Today i was pretty lucky with getting my hands on Last Breath, grabbing it on AH for all my money i had the very hour it was posted. Which is, if you dont know it, very rare on HC and there are propably only 2 dropped in HC EU altogehter.
Okay so ive got weapon reducing Mass Hysteria cooldown, which is very hard not to use when you already have it. So after playing out with builds a little ive came up with this:
Im very sad skipping Horrify (Mass Hysteria took its place) and Im trying to replace my nuke ability (acid raid or lob blob bomb) with Soul Harvest, which i never liked much (hate watching cooldowns) and progressed up to act 3 inferno HC (killed Belial today, not started anything in act 3 yet) without it. Its quite dangerous to get near mobs as HC WD.
Another change i made was changing Blood Ritual into Pierce the Veil, becouse Last Breath gives me around the same ammount of HP regen anyway (also with no nuke ability mana is not an issue). But there is a chance ill switch it back.
Now for my intended tactics - aproach mobs, cast Soul Harvest, then Mass Hysteria, Spirit Walk away (i should be at 100% hp again thx to siphon and healing journey runes), start spamming Ghost Bombs (pity Last Breath doesnt boost their dmg like Plague of Toads and Haunt and instead reduces mana cost :/, thats just lame) till Soul Harvest buff fades away and repeat procedure. Thx to Last Breath and Unstable Realm rune my Mass Hysteria cooldown is 30 second = same as Soul Harvest duration.
Nice idea and with upcoming CC buff it'll be only stronger. A thing to mention - much prefer Flash Fire rune for Firebomb, not only it clears trash extremly fast, but also its bounce range is a lot higher explosion range for Firebomb in general (Ghost Bomb 30% dmg explosions is weak IMO, especially when in comes to dealing with spread out elites). Also it bounces of the ground so you can nuke some really nasty affixes outside screen or shift click inside the door and clear wholle room.
P.S. Playing on SC had double your dmg, about same resistances/armor and 28K live only and didn't die once so you're in for a safe clear. Only thing to beware is a Ghom enrage, dunno how your dps will deal with it but you can probably build change and zerg him down with army/big bad vodoo and Restless Giant Gargantuan (just resummon when enrage ends). GL with clearing on HC.
Nice idea and with upcoming CC buff it'll be only stronger. A thing to mention - much prefer Flash Fire rune for Firebomb, not only it clears trash extremly fast, but also its bounce range is a lot higher explosion range for Firebomb in general (Ghost Bomb 30% dmg explosions is weak IMO, especially when in comes to dealing with spread out elites). Also it bounces of the ground so you can nuke some really nasty affixes outside screen or shift click inside the door and clear whole room.
P.S. Playing on SC had double your dmg, about same resistances/armor and 28K live only and didn't die once so you're in for a safe clear. Only thing to beware is a Ghom enrage, dunno how your dps will deal with it but you can probably build change and zerg him down with army/big bad vodoo and Restless Giant Gargantuan (just resummon when enrage ends). GL with clearing on HC.
When using Pierce the Veil and enchantress, I have 22,7k dps. With 5 stacks of Soul Harvest its 30,3k.
Ghom shouldnt be much problem - Ppl are killing him with 15k dps now.
As for Flash fire vs Ghost Bomb - i used FF as well, only took GB for this build. For some reason majority of top players are using GB over FF if they are using Fire Bomb at all. Lookie here : http://www.diablopro...aragon_level_50 - Listing top 50 paragon level players, 76% players using Fire Bomb use Ghost Bomb rune. http://www.diablopro...ps_unbuffed_500 - Listing top 500 dps players, 51% players using Fire Bomb use Ghost Bomb rune. http://www.diablopro...t_heroscore_500 - Listing top 500 best equiped players, 55% playyers using Fire Bomb use Ghost Bomb rune.
It surprised me as well, but there will be "something" in it. Maybe its becouse GB dmg is instant, not bouncing, or its not causing lags (FF sometimes do it) or it simply help clear trash fast while you are focusing down elites one by one (with help of pets).
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Rencol - Diablo fan since 1996 and walking encyclopedia of Diablo lore.
Ghost Bomb is incredibly effective as your dps goes up. That 30% dmg from the blast zone is a 24 yard-ranged attack. Huge. It works both as a single-target, fast attack and a good AoE skill.
I've tested out all the Firebomb runes extensively and Ghost Bomb is by far the most effective. Flash Fire has its uses though, mainly as a Vision Quest activator and clearing trash.
IMO you should have another damage dealing skill. A slight change could be the rune that damages in Soul Harvest.
You focus on survivability, and that is the way to go on HC, but it can only help adding more damage.
One thing that helped me immensely was pickup radius, +health from globes and Gruesome Feast. Worked better than Pierce the Veil, especially since I like to use heavy mana spenders like Lob Blob Bomb.
Ye ive tested it out as well and it works better than expected.
Sadly, pick up radius items with Gruesome Feast are out of question for me. Not only im not using mana spender, but im also saving up health globes for later use by simply not having any pick up radius bonus and not running over them. Saved my ass several times when i was kiting and had safety globes along the way.
The only change i can make to this build changing Mass Hysteria rune from Unstable Realm to Paranoia, giving me 20% dmg bonus for 12 seconds. Also works well in groups. Nice substitute for Big Bad Woodoo.
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Rencol - Diablo fan since 1996 and walking encyclopedia of Diablo lore.
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Okay so ive got weapon reducing Mass Hysteria cooldown, which is very hard not to use when you already have it. So after playing out with builds a little ive came up with this:
http://eu.battle.net...UjYT!aWe!cZcaca
Im very sad skipping Horrify (Mass Hysteria took its place) and Im trying to replace my nuke ability (acid raid or lob blob bomb) with Soul Harvest, which i never liked much (hate watching cooldowns) and progressed up to act 3 inferno HC (killed Belial today, not started anything in act 3 yet) without it. Its quite dangerous to get near mobs as HC WD.
Another change i made was changing Blood Ritual into Pierce the Veil, becouse Last Breath gives me around the same ammount of HP regen anyway (also with no nuke ability mana is not an issue). But there is a chance ill switch it back.
Now for my intended tactics - aproach mobs, cast Soul Harvest, then Mass Hysteria, Spirit Walk away (i should be at 100% hp again thx to siphon and healing journey runes), start spamming Ghost Bombs (pity Last Breath doesnt boost their dmg like Plague of Toads and Haunt and instead reduces mana cost :/, thats just lame) till Soul Harvest buff fades away and repeat procedure. Thx to Last Breath and Unstable Realm rune my Mass Hysteria cooldown is 30 second = same as Soul Harvest duration.
Now, your input, thoughts and critique.
Oh and here are links to my WD, in case you wanna check out gear (no loughing, its hard getting good gear on HC, and im broke):
http://eu.battle.net...2/hero/19239798
http://www.diablopro...Mortis/19239798
P.S. Playing on SC had double your dmg, about same resistances/armor and 28K live only and didn't die once so you're in for a safe clear. Only thing to beware is a Ghom enrage, dunno how your dps will deal with it but you can probably build change and zerg him down with army/big bad vodoo and Restless Giant Gargantuan (just resummon when enrage ends). GL with clearing on HC.
When using Pierce the Veil and enchantress, I have 22,7k dps. With 5 stacks of Soul Harvest its 30,3k.
Ghom shouldnt be much problem - Ppl are killing him with 15k dps now.
As for Flash fire vs Ghost Bomb - i used FF as well, only took GB for this build. For some reason majority of top players are using GB over FF if they are using Fire Bomb at all. Lookie here :
http://www.diablopro...aragon_level_50 - Listing top 50 paragon level players, 76% players using Fire Bomb use Ghost Bomb rune.
http://www.diablopro...ps_unbuffed_500 - Listing top 500 dps players, 51% players using Fire Bomb use Ghost Bomb rune.
http://www.diablopro...t_heroscore_500 - Listing top 500 best equiped players, 55% playyers using Fire Bomb use Ghost Bomb rune.
It surprised me as well, but there will be "something" in it. Maybe its becouse GB dmg is instant, not bouncing, or its not causing lags (FF sometimes do it) or it simply help clear trash fast while you are focusing down elites one by one (with help of pets).
I've tested out all the Firebomb runes extensively and Ghost Bomb is by far the most effective. Flash Fire has its uses though, mainly as a Vision Quest activator and clearing trash.
IMO you should have another damage dealing skill. A slight change could be the rune that damages in Soul Harvest.
You focus on survivability, and that is the way to go on HC, but it can only help adding more damage.
One thing that helped me immensely was pickup radius, +health from globes and Gruesome Feast. Worked better than Pierce the Veil, especially since I like to use heavy mana spenders like Lob Blob Bomb.
Sadly, pick up radius items with Gruesome Feast are out of question for me. Not only im not using mana spender, but im also saving up health globes for later use by simply not having any pick up radius bonus and not running over them. Saved my ass several times when i was kiting and had safety globes along the way.
The only change i can make to this build changing Mass Hysteria rune from Unstable Realm to Paranoia, giving me 20% dmg bonus for 12 seconds. Also works well in groups. Nice substitute for Big Bad Woodoo.