Witch Doctor

Bahumat

FH is my second home
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
16,788
Those ones which summon the pink lasers and who also have shields are a right ball ache!

ATM I have 15k HP and about 3k damage so I'm hoping that keeps me covered.
 

LordjOX

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
3,885
Running with twink WD through normal and next NM (get some really good gear for the difficulty for a mere 20k)

Dire bats is very good
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
10,466
I can only imagine how slow some people are going with some of the builds here :p

I rather take it a little bit more slowly then run around with a cookie cutter wtfpwn build that will be nerfed later.

I just wish that a pet build were viable above normal mode. Those zombie dogs are just utterly useless. :(
 

ECA

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
9,452
I rather take it a little bit more slowly then run around with a cookie cutter wtfpwn build that will be nerfed later.

I just wish that a pet build were viable above normal mode. Those zombie dogs are just utterly useless. :(

That build isn't going to get nerfed, you can do the same thing with zombie dogs/acid cloud, in fact if you get main hand and offhand w/ mana regen it buffs that build quite a bit.

Also, pet builds are viable in nightmare and hell. You use them to shield you while stood behind them and use health orbs as soon as they drop to heal them ( you can setup runes to help w/ this as well ).
 

ECA

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
9,452
Is anyone else on inferno and want to talk builds? WD seems totally boned for inferno. ( I'm about half way through act 2 ).

Having to resort to total glass cannon status.

Soul walk
Soul harvest
Hex
Gargantuan

Poison Dart
Grasp of the Dead.

Using +20%dmg passive, etc.

( this is w/ 17k ish dps ).
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
10,466
Also, pet builds are viable in nightmare and hell. You use them to shield you while stood behind them and use health orbs as soon as they drop to heal them ( you can setup runes to help w/ this as well ).

Yeah i've tried that. Problem is that even with runes that help my pets and damage debuff runes, especially the zombie dogs die to fast. Usually a lot faster then i can run around and collect health orbs. :)

The Gargantuan is doing pretty good though.


And on a totally different note. Has anyone found the toad of hugeness rune even remotely useful? And how the hell does that actually work? Do i have to wait for that thing to despawn before i summon a new one or is it enough to just have it "swallow" a mob to summon a new one?
 

Aada

Part of the furniture
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
6,716
Heh yeah 2 skills that are just really poor no matter what way you toss them.
 

Bahumat

FH is my second home
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
16,788
D3 Witch Doctor Guide – Ability Damage, Weapon Speed, and You
There is one mechanic that you must know about if you play as a Witch Doctor: the difference between damage dealt FOR time versus damage dealt OVER time. This makes a huge difference in the effectiveness of your skills as well as will change the type of weapon you will want to use.
Damage for time and damage over time abilities do not stack but rather refresh in duration. This means that if you use Haunt on an enemy twice, you will not get two different stacks of Haunt but rather the second cast will just refresh the duration to 12 seconds.

When weapon damage is dealt OVER time, the damage of your skill is calculated based on your weapon damage and then spread out over the duration of the skill. This means fast weapons will have their low weapon damage spread out over the ability’s duration. In fact, fast weapons are extremely weak when using these skills. Haunt, Acid Cloud, and Locust Swarm all fit into this category.

The reason is because fast weapons make up for their low weapon damage by attacking more frequently (obviously). However, since Haunt deals damage over 12 seconds, being able to attack more frequently is completely irrelevant since this skill can only be cast once every 12 seconds anyway!

Grasp of the Dead on the other hand is a damage FOR time spell. It deals 20% weapon damage for 8 seconds, meaning it is based on your weapon speed. You can simply multiple the damage of the skill by your attacks per second to get your actual DPS. So if your weapon attacks 1.8 times per second, you can multiply 1.8 * 20% weapon damage for 36% weapon damage per second dealt with that particular weapon. A slower weapon will have higher weapon damage but a lower multiplier, making Grasp of the Dead a fast weapon-friendly skill.
In short, any Witch Doctor skill which deals damage over time benefits immensely from a slow, powerful 2-handed weapon. If you plan on making use of Haunt, Acid Cloud, and Locust Swarm, you should choose a two-handed weapon and avoid fast daggers.
On the other hand, Grasp of the Dead does not rely on weapon speed. Neither do skills you can chain cast like Splinters with Poison Dart or Firebats. Fast weapons work just fine with these abilities.
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
10,466
Ah, that would explain why my damage is so utterly shit despite having a really sweet ceremonial knife...

Great, now i need to find a 2h weapon with int, vit and mana regen that is comparable with my dagger and voodoo doll....
 

Bahumat

FH is my second home
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
16,788
Ah, that would explain why my damage is so utterly shit despite having a really sweet ceremonial knife...

Great, now i need to find a 2h weapon with int, vit and mana regen that is comparable with my dagger and voodoo doll....
wont be too hard if you search for reduction in level. will bone your current gear i reckon
 

LordjOX

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
3,885
Ah, that would explain why my damage is so utterly shit despite having a really sweet ceremonial knife...

Great, now i need to find a 2h weapon with int, vit and mana regen that is comparable with my dagger and voodoo doll....
Don't think it's possible to find a non-ceremonial knife weapon with mana regen, as it is a WD only resource
 

Ctuchik

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
10,466
Nope there isn't.

Really though, having that kind of mechanics to DoT damage is just stupid imo. I don't want to run around with a frikkin 2 handed hammer just because the swing time of the weapon determines how much my spells will hit for...
 

eksdee

FH is my second home
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
4,469
I'm running around with a 2H hammer on my Wizard :p. Totally silly, but I'm fine with 22k DPS! :D
 

BloodOmen

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
18,136
upto 29.4k dps on my wizard now, been looking for gear with int/vit/all resists/crit on ;( not finding much tho
 

eksdee

FH is my second home
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
4,469
Yeah and when you do see a good bargain it gets snapped up in seconds. :p
 

Bahumat

FH is my second home
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
16,788
Is anyone else on inferno and want to talk builds? WD seems totally boned for inferno. ( I'm about half way through act 2 ).

Having to resort to total glass cannon status.

Soul walk
Soul harvest
Hex
Gargantuan

Poison Dart
Grasp of the Dead.

Using +20%dmg passive, etc.

( this is w/ 17k ish dps ).

How are you killing mobs with that build? Poison dart is single target and surely gargatuan cant hold agro for long?

I'm on act 4 hell now I think. Using soul walk, soul harvest, hex, confusion. Then acid cloud and zombie bears. I have a weapon with 2.6% life steal on which keeps my health topped up when spamming mobs.

I would be interested to know your setup and if it's changed? The current spec is a twist on your one hehe.
 

Litmus

Resident Freddy
Joined
Dec 30, 2003
Messages
1,577
wow that will kill the market after time, will be 999999999 of everything on the AH
 

BloodOmen

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
18,136
If the market was ever fucked Blizzard would fix it because that's how the greedy fucks will make money once the RMAH goes live, RMAH is the sole reason Inferno is like it is, to drive more people into spending money on the RMAH in hopes of out gearing it... sadly they have a massive shock incoming as gear has very little to do with surviving in Inferno, it plays a role sure but the real reason people are dying in Inferno is broken as fuck champion packs and monsters hitting way to hard.
 

Bahumat

FH is my second home
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
16,788
I just killed Butcher on Inferno. Got 3 blues. Fuck you in the ass!
Also this game is retarded difficult when you have mobs with shields, fire and poison trails and mortars running about in a dungeon the size of my left nipple
 

ECA

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
9,452
How are you killing mobs with that build? Poison dart is single target and surely gargatuan cant hold agro for long?

I'm on act 4 hell now I think. Using soul walk, soul harvest, hex, confusion. Then acid cloud and zombie bears. I have a weapon with 2.6% life steal on which keeps my health topped up when spamming mobs.

I would be interested to know your setup and if it's changed? The current spec is a twist on your one hehe.

I just killed Butcher on Inferno. Got 3 blues. Fuck you in the ass!
Also this game is retarded difficult when you have mobs with shields, fire and poison trails and mortars running about in a dungeon the size of my left nipple

Yeah the spec I posted is really for keeping max range ( runspeed boots a must ) and just keeping grasp down and getting damage in with splinter wherever possible while staying away.
Using bruiser on garg just for the extra stun and using the scoundrel multishot+snare to help out a bit in that regard also.

I'm not entirely sure I'm doing it right but almost at the end of act 2 inferno, I havn't really had a chance to experiment since last post here because I was busy irl.


Act 1 inferno is a joke, almost a seperate difficulty level to act 2 onwards.
 

LordjOX

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
3,885
I just killed Butcher on Inferno. Got 3 blues. Fuck you in the ass!
Also this game is retarded difficult when you have mobs with shields, fire and poison trails and mortars running about in a dungeon the size of my left nipple
Was this with 5 stacks of nephalem valor?
 

Bahumat

FH is my second home
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
16,788
Nope Jox I had the buff and was grouped with a friend but we died 3 times, decided to try it solo and had to switch my build to kill him. When you switch spells you lose the buff :(
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom