As a gamer who desperately seeks titles from blizzard, it was a huge change in my life once diablo 3 was introduced. I was by 90%'s side saying " just release something even though it is not ready becuase we have waited over 10 years". Now we have a game which has been constantly improved and next major thing to be introduced is PVP. These days everyone is waiting on a simple blog from Jay Wilson about PVP and this shows how excited diablo 3 community is towards to PVP. I have written/made many guides about gameplay/budget builds but i haven't done a comlete guide for PVP , reason being that might be only based on speculations becuase PVP hasnt introduced yet. However, I belive this is time to share some of my knowlegde and build something solid together.
GEARING YOUR WITCH DOCTOR FOR PVP
This the most important section of this guide because gear can be purchased, dropped, crafted now and can be planned ahead of time. The goal is to spend your gold wisely towards PVP and avoid mistakes as possible purchasing items. Now, to be able to understand how important and related gear is to skills, I want to give you an example from PVE-acid cloud build.
Main damage -------------------------> Acid cloud
Advantege --------------------------> AOE + Life On Hit on each tick
Recommended gear to use ------> Visage of guiya (with acid crit+regulat crit)
Anything that has life on hit on it
(blackthorn legs, amulets, rings, 1hand-weapon)
As you see above example, using certain gear with certain skills are more beneficial and have significant advantage over other combinations. Like doing MP10 runs with Zombie bear/ 4 piece zuni build with life steal. You have to have 4 piece zuni to get the mana regan advantage to cast the highest dps skill (zombie bears) in order to kill high hit point mobs. Now will that be the case for PVP? Ofcourse not, because you are not dealing with A.I.!!! Below is the list of AFFIXES and their impact on PVP...There are 3 major afixes for PVP , offensive , ife gaining ,defensive afixes..
OFFENSIVE AFIXES!! 1- Intellect & Average damage IDEA------------> Int & A.D output for dps is identical. They both add white damage (dmg wihout crit/crit damage) to your WD. Critical chance/critical damage/ais gets direct benefit from it. As a bonus, intellect will also give your WD All resistence (10% of your total intellect) PVP EFFECT------> Main stat for WD pve and pvp, essencial for all resist as well. Giving benefit to all other offensive stats and higher is better for WD's! While searching speacially for ring slots, many people underestimates the average damage, please search for ave. damage not only with intellect but also without it. (ex: ave dam 30/crit 5/crit dam 30/vitality) Conclusion----------> Base affix for all the offensive skills , no matter which build you decide, intellect and average damage (damage from weapon+mojo+ring ave.dam.) is highest to stack.
2- CC (Critical Chance) IDEA -----> Critical chance is essencial not only for PVE but also for PVP no matter which skills you are using, it will minimum (considering you get zero crit damage) double your damage n your critical hits. It gets benefit directly from average damage & intellect. PVP EFFECT----->CC is a must for PVP. Most of your high damage skills consume high mana, and using those skills you also want to get the most out of them. Critical chance just does that!! Get the most out of your DPS skills you cast while you attack to your opponent. Conclusion-----> Critical chance is essencial and personally is the 1st dps affix i search for on an item.
3- CD (Critical Damage) IDEA--------------> Another must, not only for pve but also pvp. This affix is the 2nd affix i search when i buy my items because it benefits from CC directly as well as intellect & average damage. PVP EFFECT-----> Higher CD you have will deal more damage to your oppenent when you crit. It is critical for PVP no matter what spec/skill you use. Conclusion--------> CD is a must for aggrasivve pvp WD's.
4- AIS (attack speed) IDEA -----> Attack speed is good for pve because higher AIS you have , more often you can cast perticular skill you are using. PVP EFFECT----> Technicly that fact doesnt change for PVP, however, practicly it DOES. Why? Because your target is not constantly sitting there waiting for you to destroy him! Your target (real person) moves and use many skills which will effect the cast COUNT of your skill. Meaning that you will not be able to cast poison dart as many times as you wish to your opponent. Conclusion------> Attack speed is one of the dps affixes out there, but in my opinoin for pvp it is not a MUST. You may stack AIS as much as your budget allows you. Please do not forget that having crit+crit damage + ais +vitality + intellect is ideal for a perticular item for pvp and pve , however if you are on a budged you have to priorotize affixes. In reality ring with above affixes will cost you over 1 billion compare to a ring wihout AIS which will cost you 200 million!! To comprimize the ais gap that you do not have on rings, amulets i suggest you to get a faster weapon.
LIFE GAINING AFIXES!!
1- Life steal.
IDEA--------> Pve lifesteal works very different even within their difficulties. For example on inferno 3% life steal procs from 20% from the damage you deal to the monsters. Hitting 100k to a mob simply will give you %20 / %3 of 100 k which is roughly 670 life! Simple formula suggest higher the damage you deal higher benefit you will get from lifesteal. I have personally tested reflect damage with 3% lifesteal and it was never enough survivebility with 200 k damage!! So i decide to go with life on hit and dropped lifesteal for my charecter.
PVP EFFECT-----> Since there are no mobs or oppenents with reflect damage on PVP arenas, reflect damage is useless. As we all experienced from pve its almost impossible to refill your health with this affix, same thing applies for PVP as a WD unless you use a skorn with 6% lifesteal and sacrifise an offhand. I personally rather to use main/offhand then 3% more lifesteal from a skorn.
Conclusion-------> It should be discussed further if it is worthed to stack lifesteal for PVP and only should consider if it is 6% from 2 hander skorn with Phlebotomize or Vampire Bats (which will give you additional lifesteal). Still then it is not worthed because a weapon with high dps + crit damage + socket will be cheaper then life steal added to those stats.
2- Life regeneration
IDEA------------------> This affix is simply a side kick and support for your either life steal or life on it. I personally like it but it is hard to get higher numbers on a perticular slot.
PVP EFFECT-------> This affix is like using a pot over time NON-stop. Buy this gear if you gotto choose it between MF , GF or other useless affixes.
Conclusion----------> I wouldnt surprised to see 1 or 2 players to stack this all the way with life on hit + life steal and be successful. Bu ti wont be one of those guys and will be humble to stack this affix and getting 700 life regen is doable and what i suggest.!
3- Life On Hit
IDEA--------- ---> My fav. life regen affix even for PVE. Certain skills proc more and benefit more from this skill. Finding these skills and picking up the right one is the most critical decision a doctor will face. Acid cloud for PVE is the best but most likely it will not for pvp.
Example : You have total of 1000 life on hit and casting a single acid cloud to 5 targets, will grant you 10 k HP..
PVP EFFECT----> Life on hit on a single target is different then hitting multiple targets and more likely you will never have chance to cast skills to multiple opponents in pvp. Key to benefit this is to find out and bind a skill for LOH affix and use it for PVP.
Conclusion-------> Its far fav. over life steal, speacially for WD's. Many other players say " for certain damage output life on hit , for higher dps output lifesteal is more beneficial" Its totally right for a brab which can get higher lifesteal% but again for WD LOH is way to go!!. This is the main reason why wd's need buff in general for end game!!
DEFENSIVE AFFIXES!!
1- Movement speed
This is pretty straight forward. The movement speed cap is 25, getting 12 from boots + getting 12 from lacuni will get you to 24 as a WD. If you can not efort a lacuni bracers or prefer more defensive bracer such as strongham bracers you can always get 12 movement speed from inna's pants.
2- Vitality & % life
Most essencial affix. I personally belive a decent WD should have 60 k HP. It can be done with vitality or life%. They both give you hit points with slightly different way. % life unlike how it sounds, it DOESNT NOT give you % of your hit points rather it gives you % of your total vitality. So higher your vitality more you will benefit from % life!.
3- Armor & ALL resist.
This is the most confusing and detailed topic of all times:). This has done by speacially by monks but not too much by WD's. However, as WD's we gotto pay more attention to armor&all resist due to PVP. All resist is like AIS for damage affix. The more gold you have more you should stack all resist.!! Again ideal item will have vitality/all resist/armor!!
(Guide is made based on consumptions and experience that i have had since beta
version of the game and any contrubution/suggestion welcome to improve the guide)
I. Introduction
I have written this guide because I feel like I'm the best person to be talking about it since I have never played any other class but a Witch Doctor from the very beginning and I have never played softcore mode. I am the first person in NA who reached level 60 as a hardcore WD and ever since that day my only goal was to be the best WD of all time.
This guide will include everything hardcore, from starting the game at level 1 and progressing through all the difficulties, up until farming efficiently in A3. I will also include tips and tricks on how to survive the game and even how to survive the most feared monster of all, the "DC" (disconnect) monster, which is what killing most of the hardcore players. I will put basic strategies on how to do infernal machines and doing paragon leveling in hardcore.
II. The Basics
First thing you need to know when playing in HC is the fact that...YOU WILL DIE! Yes this is true, nobody in HC has never experienced death yet. It will just be a matter of time when you die, but for sure, you will experience losing a character one way or another. So the best way to deal with it is just prepare your minds and hearts once you sign that disclaimer and enter the YOLO (you only live once) realm. How do you do that? Simple, acceptance is the key, perseverance to become better, and ultimately just sheer love of the game. But don't worry, even though your first character will eventually die, this guide will teach you how easy it is to get back to where you were and have an even better character.
Next, you need to know that there are ways to prevent death at any point of the game. You need to learn how to play with a group. Playing with people you trust increases your life expectancy by a really large margin. I probably don't need to explain this. Also, use a voice chat program like vent or skype. Make sure you have a reliable internet and power source. Most HC players have an emergency backup power for their computers and router/modem just in case power goes out unexpectedly.
Other tips:
Never AFK while you're in a party and in a lobby. Party leader can resume game and might put you in a checkpoint where there are monsters around.
Do not AFK in town, or anywhere else for that matter, and have quickjoin on. There are bad people out there who will try to PK (player kill) you.
Never join public games. They can kick you while you are fighting monsters and your character will not leave the game immediately because of the 10 second timer.
III. Normal
When you first start into the game and have no bank, you need to focus on leveling up quick and safe. You’re lucky because you now represent the most OP class in the game and I will teach you how to level up as quickly as possible.
All you need to do in Normal is level up to level 10. Then if you’re lucky and have good friends, you can probably afford to buy a Split Tusk with socket and ask your friends to borrow a really high-level ruby. Also buy a Genzaniku since this will help you kill stuff really fast. Now go create a new game at MP10 and finish Normal mode.
While progressing, you need to focus a lot on high int and decent vit, I say about 2:1 ratio. Get some average damage and attack speed jewelries. The build you need to use is splinters, firebats, soul harvest, unbreakable grasp, dogs, spirit walk, jungle fortitude and blood ritual.
If you have gold in bank, buy upgrades along the way from the auction house if you feel like you’re not killing stuff fast enough, again still focusing on high int and some vit.
IV. Nightmare
Nightmare is where stuff hits hard and where you need to start thinking about mitigation and getting your level high enough to make this difficulty a cake. Fortunately, we started doing Normal in MP10, so you would probably be about level 35-40 before you even begin Nightmare.
When you play in Nightmare difficulty, you need to play a bit more passively and just let your pets tank. This is true even on higher difficulties except in Inferno, but we’ll get to that later.
The secret to being successful in Nightmare as a WD is to out-level the monsters and use high level skills. I will show you how:
Restless Giant – nothing in Nightmare can kill your Gargantuan. You need to capitalize on that. Let it tank for you while you’re at the back doing dps.
Acid Cloud – get Acid Rain and eventually Slow Burn. This will be your dps skill along with Splinters. Acid Cloud procs the most LOH (life on hit) effect, so get as much LOH as you can.
Spectrum – if you have the gold, go buy one of these. This is a 1h sword with required level of 30 but the stats are for Inferno level. Get one with either high dps or high LOH.
Fetish Army – I cannot remember how many times Fetish Army saved my life or my party member’s life in Nightmare or even in higher difficulties. I know not a lot of WDs don’t use this skill in softcore. But somehow in hardcore, this skill becomes really useful because once you summon the fetishes they instantly aggro most of the mobs and even provide path blocking. I got walled, or jailed too many times in tight spaces and can’t get out but when I summon fetishes, I get about 2-3 seconds extra just enough for my spirit walk cooldown to come back up.
Passive Trifecta – Jungle Fortitude, Pierce the Veil, Spirit Vessel. No argument here, use them and you win.
V. Hell
Now there are two ways to play in Hell as a WD. One is to play like how you would play in Nightmare, just play passively, stay at the back, let your pets tank, kite with Unbreakable Grasp or Hex, and use choke points. But another is to use high level gear with level requirement reduction. Now the second option assumes that you have gold to spend on gear, don’t worry though you only need to spend once and you can use them over and over again to level up new characters. If you have friends though, you can borrow their leveling gear.
This guide will focus more on the second option. But wait, you thought this guide is for people who just started Hardcore and doesn’t have a good amount of gold. If so, Hell is where you will spend most of your time farming and leveling up. If you’re trying to progress, you will find that higher Acts increase in difficulty quite substantially. So you will go back to lower Acts and farm for gold while increasing in MP level for more of that magic find and gold find. You might get bored staying in Hell and wanting to get to Inferno and start farming for those GFG legendaries. Don’t worry! I will teach you secrets on how to get rich fast! Then once you have the gold, you can buy those level reduced items and start playing in Hell blindfolded.
Farmer’s Secrets:
Leoric’s Signet – Act II Normal Difficulty (MP10). The route to use is start in Path to the Oasis, Ruined Cistern full clear, Dahlgur Oasis full clear, and Ancient Cave full clear. Experiment around with builds to make these runs efficient and fun. I suggest using Flash Fire, Jaunt, Grave Injustice (if you have at least 20 pickup radius), and Acid Rain.
Buriza Do Kyanon – Act III Nightmare Difficulty (MP10). There is no specific route to use since this crossbow can drop anywhere. But the most efficient route is go where there are a big density of mobs, and that is Crater 2, Keeps 2, Rakkis Crossing going to Fields of Slaughter, and Skycrown, might even be worthwhile to kill the warden.
Sledge Fist – Act I Hell Difficulty. This one might be a bit too difficult to farm since you need to farm this in Hell which means you might not be able to go higher MP. But if you get bored farming in Normal or Nightmare, this is the item you need to look for. Make sure to open containers and chests too.
Now let’s talk about builds you will use in Hell. First of all, there is really no one-build-rules-them-all for a WD. The reason being is that the WD is the most flexible class of all, other classes might disagree but let me prove why. One of the strengths of a WD is its ability to dps and tank at the same time, no other class can do that naturally with relatively cheap gear. A WD has a second chance in life; you can actually die and live to tell the tale. This allows the WD to do riskier builds for different purposes, use high-risk high-reward gear, or use a build to quickly jump in the middle of the fight surrounded by arcane beams, molten and desecrator to save party members.
What is important to understand for aspiring WDs is that your build and your gear should work hand in hand. Hell difficulty is the best place to start the practice of choosing upgrades well suited for the target build. So I will offer great builds and corresponding gear to be successful in Hell and beyond.
Using a bear build in hell, you will realize that you will not have enough mana to sustain it. So the best thing to do is to choose your other skills that support your bear spamming. Hex and Bruiser are there to CC some of the annoying elites that run away or try to focus you.
The gear you will look for are mostly focused on mana regen or max mana. For dps, get crit damage and crit chance and don’t get any attack speed items. Get slower weapons with good base damage and preferably with lifesteal. For ehp, focus getting high vit, use a shield if you’re feeling squishy. Get about 1:1 ratio of int and vit. You will get most of your life back from health globes so don’t worry about life on hit or life regen at this point.
For those that prefer a safer gameplay or those using less ideal gear, you might want a build that allows you to progress safely through Hell. This is the build for you. This build revolves around decent life on hit items, probably about 500 or more total. Get as much attack speed bonus on your items for higher dps and more chance to proc loh. This build can become really powerful and even viable in Inferno and higher MP levels once you upgrade your gear for more attack speed, int and loh. Jungle Fortitude and Bad Medicine allows you to become a tanking machine. Basically, as long as you don’t get CC’d, you will absorb low damage while gaining ridiculous life back. The aura on your dogs and garg also proc loh effects.
VI. Inferno
Progression in Inferno is easy once you acquire better gear. The focus of this guide is to get you into Inferno and start farming for your gear. At this point I highly advice playing with a party. If you just got into Inferno, you need to start thinking about farming efficiently, right off the bat. This will dictate which items you need to go after and what group composition best suit your gamestyle.
Now the goal is to get to A3 MP0 and be able to survive there. You may need to farm lower acts multiple times just to get all your items to level 60 or higher. These are roughly the target stats for A3 Inferno MP0:
Int – 2000
Vit – 1200
HP – 50k
DPS – 40k
All Res – 600
Armor – 3000
So now that you know what you’re aiming for, let me teach you the best farming builds in Hardcore Inferno.
This build is by far the best build for a farming WD. The key to this build is pickup radius. Once you get a decent Thing of the Deep, there is no other go-to build than this one. Grave Injustice allows you to Spirit Walk almost indefinitely as long as there are mobs around to kill. So this makes runs so much faster.
The gear you need to go for are mostly crit chance and crit damage. Lifesteal weapon is mandatory for this build. A 50k dps WD can buff its dps to near 100k just with Soul Harvest and Gruesome Feast. You don’t need to go after mana regen items since you gain a lot of mana from health globes and killing mobs.
This is one of the craziest builds I’ve seen for farming but very efficient. Basically the idea is to kills mobs as you ran away. The downside is, you don’t pickup anything but legendaries. You look at your map most of the time and just wait for that ping then come back to pick it up. Otherwise you just keep going running around the map and casting Locust Swarm and Acid Cloud. There is an art to it, your dps has to be enough that one cast of Locust Swarm and Acid Cloud should be enough to kill any type of mobs.
The key gear you need to look for to make this build to work is tons of pickup radius and items with increased locust swarm damage and acid cloud crit chance. Also Stone of Jordan with high damage against elites will be ideal for this build.
VII. Key Farming and Ubers
Key farming is efficient only on higher MP levels, MP5 or up. This means that you only need to start worrying about Infernal Machines if you can handle higher MP’s. So there’s a little bit of trying and testing on MP2 or MP3 until you feel that you’re ready. At this point you will naturally learn damage caps and ehp caps to be able to survive higher MP’s.
There is no specific build that I can suggest that focuses on key farming efficiency because there is none. The idea is that you need to use your best gear and use the build you are most comfortable with. But according to my experience, having Hex around is quite useful for disabling those KW’s. Also when you have a group already, you guys need to decide and synergize your builds to make runs safe and easy. Which means, as a WD you might be tasked of using Big Bad Voodoo for either more damage or healing.
One other tip for A2 KW, use Rain of Toads instead of Poison Darts. The main reason is, when the KW spins, your projectiles can bounce back and kill you or your party members. So be careful of that.
You know what makes a WD overpowered? It is his ability to take himself and any other class to MP10 Ubers in Hardcore. This build is self-explanatory but I will explain a little bit. This build allows you to summon dogs without any cooldown given the fact that you have acquired the necessary items to support this build. That is pretty useful because the rune, Final Gift, allows your dogs to leave health globes as they die or re-summoned.
You don’t do any damage, your only CC is Bruiser, but you’re working the hardest in your party. Your only job though, is to keep everyone alive. You have to be conscious of everyone’s health bar and whenever you see anybody’s health bar dip below 50%, start spamming your dogs and stop using sacrifice. Health globes still drop even when Sacrifice is not used.
Ideal team composition is, all 4 WD’s. The reason is, Gruesome Feast. If there is unlimited health globes, that means that WD’s can cast bears almost infinitely. If you’re doing MP10 Ubers, you need at least 150k dps from the 3 WD’s and the other one runs this build.
The gear needed for this build is tons of attack speed. The more attack speed you have, the faster you can cast dogs, which means more health globes. It is also important to note that at least one of the other party members need to have at least 20 pickup radius to pick up those health globes. In order to reach zero cooldown, you need 9sec on your helm, 20sec on your offhand by using Homunculus, 6sec on your ring or amulet by using either Skull Grasp, Stone of Jordan, or Mara’s Kaleidoscope.
VIII. haXudon’s Tips and Tricks
Move Key – there is keyboard binding in the options that is called the Move Key. Use this! Whenever you use spirit walk or when you have proc’d spirit vessel, spam your move key. It allows you to move without attacking any mob. Saved my life probably about 157 times.
Dual primary – who said WD’s can’t dual wield? You can use two primaries at the same time for a lot of dps but it takes a lot of skill to cancel the animation so that you can cast the primaries alternately. My favorite is Left Click Flame Dart and Right Click Rain of Toads. Advantage? Use it for higher MP levels and for kiting. My experience, using dual primaries gives more sustainable dps than using a mana-extensive build like bears or cloud.
Visibility and lag reduction – turn off numbers on your screen. The WD class gives you a lot of opportunity to make use of that insane apm. I rarely need to use Spirit Walk to dodge frozen or arcane beams. My ability to move precisely and time my movements and attacks is enough for me to be effective in combat and reserve my life-saving cooldowns. All this because I can see what is happening on my screen clearly. Also, if you’re having issues with lag at Rakkis Crossing, check Low FX in your options. That thing saved me from further computer freezes and lag disconnects.
Scoundrel – when you find yourself soloing, make your Scoundrel into a CC machine. Buy him a decent Buriza Do Kyanon and Star of Azkaranth with high Freeze chance, and two 9% attack speed rings. Then spec him for multi-shot. When you’re soloing and got disconnected, you will have a higher chance to survive with a CC Scoundrel. Freeze makes elites and mobs unable to cast their spells. If they don’t get frozen, the Cold damage on the Buriza slows them down.
In this guide, I will show you the basics of how to survive in Hardcore as a Witch Doctor. Additionally, this guide will take things a step further by showing you a build that will make you immortal. In short, I will discuss the dangers of hardcore, the ideological the strategies behind this build, and the specific advantages that a Witch Doctor has in succeeding in hardcore.
1. Know Your Enemy
After playing softcore since release, I’ve found that Netflix and farming go hand in hand. Sometimes, I even get bored with playing because of the lack of danger, variation, and competition. So, I started a hardcore character and quickly learned that it was not the same. I was not prepared for the butt-clenching journey ahead for me and my voodoo mon!
Essentially, hardcore is more difficult than softcore because there are fewer players at max level. This leads to less total gold in circulation and less items in circulation. It feels very much like Inferno when D3 first launched. You are fighting for your very life with each elite pack, and you can’t buy your way to success using the AH because of the limited selection and currency.
In order to survive in hardcore, you must understand the most common ways that HC characters die:
Character was rooted in damaging AOE
Character was one shot by enemy power attack and unable to dodge (because of terrain, mob clutter, fear, etc)
Lag spikes
Disconnected from the internet
Understanding these common methods of death for HC characters, we can develop a very cost effective build that will keep your WD alive. First, we need to examine the current methods of reducing damage (mitigation):
Pro-Active Mitigation: This would consist of stats like Armor and All Resistance on your gear. The premise behind these types of stats is that they provide a pro-active shield that will prevent incoming damage from harming your character. Technically speaking, Armor reduces incoming damage before it reaches your All-Resist stats; so, they work very well together and do almost the same thing in terms of reduction. Armor is generic damage reduction, and resistances can be specific to a school of magic (fire, cold, arcane, etc.).
Re-Active Mitigation: This would be comprised of stats like Life-On-Hit, Lifesteal, and Life Regeneration. The idea is that for every point of damage that can’t be prevented, re-active mitigation can heal the character back for the remainder of the damage dealt.
Using both pro-active mitigation and re-active mitigation, a character can drastically increase their overall effective chances for survival.
Therefore, the ideal WD build designed to survive hardcore would involve using reactive mitigation and proactive mitigation in unison in order to overcome the most common causes of Hardcore character death.
2. Know Yourself
The basic tenants of this WD build involve two passives, two active abilities, and one singular goal in your gear choices. Let’s discuss the core passive for this build:
The passives Blood Ritual will allow a WD to regenerate 1% of their maximum health.
With this passive, a WD could obtain large amounts of HP which would give them large amounts of life regeneration (LR). Instead of buying gear with LR, a WD can skip that stat slot on their gear in order to make room for more DPS stats or pro-active mitigation stats. Or, a WD can acquire massive amounts of LR in order to become truly immortal!
But, why bother taking hits as a WD when you can let your pets do that for you? Division of Labor FTW! Now it’s time to discuss the active skills required for this build:
Gargantuan: You aren't really a true Doctor until you have your first patient. This big fella will absolutely tank the crap out of any mob that you encounter. He has a ton of health, and with the right glyph, he can even do significant damage to your foes. The only glyph that you should NOT choose for this build is the Wrathful Protector glyph, as it prevents the Gargantuan from being up 100% of the time.
Zombie Dogs: Sometimes, your Gargantuan needs a little help. I highly suggest using Zombie Dogs in addition to your Gargantuan as they provide some relief for your Gargantuan when dealing with large groups of mobs. I glyph my dogs for Life Link or Final Gift. You may want to choose Leeching Beasts as a glyph, but the damage they do is hardly noticeable, so they don’t heal you for much.
Spirit Walk: I consider this a must for Hardcore, honestly. You can get out of every tight situation with ease using this ability. It's far superior to what any other class has in terms of escape abilities.
However, when using pets to tank, sometimes the damage on pets is fairly high at the end of Hell and into Inferno, so now we need to add in the next passive:
Fierce Loyalty will transfer a WD’s life regen to their pets, allowing them to survive even the most vicious of enemy attacks.
Additionally, I would use the passive Spirit Vessel. Like Spirit Walk, I think that this is a must have for Hardcore. You are the only class who can actually “die” and live from it. No other class gets an ability like this!
With these passives, a WD and their pets can be almost un-killable in Inferno. As far as your other abilities, that is entirely up to your discretion. I personally use Fire Bomb as my main attack, with Zombie Bears as my nuke. I use Haunt for single target fights in my 4th ability slot. Basically, make sure you have one resource neutral attack (like fire-bombs), and two resource spenders (like zombie bears and haunt).
With this build, your main sources of LR come from your health pool. The higher the HP, the more reactive mitigation you and all of your pets have. You should prioritize your gear with the following list of stats in order of importance:
Intellect
Vitality
%life
Mitigation
All Resistance (don't forget, this works for your pets too!)
Armor (this works for pets too!)
Health From Globes
Pickup Radius
Life Regeneration
5. Regular DPS stats like CC (Crit Chance), IAS (Increased Attack Speed), and CD (increased Critical hit Damage).
These different stats are listed in order of importance. You obviously want a lot of Intellect for DPS reasons. More importantly, you want a significant amount of HP for this build to work well. Simply put: the more HP you acquire, the easier everything becomes.
Here are some helpful tips with gearing your WD in hardcore:
Only use helms with sockets in them, and use a %Life Gem in that socket.
Only use a weapon with a socket, and use a Red Gem while leveling. Switch to a Green Gem when your crit chance is over 20%, or use a Purple Gem for Life-On-Hit.
Try to get Movement speed on your boots. Very handy when running from enemies.
Early on, get average damage on your rings and amulets for huge increases to DPS.
Rings, helmets, and amulets are easier places to get %life on them
3. Know Your Limits
Let’s get down to brass tacks here and throw around some specifics. When you step foot into Inferno, you want to have around 50k HP. I was able to do this without EVER using the AH. It’s extremely easy to do, and affordable with crafting and salvaging. You want to have at least 10k DPS before you attempt Inferno Butcher, but 20k DPS will make the fight trivial. Before you get too far into inferno, you should at least have 1200 life regen, some sort of life on hit (or LS), and your resistances should be around 600 or so.
In short, here are your goals before attempting to progress in Hardcore Inferno:
50k HP
20k DPS
1200 LR (+LoH or LS)
600 AR
Your play style should be fairly passive. Let your pets take the hits for you, while you sit back and shoot things from a distance. If you end up almost dying and proccing your spirit vessel, just run away. Run to where there are no mobs, and wait until your Spirit Vessel is off of cooldown.
Again, don’t be afraid to run. If you doubt your abilities, just run. It’s not worth dying over!
Once you reach these goals: spirits be wit’ ya on!
Edit: Here is a picture of my recent completion of Hardcore Inferno using this build:
Edit #1: Further clarified a few points.
Edit #2: Added header image.
Edit #3. Further clarified a few things, added an image, and added a link to my WD as proof of concept.
Hey Guys & Girls. Most of you know me from my vids & forums. For the people who don’t know me I’m the Doc who can spam endless bears vs Reflect Packs @MP10. This is the sole build which alows you to maintain your top dps on every MP without the fear of reflect packs and it is going to avoid many unnecessary deaths while you play.
Building a good doc requires proper equipment. And when I build my Doc I keep in mind that the equipment should be viable for PVP as well. This guide also going to give tips on good equipment for PVP
I am calling this build Panzer Build since you will have incredible defenses as well as good dps output.
Now Let's gear up our WD properly for this build.
ARMOR:
First of all we will want to avoid getting increased attack speed keep that in mind while looking for items.
For the gear get at least 6-7 pickup radius. Since this build plays almost on melee range it is going to cover our needs
Needless to say you are going to need 4 pieces of Zunimasa’s Set. For budget issues you may go for lower stats but what you must buy is a chest with %6-7 reduced from elites. You can easily find an affordable chest (5-10m max) with 150-160 int, 70-80 Vit and %6-7 reduced from elites.
When you read Garganutan restless giant rune you will see the following, "Elite enemies include champions, rares,bosses and other players" So I am guessing it will work as reduced dmg from other players which is going to make this gearing good for pvp as well.
Our Dps is top when we have SH/GF Up and our dps gain from our base intelligence becomes lower yet the CHD and CC bonuses benefit greatly. Again if you can’t afford helm with 200+ int 5+crit just buy a helm with low int (150-160 int) and mid crit (4-5cc). For example, When unbuffed a helm with 250 int 3 crit may give more dps from a helm with 150 int 5 crit, But when you have SH up the 5 crit will give you more. Just keep that in mind while looking for items.
Zuni boots, try to get armor or all resistance or just get physical resistance they are also cheaper. If you still can’t afford, buy ones with 120-130 extra str since it also gives armor.
Ring, İf you can't afford a good one get low cc or average dmg. rings with str are also good for the armor bonus they provide.
Second ring buy a Litany, Again for more affordable ones you may look for average dmg or double int. But get at least %7 reduced dmg from elites.
By far we already got %13-14 reduced dmg from elites by items, which is almost same as our JF passive.
Look for an amulet with high cc and high chd (average damage is plus as well as Tal Rasha’s but they are too expensive) Physical resistance/All resistance/Vitality/Armor and High Int is what we should look for.
Belt, Witching Hour preferably with 8ias & high chd. Armor/All resistance/Physical Resistance/Vitality are the stats you should look for.
Offhand, Any offhand with 220+ Average dmg, 8+ cc, Mana Regen is ok. Preferably reduced cost for Zombie bears & vitality are the stats you should look for.
Gloves, Try to get high cc and chd, don't get the ones with ias, look for high int, vit ar
Braces, Rare bracers with 5-6 cc, AR or Lacuni with int,crit (%8ias), Strongarm with 140int 60 AR. Also every other extra stat is a plus.
Pants, If you have Lacuni, use a rare with high int, vit AR 2 sockets or If you have rare bracers buy Inna's with Int and %8 ias. You may look for int+vit but they are more expensive.
Shoulders, A good Vile Ward or equivalent rare.
This is it for the armor parts, now lets get a proper weapon.
WEAPON:
This is the tricky one and imho this is where many WD’s are confused. Proper 1H weapon for this build is weapons with 1.2 Speed & Black dmg (Black dmg weapons are the ones with +min + max dmg not 300-400 fire, cold, poison etc.)
Q: Dear Hasansabbah I have a Manajuma Knife with 910DPS, and when I compare it with a spear I seem to loose 10k DPS your suggestion is the dumbest !%+@ I’ve ever seen.
A: Dear WD, first of all your knife doesn’t benefit from elemental dmg bonuses. Second is that yours have terrible min dmg. With 350-950 (910 dps) damage range you are going to deal lots of low crits. While with a regular spear you may have 570-950 (912dps) you won’t deal low crits since the min dmg max dmg ratio is high. And also your mana won’t burn as much. Back to your question, the reason you see your dps become lower is because of the 0.2 speed difference which is fake dps for us and as I mentioned before, we don’t benefit from ias at all in this build.
Back to our topic we will also want LS, CHD, int& socket on our weapon, well it is really hard to get so you may just get LS, good dps and socket or instead of socket get high cc. But always invest the majority of your gold on a good weapon since it is the core of your dps.
Now we can focus on our build. Since these equipmnet greatly benefits from our armor.
BUILD:
We have gotten ourselves a good amount of reduced dmg from elites from items, so lets buff it more with our active and passive skills so it . This is going to be our baseline.
I have been using life link dogs since monster power release when mobs started to hit like a truck. Of course I had lower dps and lower defenses but I could survive mid MP’s with ease. As the tooltip says dmg you receive will be reduced by %10. With our items it is now 24% reduced from elites & %10 reduced from trash. If your base defenses are high your dogs will be real though and they won’t die easily. And each can tank away elites&trash which gives us extra defenses which we don’t see on paper.
I hear you yelling “But hey mobs still hit like a truck!!” Well ok, let’s add JF too. Now we got 39% reduced from elites (LOL) and %25 reduced from trash.
For the second passive we take GF which buffs our DPS to boot as well as our All resistance.
For the third passive I use GI, even on High MP’s it has massive boost to your speed & DPS which is going to be explained with other active skills. Yet if you die a lot you may get Spirit Vessel instead.
For the rest of the skills,
Soul Harvest - Vengeful Spirit, If you have picked GI, You will have incredible DPS over crowded trash, as the trash die you will be able to cast it over and over. Just keep in mind that when you are vs packs, try to keep at least 4 stacks up.
Spirit Walk - Honored Guest, This is our panic button, mana regenerator and since it benefits from GI as well it is great to sprint between trash and you can regenerate your mana way too faster by rapid use of SW.
Big Bad Voodoo - Slam Dance, Regardless for party or for solo this skill is insane. Again it benefits greatly from GI since it allows you to throw it on almost every pack. If you have mana problems, get the rain dance till you gain a good amount of mana/sec & Reduced cost on bears.
Mass Confusion - Paranoia, Another sick skill we have. Provides %20 extra dmg taken by mobs, helps fleeing mobs to stay close so you can nuke them easier and helps you loose aggro so you can be safe & deal more dmg.
Zombie Charger - Zombie Bears, Well nothing much to say about this one. We all know it is the most effective dmg dealer in game.
Play on maps where there are walls, narrow areas etc. The effective use of bears is when you put your back on the walls/terrain boundaries etc. Try it and you will see bears going on top of each other and you will also realize a considerable range increase.
Since you will have incredible defenses, you can spam your bears to mobs face to face, or in between crowded areas. And this way you also make sure all yours bears hit your targets.
Always fight vs packs full stack SH not only for extra dmg but also for extra resistance.
For reflect fights, try to merge them with non-reflect mobs around so you won't feel much dmg. Use your SW when you are half way down on HP, and of course pick up globes for further resistance and dmg. This way you may deal with reflect mobs which you couldn't deal before.
As I mentioned on skills keep an eye on your cooldowns in fights so you can spam it over and over.
Personally I am loving this build both for solo&party. If you want to play on high MP this build gives you ultimate dmg output with high defenses. If you are wondering how it goes on MP10, you may watch the vid below.
"Helpful Hints of Sanctuary" Guide Contest
Welcome to the Witch Doctor version of this contest! Simply post your finished guides here!
The winner has been chosen and you can find his guide's official thread here - http://www.diablofans.com/topic/84099-witch-doctor-complete-guide-107-by-projax/
As a gamer who desperately seeks titles from blizzard, it was a huge change in my life once diablo 3 was introduced. I was by 90%'s side saying " just release something even though it is not ready becuase we have waited over 10 years". Now we have a game which has been constantly improved and next major thing to be introduced is PVP. These days everyone is waiting on a simple blog from Jay Wilson about PVP and this shows how excited diablo 3 community is towards to PVP. I have written/made many guides about gameplay/budget builds but i haven't done a comlete guide for PVP , reason being that might be only based on speculations becuase PVP hasnt introduced yet. However, I belive this is time to share some of my knowlegde and build something solid together.
GEARING YOUR WITCH DOCTOR FOR PVP
This the most important section of this guide because gear can be purchased, dropped, crafted now and can be planned ahead of time. The goal is to spend your gold wisely towards PVP and avoid mistakes as possible purchasing items. Now, to be able to understand how important and related gear is to skills, I want to give you an example from PVE-acid cloud build.
Main damage -------------------------> Acid cloud
Advantege --------------------------> AOE + Life On Hit on each tick
Recommended gear to use ------> Visage of guiya (with acid crit+regulat crit)
Anything that has life on hit on it
(blackthorn legs, amulets, rings, 1hand-weapon)
As you see above example, using certain gear with certain skills are more beneficial and have significant advantage over other combinations. Like doing MP10 runs with Zombie bear/ 4 piece zuni build with life steal. You have to have 4 piece zuni to get the mana regan advantage to cast the highest dps skill (zombie bears) in order to kill high hit point mobs. Now will that be the case for PVP? Ofcourse not, because you are not dealing with A.I.!!! Below is the list of AFFIXES and their impact on PVP...There are 3 major afixes for PVP , offensive , ife gaining ,defensive afixes..
OFFENSIVE AFIXES!!
1- Intellect & Average damage
IDEA------------> Int & A.D output for dps is identical. They both add white damage (dmg wihout crit/crit damage) to your WD. Critical chance/critical damage/ais gets direct benefit from it. As a bonus, intellect will also give your WD All resistence (10% of your total intellect)
PVP EFFECT------> Main stat for WD pve and pvp, essencial for all resist as well. Giving benefit to all other offensive stats and higher is better for WD's! While searching speacially for ring slots, many people underestimates the average damage, please search for ave. damage not only with intellect but also without it. (ex: ave dam 30/crit 5/crit dam 30/vitality)
Conclusion----------> Base affix for all the offensive skills , no matter which build you decide, intellect and average damage (damage from weapon+mojo+ring ave.dam.) is highest to stack.
2- CC (Critical Chance)
IDEA -----> Critical chance is essencial not only for PVE but also for PVP no matter which skills you are using, it will minimum (considering you get zero crit damage) double your damage n your critical hits. It gets benefit directly from average damage & intellect.
PVP EFFECT-----> CC is a must for PVP. Most of your high damage skills consume high mana, and using those skills you also want to get the most out of them. Critical chance just does that!! Get the most out of your DPS skills you cast while you attack to your opponent.
Conclusion-----> Critical chance is essencial and personally is the 1st dps affix i search for on an item.
3- CD (Critical Damage)
IDEA--------------> Another must, not only for pve but also pvp. This affix is the 2nd affix i search when i buy my items because it benefits from CC directly as well as intellect & average damage.
PVP EFFECT-----> Higher CD you have will deal more damage to your oppenent when you crit. It is critical for PVP no matter what spec/skill you use.
Conclusion--------> CD is a must for aggrasivve pvp WD's.
4- AIS (attack speed)
IDEA -----> Attack speed is good for pve because higher AIS you have , more often you can cast perticular skill you are using.
PVP EFFECT----> Technicly that fact doesnt change for PVP, however, practicly it DOES. Why? Because your target is not constantly sitting there waiting for you to destroy him! Your target (real person) moves and use many skills which will effect the cast COUNT of your skill. Meaning that you will not be able to cast poison dart as many times as you wish to your opponent.
Conclusion------> Attack speed is one of the dps affixes out there, but in my opinoin for pvp it is not a MUST. You may stack AIS as much as your budget allows you. Please do not forget that having crit+crit damage + ais +vitality + intellect is ideal for a perticular item for pvp and pve , however if you are on a budged you have to priorotize affixes. In reality ring with above affixes will cost you over 1 billion compare to a ring wihout AIS which will cost you 200 million!! To comprimize the ais gap that you do not have on rings, amulets i suggest you to get a faster weapon.
LIFE GAINING AFIXES!!
1- Life steal.
IDEA--------> Pve lifesteal works very different even within their difficulties. For example on inferno 3% life steal procs from 20% from the damage you deal to the monsters. Hitting 100k to a mob simply will give you %20 / %3 of 100 k which is roughly 670 life! Simple formula suggest higher the damage you deal higher benefit you will get from lifesteal. I have personally tested reflect damage with 3% lifesteal and it was never enough survivebility with 200 k damage!! So i decide to go with life on hit and dropped lifesteal for my charecter.
PVP EFFECT-----> Since there are no mobs or oppenents with reflect damage on PVP arenas, reflect damage is useless. As we all experienced from pve its almost impossible to refill your health with this affix, same thing applies for PVP as a WD unless you use a skorn with 6% lifesteal and sacrifise an offhand. I personally rather to use main/offhand then 3% more lifesteal from a skorn.
Conclusion-------> It should be discussed further if it is worthed to stack lifesteal for PVP and only should consider if it is 6% from 2 hander skorn with Phlebotomize or Vampire Bats (which will give you additional lifesteal). Still then it is not worthed because a weapon with high dps + crit damage + socket will be cheaper then life steal added to those stats.
2- Life regeneration
IDEA------------------> This affix is simply a side kick and support for your either life steal or life on it. I personally like it but it is hard to get higher numbers on a perticular slot.
PVP EFFECT-------> This affix is like using a pot over time NON-stop. Buy this gear if you gotto choose it between MF , GF or other useless affixes.
Conclusion----------> I wouldnt surprised to see 1 or 2 players to stack this all the way with life on hit + life steal and be successful. Bu ti wont be one of those guys and will be humble to stack this affix and getting 700 life regen is doable and what i suggest.!
3- Life On Hit
IDEA--------- ---> My fav. life regen affix even for PVE. Certain skills proc more and benefit more from this skill. Finding these skills and picking up the right one is the most critical decision a doctor will face. Acid cloud for PVE is the best but most likely it will not for pvp.
Example : You have total of 1000 life on hit and casting a single acid cloud to 5 targets, will grant you 10 k HP..
PVP EFFECT----> Life on hit on a single target is different then hitting multiple targets and more likely you will never have chance to cast skills to multiple opponents in pvp. Key to benefit this is to find out and bind a skill for LOH affix and use it for PVP.
Conclusion-------> Its far fav. over life steal, speacially for WD's. Many other players say " for certain damage output life on hit , for higher dps output lifesteal is more beneficial" Its totally right for a brab which can get higher lifesteal% but again for WD LOH is way to go!!. This is the main reason why wd's need buff in general for end game!!
DEFENSIVE AFFIXES!!
1- Movement speed
This is pretty straight forward. The movement speed cap is 25, getting 12 from boots + getting 12 from lacuni will get you to 24 as a WD. If you can not efort a lacuni bracers or prefer more defensive bracer such as strongham bracers you can always get 12 movement speed from inna's pants.
2- Vitality & % life
Most essencial affix. I personally belive a decent WD should have 60 k HP. It can be done with vitality or life%. They both give you hit points with slightly different way. % life unlike how it sounds, it DOESNT NOT give you % of your hit points rather it gives you % of your total vitality. So higher your vitality more you will benefit from % life!.
3- Armor & ALL resist.
This is the most confusing and detailed topic of all times:). This has done by speacially by monks but not too much by WD's. However, as WD's we gotto pay more attention to armor&all resist due to PVP. All resist is like AIS for damage affix. The more gold you have more you should stack all resist.!! Again ideal item will have vitality/all resist/armor!!
(Guide is made based on consumptions and experience that i have had since beta
version of the game and any contrubution/suggestion welcome to improve the guide)
THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT GUYS GO NUKEM!!!
follow me @ www.twitch.tv/Turknukem
or @ www.youtube.com/TurkNukemHD
I. Introduction
I have written this guide because I feel like I'm the best person to be talking about it since I have never played any other class but a Witch Doctor from the very beginning and I have never played softcore mode. I am the first person in NA who reached level 60 as a hardcore WD and ever since that day my only goal was to be the best WD of all time.
This guide will include everything hardcore, from starting the game at level 1 and progressing through all the difficulties, up until farming efficiently in A3. I will also include tips and tricks on how to survive the game and even how to survive the most feared monster of all, the "DC" (disconnect) monster, which is what killing most of the hardcore players. I will put basic strategies on how to do infernal machines and doing paragon leveling in hardcore.
II. The Basics
First thing you need to know when playing in HC is the fact that...YOU WILL DIE! Yes this is true, nobody in HC has never experienced death yet. It will just be a matter of time when you die, but for sure, you will experience losing a character one way or another. So the best way to deal with it is just prepare your minds and hearts once you sign that disclaimer and enter the YOLO (you only live once) realm. How do you do that? Simple, acceptance is the key, perseverance to become better, and ultimately just sheer love of the game. But don't worry, even though your first character will eventually die, this guide will teach you how easy it is to get back to where you were and have an even better character.
Next, you need to know that there are ways to prevent death at any point of the game. You need to learn how to play with a group. Playing with people you trust increases your life expectancy by a really large margin. I probably don't need to explain this. Also, use a voice chat program like vent or skype. Make sure you have a reliable internet and power source. Most HC players have an emergency backup power for their computers and router/modem just in case power goes out unexpectedly.
Other tips:
When you first start into the game and have no bank, you need to focus on leveling up quick and safe. You’re lucky because you now represent the most OP class in the game and I will teach you how to level up as quickly as possible.
All you need to do in Normal is level up to level 10. Then if you’re lucky and have good friends, you can probably afford to buy a Split Tusk with socket and ask your friends to borrow a really high-level ruby. Also buy a Genzaniku since this will help you kill stuff really fast. Now go create a new game at MP10 and finish Normal mode.
While progressing, you need to focus a lot on high int and decent vit, I say about 2:1 ratio. Get some average damage and attack speed jewelries. The build you need to use is splinters, firebats, soul harvest, unbreakable grasp, dogs, spirit walk, jungle fortitude and blood ritual.
Link to this build:
http://us.battle.net...cdZYU!ac!aZZaaa
If you have gold in bank, buy upgrades along the way from the auction house if you feel like you’re not killing stuff fast enough, again still focusing on high int and some vit.
IV. Nightmare
Nightmare is where stuff hits hard and where you need to start thinking about mitigation and getting your level high enough to make this difficulty a cake. Fortunately, we started doing Normal in MP10, so you would probably be about level 35-40 before you even begin Nightmare.
When you play in Nightmare difficulty, you need to play a bit more passively and just let your pets tank. This is true even on higher difficulties except in Inferno, but we’ll get to that later.
The secret to being successful in Nightmare as a WD is to out-level the monsters and use high level skills. I will show you how:
http://us.battle.net...iUPT!aWe!abZaZZ
V. Hell
Now there are two ways to play in Hell as a WD. One is to play like how you would play in Nightmare, just play passively, stay at the back, let your pets tank, kite with Unbreakable Grasp or Hex, and use choke points. But another is to use high level gear with level requirement reduction. Now the second option assumes that you have gold to spend on gear, don’t worry though you only need to spend once and you can use them over and over again to level up new characters. If you have friends though, you can borrow their leveling gear.
This guide will focus more on the second option. But wait, you thought this guide is for people who just started Hardcore and doesn’t have a good amount of gold. If so, Hell is where you will spend most of your time farming and leveling up. If you’re trying to progress, you will find that higher Acts increase in difficulty quite substantially. So you will go back to lower Acts and farm for gold while increasing in MP level for more of that magic find and gold find. You might get bored staying in Hell and wanting to get to Inferno and start farming for those GFG legendaries. Don’t worry! I will teach you secrets on how to get rich fast! Then once you have the gold, you can buy those level reduced items and start playing in Hell blindfolded.
Farmer’s Secrets:
What is important to understand for aspiring WDs is that your build and your gear should work hand in hand. Hell difficulty is the best place to start the practice of choosing upgrades well suited for the target build. So I will offer great builds and corresponding gear to be successful in Hell and beyond.
Zombie Bears
Link:
http://us.battle.net...iUTQ!bce!bcZZcZ
Using a bear build in hell, you will realize that you will not have enough mana to sustain it. So the best thing to do is to choose your other skills that support your bear spamming. Hex and Bruiser are there to CC some of the annoying elites that run away or try to focus you.
The gear you will look for are mostly focused on mana regen or max mana. For dps, get crit damage and crit chance and don’t get any attack speed items. Get slower weapons with good base damage and preferably with lifesteal. For ehp, focus getting high vit, use a shield if you’re feeling squishy. Get about 1:1 ratio of int and vit. You will get most of your life back from health globes so don’t worry about life on hit or life regen at this point.
Acid Cloud
Link:
http://us.battle.net...ZUYT!aXe!bbaaYY
For those that prefer a safer gameplay or those using less ideal gear, you might want a build that allows you to progress safely through Hell. This is the build for you. This build revolves around decent life on hit items, probably about 500 or more total. Get as much attack speed bonus on your items for higher dps and more chance to proc loh. This build can become really powerful and even viable in Inferno and higher MP levels once you upgrade your gear for more attack speed, int and loh. Jungle Fortitude and Bad Medicine allows you to become a tanking machine. Basically, as long as you don’t get CC’d, you will absorb low damage while gaining ridiculous life back. The aura on your dogs and garg also proc loh effects.
VI. Inferno
Progression in Inferno is easy once you acquire better gear. The focus of this guide is to get you into Inferno and start farming for your gear. At this point I highly advice playing with a party. If you just got into Inferno, you need to start thinking about farming efficiently, right off the bat. This will dictate which items you need to go after and what group composition best suit your gamestyle.
Now the goal is to get to A3 MP0 and be able to survive there. You may need to farm lower acts multiple times just to get all your items to level 60 or higher. These are roughly the target stats for A3 Inferno MP0:
So now that you know what you’re aiming for, let me teach you the best farming builds in Hardcore Inferno.
Grave Injustice
Link:
http://us.battle.net...dUYT!TYe!Yccabc
This build is by far the best build for a farming WD. The key to this build is pickup radius. Once you get a decent Thing of the Deep, there is no other go-to build than this one. Grave Injustice allows you to Spirit Walk almost indefinitely as long as there are mobs around to kill. So this makes runs so much faster.
The gear you need to go for are mostly crit chance and crit damage. Lifesteal weapon is mandatory for this build. A 50k dps WD can buff its dps to near 100k just with Soul Harvest and Gruesome Feast. You don’t need to go after mana regen items since you gain a lot of mana from health globes and killing mobs.
Locust Swarm
Link:
http://us.battle.net...dUYV!YTe!aaaZZb
This is one of the craziest builds I’ve seen for farming but very efficient. Basically the idea is to kills mobs as you ran away. The downside is, you don’t pickup anything but legendaries. You look at your map most of the time and just wait for that ping then come back to pick it up. Otherwise you just keep going running around the map and casting Locust Swarm and Acid Cloud. There is an art to it, your dps has to be enough that one cast of Locust Swarm and Acid Cloud should be enough to kill any type of mobs.
The key gear you need to look for to make this build to work is tons of pickup radius and items with increased locust swarm damage and acid cloud crit chance. Also Stone of Jordan with high damage against elites will be ideal for this build.
VII. Key Farming and Ubers
Key farming is efficient only on higher MP levels, MP5 or up. This means that you only need to start worrying about Infernal Machines if you can handle higher MP’s. So there’s a little bit of trying and testing on MP2 or MP3 until you feel that you’re ready. At this point you will naturally learn damage caps and ehp caps to be able to survive higher MP’s.
There is no specific build that I can suggest that focuses on key farming efficiency because there is none. The idea is that you need to use your best gear and use the build you are most comfortable with. But according to my experience, having Hex around is quite useful for disabling those KW’s. Also when you have a group already, you guys need to decide and synergize your builds to make runs safe and easy. Which means, as a WD you might be tasked of using Big Bad Voodoo for either more damage or healing.
One other tip for A2 KW, use Rain of Toads instead of Poison Darts. The main reason is, when the KW spins, your projectiles can bounce back and kill you or your party members. So be careful of that.
Healer Build
Link:
http://us.battle.net...XUQT!hde!ZYYabc
You know what makes a WD overpowered? It is his ability to take himself and any other class to MP10 Ubers in Hardcore. This build is self-explanatory but I will explain a little bit. This build allows you to summon dogs without any cooldown given the fact that you have acquired the necessary items to support this build. That is pretty useful because the rune, Final Gift, allows your dogs to leave health globes as they die or re-summoned.
You don’t do any damage, your only CC is Bruiser, but you’re working the hardest in your party. Your only job though, is to keep everyone alive. You have to be conscious of everyone’s health bar and whenever you see anybody’s health bar dip below 50%, start spamming your dogs and stop using sacrifice. Health globes still drop even when Sacrifice is not used.
Ideal team composition is, all 4 WD’s. The reason is, Gruesome Feast. If there is unlimited health globes, that means that WD’s can cast bears almost infinitely. If you’re doing MP10 Ubers, you need at least 150k dps from the 3 WD’s and the other one runs this build.
The gear needed for this build is tons of attack speed. The more attack speed you have, the faster you can cast dogs, which means more health globes. It is also important to note that at least one of the other party members need to have at least 20 pickup radius to pick up those health globes. In order to reach zero cooldown, you need 9sec on your helm, 20sec on your offhand by using Homunculus, 6sec on your ring or amulet by using either Skull Grasp, Stone of Jordan, or Mara’s Kaleidoscope.
VIII. haXudon’s Tips and Tricks
In this guide, I will show you the basics of how to survive in Hardcore as a Witch Doctor. Additionally, this guide will take things a step further by showing you a build that will make you immortal. In short, I will discuss the dangers of hardcore, the ideological the strategies behind this build, and the specific advantages that a Witch Doctor has in succeeding in hardcore.
1. Know Your Enemy
After playing softcore since release, I’ve found that Netflix and farming go hand in hand. Sometimes, I even get bored with playing because of the lack of danger, variation, and competition. So, I started a hardcore character and quickly learned that it was not the same. I was not prepared for the butt-clenching journey ahead for me and my voodoo mon!
Essentially, hardcore is more difficult than softcore because there are fewer players at max level. This leads to less total gold in circulation and less items in circulation. It feels very much like Inferno when D3 first launched. You are fighting for your very life with each elite pack, and you can’t buy your way to success using the AH because of the limited selection and currency.
In order to survive in hardcore, you must understand the most common ways that HC characters die:
Understanding these common methods of death for HC characters, we can develop a very cost effective build that will keep your WD alive. First, we need to examine the current methods of reducing damage (mitigation):
2. Know Yourself
The basic tenants of this WD build involve two passives, two active abilities, and one singular goal in your gear choices. Let’s discuss the core passive for this build:
But, why bother taking hits as a WD when you can let your pets do that for you? Division of Labor FTW! Now it’s time to discuss the active skills required for this build:
With this build, your main sources of LR come from your health pool. The higher the HP, the more reactive mitigation you and all of your pets have. You should prioritize your gear with the following list of stats in order of importance:
These different stats are listed in order of importance. You obviously want a lot of Intellect for DPS reasons. More importantly, you want a significant amount of HP for this build to work well. Simply put: the more HP you acquire, the easier everything becomes.
Here are some helpful tips with gearing your WD in hardcore:
3. Know Your Limits
Let’s get down to brass tacks here and throw around some specifics. When you step foot into Inferno, you want to have around 50k HP. I was able to do this without EVER using the AH. It’s extremely easy to do, and affordable with crafting and salvaging. You want to have at least 10k DPS before you attempt Inferno Butcher, but 20k DPS will make the fight trivial. Before you get too far into inferno, you should at least have 1200 life regen, some sort of life on hit (or LS), and your resistances should be around 600 or so.
In short, here are your goals before attempting to progress in Hardcore Inferno:
Your play style should be fairly passive. Let your pets take the hits for you, while you sit back and shoot things from a distance. If you end up almost dying and proccing your spirit vessel, just run away. Run to where there are no mobs, and wait until your Spirit Vessel is off of cooldown.
Again, don’t be afraid to run. If you doubt your abilities, just run. It’s not worth dying over!
Once you reach these goals: spirits be wit’ ya on!
Edit: Here is a picture of my recent completion of Hardcore Inferno using this build:
(Click picture for a larger view)
Also, here is a link to my WD that I used.
Edit #1: Further clarified a few points.
Edit #2: Added header image.
Edit #3. Further clarified a few things, added an image, and added a link to my WD as proof of concept.
Hey Guys & Girls. Most of you know me from my vids & forums. For the people who don’t know me I’m the Doc who can spam endless bears vs Reflect Packs @MP10. This is the sole build which alows you to maintain your top dps on every MP without the fear of reflect packs and it is going to avoid many unnecessary deaths while you play.
Building a good doc requires proper equipment. And when I build my Doc I keep in mind that the equipment should be viable for PVP as well. This guide also going to give tips on good equipment for PVP
I am calling this build Panzer Build since you will have incredible defenses as well as good dps output.
Now Let's gear up our WD properly for this build.
ARMOR:
First of all we will want to avoid getting increased attack speed keep that in mind while looking for items.
For the gear get at least 6-7 pickup radius. Since this build plays almost on melee range it is going to cover our needs
Needless to say you are going to need 4 pieces of Zunimasa’s Set. For budget issues you may go for lower stats but what you must buy is a chest with %6-7 reduced from elites. You can easily find an affordable chest (5-10m max) with 150-160 int, 70-80 Vit and %6-7 reduced from elites.
When you read Garganutan restless giant rune you will see the following, "Elite enemies include champions, rares,bosses and other players" So I am guessing it will work as reduced dmg from other players which is going to make this gearing good for pvp as well.
Our Dps is top when we have SH/GF Up and our dps gain from our base intelligence becomes lower yet the CHD and CC bonuses benefit greatly. Again if you can’t afford helm with 200+ int 5+crit just buy a helm with low int (150-160 int) and mid crit (4-5cc). For example, When unbuffed a helm with 250 int 3 crit may give more dps from a helm with 150 int 5 crit, But when you have SH up the 5 crit will give you more. Just keep that in mind while looking for items.
Zuni boots, try to get armor or all resistance or just get physical resistance they are also cheaper. If you still can’t afford, buy ones with 120-130 extra str since it also gives armor.
Ring, İf you can't afford a good one get low cc or average dmg. rings with str are also good for the armor bonus they provide.
Second ring buy a Litany, Again for more affordable ones you may look for average dmg or double int. But get at least %7 reduced dmg from elites.
By far we already got %13-14 reduced dmg from elites by items, which is almost same as our JF passive.
Look for an amulet with high cc and high chd (average damage is plus as well as Tal Rasha’s but they are too expensive) Physical resistance/All resistance/Vitality/Armor and High Int is what we should look for.
Belt, Witching Hour preferably with 8ias & high chd. Armor/All resistance/Physical Resistance/Vitality are the stats you should look for.
Offhand, Any offhand with 220+ Average dmg, 8+ cc, Mana Regen is ok. Preferably reduced cost for Zombie bears & vitality are the stats you should look for.
Gloves, Try to get high cc and chd, don't get the ones with ias, look for high int, vit ar
Braces, Rare bracers with 5-6 cc, AR or Lacuni with int,crit (%8ias), Strongarm with 140int 60 AR. Also every other extra stat is a plus.
Pants, If you have Lacuni, use a rare with high int, vit AR 2 sockets or If you have rare bracers buy Inna's with Int and %8 ias. You may look for int+vit but they are more expensive.
Shoulders, A good Vile Ward or equivalent rare.
This is it for the armor parts, now lets get a proper weapon.
WEAPON:
This is the tricky one and imho this is where many WD’s are confused. Proper 1H weapon for this build is weapons with 1.2 Speed & Black dmg (Black dmg weapons are the ones with +min + max dmg not 300-400 fire, cold, poison etc.)
Q: Dear Hasansabbah I have a Manajuma Knife with 910DPS, and when I compare it with a spear I seem to loose 10k DPS your suggestion is the dumbest !%+@ I’ve ever seen.
A: Dear WD, first of all your knife doesn’t benefit from elemental dmg bonuses. Second is that yours have terrible min dmg. With 350-950 (910 dps) damage range you are going to deal lots of low crits. While with a regular spear you may have 570-950 (912dps) you won’t deal low crits since the min dmg max dmg ratio is high. And also your mana won’t burn as much. Back to your question, the reason you see your dps become lower is because of the 0.2 speed difference which is fake dps for us and as I mentioned before, we don’t benefit from ias at all in this build.
Back to our topic we will also want LS, CHD, int& socket on our weapon, well it is really hard to get so you may just get LS, good dps and socket or instead of socket get high cc. But always invest the majority of your gold on a good weapon since it is the core of your dps.
Now we can focus on our build. Since these equipmnet greatly benefits from our armor.
BUILD:
We have gotten ourselves a good amount of reduced dmg from elites from items, so lets buff it more with our active and passive skills so it . This is going to be our baseline.
I have been using life link dogs since monster power release when mobs started to hit like a truck. Of course I had lower dps and lower defenses but I could survive mid MP’s with ease. As the tooltip says dmg you receive will be reduced by %10. With our items it is now 24% reduced from elites & %10 reduced from trash. If your base defenses are high your dogs will be real though and they won’t die easily. And each can tank away elites&trash which gives us extra defenses which we don’t see on paper.
I hear you yelling “But hey mobs still hit like a truck!!” Well ok, let’s add JF too. Now we got 39% reduced from elites (LOL) and %25 reduced from trash.
For the second passive we take GF which buffs our DPS to boot as well as our All resistance.
For the third passive I use GI, even on High MP’s it has massive boost to your speed & DPS which is going to be explained with other active skills. Yet if you die a lot you may get Spirit Vessel instead.
For the rest of the skills,
Soul Harvest - Vengeful Spirit, If you have picked GI, You will have incredible DPS over crowded trash, as the trash die you will be able to cast it over and over. Just keep in mind that when you are vs packs, try to keep at least 4 stacks up.
Spirit Walk - Honored Guest, This is our panic button, mana regenerator and since it benefits from GI as well it is great to sprint between trash and you can regenerate your mana way too faster by rapid use of SW.
Big Bad Voodoo - Slam Dance, Regardless for party or for solo this skill is insane. Again it benefits greatly from GI since it allows you to throw it on almost every pack. If you have mana problems, get the rain dance till you gain a good amount of mana/sec & Reduced cost on bears.
Mass Confusion - Paranoia, Another sick skill we have. Provides %20 extra dmg taken by mobs, helps fleeing mobs to stay close so you can nuke them easier and helps you loose aggro so you can be safe & deal more dmg.
Zombie Charger - Zombie Bears, Well nothing much to say about this one. We all know it is the most effective dmg dealer in game.
Well this it for the build, what we have is, http://eu.battle.net...UYdQ!aTY!cYZbcb
Now it's time to give you guys some tactics.
TACTICS:
Play on maps where there are walls, narrow areas etc. The effective use of bears is when you put your back on the walls/terrain boundaries etc. Try it and you will see bears going on top of each other and you will also realize a considerable range increase.
Since you will have incredible defenses, you can spam your bears to mobs face to face, or in between crowded areas. And this way you also make sure all yours bears hit your targets.
Always fight vs packs full stack SH not only for extra dmg but also for extra resistance.
For reflect fights, try to merge them with non-reflect mobs around so you won't feel much dmg. Use your SW when you are half way down on HP, and of course pick up globes for further resistance and dmg. This way you may deal with reflect mobs which you couldn't deal before.
As I mentioned on skills keep an eye on your cooldowns in fights so you can spam it over and over.
Personally I am loving this build both for solo&party. If you want to play on high MP this build gives you ultimate dmg output with high defenses. If you are wondering how it goes on MP10, you may watch the vid below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjfd3C3SmeM
Try it and you will see the change of your char. And if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
Merry Christmas!
Unpinning this for obvious reasons.
Ha. Bagstone.