My chosen class for the season is Witch Doctor. And oh man, I'm having problems! I played HC since the start of D3, and only lost a lvl 50ish char while leveling. But this season has been "brutal", I just lost my second WD and I'm not even so far in the game.
Death 1: (Jade Harvester Haunt/Locust)
...joined a TX group rift, teleported to a player not in fight... loading screen (damn slow comp)... while loading hear myself die... got TP'd in an act 5 blood puddle, didn't even have enough time to run out of it before falling over permanently.
Death 2: (Gargs Helltooth Build)
...GR 58, facerolled all previous rifts with no problems, barely seeing my health drop. I end up at the RG, a little unexpected, almost out of time for the soul harvest stacks... they run out, RG single shoots me, 2nd life gone with the next attack. In both cases I was far away to have my pets do the work.
So I know in deaths the problem is the protection from 10x soul harvest (+extra armor rune) and bracers with 60% reduction is great, but when you dont have it you're toast.
None of the builds I tried would have allowed me to use Unity. In both cases I had 1+ million health, almost everything from PLVL tab 3 maxed out or close to it. I know I wasn't running pimped out gear.
Finally the question: How can you not die? Is there an alternative to the damage mitigation from soul harvest? I can't imagine better augmented ancient items will make a difference (all that buys you is a few GR's)
what was your offhand? the cat or the snake are good if you didnt use one of them. which legendary gems did u use (guessing 3 offensive?? if using zombie dogs with the Life on hit rune that might help you out too
I think that helps, WD was fun up to T8 and GR<50... maybe I switch over to wizard since I can re-use some items. I don't see my casual play style to get me to the self-set goal of getting the extra stash-tab with a WD.
I always though DH's are easiest to fall over, but i looks like WD isn't any better.
It's always a nightmare to get perdition as wd. What I try and do when running 70-75 solo's is to make sure the fight is within 1 procc + 1 spirit walk away from and entrance / exit of the level. That or save a shield pylon.
Know all about Perdition, he killed two of my wd's last season
It's always a nightmare to get perdition as wd. What I try and do when running 70-75 solo's is to make sure the fight is within 1 procc + 1 spirit walk away from and entrance / exit of the level. That or save a shield pylon.
Know all about Perdition, he killed two of my wd's last season
Yeah, I hate this guy. He just popped up, must have killed like 4 elites at once and grabbed all the orbs. I also need to get my game up in planning better for the RG. Never had issues with them...
There is no such option. I'm ok with dying and starting over again, I just was stunned how hard(core) WD turned out. Survival was never a deal for
my other chars (ok, I'm no pushing insane GR's).
Wait.. you're playing HC solo without 2x Unity?..
Also,
keep Soul harvest up man. And don't play JH. It's crap. I mean, it's
fine, but it's the only build currently somewhat viable that has 0
innate defensive perks while demanding melee range.
I had one unity, lost it with char 1. Spent all my blood shards since to get more... its like the ring of emptiness, very rare (for me). Guess I'll try Zuni set next (thats the only one I haven't lost on a char yet). And no more high level play until i got double unity and defense gems up. I learned my WD lesson the hard time.
Idk why people have toughness issues with WD. And if you are playing HC, you want to focus on more toughness balance not just glass cannon.
That means you use serpent as your mojo
Travelers Pledge as your ammy and ring
ALWAYS HAVE 10 stacks of soul harvest up (Languish rune)
Make sure your gear has a lot of LPH for your zombie dogs and use the life per hit rune.
It is okay to sacrafice the attack speed of Tasker and Theo for more defense such as string of ears in the cube.
MOST IMPORTANT, USE SPIRIT VESSEL, LEARN WHEN YOU GET CLOSE TO DYING, AND FIND A SAFE PLACE.
Always fight the RG in Hardcore near a doorway to another floor to reset your cheat death proc, ALWAYS!
Those are just a few suggestions, but the point of HC is to find a happy medium between DPS and Survival. Which to me is a great thing about the game mode, and once they fix some of the server issues on my end, a mode I am going to be jumping back into (Now that I got my stash tabs with no worry of death in the process).
Wouldn't a Zuni build with zombie dogs and Dagger of Darts build be pretty solid for HC WD? Lots of dmg reduction from pets that has pretty much 100% uptime and ranged damage. I haven't tested the DPS, but I assume no one plays it because it doesn't do competitive dmg any longer.
Wouldn't a Zuni build with zombie dogs and Dagger of Darts build be pretty solid for HC WD? Lots of dmg reduction from pets that has pretty much 100% uptime and ranged damage. I haven't tested the DPS, but I assume no one plays it because it doesn't do competitive dmg any longer.
I know this is an old post but a lot of these replies are wrong. I play HD witch doctor for years and never had an issue dying.
1. You need your death passive always on spirit vessel
2. Get items that reduce damage % like Lakumbas bracers ukapien serpent kitty cat blood brother justice lantern etc.. unity is nice but if you can't find 2 right away use other options.
3. I'm using Jade harvester now on PTR with only 15 hours on my WD (with no rushing) I've completed level 57. You need soul harvest for the damage reduction so always make sure you have full 5 stacks. 10 stacks even better if you have Sacred Harvester weapon. Those bracers are godsend
4. Get a front line. I use the passive Fetish Syncophant but you also try something like belt of transcendence. I also use the belt that causes enemies to be slowed 80% affected by locusts swarm so nothing can surprise me or get past my front line.
5. Start slow until you have full stacks and a fetish army.. never take an unknown banner especially when you don't have your defences stacked.
6. Use appropriate skills and gems. Spirit walk probably best skill in the game to get you to safety. Horrify gives you 50% more armor so spam it in tough areas or use dogs to soak if you don't have fetish. Use topaz in your gear it helps with all res as well so you need armor and life on items more than all res. Legendary gems like estoic
I can edit and post more later but I have never lost a WD in hardcore. Neither should you. They are the best feeling for survival imo
A lot is timing your jaunt and using cdr and passive that reduces cd on death of enemy. Helltooth you run around a lot buffing your pets and keeping in the thick of it. Teleporting death, well a lot of that is internet lag.
Witch Doctor Damage Reduction. Well at the moment on my Witch Doctor I am running the dagger and off hand that work in tandem with Grasp of the Dead. There are many places to get your damage reduction. You are asking about Soul Harvest Dagger/Bracers. This is only one source. I run the Grasp of the Dead things and will happily put an Aquilla Cuirass into my cube once I find it. With that setup and the first grasp rune I am never out of mana and can spam Grasp all day everyday. In the end, find places to put damage reduction. This isn't only for HC. I solo both HC and SC. When I solo, survival is my primary focus on all classes.
When I group, if I am a melee class. I pretty much go super tank and let my friends do the damage.
Witch Doctor Damage Reduction. Well at the moment on my Witch Doctor I am running the dagger and off hand that work in tandem with Grasp of the Dead. There are many places to get your damage reduction. You are asking about Soul Harvest Dagger/Bracers. This is only one source. I run the Grasp of the Dead things and will happily put an Aquilla Cuirass into my cube once I find it. With that setup and the first grasp rune I am never out of mana and can spam Grasp all day everyday. In the end, find places to put damage reduction. This isn't only for HC. I solo both HC and SC. When I solo, survival is my primary focus on all classes.
When I group, if I am a melee class. I pretty much go super tank and let my friends do the damage.
I am built pet eccentric. I have seen the cookie cutter builds and do not like them. So a list of changes I made that I am happy with.
Helm: Mask of Jeram with Helltooth Set in its other places.
Neck: Ess of Johan. Why? Because it pulls mobs to where I am casting.
Belt: Witching Hour
Bracers: Jeram Bracers, I like my Walls they contain mobs.
Rings: Tall Man, Short Man, Ring of Royal Grandeur. One in cube. Told ya, all about my pets.
Weapon/Off-Hand: Deadly Rebirth/Wilken's Reach. Grasp of the Dead-Unbreakable Grasp. Your spams. Yes floor effects stack.
Cubed: Weapon-Uhkapian Serpent is 30% damage reduction.
Cubed: Armor-Aquilla Cuirass is 50% damage reduction.
It is important to note that all pieces of your armor that can roll +armor NEED TO HAVE +armor. Armor and resists should be relatively on the same % Damage reduced for optimal performance. Note: my gear is not yet optimized for all of this yet. But, I will put some stuff down to help more.
Hit for 10 million.
Armor 75%: Reduced to 2.5 million
Resist 75%: reduced to 625k
Aquilla Cuirass 50%: reduced to 312,500
Uhkapian Serpent 30%: Reduced to 218,750.
This is how I work all my characters. Can my WD survive that hit? Yes. Can he recover from that hit? Yes. Now we work on damage.
My chosen class for the season is Witch Doctor. And oh man, I'm having problems! I played HC since the start of D3, and only lost a lvl 50ish char while leveling. But this season has been "brutal", I just lost my second WD and I'm not even so far in the game.
Death 1: (Jade Harvester Haunt/Locust)
...joined a TX group rift, teleported to a player not in fight... loading screen (damn slow comp)... while loading hear myself die... got TP'd in an act 5 blood puddle, didn't even have enough time to run out of it before falling over permanently.
Death 2: (Gargs Helltooth Build)
...GR 58, facerolled all previous rifts with no problems, barely seeing my health drop. I end up at the RG, a little unexpected, almost out of time for the soul harvest stacks... they run out, RG single shoots me, 2nd life gone with the next attack. In both cases I was far away to have my pets do the work.
So I know in deaths the problem is the protection from 10x soul harvest (+extra armor rune) and bracers with 60% reduction is great, but when you dont have it you're toast.
None of the builds I tried would have allowed me to use Unity. In both cases I had 1+ million health, almost everything from PLVL tab 3 maxed out or close to it. I know I wasn't running pimped out gear.
Finally the question: How can you not die? Is there an alternative to the damage mitigation from soul harvest? I can't imagine better augmented ancient items will make a difference (all that buys you is a few GR's)
what was your offhand? the cat or the snake are good if you didnt use one of them. which legendary gems did u use (guessing 3 offensive?? if using zombie dogs with the Life on hit rune that might help you out too
Well, with Jade you can easily use Unity instead of COE.
Jade is less tougher without soul harvest stacks than a ht garg though. So unity is a must for HC and Jade.
With Helltooth Gargs you were just unlucky i guess. The only one that can one-shot is Perdition, or Perendi can maul you.
Did you use defensive gems? Esoteric is must have for HC i believe.
http://www.angryroleplayer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/c/angryroleplayer
https://www.diablofans.com/builds/105329-2-6-7-rend-bleed-whirlwind-gr130
https://www.diablofans.com/builds/105301-2-6-7-fist-of-the-heavens-aegis-of-valor-gr110
Here are the two dead chars:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/xrmb-1889/hero/51832121
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/xrmb-1889/hero/34003703
- I used the cat mojo (cube) (2nd build)
- I used life leech dogs and hit way to much life on hit (2nd build)
- I got one-shot by Perdition (twice
I just don't want to repeat any of the mistakes from these two builds.
My take away so far:
- use defensive gems (which makes it harder in higher grifts)
- "higher" GR are not just about dealing dmg, its also avoiding it
Still looking for an alternative for "Sacret Harvester" and "Lakumbas"... seems to be the must have for any build.
I think that helps, WD was fun up to T8 and GR<50... maybe I switch over to wizard since I can re-use some items. I don't see my casual play style to get me to the self-set goal of getting the extra stash-tab with a WD.
I always though DH's are easiest to fall over, but i looks like WD isn't any better.
Maybe next season with monk will go better.
It's always a nightmare to get perdition as wd. What I try and do when running 70-75 solo's is to make sure the fight is within 1 procc + 1 spirit walk away from and entrance / exit of the level. That or save a shield pylon.
Know all about Perdition, he killed two of my wd's last season
There is no such option. I'm ok with dying and starting over again, I just was stunned how hard(core) WD turned out. Survival was never a deal for
my other chars (ok, I'm no pushing insane GR's).
I had one unity, lost it with char 1. Spent all my blood shards since to get more... its like the ring of emptiness, very rare
I just did my first tier 60 in 6:19
HC WD a few minutes ago @ para 474.
HT/Garg build with enchantress.
Cube: Furnace/Jeram/RoRG
tasker/witching hour/uhkapian mojo
endless walk /shortmanfinger
Gems: enforcer/trapped/Bane of the Powerful
Topaz instead of Diamond/Amethyst in helm
Passive Skills: SpiritVessel/Grave Injustice/Midnight Feast/Confidence Ritual
Sheet Damage: 1,219,547
Tough: 14,501,796
Area Damage: 82.00%
AS increase: 31%
CHC 35%
CHD 383%
Enchantress:
Can't Die Focus of course
Sultan of Blinding Sand w/elemental damage changed to Lightning Damage
Ess of Johan/Oculus @ Damage Increasse84% / Wyrdward @ 35% chance to stun
Idk why people have toughness issues with WD. And if you are playing HC, you want to focus on more toughness balance not just glass cannon.
That means you use serpent as your mojo
Travelers Pledge as your ammy and ring
ALWAYS HAVE 10 stacks of soul harvest up (Languish rune)
Make sure your gear has a lot of LPH for your zombie dogs and use the life per hit rune.
It is okay to sacrafice the attack speed of Tasker and Theo for more defense such as string of ears in the cube.
MOST IMPORTANT, USE SPIRIT VESSEL, LEARN WHEN YOU GET CLOSE TO DYING, AND FIND A SAFE PLACE.
Always fight the RG in Hardcore near a doorway to another floor to reset your cheat death proc, ALWAYS!
Those are just a few suggestions, but the point of HC is to find a happy medium between DPS and Survival. Which to me is a great thing about the game mode, and once they fix some of the server issues on my end, a mode I am going to be jumping back into (Now that I got my stash tabs with no worry of death in the process).
Wouldn't a Zuni build with zombie dogs and Dagger of Darts build be pretty solid for HC WD? Lots of dmg reduction from pets that has pretty much 100% uptime and ranged damage. I haven't tested the DPS, but I assume no one plays it because it doesn't do competitive dmg any longer.
I know this is an old post but a lot of these replies are wrong. I play HD witch doctor for years and never had an issue dying.
1. You need your death passive always on spirit vessel
2. Get items that reduce damage % like Lakumbas bracers ukapien serpent kitty cat blood brother justice lantern etc.. unity is nice but if you can't find 2 right away use other options.
3. I'm using Jade harvester now on PTR with only 15 hours on my WD (with no rushing) I've completed level 57. You need soul harvest for the damage reduction so always make sure you have full 5 stacks. 10 stacks even better if you have Sacred Harvester weapon. Those bracers are godsend
4. Get a front line. I use the passive Fetish Syncophant but you also try something like belt of transcendence. I also use the belt that causes enemies to be slowed 80% affected by locusts swarm so nothing can surprise me or get past my front line.
5. Start slow until you have full stacks and a fetish army.. never take an unknown banner especially when you don't have your defences stacked.
6. Use appropriate skills and gems. Spirit walk probably best skill in the game to get you to safety. Horrify gives you 50% more armor so spam it in tough areas or use dogs to soak if you don't have fetish. Use topaz in your gear it helps with all res as well so you need armor and life on items more than all res. Legendary gems like estoic
I can edit and post more later but I have never lost a WD in hardcore. Neither should you. They are the best feeling for survival imo
A lot is timing your jaunt and using cdr and passive that reduces cd on death of enemy. Helltooth you run around a lot buffing your pets and keeping in the thick of it. Teleporting death, well a lot of that is internet lag.
Witch Doctor Damage Reduction. Well at the moment on my Witch Doctor I am running the dagger and off hand that work in tandem with Grasp of the Dead. There are many places to get your damage reduction. You are asking about Soul Harvest Dagger/Bracers. This is only one source. I run the Grasp of the Dead things and will happily put an Aquilla Cuirass into my cube once I find it. With that setup and the first grasp rune I am never out of mana and can spam Grasp all day everyday. In the end, find places to put damage reduction. This isn't only for HC. I solo both HC and SC. When I solo, survival is my primary focus on all classes.
When I group, if I am a melee class. I pretty much go super tank and let my friends do the damage.
Helm: Mask of Jeram with Helltooth Set in its other places.
Neck: Ess of Johan. Why? Because it pulls mobs to where I am casting.
Belt: Witching Hour
Bracers: Jeram Bracers, I like my Walls they contain mobs.
Rings: Tall Man, Short Man, Ring of Royal Grandeur. One in cube. Told ya, all about my pets.
Weapon/Off-Hand: Deadly Rebirth/Wilken's Reach. Grasp of the Dead-Unbreakable Grasp. Your spams. Yes floor effects stack.
Cubed: Weapon-Uhkapian Serpent is 30% damage reduction.
Cubed: Armor-Aquilla Cuirass is 50% damage reduction.
It is important to note that all pieces of your armor that can roll +armor NEED TO HAVE +armor. Armor and resists should be relatively on the same % Damage reduced for optimal performance. Note: my gear is not yet optimized for all of this yet. But, I will put some stuff down to help more.
Hit for 10 million.
Armor 75%: Reduced to 2.5 million
Resist 75%: reduced to 625k
Aquilla Cuirass 50%: reduced to 312,500
Uhkapian Serpent 30%: Reduced to 218,750.
This is how I work all my characters. Can my WD survive that hit? Yes. Can he recover from that hit? Yes. Now we work on damage.
Note: I use pretty much the same setup with my Zunimassa set.