Ok so, I have lurked here awhile reading builds and testing them .... and while most do exactly what they describe or claim to. The biggest thing that I have found (and best advice I can give) is that they do not work for everyone. I tried the VQ Bears Builds, I tried the Rainman, I tried the Gruesome feast build posted yesterday, and countless others before it. Again I am not saying these builds do not work .... They just do not work for me. They do exactly what the intend to do and succeed fairly well. They just do not fit my gameplay.
So my build is a standard splinter build but I will explain the choices I made and even the layout of the buttons as I feel this impacts performance as much as the correct type of build for you.
I chose splinters as I do stack a bit of IAS and these things hit like a mack truck ... unbuffed (as I usually am) each individual splinter hits for around 5k .... and with how fast I shoot them ...nothing stands very long.
Secondary (right click) is Grasp of the dead.... There are many ways you can rune this ... but in Inferno you need one hell of a snare so unbreakable is the way to go. I put this on right click as i want mouse activation and accuracy to ensure it is appropraitely placed.
1 and 2 is Spirit Walk (healing journey) and Soul Harvest (siphon) These are both healing for me.... I use them as such ... If i happen to be buffed, then so be it. Buffing for 5 stacks is not my goal or intent as that can likely get you killed. I keep these on 1 and 2 as they are the fastest buttons i hit.. most reliable for me.
3 is Hex (jinx) ... I already have two heals .... and hedge magic heals is very very weak anyways.... I use jinx to up damage on the target. Most times the best way to use this ability is in conjunction with spirit walk to put yourself right on the target you want hexed. For example tons of skeletons and a summoner... grasp of the dead on the pack of skeles... pop spirit walk and run through them ... get right on the summoner and hex em. He wont be summoning, and with your already high, fast damage, plus a 40% damage buff on the hexed target ... they generally dont live through one hex. I also use it if I am kiting ... throw it out there to hex and slow up at least one of the enemies you are figting.
4 is Rain of Toads... This spell is completely insane ... The targeting on it is awesome, it ticks really fast and hits a ton of enemies. Get a big pack drop a grasp let em clump up and hit this once or twice then mow anything left with splinters. The fact it can hit past waller mobs is huge plus and a pinpoint ranged aoe is very nice to have.
Passives should be fairly self explanitory but .... Spirit Vessel for second chance is a must have in my opinion. Blood Ritual is debateable .... Spells dont cost alot in this build aside from toads, and it is only for slight mana conversation, but mainly for the Health regen .... saves me potions Lastly, jungle fortitude... 20% is 20%.
Overall I have done fairly well with this ... I can routinely clear act 1 in inferno with zero deaths and skipping no elites. Act 2 is a bit harder but definately doable... I do die to wasps as i am bad about not moving from the projectiles quick enough, but that is a personal issue lol. With a bit more gear I will be farming act 2 in no time.
My dps is only 14k and my life is right at 28k .... my stats are not great and I am having no issue in farming act 1 and begining of act 2.
My only suggestion is do what works best for you, by all means try the builds out there.... see what works .... then take what you liked from each one and make your own.
Your build is similar to mine, with a few notable changes.
Rain of Toads -> Zombie Bears
Simply put, zombie bears do way more damage at the cost of more mana.
Spirit Walk Healing Journey -> Mana Return (forget name)
Because of the higher mana cost in bears, I prefer the mana return. I am also running at around 30k health, so 15% return on that is a joke (4500) because bosses hit for 10k anyway and that return doesn't save me nearly as much as I want it to. In normal farm situations anyone, I'm going to Spirit walk, run through a pack while hitting Soul Harvest Siphon, and get to a safe spot all within the 2 seconds. If the healing gets buffed, I'll think about switching.
Jungle Fortitude -> Spiritual Attunement
There more I think about it, the more I need to drop the mana regen for the flat 20% DR. It's a pretty big deal, so I agree with you there.
Hex Jinx -> Hedge Magic
I'm using the heal at the moment, but I can see how Jinx might be better since the heals are pretty weak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question for you: Do you find Rain of toads to be useful on boss fights when soloing? On a fight like Belial where you have to move a lot, channeling spells is tough so I find that something with higher burst (1 tick of zombie bears) is better for me.
Just thought I would chime in as someone who isn't quite 60 yet. I'm at 57 working my way through Act 3 Hell, really enjoying this build with one change.
I don't really like Rain of Toads, so I'm using "Flash Fire" Runed Firebomb. I plan to go to Ghost Bomb when I'm 60.
Thanks for the build suggestions, I really like the way this plays.
Your build is similar to mine, with a few notable changes.
Rain of Toads -> Zombie Bears
Simply put, zombie bears do way more damage at the cost of more mana.
Spirit Walk Healing Journey -> Mana Return (forget name)
Because of the higher mana cost in bears, I prefer the mana return. I am also running at around 30k health, so 15% return on that is a joke (4500) because bosses hit for 10k anyway and that return doesn't save me nearly as much as I want it to. In normal farm situations anyone, I'm going to Spirit walk, run through a pack while hitting Soul Harvest Siphon, and get to a safe spot all within the 2 seconds. If the healing gets buffed, I'll think about switching.
Jungle Fortitude -> Spiritual Attunement
There more I think about it, the more I need to drop the mana regen for the flat 20% DR. It's a pretty big deal, so I agree with you there.
Hex Jinx -> Hedge Magic
I'm using the heal at the moment, but I can see how Jinx might be better since the heals are pretty weak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question for you: Do you find Rain of toads to be useful on boss fights when soloing? On a fight like Belial where you have to move a lot, channeling spells is tough so I find that something with higher burst (1 tick of zombie bears) is better for me.
I Use rain of toads over zombie bears as I feel the range on zombie bears is too short. As far as during boss fights ... yes I dump mana every time it gets full and i have free time to cast it. Though I dont use it like a channel .... I hover the mouse over the pack of enemies or boss and hit 4 like 1-3 times I dont hold it down to do a traditional channel. But I guess this is based with the fact I am gearing into IAS the tick time of 2 secs goes quick and I can cast multiple rains on multiple clumps of enemies extremely quick.... where as a bear build benefits more from harder hitting bears and a two hander.
Just thought I would chime in as someone who isn't quite 60 yet. I'm at 57 working my way through Act 3 Hell, really enjoying this build with one change.
I don't really like Rain of Toads, so I'm using "Flash Fire" Runed Firebomb. I plan to go to Ghost Bomb when I'm 60.
Thanks for the build suggestions, I really like the way this plays.
Flash fire is actually not a bad option as a secondary ranged aoe and would probably be more beneficial on act 2 where the wasps are spread a bit. It does hit for less and and not costing much mana you may be tempted to over cast it, possibly neglecting your splinter shots. I cast toads maybe 1-3 times and back to splinters and moving..... i dont kite very far when i kite either ... i like to do a back and forth running through the enemies with spirit walk. Helps get a couple uses out of a single grasp ... Also rain can be dumped in front of enemies for them to run into if you happen to be kiting mortar mobs slightly off your screen. Over all The point is play what you enjoy and what works for you. Gearing towards a build does help and if your play style is reckless you should gear accordingly. You wanna use bears and get in close? Stack some defense
Soul harvest gets it limitations in later acts. If you use it offensively to heal yourself with spirit walk = you die if you get vortexed/in a bad spot right after which happens alot. Switch it out with aoe fear and this build is money. About frogs, This slot is the 2nd dps slot after splinters. I personaly use this dps skillslot for kiting dps. I choose to use the 2nd last rune for yellow frogs (that have 15% chance to confuse) or Locust swarm. Works really good in act 1 - 2 inferno. Even in later acts. This kind of gameplay is money in inferno! Good build and theory overall!
Soul harvest to me is not specifically for the buff and reactive for the heal... I use it after a teleporter lands on top of me or something accidnetally gets too close.... I dont specifcally run in for it ... if i am away from mobs and need a heal ... i have potions or I can just spirit walk in place depending on the level of heal i need til i am topped off.
I do like the confuse frogs they are awesome .... great for up close and persoanl ... I just chose rain of frogs for long range accurate aoe. ticks from dots scale extremely well.... superb damage.
Soul harvest gets it limitations in later acts. If you use it offensively to heal yourself with spirit walk = you die if you get vortexed/in a bad spot right after which happens alot. Switch it out with aoe fear and this build is money. About frogs, This slot is the 2nd dps slot after splinters. I personaly use this dps skillslot for kiting dps. I choose to use the 2nd last rune for yellow frogs (that have 15% chance to confuse) or Locust swarm. Works really good in act 1 - 2 inferno. Even in later acts. This kind of gameplay is money in inferno! Good build and theory overall!
Soul harvest to me is not specifically for the buff and reactive for the heal... I use it after a teleporter lands on top of me or something accidnetally gets too close.... I dont specifcally run in for it ... if i am away from mobs and need a heal ... i have potions or I can just spirit walk in place depending on the level of heal i need til i am topped off.
I do like the confuse frogs they are awesome .... great for up close and persoanl ... I just chose rain of frogs for long range accurate aoe. ticks from dots scale extremely well.... superb damage.
I see your point and it sounds good in theory, but teleporters run in pack (well, the one to worry about). And regaining barely 20% of your health (if its only 1 teleporter, you barely regain 5%) you still get 1 shotted. Soul harvest is not a cc, just a really weak heal. My tactic in inferno is staying as far away as you possibly can. Get away at all time,
I feel ya, soul harvest is likely the first thing i would replace in favor of either zombie wall or horrify .... however .... I am not being one shotted in inferno act 1 for farming and that is what this build is for. Once i progress deeper with more gear I am sure that is a change i would make
Hey, thanks for sharing! I've been a bandwagon bear-build user through almost 2 difficulties. I hit Inferno this morning and it felt like hitting a brick wall. This build answers a lot of the shortcomings of the bear build (which is still insanely good against bosses), namely the lack of CC / snare and the close-range requirement.
Honestly I'm really happy about this, as the bear build is fun sometimes but not my style of play; this build is far closer to the kind of build I ran in Normal / NM when anything worked and you could do what felt fun.
I'm hoping to see some success with this build; I've got 15k DPS and 38k life and am lucky to beat 1-2 elite packs in Act 1 before starting to infinitely and instantly wipe. I've also spent too long playing with big DPS 2H styles, as the long cast time locks you in place which is suicide when mobs are 1-2-3 shotting you.
EDIT: Someone above was asking about how this worked on bosses, and my thinking would be if you're just progressing / clearing content I'd swap it all out for a standard 2-minute bear build, but for farming (i.e., can't lose Neph stack) this still seems like it'd work pretty well.
It is pretty much all I am seeing now is some version of this and I do thank you guys for the feedback.
Especially the horrify change .... I recently made this change to remove soul harvest and am finding it to be quite useful.
I still cannot bring myself to replace toads though. I have taken some peoples suggestions and tried acid rain, as well some really werid versions with spiders but my build today is the same as originally posted except horrify in place of soul harvest.
As far as boss killing .... it can be done with this build just fine. I assume you mean the butcher? As this is an act 1 build. You just need to keep him off the edge of your screen to stay out of his chain range .... use your slow on the ground as it does do damage as well... I usually drop the slow half empty my mana on toads then back to darts. If you find you are hitting enrage you may just want to farm some more first.
Overall still effective though. I am trying to find new ways to farm myself more for diversity then butcher runs.... Any suggestions would be great. I even went back and did a bunch of hell secret level runs for fun. Still go get 5 stacks before you go in .... got a couple nice pieces from that. Not sure though as to the fastest way to progress at this point and seems a bit frustrating. I can clear act 1 with no issues. I rarely die to any champion or elite packs. Almost always one shot the butcher. Yet my gear has not received a new piece in days. Marginal success on the AH, couple rare rings selling for couple 100k and a Bul Kathos ring that should sell today for 500k. But nothing for me... I feel the drops are not coming .... so I think gold farm may be the way to go .... I have a nice speed kill pet build that works great for money runs in hell. I just need to grind it out I guess.
I've been looking into the use of Locust Swarm in Inferno. The damage it can output is staggering. It's weakness lies in the delivery which can be easily handled with the use of skills like Zombie Wall, Spirit Walk, Hex, etc or playing Co-op.
Just a quick napkin math example:
Lets assume a pack of 5 zombies on act 1 inferno... Not calculating resists or any of that just base everything. My WD has around 16k damage unbuffed. I'm assuming use of Searing Locusts.
((448%) * 16000)) * 5 = 358,400 damage. From my experience it takes the swarm around one second before it jumps so assuming the first zombie is hit instantly this amount of damage would take 12 full seconds before it has fully spread and run its damage to the pack.
358400 / (60% * 16000) = 37.3 / 3 = 12.4 casts of splinters or 37.3 splinter darts.
For some more numbers Locusts Swarm does the same damage (well within 2%) that each splinter bolt does per second to all mobs affected. Basically if you come up to a pack cast locust swarm every mob with bugs is taking 58.5% weapon damage per second.
That said Haunt is also very attractive. Same scenario with 5 zombies. You can only Haunt three mobs at a time. I'm assuming Grasping Spirit.
((575%) * 16,000)) * 3 = 276,000
Unlike Locusts Haunt does 48% weapon damage per second. If you think about this in terms of casts Haunt isn't that attractive, but do not forget Locusts require positioning while Haunt can be cast from anywhere therefore I de-deuce the time wasted casting haunt three times is also wasted by getting close to a mob and casting Locusts.
These two skills are underrated in inferno and I don't understand it because they are both better to cast over splinters. Hell Haunt alone can be cast from the same range as splinters! Shooting an elite with Haunt that you otherwise would have shot with Splinters is like hitting that mob three times with Splinters! As anyone who in inferno knows while kiting an elite pack casting Splinters three times back to back doesn't happen often.
I do like haunt from ranged and can see its usefulness in kiting. However, what do you replace to put it in? If you are saying to replace splinters with it ... I guess it could work... Not as well with the IAS build focused on in this topic. But also ... with a splinter build you can routinely run with Pierce the Veil. You have enough mana for utility when you need it and Darts is very Mana Neutral / Positive. You could not do the same with haunt. So the napkin math of Haunt Vs. Dart is only valid if you compare Pierce Dart vs Non-Pierce Haunt.
Unless you have another type of wonky build I am not accounting for where Mana is not a concern. I dont like ever running low on Mana. I like to have it there when I need to Hex or Horrify. Locusts on the other hand is great damage I completely agree. I would say it is on par with Rain of Toads. However it has the definate advantage of "fire and forget" where toads is channeled. However this comes at the cost of range to target. Mana cost is not too bad for either given there uses. So it comes down same damage, roughly same Mana for same effect.... decision is ranged or up close..... Not much of a decision to me. But to each there own.
After my recent crisis on what to do with my toon, I took some time this weekend to make a fun build and do some nightmare speed runs for some low level buddies of mine. OMG do witch doctors do GREAT at power leveling peeps through nightmare and early hell.
After getting the gear that I have for inferno .... even dogs do really well in the lower difficulties. I recommend running a pet setup with Flash Fire Bomb as main attack as it auto targets well. Jaunt on spirit walk for speed and just play with the other abilities you find fun but unusable in inferno. It was a blast.
One last note ... I took the time to do all the speed run achievements while I was at it and got the "pink'd" achievement as well.
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Ok so, I have lurked here awhile reading builds and testing them .... and while most do exactly what they describe or claim to. The biggest thing that I have found (and best advice I can give) is that they do not work for everyone. I tried the VQ Bears Builds, I tried the Rainman, I tried the Gruesome feast build posted yesterday, and countless others before it. Again I am not saying these builds do not work .... They just do not work for me. They do exactly what the intend to do and succeed fairly well. They just do not fit my gameplay.
So my build is a standard splinter build but I will explain the choices I made and even the layout of the buttons as I feel this impacts performance as much as the correct type of build for you.
I chose splinters as I do stack a bit of IAS and these things hit like a mack truck ... unbuffed (as I usually am) each individual splinter hits for around 5k .... and with how fast I shoot them ...nothing stands very long.
Secondary (right click) is Grasp of the dead.... There are many ways you can rune this ... but in Inferno you need one hell of a snare so unbreakable is the way to go. I put this on right click as i want mouse activation and accuracy to ensure it is appropraitely placed.
1 and 2 is Spirit Walk (healing journey) and Soul Harvest (siphon) These are both healing for me.... I use them as such ... If i happen to be buffed, then so be it. Buffing for 5 stacks is not my goal or intent as that can likely get you killed. I keep these on 1 and 2 as they are the fastest buttons i hit.. most reliable for me.
3 is Hex (jinx) ... I already have two heals .... and hedge magic heals is very very weak anyways.... I use jinx to up damage on the target. Most times the best way to use this ability is in conjunction with spirit walk to put yourself right on the target you want hexed. For example tons of skeletons and a summoner... grasp of the dead on the pack of skeles... pop spirit walk and run through them ... get right on the summoner and hex em. He wont be summoning, and with your already high, fast damage, plus a 40% damage buff on the hexed target ... they generally dont live through one hex. I also use it if I am kiting ... throw it out there to hex and slow up at least one of the enemies you are figting.
4 is Rain of Toads... This spell is completely insane ... The targeting on it is awesome, it ticks really fast and hits a ton of enemies. Get a big pack drop a grasp let em clump up and hit this once or twice then mow anything left with splinters. The fact it can hit past waller mobs is huge plus and a pinpoint ranged aoe is very nice to have.
Passives should be fairly self explanitory but .... Spirit Vessel for second chance is a must have in my opinion. Blood Ritual is debateable .... Spells dont cost alot in this build aside from toads, and it is only for slight mana conversation, but mainly for the Health regen .... saves me potions Lastly, jungle fortitude... 20% is 20%.
Overall I have done fairly well with this ... I can routinely clear act 1 in inferno with zero deaths and skipping no elites. Act 2 is a bit harder but definately doable... I do die to wasps as i am bad about not moving from the projectiles quick enough, but that is a personal issue lol. With a bit more gear I will be farming act 2 in no time.
My dps is only 14k and my life is right at 28k .... my stats are not great and I am having no issue in farming act 1 and begining of act 2.
My only suggestion is do what works best for you, by all means try the builds out there.... see what works .... then take what you liked from each one and make your own.
Good luck all,
Avitas
Rain of Toads -> Zombie Bears
Simply put, zombie bears do way more damage at the cost of more mana.
Spirit Walk Healing Journey -> Mana Return (forget name)
Because of the higher mana cost in bears, I prefer the mana return. I am also running at around 30k health, so 15% return on that is a joke (4500) because bosses hit for 10k anyway and that return doesn't save me nearly as much as I want it to. In normal farm situations anyone, I'm going to Spirit walk, run through a pack while hitting Soul Harvest Siphon, and get to a safe spot all within the 2 seconds. If the healing gets buffed, I'll think about switching.
Jungle Fortitude -> Spiritual Attunement
There more I think about it, the more I need to drop the mana regen for the flat 20% DR. It's a pretty big deal, so I agree with you there.
Hex Jinx -> Hedge Magic
I'm using the heal at the moment, but I can see how Jinx might be better since the heals are pretty weak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question for you: Do you find Rain of toads to be useful on boss fights when soloing? On a fight like Belial where you have to move a lot, channeling spells is tough so I find that something with higher burst (1 tick of zombie bears) is better for me.
I don't really like Rain of Toads, so I'm using "Flash Fire" Runed Firebomb. I plan to go to Ghost Bomb when I'm 60.
Thanks for the build suggestions, I really like the way this plays.
I Use rain of toads over zombie bears as I feel the range on zombie bears is too short. As far as during boss fights ... yes I dump mana every time it gets full and i have free time to cast it. Though I dont use it like a channel .... I hover the mouse over the pack of enemies or boss and hit 4 like 1-3 times I dont hold it down to do a traditional channel. But I guess this is based with the fact I am gearing into IAS the tick time of 2 secs goes quick and I can cast multiple rains on multiple clumps of enemies extremely quick.... where as a bear build benefits more from harder hitting bears and a two hander.
Flash fire is actually not a bad option as a secondary ranged aoe and would probably be more beneficial on act 2 where the wasps are spread a bit. It does hit for less and and not costing much mana you may be tempted to over cast it, possibly neglecting your splinter shots. I cast toads maybe 1-3 times and back to splinters and moving..... i dont kite very far when i kite either ... i like to do a back and forth running through the enemies with spirit walk. Helps get a couple uses out of a single grasp ... Also rain can be dumped in front of enemies for them to run into if you happen to be kiting mortar mobs slightly off your screen. Over all The point is play what you enjoy and what works for you. Gearing towards a build does help and if your play style is reckless you should gear accordingly. You wanna use bears and get in close? Stack some defense
Soul harvest to me is not specifically for the buff and reactive for the heal... I use it after a teleporter lands on top of me or something accidnetally gets too close.... I dont specifcally run in for it ... if i am away from mobs and need a heal ... i have potions or I can just spirit walk in place depending on the level of heal i need til i am topped off.
I do like the confuse frogs they are awesome .... great for up close and persoanl ... I just chose rain of frogs for long range accurate aoe. ticks from dots scale extremely well.... superb damage.
I feel ya, soul harvest is likely the first thing i would replace in favor of either zombie wall or horrify .... however .... I am not being one shotted in inferno act 1 for farming and that is what this build is for. Once i progress deeper with more gear I am sure that is a change i would make
Honestly I'm really happy about this, as the bear build is fun sometimes but not my style of play; this build is far closer to the kind of build I ran in Normal / NM when anything worked and you could do what felt fun.
I'm hoping to see some success with this build; I've got 15k DPS and 38k life and am lucky to beat 1-2 elite packs in Act 1 before starting to infinitely and instantly wipe. I've also spent too long playing with big DPS 2H styles, as the long cast time locks you in place which is suicide when mobs are 1-2-3 shotting you.
EDIT: Someone above was asking about how this worked on bosses, and my thinking would be if you're just progressing / clearing content I'd swap it all out for a standard 2-minute bear build, but for farming (i.e., can't lose Neph stack) this still seems like it'd work pretty well.
Especially the horrify change .... I recently made this change to remove soul harvest and am finding it to be quite useful.
I still cannot bring myself to replace toads though. I have taken some peoples suggestions and tried acid rain, as well some really werid versions with spiders but my build today is the same as originally posted except horrify in place of soul harvest.
As far as boss killing .... it can be done with this build just fine. I assume you mean the butcher? As this is an act 1 build. You just need to keep him off the edge of your screen to stay out of his chain range .... use your slow on the ground as it does do damage as well... I usually drop the slow half empty my mana on toads then back to darts. If you find you are hitting enrage you may just want to farm some more first.
Overall still effective though. I am trying to find new ways to farm myself more for diversity then butcher runs.... Any suggestions would be great. I even went back and did a bunch of hell secret level runs for fun. Still go get 5 stacks before you go in .... got a couple nice pieces from that. Not sure though as to the fastest way to progress at this point and seems a bit frustrating. I can clear act 1 with no issues. I rarely die to any champion or elite packs. Almost always one shot the butcher. Yet my gear has not received a new piece in days. Marginal success on the AH, couple rare rings selling for couple 100k and a Bul Kathos ring that should sell today for 500k. But nothing for me... I feel the drops are not coming .... so I think gold farm may be the way to go .... I have a nice speed kill pet build that works great for money runs in hell. I just need to grind it out I guess.
Just a quick napkin math example:
Lets assume a pack of 5 zombies on act 1 inferno... Not calculating resists or any of that just base everything. My WD has around 16k damage unbuffed. I'm assuming use of Searing Locusts.
((448%) * 16000)) * 5 = 358,400 damage. From my experience it takes the swarm around one second before it jumps so assuming the first zombie is hit instantly this amount of damage would take 12 full seconds before it has fully spread and run its damage to the pack.
358400 / (60% * 16000) = 37.3 / 3 = 12.4 casts of splinters or 37.3 splinter darts.
For some more numbers Locusts Swarm does the same damage (well within 2%) that each splinter bolt does per second to all mobs affected. Basically if you come up to a pack cast locust swarm every mob with bugs is taking 58.5% weapon damage per second.
That said Haunt is also very attractive. Same scenario with 5 zombies. You can only Haunt three mobs at a time. I'm assuming Grasping Spirit.
((575%) * 16,000)) * 3 = 276,000
Unlike Locusts Haunt does 48% weapon damage per second. If you think about this in terms of casts Haunt isn't that attractive, but do not forget Locusts require positioning while Haunt can be cast from anywhere therefore I de-deuce the time wasted casting haunt three times is also wasted by getting close to a mob and casting Locusts.
These two skills are underrated in inferno and I don't understand it because they are both better to cast over splinters. Hell Haunt alone can be cast from the same range as splinters! Shooting an elite with Haunt that you otherwise would have shot with Splinters is like hitting that mob three times with Splinters! As anyone who in inferno knows while kiting an elite pack casting Splinters three times back to back doesn't happen often.
Unless you have another type of wonky build I am not accounting for where Mana is not a concern. I dont like ever running low on Mana. I like to have it there when I need to Hex or Horrify. Locusts on the other hand is great damage I completely agree. I would say it is on par with Rain of Toads. However it has the definate advantage of "fire and forget" where toads is channeled. However this comes at the cost of range to target. Mana cost is not too bad for either given there uses. So it comes down same damage, roughly same Mana for same effect.... decision is ranged or up close..... Not much of a decision to me. But to each there own.
After my recent crisis on what to do with my toon, I took some time this weekend to make a fun build and do some nightmare speed runs for some low level buddies of mine. OMG do witch doctors do GREAT at power leveling peeps through nightmare and early hell.
After getting the gear that I have for inferno .... even dogs do really well in the lower difficulties. I recommend running a pet setup with Flash Fire Bomb as main attack as it auto targets well. Jaunt on spirit walk for speed and just play with the other abilities you find fun but unusable in inferno. It was a blast.
One last note ... I took the time to do all the speed run achievements while I was at it and got the "pink'd" achievement as well.