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The way I see it, Blizz really needs to fix the pet viability problem, soon. It's destroying the class. I guess they are trying to wrap everything into a comprehensive patch with 1.04, but they really need to get it cranked out. Of course WD does not have the utility of other ranged classes (Wiz/DH) because we are not meant to be pure range - there is supposed to be some close-quarters element to WD, but losing 1/3 of our passives and much of our active skills by not having pets is breaking the WD.

I still love my WD and am NOT rerolling my class, but it's really a problem right now. I wanted the challenge of a petless WD from day 1. I knew the theme and playstyle I wanted and for the most part its served me well; however, my utility and survivability in inferno (v. well geared) is tremendously hampered compared to my teammates in whimsey and A3. I'm a highly skilled player, but getting 1-shotted with 30k life and 700 res @ is too much. Things like fracture and shorter CD or spammable escape for other classes just makes my utility so much weaker. I understand that I'm not meant to sit and take hits on inferno, but we don't have other options if we can't have access to the primary utility component of our class (pets). As someone who was strongly, personally up for the challenge of petless WD, I'm now at the "wall" where I'd normally swap a slot for the survival a pet could offer in inferno - but it's just not viable. fetishes just don't count as a real pet. They are great and all - but in A3 and whimsey Inferno even they get 1 shotted by elites - so at most they are a 5 second distraction.

As my wizard buddy/roommate puts it - I often just save him a bar slot by being his "mirror image" in most of our runs. I'm his utility/debuff support - I Grasp/Fetish/Mass Hallucinate while he pumps out the damage (I out gear him by lightyears in every slot). How can I compete with fracture and force armor in survivability and utility? He loves it, gets to see high numbers and be an effective killing machine, while I'm there as a debuffer and "mirror image". I still enjoy the game, but seeing my effectiveness be reduced like that bums me out sometimes.

Of course I could re-roll my class and be more effective in Whimsey, but I have no desire to do that. I could also run separately and just keep re-farming A1 and A2, but I want to play in a group with my roommate and another mutual friend (DH). Roommate has no problem rolling through Inferno Whimsey on his Wizard - again, far out geared by me.

Nearly everyone I know IRL who I play with has re-rolled either Wizard or DH - I have too much pride and arrogance to do that, but I think there's also a core-value as a gamer to play the way I want to play. I'm not rolling with an outrageous, unsustainable spec and I HATE QQing. So far, 2 barb IRL friends re-rolled Wiz and DH, respectively. Two of my monk IRL friends re-rolled DH. Of those IRL friends, 3 have quit playing because they don't like the play style of their re-rolls and wish they could play their original class as effectively as what they originally wanted/intended to play.

Great topic - what an awesome class! Everything I had hoped for and my build is working perfectly as I had imagined. Obviously I'm spirit focused. Still undecided on passives - I'm only level 32 and there are so many yet to unlock. Spiritual attunement and blood ritual have been staples and it will be hard to lose the resource gains they offer at this point.

Positive:

Direbats was pretty nasty - I ended up switching though because I was putting myself in dangerous positions trying to line targets up to maximize damage. That and I realllly wanted spirit barrage.

Spirit barrage: At first a disappointment - it was draining mana too quickly for the damage it did, BUT I didn't give up on it and the mana return on the first rune makes it quite strong. When you drain yourself and spirit walk/honored guest is down - it can really keep you going. I now have well of souls runeword and the damage is now insane - I sometimes wonder how I down packs so quickly, its a set it and forget it spell. The additional spirits allow you to manuever while spewing out dps.

Spirit walk/honored guest: Simply amazing, keeps me going more than I ever would have imagined and the ability to keep casting while walking is just insane.

Mass confusion: I've only lamented the cooldown once or twice, honestly. Reaaaalllly looking forward to mass hallucination. 60 seconds is perfect in between most scary/large packs.

Gargantuan: I see a common theme here. This badboy is amazing.

Negative:

Mostly passives here. Pierce the veil is almost unmanageable at this point, it just devours my mana pool. Will have to see with runes how I can better manage mana and this passive as I level.

Fetish Army: To quote someone else above... 2 minutes is a LOOOONG time. They go away too quickly to be feasible at this point and mass confusion gets the same group/bomb dps and control utility that this skills would otherwise offer. That and the gargantuan is tough to swap out and this is the only swapable skill position on my bar at this point.

Otherwise, I haven't played around with many other active skills. I knew what build I wanted going into this character and everything has met expectations.

Neutral:

Soul harvest: I knew this would deliver, hasn't exceeded or missed expectations.

Haunt: Again, just as I expected - the healing from consuming spirit is nice, but right in line with what I expected. Not enough to get overconfident and just enough to keep me going.

haha - I was thinking the same thing. No hate!! Honestly, I really appreciate the write up; I just get "last minute homework" vibes from the actual writing.

I blame the excitement I have about the class and the fact that I've already looked up all the available info on it. That and the relatively poor writing sample here =D <3 <3