to better fit in different situation. I thint the gain of versatility is surely smaller then picking one more support/survability/buffing skill.
Playing the WD i found that this is the biggest difference between Wd and Wiz. While the AOE shapes and damage/cost ratio of Wizards spells have great variability, thats not the case for the WD. So for the wizard is really worhty to pick different attack spells, but since all the WD attack spells covers almost the same situation and he have much more options for support/cc/buff, pick more then one spmmable damage skill felt like a waste for me (i allways found myself using only one spell, leaving the other root in my skill bar).
The only except is carrion swarm, since it's a dot. However, Carrion Swarm marginal benefict can't compare to stuff like Grasp of the Dead, Acid Cloud and Soul Harvest.
Also Spirit Walk is not a "oh shit" buttom at all, not as much as Horrify and Mass Confusion. It's cooldown is really small and it's duration too. Spirit Walk function is, without any doubt, to walk across masses of monsters without any danger or to avoid a special boss attack.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In time the hissing of her sanity
Faded out her voice and soiled her name
And like marked pages in a diary
Everything seemed clean that is unstained
The incoherent talk of ordinary days
Why would we really need to live?
Decide what is clear and what's within a haze
What you should take and what to give" - Opeth
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Firebat is a awesome spell. It has great damage and area of effect. It's biggest weakness, however, is the high Mana cost.
Blood ritual allows me to greatly increase my mana at the cost of sacrificng health. With it, i can spam firebats for two times longer then normal! The lifesteal bats might reduce the cost, allowing for longer uses. Hopefully my damage is high enough, to point i won't use any HP to cast firebats. To reach that goal i've Soul Harvest (+600 Attack!) and Vermin, boosting my firebats damage and the amount of HP i leech with it.
Wall of Zombies with extra slow effect allows me to protect myself to safely use firebats (since it's range is kinda short). Grasp of the Dead does not only helps me to control big crowds, it also increase the drop rate of globes. This is really important because it helps me with Gruesome Feast damage bonus and allows me to recover the HP lost in spamming zombie walls for defence.
Spirit Walk allows me to reach easilly reach those globes, and the crinsom rune allows me to do that and damage my enemies at the same time.
Fetish Army comes for boss/champion/rare monster situations were snare effect sin't enough for survival. I might use Gargantua instead if the fetish is not tanky enough.
I don't think this build will work well (though I can't be positive). But I can't see a build using only one main damage skill, and rune-ing that for survivability (if you go life-leech). Bats would really have to eat up everything in sight for this to work, which means it would have to be balanced by a huge mana cost to keep it in check. Then your build tries to get around that, with lots of life steal. But right now Firebats mana cost is not that out of line with other skills (two other damagers cost as much, one more), and 15% mana as health is not much. Also, taking Zombie Wall, Grasp, and Spirit Walk seems like much overkill.
In conclusion, either Firebats is unbalanced and overpowered, or the build is unbalanced and underpowered.
I'd swap the bats' alabaster rune stone for the crimson one (reading the text, it seems like dire bats are more of a ranged nuke). I would then replace soul harvest or zombie wall with one of the other 'vermin' (just because taking a passive that benefits only one skill seems like a waste).
Using spirit walk to pick up globes feels kind of awkward. I mean, spirit walk seems like it's supposed to be used in an 'oh sh!t' situation not for mobility. If you want to preserve this playstyle I'd swap spirit walk with horrify with the alabaster rune stone. That way you can horrify, run in, get the health globes, and go back to nuking.
Here's an updated version of your build:
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#VkYSeP!cZY!ZcaZac
I would think any Witch Doctor that is going to be spamming short range spells on the front lines will still want a slow such as Grasp, so they can stay right on that edge between the oncoming masses and freedom, and not get overwhelmed.
Theres not only one offensive ability. Grasp of the Dead and Zombie Walls deals damage too.
Firebats are a channeling spell (like Desintegrate and Ray of Frost). Theres no reason to pick Firebats and a second Spammable/Direct Damage skill since the WD can't cast two spells at the same time. So the way to go is pick Firebats and a DoT (cast the DoT and then Firebats, stacking the damage of both skills). Among DoT options i choose Grasp of the Dead because it is also a CC ability and it's mana cost is really low (leaving more mana to be spent in Firebats).
Also Firebats have the highest mana cost BY FAR (among spammable WD skills). Remember it costs 350 mana per second, not per cast. Maybe Acid Cloud is the only skill that drinks mana faster then Firebats, but Acid Cloud is not execly spammable since stacking two clouds in the same place have no effect.
The prove that Firebats alone is a great way to deal damage is that it was severely nerfed in the last patch. I could kill Leoric in 4 seconds with it, now i need 10...
Theres no contraction between slowing down enemies and using short ranged spells (as long as those spells are not melee). Grasp of the Dead effects a area that be almost fully effected by Firebats. When i use both the result is using Firebats and not allow enemies to reach and damage me (so i use the best Wd damaging skill and avoid it's weak point). In the Beta Firebats + Grasp of the Dead remained my favorite WD combination after many hours and testing.
I've to agree Zombie Wall might not be the best choice (dogs are problably better).
I've no intetion in playing ranged. Firebats cone shaped AoE benefits from mid-close range combat. Also the strategy of this build is fully empower Firebats by avoiding it's weak points (close range / crazy mana cost). So i focus on close range survability and mana cost reduction.
Picking only one of the 4 Vermin skills is not a waste. Picking two is a waste, waste of active skill slots. Basically because those 4 spells are all spammable. Since you can't cast two spells at the same time, theres no need to pick more then one.
One can say that picking two of those spells give more versatility, allowing you to alternate attacks to better fit in different situation. I thint the gain of versatility is surely smaller then picking one more support/survability/buffing skill.
Playing the WD i found that this is the biggest difference between Wd and Wiz. While the AOE shapes and damage/cost ratio of Wizards spells have great variability, thats not the case for the WD. So for the wizard is really worhty to pick different attack spells, but since all the WD attack spells covers almost the same situation and he have much more options for support/cc/buff, pick more then one spmmable damage skill felt like a waste for me (i allways found myself using only one spell, leaving the other root in my skill bar).
The only except is carrion swarm, since it's a dot. However, Carrion Swarm marginal benefict can't compare to stuff like Grasp of the Dead, Acid Cloud and Soul Harvest.
Also Spirit Walk is not a "oh shit" buttom at all, not as much as Horrify and Mass Confusion. It's cooldown is really small and it's duration too. Spirit Walk function is, without any doubt, to walk across masses of monsters without any danger or to avoid a special boss attack.