Making the mobs easier doesn't help close the gap between melee and ranged. It just means that the game is now going to be that much easier for ranged.
And barbs do just fine in Inferno act3+ if they bother to get the gear needed for it. Why do melee think they can go into the ultimate inferno and faceroll it with crap gear. this i have never understood.
Melee must maximize both defensive and offensive gear, ranged can go all out dps, big difference as far as gold goes.
This isn't true. The only class that can do this is Demon Hunters. Wizards are now stacking both INT, VIT and ressists. Witch Doctors are garbage no matter what they do. The highest DPS Witch Doctor currently in Diablo 3, moonender. Who has had gear handed to him by fans. Can't farm 5 stacks in Act III without Tyreal.
Making the mobs easier doesn't help close the gap between melee and ranged. It just means that the game is now going to be that much easier for ranged.
Witch Doctor is the most underpowered broken class in the game. They do not do the same damage as a Wizard or Demon Hunters. They have no defensive armors like Wizards. Their CC is on a 15-25 second cooldown, Wizards and Demon Hunters do not have cooldowns on their CC. Spirit walk is on a 15 second cooldown, Demon Hunters smoke screen isn't on a cooldown. Wizards have teleport and illusions. Virtually all Witch Doctors damage abilities force them into melee range except two. One of the two, Poison Dart, is getting nerfed with the attack speed nerf. It's the only build any Witch Doctor has been able to progress with so far.
So, just because Demon Hunters are broken, doesn't mean all ranged is. I think there is a reason virtually all hardcore characters farming Inferno are melee.
I can solo Ponyland easily, atm sitting at 86.5k dps, 93.5 dps with Scoundrel hysteria(50%uptime I have 33% critchance), 121 after 5 soulharvest stacks, and the only thing I change from that build is using Soul Harvest instead of Zombie Bears.
What is your crit damage at? Wouldn't it be better to drop your crit chance to 25 and get crit damage up to 200?
Glasscannon is the way to go. Please ignore those saying to build defensibly unless they provide proof they are farming Act III easily. You die a lot, but so do other classes. Witch Doctors damage is so pathetic outside of Zombie Bears, that building Glasscannon is the only effective way our class can even hope to farm.
Poison Dart + Splinters with tons of Attack Speed and Crit/Crit damage will do more damage. Each Poison Dart will crit for about 50k or so. If you get your attacks up to 3.0, well, you see where this is going.
This build sounds really cool. However it basically makes you a shitty version of a Demon Hunter. WHo has a very similar ability that crits for 250k easily.
assuming equal gear, 180% single target cannot do more damage than 220% piercing. I understand with a fast attack you can't cast many bats, but I don't think you're giving piercing enough credit. Even a non-crit bat for me does 40K. If this travels through 5 enemies, that's 200K for one cast. A noncrit dart hits for what, 10K? You'd have to cast splinters aprox. six times to reach that kind of damage.
Also, add soul harvest and better gear than I have and I'm sure you'll be hitting 250K. You could say it's a shittier demon hunter, but you're also comparing your class to probably the most OP damage dealing class. And if 250K piercing makes me a shitty demon hunter, what is a kiting fast attack splinters build equivalent to?
I'm not saying spinters spam fast attack is a bad build, or that mine is better, but I think it's important to talk out new strategies and not have everyone sheep the same build that might not be optimal.
I think the problem is. It's not just a shitty Demon Hunter, it's also a shitty Wizard. Who also has abilities that pierce and do more damage then ours bats do. While having defensive armors, teleport, illusions and Blizzard allowing them to perma kite.
At the end of the day. Witch Doctors are gimped. They are arguably the worst class in Diablo, and easily the worst farming class. What a lot of people do to farm Siegebreaker for example, is level a Wizard. Then swap their Witch Doctors gear onto the Wizard. Why? simple, Wizards dominate everything much like Demon Hunters, and the Witch Doctor is stuck running for his life with 15 second cooldowns on his CC and 3 minute cooldowns on his damage.
The reason Poison Dart is superior, is the rate you can cast them vs the mana cost. You will simply not be fast enough to cast enough bats to hurt enemies before you have to turn and run, or run out of mana. Bats are simply to slow, and when you couple them with attack speed, drain our mana way to fast.
Wizards get an ability which is almost the same as Bats. Shock Pulse with Piercing Orb rune. Except it costs them no Arcane power.
I would love bats to be viable. I would love bears to be viable for more then 20 seconds. I would love most of our abilities to be viable. They just aren't.
If you still feel it's viable. Buy the gear, and head into Act III. Do a 5 stack siegebreaker run. If you are killing champ packs in under 10 seconds like Wizards and Demon Hunters, then you have a winner. But last time I checked, even 70-80k Witch Doctors are stuck letting Tyreal do most of the work.
Most high end WD aim for 3.0 attack speed. Then stack tons of Int, Crit and some Crit damage. Nothing like 50+ K crits per dart, shooting at 3.0 speed.
I am at 47k dps right now. I have seen a few WD stack crit and crit damage with int and attack speed. It seems to work great. I just bid on an amulet with 80 int, 37 crit damage and 15 attack speed b/c of this post.
I am basically stuck in act IV not able to kill him. I will be building more along the line sof this now.
Blizz has thankfully stated that they want Pet survivability to be more along the lines of "Cast on cooldown" instead of "Watch them vanish." Here's hoping this comes true, since if they can last for at least 10-15 seconds against Inferno Elites (30 for the Gargantuan), we'll be very well-set to have a large variety of builds (this assumes a build that is about 50% dedicated to pets and average RNG). Several of our skills and runes start looking MUCH better under that assumption set.
Either that, or change one of the Zombie Dog runes to make them into "Spitters" of some kind. THAT would work
Witch Doctors, even with a Splinter build. Should focus on DMG, INT, IAS, Crit and Crit damage.
if you could get up to 3 attacks per seconds, and each one of your darts crits for 50k. Think about it. One of the WD's who streams, does this. He also has 80+k dps.
Poison Dart + Splinters with tons of Attack Speed and Crit/Crit damage will do more damage. Each Poison Dart will crit for about 50k or so. If you get your attacks up to 3.0, well, you see where this is going.
This build sounds really cool. However it basically makes you a shitty version of a Demon Hunter. WHo has a very similar ability that crits for 250k easily.
Left one. Attack speed is a huge bonus for survivability in inferno.
Ya. I am in act IV. With that my Attack per second is at 2.6, trying to get to 3.0. However I assume my hits will be worse? Or will the bonus damage below make up for it?
I have two weapons to pick from now. One provides Attack Speed, but has lower "damage". The other has higher damage, lower DPS and no attack speed. It's extra damage is also lower. Here is a picture
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This isn't true. The only class that can do this is Demon Hunters. Wizards are now stacking both INT, VIT and ressists. Witch Doctors are garbage no matter what they do. The highest DPS Witch Doctor currently in Diablo 3, moonender. Who has had gear handed to him by fans. Can't farm 5 stacks in Act III without Tyreal.
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Witch Doctor is the most underpowered broken class in the game. They do not do the same damage as a Wizard or Demon Hunters. They have no defensive armors like Wizards. Their CC is on a 15-25 second cooldown, Wizards and Demon Hunters do not have cooldowns on their CC. Spirit walk is on a 15 second cooldown, Demon Hunters smoke screen isn't on a cooldown. Wizards have teleport and illusions. Virtually all Witch Doctors damage abilities force them into melee range except two. One of the two, Poison Dart, is getting nerfed with the attack speed nerf. It's the only build any Witch Doctor has been able to progress with so far.
So, just because Demon Hunters are broken, doesn't mean all ranged is. I think there is a reason virtually all hardcore characters farming Inferno are melee.
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What is your crit damage at? Wouldn't it be better to drop your crit chance to 25 and get crit damage up to 200?
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I think the problem is. It's not just a shitty Demon Hunter, it's also a shitty Wizard. Who also has abilities that pierce and do more damage then ours bats do. While having defensive armors, teleport, illusions and Blizzard allowing them to perma kite.
At the end of the day. Witch Doctors are gimped. They are arguably the worst class in Diablo, and easily the worst farming class. What a lot of people do to farm Siegebreaker for example, is level a Wizard. Then swap their Witch Doctors gear onto the Wizard. Why? simple, Wizards dominate everything much like Demon Hunters, and the Witch Doctor is stuck running for his life with 15 second cooldowns on his CC and 3 minute cooldowns on his damage.
The reason Poison Dart is superior, is the rate you can cast them vs the mana cost. You will simply not be fast enough to cast enough bats to hurt enemies before you have to turn and run, or run out of mana. Bats are simply to slow, and when you couple them with attack speed, drain our mana way to fast.
Wizards get an ability which is almost the same as Bats. Shock Pulse with Piercing Orb rune. Except it costs them no Arcane power.
I would love bats to be viable. I would love bears to be viable for more then 20 seconds. I would love most of our abilities to be viable. They just aren't.
If you still feel it's viable. Buy the gear, and head into Act III. Do a 5 stack siegebreaker run. If you are killing champ packs in under 10 seconds like Wizards and Demon Hunters, then you have a winner. But last time I checked, even 70-80k Witch Doctors are stuck letting Tyreal do most of the work.
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I am at 47k dps right now. I have seen a few WD stack crit and crit damage with int and attack speed. It seems to work great. I just bid on an amulet with 80 int, 37 crit damage and 15 attack speed b/c of this post.
I am basically stuck in act IV not able to kill him. I will be building more along the line sof this now.
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pets don't last one hit past act I.
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if you could get up to 3 attacks per seconds, and each one of your darts crits for 50k. Think about it. One of the WD's who streams, does this. He also has 80+k dps.
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This build sounds really cool. However it basically makes you a shitty version of a Demon Hunter. WHo has a very similar ability that crits for 250k easily.
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Ya. I am in act IV. With that my Attack per second is at 2.6, trying to get to 3.0. However I assume my hits will be worse? Or will the bonus damage below make up for it?
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Which should I go with?