The question here is, why can't they actually kill stuff?, what sacred rule of thumb that I'm missing here is broken if their damage gets buffed?.
Hypothetical situation, zombie dogs gets their damage buffed to reach 100% of your damage per hit. They hit like once every 2,5 seconds anyway, so whats the big deal if someone wants to use them as something more than meat shields?.
The question here is, why can't they actually kill stuff?, what sacred rule of thumb that I'm missing here is broken if their damage gets buffed?.
Hypothetical situation, zombie dogs gets their damage buffed to reach 100% of your damage per hit. They hit like once every 2,5 seconds anyway, so whats the big deal if someone wants to use them as something more than meat shields?.
If they hit for 100% damage every 2.5 seconds, they're still MILES from being a useful dps skill. And could be downright op on most single target situations (4 dogs + Gargantuan hitting ONE elite for 500% weapon damage on top of your dps?).
Thing is, either they are a useful offensive-oriented skill or they aren't.
Their design says they are not supposed to be. And there's a good reason for that. A dps-oriented "pet" would absolutely turn the WD gameplay into "watch as things die" as a dozen+ people have explained already.
If they wanted a offensive-oriented pet that worked, it would also have to be pretty weak and die much easier than the current ones do.
Either that or introduce mandatory support abilities that make your pets deal more consistent damage and require some resource/cooldown management from the player (like Big Bad Voodoo but just for pets). Maybe that could work.
The question here is, why can't they actually kill stuff?, what sacred rule of thumb that I'm missing here is broken if their damage gets buffed?.
Because YOU are supposed to be playing the game, not an army of pets.
100% per dog would be far too OP on single targets. Given that Zombie Dogs have one, very weak, AoE ability why CAN'T they be meat shields and why can't the Gargantuan serve as the damage dealer? That's the niche that Blizzard said they wanted both summons to fill. In that aspect, the Gargantuan falls short. Why do the Zombie Dogs HAVE to be DPS robots in your mind? What is so wrong with having a summon that's centered around survivability and a different summon that's centered around damage?
We should, from a "pet damage" perspective, be talking about buffing the Gargantuan's damage - 100% baseline for him is quite insufficient. He's the "DPS" summon but rarely do people actually take him because he's just not that good. In fact, I've seen more builds using Zombie Dogs lately than I've seen using the Gargantuan. The relative power of Gargantuan and Fetish Army versus Big Bad Voodoo is rather lacking - and I'm not talking about group situations because I'm resigned to the fact that BBV will always be best in co-op.
But, seriously, you seem to believe that Zombie Dogs MUST be good DPS. Why? What is so offensive to you about having one summon that basically tanks and another summon that's more focused on damage? Why is that such an irrational paradigm that you feel it is offensive? Even the D2 team felt that the pre-1.10 fishymancer spec was unacceptable.
If you want to use Zombie Dogs to do tons of damage, why not use Sacrifice? It's a means to that end which is obviously supported by Blizzard and is being used by many players with great success. Do you dislike this because it requires you to push buttons? My gut feeling is that you just want an "afk and win" spec and, well, that's simply never going to happen. If you're not actively participating in the game then why are you playing it?
Hypothetical situation, zombie dogs gets their damage buffed to reach 100% of your damage per hit. They hit like once every 2,5 seconds anyway, so whats the big deal if someone wants to use them as something more than meat shields?.
Zombie Dogs (and Gargantuan, and Fetishes) have attacked once per second since beta. This 2.5 second stuff... it's just leading you to make completely incorrect conclusions.
I've been gone for a few months but seeing as your still around complaining about D3 and your current focus is Dog's don't do enough DPS I'd say your grabbing for straws.
WD's are in such a good spot, buffing them even more is silly. Shaggy has pretty much stated everything else that needs to be said.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
See, this is exactly the kind of things that makes D3 to hasve so little flexibility. If someone wanted to have a "watch everything die without clicking anything" mode while playing WD, so be it, you have: "gargantuan, dogs, and an "army" of fetishes".
But the approach that Blizzard gave us was: "they are only meat shields, you do the damage".
I'm 31 years old, I have a fulltime job, and I'd love to play a no brainer mode instead of clicking euphorically at everything in the screen.
What I'm saying is, if I want to play a WD that does damage thought his pets, there should be a way to do it.
I mean, come on, they even removed the ability to control a mob.. that was awesome, why can't I?, it would be so cool to have mobs mind controlled by me, even if they last 2 mins, it would be awesome.
I've been gone for a few months but seeing as your still around complaining about D3 and your current focus is Dog's don't do enough DPS I'd say your grabbing for straws.
WD's are in such a good spot, buffing them even more is silly. Shaggy has pretty much stated everything else that needs to be said.
This! I totally think that the Summon Dogs ability should only be used 1) for leveling, because the dogs are a little more significant and it helps you learn their mechanics; and 2) in Inferno if you have low DPS as a means of defense (read: are just starting Inferno and need more gear). Please note that I'm talking about the SUMMON ability; the ability that lets dogs spawn randomly is, and this is only my opinion, how they were intended to be used offensively at the Inferno level. If you have ever blown up three dogs in the middle of a giant group of mobs and then had three more spawn instantly, you know why and exactly what I'm talking about.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
i would choose my own religion and worship my own spirit, but if he ever preached to me i wouldn't want to hear it. i'd drop him, a forgotten god, languishing in shame; and then if i hit stormy seas, i'd have myself to blame.
See, this is exactly the kind of things that makes D3 to hasve so little flexibility. If someone wanted to have a "watch everything die without clicking anything" mode while playing WD, so be it, you have: "gargantuan, dogs, and an "army" of fetishes".
But the approach that Blizzard gave us was: "they are only meat shields, you do the damage".
I'm 31 years old, I have a fulltime job, and I'd love to play a no brainer mode instead of clicking euphorically at everything in the screen.
What I'm saying is, if I want to play a WD that does damage thought his pets, there should be a way to do it.
I mean, come on, they even removed the ability to control a mob.. that was awesome, why can't I?, it would be so cool to have mobs mind controlled by me, even if they last 2 mins, it would be awesome.
Despite what I just posted above (while you were posting, it seems ;)), I think that a pet-based build could, in theory, be viable in Inferno. However, you'd need to totally focus ALL of your skills and runes on your pets to make this happen, and you'd have to gear specifically for it as well by stacking the hell out of Vitality and some other stuff. What's wrong with that situation? If you want to play a very specific way, you should have to build/gear very specifically to make it happen. It seems like a lot of people want pets to be awesome AND for their WD to be awesome as well, but they are meant to have more synergy and you have to take that into account when building/gearing for pets.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
i would choose my own religion and worship my own spirit, but if he ever preached to me i wouldn't want to hear it. i'd drop him, a forgotten god, languishing in shame; and then if i hit stormy seas, i'd have myself to blame.
See, this is exactly the kind of things that makes D3 to hasve so little flexibility. If someone wanted to have a "watch everything die without clicking anything" mode while playing WD, so be it, you have: "gargantuan, dogs, and an "army" of fetishes".
But the approach that Blizzard gave us was: "they are only meat shields, you do the damage".
I'm 31 years old, I have a fulltime job, and I'd love to play a no brainer mode instead of clicking euphorically at everything in the screen.
What I'm saying is, if I want to play a WD that does damage thought his pets, there should be a way to do it.
I mean, come on, they even removed the ability to control a mob.. that was awesome, why can't I?, it would be so cool to have mobs mind controlled by me, even if they last 2 mins, it would be awesome.
They do much more than that, I use Dogs for life leech or use them for a 10% damage reduction which saves a passive skill for more offense.
If you want dogs to do more damage aim for a sacrifice build. If you are... "inconvenienced" because you need to use up a couple of slots or need a couple of pieces of gear to focus on your dog's doing damage then there simply isn't anything we can suggest to make you happy.
I'm 30 years old with a full-time job and kids, mine and your personal life has little relevance. Simply state "I prefer a simple game in which I don't have to click" but Diablo has and always be a game where you click the mouse button ALOT!! I wore out two mouses from clicking so much back in the D1 days.
Just because you want something doesn't mean you get it or deserve it. I want my WD to fart and do 100000% weapon damage that drops a guaranteed high end legendary when I die. Does this mean it should be in the game just because I want it, nope.
I do agree that controlling mobs would be nice and should be brought back, pending on the balance and mechanics of it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
They even removed the ability to give them a pestilence effect, do you remember the first footage demo back then?, it was cool how he pestilenced them.
Well, I can only hope that Blizz add some more options to how pets work.
But looking at how followers work too, seems like a lost case.
I agree that it's BS they cut out a lot of promised content at the start, but whats done is done and the game is in better shape than what it was a year ago. More fixing to be done, hopefully sooner rather than later but I don't have high expectations anymore. The good part is this is a game you can drop and pick up again without any consequences.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
This would be an excellent opportunity to add some legendary/set items in the next (next next?) patch that allow for a build of this kind. Perhaps +4 zombie dogs, and they do 100% more damage? Get on the official forums and demand this, couldn't hurt. And sure it's not a class overhaul but it's the next best thing.
A young me had a pet druid and was having a blast. Kicked demon butt all the way into act 4 normal. Stomped Izual and the hell forge overlord. So I am with my swarm of birds, wolves, bear and other assorted followers. I activate that 5th seal. Ok, gonna kick Diablo's ass! CHARGE!
*WHOOOOSSSH!* goes his fire nova-ish spell out towards myself and my army of minions. They all die in one hit.
shoot.
Needless to say it took a while to kill him with the flawed build I had constructed.
Because YOU are supposed to be playing the game, not an army of pets.
Says who? You are supposed to be having fun. I find having an army of pets doing the work for me fun. It should be an optional build. Hell, there should be several such optional builds.
Thank goodness for PoE. I can build an army of pets that actually kills things. Best of all, when they die, they explode automatically. This is fun. No need to manually blow them up like suiciding zombie dogs.
Says who? You are supposed to be having fun. I find having an army of pets doing the work for me fun. It should be an optional build. Hell, there should be several such optional builds.
Thank goodness for PoE. I can build an army of pets that actually kills things. Best of all, when they die, they explode automatically. This is fun. No need to manually blow them up like suiciding zombie dogs.
God forbid that you have to push a button to explode your pets. What a fucking disaster. Apparently you believe that the game is only "fun" if it plays itself while you watch. If pets can't explode automatically then, clearly, the game sucks!
I thought PoE was for hardcore gamers, I guess I was wrong. Cause every time I read PoE forums they're complaining that D3 sucks because it's "dumbed down." Frankly, I can't see anything more dumbed down than sitting around picking your ass while an army of 25 pets does everything for you.
It's such a shame that Blizzard has to deal with people like you who want to win at a game without actually playing it.
Maybe when you log in the town should just have 50 resplendant chests for you to loot so that you don't have to waste your time with those monsters. How about that? Is that the lack of interaction that you desire? Or perhaps you would just prefer infinite gold so that you could purchase anything you wanted on the AH without ever needing to create a game? Would that tickle your fancy?
I fail to see how any of that is, inherently, different from just letting the AI play the game for you. It's all the same total lack of player interaction.
Thank goodness for PoE. I can build an army of pets that actually kills things. Best of all, when they die, they explode automatically. This is fun. No need to manually blow them up like suiciding zombie dogs.
Oh the irony. If this is true (and not sarcasm) it defies everything all the D3 haters/PoE missionaries ever wanted (complexity, less simplicity, challenge, difficulty, and so on).
Not to say that I wouldn't like and army of pets to let the work do for me, but then I'm also a casual gamer...
I feel like you guys are missing a large part of why the d2 Necro was so fun! It was because that's the kind of playstyle we WANTED to play.. I feel like currently every class is just a run'n'gun kinda build, there isn't much depth. Now obviously d2 wasn't much different, you just did Chaos runs all day, but at least you felt like there were different types of builds and playstyles. Maybe you wanted to Melee stuff to death, beat them with a stick or something. Or perhaps you liked casting spells, or using a bow, or having an army of people fight for you! D3 has that to a point, sure you can shoot things with a bow, or hit them in the face with your fist.. But I feel like there isn't as much of a distinct feel to each class.. I don't feel like I'm doing anything different in the game when I switch from barb to WD to DH whereas D2 provided more unique feelings to each class' playstyle. I hope Blizzard includes some sort of minion build to the WD because as it stands now it is very lackluster and I thoroughly enjoyed it in D2.. I just hope that blizzard starts to move away from this forced playstyle. One of the comments I read said that blizzard didn't want people "afk behind their army". Blizzard can have their opinions, but if that's what I enjoy doing, why is that suddenly "not the right playstyle"?
It's not like coming up with a build that achieves this sort of 'puppetmaster' effect PLUS acquiring all the gear necessary necessarily HAS TO be a totally brainless endeavour from start to finish.
Two things:
First, to me they're not talking about a "puppetmaster" build because that implies that the player has a distinct role in controlling the puppets. They're, quite literally, talking about a build where you summon 50 minions and then just move around the screen picking up loot. I'd support a build where the player was actually responsible for the success, but not one where the AI plays the game for you. I think there's a really important distinction there.
Secondly, I really don't think the gearing process should hold much weight in terms of how "brainless" the spec is. That would mean that 0CD Zombie Dogs specs should be among the most "brainless" in the game at the moment since they require a fairly specific set of abilities. Cloud of Bats builds (at least according to the guides) require pretty specific sets of gear (Skorn, 4pc Zunis - which is a specific group of items since the off-hand cannot be equipped). Does that mean CoB builds should have less user interaction than WW barbs because they've used too much mental power assembling their gear?
One of the comments I read said that blizzard didn't want people "afk behind their army". Blizzard can have their opinions, but if that's what I enjoy doing, why is that suddenly "not the right playstyle"?
I'm sorry, but I guarantee a LOT of people felt the same way about the initial Force Armor or the inital Smoke Screen. I'm sure that's what they "enjoyed doing" but that doesn't mean it's something that should be in the game.
Lots of people enjoyed equipping GF gear and farming urns in the crypt. We should bring that back too!
Hell, I bet a lot of people ENJOYED duping gear and gold. Blizzard is a bunch of facists for telling them that's not how the game is supposed to be played.
The bottom line is that if you feel so strongly that the only way for you to enjoy D3 is for you to be presented a spec whereby you have to do nothing but click on loot, well maybe you are better suited for PoE. That's how we behave in a capitalistic society. Products are supposed to differentiate among each other - they're not supposed to be ubiquitous. As much as I don't like PoE, as it just doesn't suit my tastes, I don't want it to fail because competition will make both games better.
If enough people quit D3 to go to PoE because they feel that the fishymancer was an absolute necessity... that might be what Blizzard needs to know to rethink their stance. But, frankly, we all know that it's simply not that much of a necessity nor does it truly effect anyone's ability to enjoy D3. It's just a very minor thing that some people want to blow vastly out of proportion.
My first, my favorite, toon in D3 was a Necro. I get that the WD is NOT the Necro. Trust me, there are things about the Necro that I miss. There are things about the WD that (if I had a time machine) I'd love for the Necro to have. For example I love Locust Swarm (particularly Pestilence) more than curses, but I also liked the different golems more than I like the Gargantuan.
The difference is that I have seen in D3 that I don't NEED to obsess over the Gargantuan. I'd love to use him if he were more viable. But he's not and I can do other things. Blizzard has shown that they're keen to know what spells and runes are being used and which aren't - hence some of the channeled spell buffs in 1.0.8. If the Gargantuan is that bad it will get some loving and then I'll have a new toy to play with.
The WD is doing quite well now, especially in groups (Paranoia and Slam Dance are fuckin OP as hell in groups). Many groups appreciate the general survivability brought by Zombie Dogs too. With 1.0.8 Pestilence can "round up" monsters like no other. Try not to get so caught up on minor things. Try to see the whole picture. The WD does not need a zoomancer spec to be enjoyable. If you truly feel that way, the problem is with your own narrowmindedness and not the developers.
Ultimately I'm not saying that certain things shouldn't happen with the class, because they should. But if the *only* way that you can enjoy the game is with a very specific playstyle on one of the five available classes, that's a problem with the player, not the game. Should you be able to build a wizard that can use a shield and "tank"? I suppose so! Is the game inferior if you cannot? Absolutely not!
It still feels like a diablo game, but the game is basicly dead now compared to launch.
Thanks for registering to pass on that insight to us.
We've been hearing that D3 is "dead" for right about a year now. It never was, and it sure isn't now. It'd be sweet if you folks got a new line, though.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hypothetical situation, zombie dogs gets their damage buffed to reach 100% of your damage per hit. They hit like once every 2,5 seconds anyway, so whats the big deal if someone wants to use them as something more than meat shields?.
Thing is, either they are a useful offensive-oriented skill or they aren't.
Their design says they are not supposed to be. And there's a good reason for that. A dps-oriented "pet" would absolutely turn the WD gameplay into "watch as things die" as a dozen+ people have explained already.
If they wanted a offensive-oriented pet that worked, it would also have to be pretty weak and die much easier than the current ones do.
Either that or introduce mandatory support abilities that make your pets deal more consistent damage and require some resource/cooldown management from the player (like Big Bad Voodoo but just for pets). Maybe that could work.
Because YOU are supposed to be playing the game, not an army of pets.
100% per dog would be far too OP on single targets. Given that Zombie Dogs have one, very weak, AoE ability why CAN'T they be meat shields and why can't the Gargantuan serve as the damage dealer? That's the niche that Blizzard said they wanted both summons to fill. In that aspect, the Gargantuan falls short. Why do the Zombie Dogs HAVE to be DPS robots in your mind? What is so wrong with having a summon that's centered around survivability and a different summon that's centered around damage?
We should, from a "pet damage" perspective, be talking about buffing the Gargantuan's damage - 100% baseline for him is quite insufficient. He's the "DPS" summon but rarely do people actually take him because he's just not that good. In fact, I've seen more builds using Zombie Dogs lately than I've seen using the Gargantuan. The relative power of Gargantuan and Fetish Army versus Big Bad Voodoo is rather lacking - and I'm not talking about group situations because I'm resigned to the fact that BBV will always be best in co-op.
But, seriously, you seem to believe that Zombie Dogs MUST be good DPS. Why? What is so offensive to you about having one summon that basically tanks and another summon that's more focused on damage? Why is that such an irrational paradigm that you feel it is offensive? Even the D2 team felt that the pre-1.10 fishymancer spec was unacceptable.
If you want to use Zombie Dogs to do tons of damage, why not use Sacrifice? It's a means to that end which is obviously supported by Blizzard and is being used by many players with great success. Do you dislike this because it requires you to push buttons? My gut feeling is that you just want an "afk and win" spec and, well, that's simply never going to happen. If you're not actively participating in the game then why are you playing it?
Zombie Dogs (and Gargantuan, and Fetishes) have attacked once per second since beta. This 2.5 second stuff... it's just leading you to make completely incorrect conclusions.
WD's are in such a good spot, buffing them even more is silly. Shaggy has pretty much stated everything else that needs to be said.
But the approach that Blizzard gave us was: "they are only meat shields, you do the damage".
I'm 31 years old, I have a fulltime job, and I'd love to play a no brainer mode instead of clicking euphorically at everything in the screen.
What I'm saying is, if I want to play a WD that does damage thought his pets, there should be a way to do it.
I mean, come on, they even removed the ability to control a mob.. that was awesome, why can't I?, it would be so cool to have mobs mind controlled by me, even if they last 2 mins, it would be awesome.
They do much more than that, I use Dogs for life leech or use them for a 10% damage reduction which saves a passive skill for more offense.
If you want dogs to do more damage aim for a sacrifice build. If you are... "inconvenienced" because you need to use up a couple of slots or need a couple of pieces of gear to focus on your dog's doing damage then there simply isn't anything we can suggest to make you happy.
I'm 30 years old with a full-time job and kids, mine and your personal life has little relevance. Simply state "I prefer a simple game in which I don't have to click" but Diablo has and always be a game where you click the mouse button ALOT!! I wore out two mouses from clicking so much back in the D1 days.
Just because you want something doesn't mean you get it or deserve it. I want my WD to fart and do 100000% weapon damage that drops a guaranteed high end legendary when I die. Does this mean it should be in the game just because I want it, nope.
I do agree that controlling mobs would be nice and should be brought back, pending on the balance and mechanics of it.
Well, I can only hope that Blizz add some more options to how pets work.
But looking at how followers work too, seems like a lost case.
A young me had a pet druid and was having a blast. Kicked demon butt all the way into act 4 normal. Stomped Izual and the hell forge overlord. So I am with my swarm of birds, wolves, bear and other assorted followers. I activate that 5th seal. Ok, gonna kick Diablo's ass! CHARGE!
*WHOOOOSSSH!* goes his fire nova-ish spell out towards myself and my army of minions. They all die in one hit.
shoot.
Needless to say it took a while to kill him with the flawed build I had constructed.
Good times.
Says who? You are supposed to be having fun. I find having an army of pets doing the work for me fun. It should be an optional build. Hell, there should be several such optional builds.
Thank goodness for PoE. I can build an army of pets that actually kills things. Best of all, when they die, they explode automatically. This is fun. No need to manually blow them up like suiciding zombie dogs.
God forbid that you have to push a button to explode your pets. What a fucking disaster. Apparently you believe that the game is only "fun" if it plays itself while you watch. If pets can't explode automatically then, clearly, the game sucks!
I thought PoE was for hardcore gamers, I guess I was wrong. Cause every time I read PoE forums they're complaining that D3 sucks because it's "dumbed down." Frankly, I can't see anything more dumbed down than sitting around picking your ass while an army of 25 pets does everything for you.
It's such a shame that Blizzard has to deal with people like you who want to win at a game without actually playing it.
Maybe when you log in the town should just have 50 resplendant chests for you to loot so that you don't have to waste your time with those monsters. How about that? Is that the lack of interaction that you desire? Or perhaps you would just prefer infinite gold so that you could purchase anything you wanted on the AH without ever needing to create a game? Would that tickle your fancy?
I fail to see how any of that is, inherently, different from just letting the AI play the game for you. It's all the same total lack of player interaction.
Oh the irony. If this is true (and not sarcasm) it defies everything all the D3 haters/PoE missionaries ever wanted (complexity, less simplicity, challenge, difficulty, and so on).
Not to say that I wouldn't like and army of pets to let the work do for me, but then I'm also a casual gamer...
Labels, anyone?...
In conclusion.. PATCH THE GAME FASTER
Two things:
First, to me they're not talking about a "puppetmaster" build because that implies that the player has a distinct role in controlling the puppets. They're, quite literally, talking about a build where you summon 50 minions and then just move around the screen picking up loot. I'd support a build where the player was actually responsible for the success, but not one where the AI plays the game for you. I think there's a really important distinction there.
Secondly, I really don't think the gearing process should hold much weight in terms of how "brainless" the spec is. That would mean that 0CD Zombie Dogs specs should be among the most "brainless" in the game at the moment since they require a fairly specific set of abilities. Cloud of Bats builds (at least according to the guides) require pretty specific sets of gear (Skorn, 4pc Zunis - which is a specific group of items since the off-hand cannot be equipped). Does that mean CoB builds should have less user interaction than WW barbs because they've used too much mental power assembling their gear?
I'm sorry, but I guarantee a LOT of people felt the same way about the initial Force Armor or the inital Smoke Screen. I'm sure that's what they "enjoyed doing" but that doesn't mean it's something that should be in the game.
Lots of people enjoyed equipping GF gear and farming urns in the crypt. We should bring that back too!
Hell, I bet a lot of people ENJOYED duping gear and gold. Blizzard is a bunch of facists for telling them that's not how the game is supposed to be played.
The bottom line is that if you feel so strongly that the only way for you to enjoy D3 is for you to be presented a spec whereby you have to do nothing but click on loot, well maybe you are better suited for PoE. That's how we behave in a capitalistic society. Products are supposed to differentiate among each other - they're not supposed to be ubiquitous. As much as I don't like PoE, as it just doesn't suit my tastes, I don't want it to fail because competition will make both games better.
If enough people quit D3 to go to PoE because they feel that the fishymancer was an absolute necessity... that might be what Blizzard needs to know to rethink their stance. But, frankly, we all know that it's simply not that much of a necessity nor does it truly effect anyone's ability to enjoy D3. It's just a very minor thing that some people want to blow vastly out of proportion.
My first, my favorite, toon in D3 was a Necro. I get that the WD is NOT the Necro. Trust me, there are things about the Necro that I miss. There are things about the WD that (if I had a time machine) I'd love for the Necro to have. For example I love Locust Swarm (particularly Pestilence) more than curses, but I also liked the different golems more than I like the Gargantuan.
The difference is that I have seen in D3 that I don't NEED to obsess over the Gargantuan. I'd love to use him if he were more viable. But he's not and I can do other things. Blizzard has shown that they're keen to know what spells and runes are being used and which aren't - hence some of the channeled spell buffs in 1.0.8. If the Gargantuan is that bad it will get some loving and then I'll have a new toy to play with.
The WD is doing quite well now, especially in groups (Paranoia and Slam Dance are fuckin OP as hell in groups). Many groups appreciate the general survivability brought by Zombie Dogs too. With 1.0.8 Pestilence can "round up" monsters like no other. Try not to get so caught up on minor things. Try to see the whole picture. The WD does not need a zoomancer spec to be enjoyable. If you truly feel that way, the problem is with your own narrowmindedness and not the developers.
Ultimately I'm not saying that certain things shouldn't happen with the class, because they should. But if the *only* way that you can enjoy the game is with a very specific playstyle on one of the five available classes, that's a problem with the player, not the game. Should you be able to build a wizard that can use a shield and "tank"? I suppose so! Is the game inferior if you cannot? Absolutely not!
Thanks for registering to pass on that insight to us.
We've been hearing that D3 is "dead" for right about a year now. It never was, and it sure isn't now. It'd be sweet if you folks got a new line, though.