Before the patch Inferno was broken for melee. To properly completely Inferno, melee depending on Ilevel63 gear. However, to farm that gear, they would need to farm Act III, or somehow come up with tens of millions of gold.
This became a massive problem for all the people who didn't rush. If you rushed, you were able to progress normally, for less money. The auction was flooded with gear from the two brokens classes (at the time, Demon Hunters and Wizards). However, since nobody knew what was good or bad, you could find amazing deals. This allowed the melee who rushed, to obtain there gear from the AH for fairly resonable prices. Melee was able to obtain there gear, because those who rushed sold Act I and Act II loot for huge prices, since virtually every player was not in Inferno yet. I was one of those lucky few who rushed, and was able to gear up my Barb a lot cheaper then many. While selling Act I and II gear to sub level 60's for huge money. Remember when 1000 DPS 2h went for 2 million? I do.
However those melee that DID NOT rush, were fucked. If you hit Inferno a week or two ago. There was virtually no way you could properly progress as melee. Loot you needed for Act III was NOT obtainable by normal means. Shitty shields are 5 million, blue rings are 500k a piece, weapons another 5+ milion. The AH became inflated to a huge degree.
So, Blizzard made the progression ramp a lot easier. I have no issue with this. I want everyone to be able to complete the game. It means a lot more people will be trading items and overall the experience will be more fun for more people.
Another thing Blizzard did, was just make it easier for melee, since the game was harder for melee then it was for ranged (except WD, WD are broken, garbage and need love from Blizz). The way you feel right now, is how many Demon Hunters and Wizards in HALF your gear felt before the patch. I know my Wizard easily steamrolled the game pre 1.0.3 in relatively crappy gear.
You also seem to not be accounting for the fact you have good gear. The game is meant to be easy for those who have good gear. The game was easy before 1.0.3 for those who had decent gear. Thats Diablo.
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.
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Before the patch Inferno was broken for melee. To properly completely Inferno, melee depending on Ilevel63 gear. However, to farm that gear, they would need to farm Act III, or somehow come up with tens of millions of gold.
This became a massive problem for all the people who didn't rush. If you rushed, you were able to progress normally, for less money. The auction was flooded with gear from the two brokens classes (at the time, Demon Hunters and Wizards). However, since nobody knew what was good or bad, you could find amazing deals. This allowed the melee who rushed, to obtain there gear from the AH for fairly resonable prices. Melee was able to obtain there gear, because those who rushed sold Act I and Act II loot for huge prices, since virtually every player was not in Inferno yet. I was one of those lucky few who rushed, and was able to gear up my Barb a lot cheaper then many. While selling Act I and II gear to sub level 60's for huge money. Remember when 1000 DPS 2h went for 2 million? I do.
However those melee that DID NOT rush, were fucked. If you hit Inferno a week or two ago. There was virtually no way you could properly progress as melee. Loot you needed for Act III was NOT obtainable by normal means. Shitty shields are 5 million, blue rings are 500k a piece, weapons another 5+ milion. The AH became inflated to a huge degree.
So, Blizzard made the progression ramp a lot easier. I have no issue with this. I want everyone to be able to complete the game. It means a lot more people will be trading items and overall the experience will be more fun for more people.
Another thing Blizzard did, was just make it easier for melee, since the game was harder for melee then it was for ranged (except WD, WD are broken, garbage and need love from Blizz). The way you feel right now, is how many Demon Hunters and Wizards in HALF your gear felt before the patch. I know my Wizard easily steamrolled the game pre 1.0.3 in relatively crappy gear.
You also seem to not be accounting for the fact you have good gear. The game is meant to be easy for those who have good gear. The game was easy before 1.0.3 for those who had decent gear. Thats Diablo.
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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.