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On May 20 2012 21:14 GwSC wrote:
Just curious, what builds are people using as they move from like level 30-40? The majority of the builds I see seem to be centered on passives/runes that you get at levels 40-50+.
I'm getting tired of soul harvest/dire bat spamming so I've been experimenting trying to find one that I really like, haven't quite found one though.
Frogs with locust swarm with spiritual attunement, gruesome feast, pierce the veil, or the one where you spend 15% hp instead of mana. To that you add mass confusion and fetish army, and you have a setup that kills champions and large packs of monsters equally well. You can even drop swarm in favor of something like horrify for better protection and more disruption, and hex is really good for champions and rares. Frogs deal insane damage so they are the mainstay in this build. Other two skills are soul harvest, with the HP rune, because it's a vital offensive and defensive skill, and spirit walk, because corpse runs are not fun and without it you'll end up doing a ton of them on nightmare.
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On May 19 2012 21:42 DrGreen wrote:@up I don't like this mana regen passive, It forces you to spam skills even when you dont need them and you end up with dying when they are on cd. Also life steal from weapon is very weak when you have 10k dps and 30k hp, thats why I;m using +1% hp regen passive. I found this guy: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1134520-Witch-Doctor-Inferno-Solo-Skeleton-Kingand gonna try this build when I get home.
I'm not ashamed to admit that after grueling my way to the end of Act 2 on Hell, that I was completely wrong on vision quest and agree with you 100%
The one thing I found out with Vision Quest the further you get into Hell is that you _DIE_SO_MUCH_
You are completely right about the cooldowns, you just can't spam abilities like Spirit Walk or Long Cooldowns, you need to save them. Spirit Walk especially, I went to using that ability everytime it came off cooldown to saving it for the last possible moment if things are starting to look bad...you just can't beat certain Grip/Teleport/Vortex/Jailer affix elites (without getting extremely lucky or dieing 3-4 times in the process) if you use your Spirit Walk liberally, they are so hard to predict and most of their attacks are unavoidable at times...
Also agree with you on Blood Ritual, I thought this was terrible and meant for high mana cost spells but I didn't really think it could also work for mana efficient spells that you can kite with, you truly don't appreciate this passive until you are in Hell, kiting monsters for 2-3mins on end with less than 50% HP at all times, the amount of healing you get out of it on Hell+ is nuts
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If Anyone is having trouble with Hell+ as a WD then try the build mentioned in DrGreen's post
He doesn't mention his Passives but I'm 99% sure they are: Blood Ritual, Perice the Dark and Spirit Vessel.
You don't need the damage reduction passives as you are running around quite a lot, so you don't tend to take a lot of damage upfront. If anyone is in Hell then they know that fights vs Elites last minutes where you are running around a lot, Blood Ritual combined with his use of Low mana cost spells actually provides a significant amount of effective healing in elite fights...I've been in fights that have lasted 5mins+ where I was never at full HP, ending the fight at around 20%HP, meaing the passive provided ~75k worth of healing (I have 25k max hp atm)
Here is the build I used that is slightly different from his (choose what abilities that feel comfortable to you, I don't like Garg as it seems that elites kill it in 5seconds maybe if you pick different passives?)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ahUdXj!XWV!aZcZYa
(Build is for Hell+, you can get away with quite a lot on lower difficulties)
This to note:
* You HAVE to Kite, start learning if you are using to killing things in 2seconds before they do the same to you :p
* If you are used to Vision Quest then it might take a bit to get used to, just try to get mind set right--the Devs didn't design the Witch Doctor class to be spamming their most mana inefficient spells non-stop with a bottomless mana pool.
* DON'T save Spirit Walk for Soul Harvest, or use Spirit Walk with Soul Harvest all the time. Whenever I use Spirit Walk + Soul Harvest 80% of the time it is for the Burst heal because I'm near death and 20% of the time it is because I know I can get away with it just for the damage boost. If you play a little smarter you don't have to run into enemies face first just to get 3-5stacks of Soul Harvest
* Stagger your cooldowns. When you having Spirit Vessel, Blood Ritual and 25k+ HP you can take a few hits, you can afford to just walk in to mobs to Soul Harvest. Don't panic and chain Mass Confusion right after your Horrify. Use your head obviously, sometimes you have to mash the buttons to survive but when you've gotten use to kiting you will be surprised at how long you can wait before you feel like you need to use one to avoid dieing, also stops you from dieing too as you don't go for 20-30seconds hoping nothing goes wrong
* DON'T use 2Handed Weapons if you want to kite well, sure they may provide better DOT damage but they are too slow (sans Bow I guess, but that doesn't have good WD stats) and the difference between trying to kite with a 1.0speed weapon and a 1.5speed weapon on Hell feels worlds apart, 0.5seconds of standing still is more than enough to kill you
* Use a One handed weapon + Shield as well as some +% attack speed gear helps immensely (I use 1.5second main hand with ~+20% attack speed total, more than that felt over kill) if you want to Kite with abilities like Poison Dart/Fire Bomb. (just so you know, keep a slower weapon spare if you happen to use a Vision Quest build in groups or like to in some situations, as you will run out of mana too fast with a fast main hand + %attackspeed enchants)
* Survivability is more important than damage, I had more damage at the start of ACT1 on Hell than when I finished ACT1 on Hell, but I was having x10 harder of a time at the start than at the end
* Make to use boots with +10% movespeed enchant or higher
* Get ~20yards+ on item pick up radius total...to many times have I died trying to get those health globes...
edit:
Holy fuck that was longer than I thought it was lol, cut it down a bit..
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The longer I play solo Hell (now at end of Act 2), the more I'm starting to dislike the Doctor  He feel extremely weak solo at this difficulty. Nightmare was a breeze. Very fast and easy. But in Hell, certain elite packs are almost impossible to kill.
I recently swapped all my +dmg items with +hp, so I have around 30k HP atm (lvl 56).
I've tried a few different builds, but this one gave me most success recently: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#bfXUdR!ZVU!bcYZZZ
I will give the build suggested above a try though: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ahUdXj!XWV!aZcZYa
since I don't really like to rely on the Vision Quest passive. Interesting to see that Blood Ritual is good defensively. Stacking HP is even stronger with that passive I guess.
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#fkUdRT!VUb!cYZZac
Here is my build. Yes, you have to spam abilities but they're all abilities with similar cooldown and either restore your HP or mana. Gargantuan is to help tank and stun a bit, Soul Harvest + Spirit Walk are obvious and give mana + HP (when spamming Bears, you still are not able to spam it entirely, it's a gradual trade that you eventually lose, so spirit walk will help pick your mana back up).
Hex for more CC
and Wall of Zombies is a great abilities to cause knockback and does 765% weap. damage with a good cooldown to help with vision quest (so when Wall of Zombies is down, you can save your spirit walk for when you need to escape).
Passives should be self-explanatory. Some kiting involved, but its typically not that bad. I'm on [Act 2 of Inferno].
Face-roll your keyboard: 1234, right-click, left-click then 1,2,3 (or 2,3) left-click
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I've tried the spam builds but I've run into too many situations where you just can't get close due to ridiculous affixes like..pretty much 80% of the affix combinations I've found really...usually have to die 2-3 times to reduce the group to a few monsters to be able to kill them, near impossible to kill them from start to finish...
The build I suggested doesn't kill things quite as quickly (but again, I doubt the devs imagined you would be spamming your most mana inefficient spells non-stop with a bottomless mana pool) but is very safe and when you get the hang of it you don't die too often, and when you do die it is more than likely your fault (mis-kiting, etc) and not because your garg got ripped in 2seconds and you can't kite monsters well enough with the skills you have
Wall of Zombies is hard to aim at times and can often miss a lot of the monsters you were trying to get, you also need to use a weapon with high damage range which is probably going to be a 0.95-1.00 speed weapon, I don't like the slow cast time in Hell, very hard to cast and move..
But I guess it is preference really, I've really enjoyed using the build DrGreen suggested since now I rarely die killing elites (Except for those ones in the sewers with bullshit affixes), takes a bit longer maybe but I guess there is the time I save staring at the res screen :p
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Wall of Zombies is hard to aim at times and can often miss a lot of the monsters you were trying to get, you also need to use a weapon with high damage range which is probably going to be a 0.95-1.00 speed weapon, I don't like the slow cast time in Hell, very hard to cast and move..
Hex or you can use the last rune for it which is less damage, but aoe and all around you (spirit walk + soul harvest and pop it within the 2-3 seconds of spirit walk).
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Yeah, that is pretty much what I was running except I'd always rotate Hex/Garb/Wall every fight, but I died far too much for my liking...and you got into some brutal situations like where you used one Zombie bear too much when a bunch of skills all come off cooldown at the same time putting you in low mana for ages or unable to use the spells you want..
Especially frustrating when you swap in skills like Horrify or Mass Confusion for those fights where Hex doesn't really cut it and you run into the above scenario...
The build I'm using right now is like night and day really, you have much greater control in fights and so much freedom, you don't hit like a truck but the damage output is often the same given how fights can cause a lot of movement...mostly because you have a lot more opportunities to attack..kinda like microing a marine lol
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I am a real team guy, really love teamwork in every aspect of my life. So, as soon as I've finished normal mode solo to embrace lore, I grabbed my friends and started to slay minions of hell. We finished nightmare mode and now we are in hell mode.
As a WD, I accepted my low damage (relatively) and certain weaknesses. But WD has amazing utilities to help the party, and fits to the role well.
I am having a lot of fun, helping with crowd controls, party buffs. I think when you look at it that way, you can enjoy your WD more.
On the other hand, haven't played harder difficulties solo, so I can't say anything about that part of the game. But hell, I am having lots of fun in hell mode with my pals 
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#acUdZQ!YWb!aaZZab
This is my build, but I always change it. To put a note on that matter, I really wished Blizzard had put spec-switch option.
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Hey guys, i reached inferno 2 days ago and had huge problems at first but then i changed up my skills and got better gear.
Basically i kite units while locust swarm kills alle the little guys (i try to get of a soul harvest for even faster killspeed).
Vs fast guys i use spirit walk, wall of zombies to hold em off until they die. After all the little guys are down i run around, get the health globes for extra dmg (passive skill), turn fetishe on and rape the bosspacks. Works really well.
Without any buffs i got 12k dmg, with all buffs+passive after 5 health globes i got around 30k which kills anything.
Edit: My Skills: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hSUdkP!ZYW!bccZbc
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On May 20 2012 21:14 GwSC wrote:
Just curious, what builds are people using as they move from like level 30-40? The majority of the builds I see seem to be centered on passives/runes that you get at levels 40-50+.
I'm getting tired of soul harvest/dire bat spamming so I've been experimenting trying to find one that I really like, haven't quite found one though.
Grasp of Dead
Soul Harvest/Spirit Walk
Haunt
Fire Bomb or Darts
Hex
Gargantuan
Mix and match, but Haunt is to help do some DoT as you run and kite. You have a little bit of everything.
Hex + Soul Harves to heal.
Spirit Walk for escape
Grasp of Dead + Haunt is to help slow and kite and do damage as you want and you use the firebomb or darts to do damage while your haunt does its own thing in the meantime.
I hate fetish army because it has a long cooldown and I like haunt because it has a bigger range.
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ahZPTU!eZV!aZYZcc is my current build on Inferno (both solo and group atm. as the old one started to fall off rapidly during inferno due lack of survival).
I have too much attackspeed to sustain Pierce The Veil, even with the low mana main skills. Fetish Sycophants is placeholder, I've been experimenting with Bad Medicine but since my only poison damage source is darts, it's rather redudant against multiple enemies and despite being rather useless otherwise the fetishes spawn at decent rate from passive with reasonable attack speed (they are mere distractions).
I'm considering Blood Ritual, Gruesome Feast and Tribal Rites as options, though they probably wont live to full potential with the build. Fetish Army is something I tried to use instead of Soul Harvest as damage wasn't as much of issue as survival, the extra damage/aggro/blocking from them works pretty decently with reduced cooldown, still need to check wheter some form of Horrify or Hex would work better or even return to Soul Harvest at some point.
It's been working pretty well through Act I of Inferno (Butcher was no problem either), though I might be carried by the gear at this point (thanks for the sweet weapon Leoric).
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can you explain why a lot of people are using Fetish Army? cooldown is too long to use vs normal mobs, and bosses are too tough to kill in twenty seconds. it seemed pretty weak to me.
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They keep the boss busy so you can just stand there and unload and get a lot of good damage time in.
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Has anyone figured out which follower is best suited for a WD? I used enchantress in normal but I'm now that I'm in NM and can't one shot everything, I'm thinking that maybe one of the other two may be more useful (templar to tank?). Suggestions?
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Solo WD is very difficult to do, but duoing is actually great for him in Hell+. Im duoing with a monk friend at the moment with great success using this build:
Zombie Charger - Bears
Locusts - Devouring Plague
Soul Harvest - Siphon
Spirit Walk - Honoured Guest
Hex - Hedge Magic
Horrify - armour rune i cant remember the name of
Passives are Jungle Fort, Bad Medicine, and Pierce The Veil
This build works great duoing because you can be much more liberal with your cooldowns, which allows for mass spamming of bears, which at level 60 for me in inferno with a ~600 dps weapon and 5 SH stacks hit for ~22k per bear noncrit. Solo the build becomes much more difficult to use, but you can get away with tossing off a few bears here and there along with locusts, kiting, and then using your cooldowns when needed as well as regaining your mana from vision quest. Id say to solo with this build you really need a good deal of armour and resistances, since zombie bears become most effective with big dps 2 handed weapons.
To be honest though, if you want to roll a class that's easier to solo hell and beyond, don't pick WD. He's much more fun in a group.
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Heres the build I've been running since forever.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#afUdSj!XWb!YYZcab
Priority is on locust swarm with pestilence because it just destroys entire rooms in one cast. Zombie charger and darts to finish things off or just throw charger into huge packs while they're swarmed rapes. I'm gonna experiment with bears a bit just dinged 54 so havent had a chance.
Then spirit walk into packs to get my soul harvest stacks up and gtfo asap.
Mass confusion whenever I need it.
My damage is at 5.4k with around 24k hp at level 54.
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On May 21 2012 09:13 MattLz wrote:
Solo WD is very difficult to do, but duoing is actually great for him in Hell+. Im duoing with a monk friend at the moment with great success using this build:
Zombie Charger - Bears
Locusts - Devouring Plague
Soul Harvest - Siphon
Spirit Walk - Honoured Guest
Hex - Hedge Magic
Horrify - armour rune i cant remember the name of
Passives are Jungle Fort, Bad Medicine, and Pierce The Veil
This build works great duoing because you can be much more liberal with your cooldowns, which allows for mass spamming of bears, which at level 60 for me in inferno with a ~600 dps weapon and 5 SH stacks hit for ~22k per bear noncrit. Solo the build becomes much more difficult to use, but you can get away with tossing off a few bears here and there along with locusts, kiting, and then using your cooldowns when needed as well as regaining your mana from vision quest. Id say to solo with this build you really need a good deal of armour and resistances, since zombie bears become most effective with big dps 2 handed weapons.
To be honest though, if you want to roll a class that's easier to solo hell and beyond, don't pick WD. He's much more fun in a group.
WD is probably the easiest class to solo with actually. Using a 2020Poison build you can pretty much kite anything to death while it dies to dots. I'm clearing Act IV Hell right now. Soloed the entire game
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Up to level 60 if you are stuck on some part of the game just level up on some quests (usually its 10% of lvl for one 5min run) and buy better gear, its the simpliest solution. Tricky part starts on inferno where your only customization comes from skill build and items (no lvl boost)
Currently farming Inferno act 1 with: (aka run from after skeleton king to butcher and killing everything on the way)
dart, 2nd rune
haunt, slow (or mp regen if you dont have it from items)
grasp with last rune
soul harvest +dmg
spirit walk +dmg
horrify +armor
passives: 2nd life one, hp regen, +20% dmg/cost
Usually it takes 2-3 minutes to kill an elite group. I rarely have problems with elites/champs on inferno act 1, the only annoying ones are invincible minions cause you have to run a lot. Vs vortex/jail/waller you can easily defend with horrify or spirit walk (with both you rarely are defenseless). If you meet some hard hitting group with 'fast', usually the easiest solution is to get to some teleport/door and DoT them with grasp/haunt, do a 234 combo and get their numbers down, then you can kill them normally.
Basically you spirit walk into a group of mobs, harvest, horrify, haunt if there're some high hp mobs and finish them off with dart. It should go smoothly if you have 12k+ dps.
Currently I have ~19k dps and 40k hp. Planning to move to act 2 tommorow (monsters there are annoying as ****)
Also I wouldn't recommend trying Butcher with less than 13-14k dps, you might succeed only if you are lucky (frikkin fire everywhere when Butch <15%)
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just for any lower level Witch Doctor that is curious about stat progression
my Lvl 49 WD just entered Act 4 NM completely solo so far and haven't bought anything from AH. still using some items that are Lvl 20-30.
base DPS is 2271 (have Pierce the Veil), max self buffed DPS is 5402 (Gruesome Feast/Soul Harvest), HP is 11824
+ Show Spoiler +[/img]
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Random chats are random
Enchantress: Are you considered handsome in your culture?
Witch Doctor: (Very calmly...) Why do you think I wear so little..?
Enchanterss: OH! I see.... >.>
Made me ROFL.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JHegf.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PnKyZ.jpg)
