The less time you spend on running = the more time you spend on damage dealing.
Let me correct you.
The less time you spend on running = The more inefficient you are = the less legendaries you get = the less XP you you get = DING maximum level of being counter productive achieved.
I can pull an entire dungeon with this build and then sit while spamming bats for a little while... things die fast (not faster as a glass cannon, sure, but fast enough and with the not dying bonus). Posion on the floor... nope, not moving, lightning... still nope, arcane turrets... boooooring...
You are fast and productive... as long as you don't pull 2 mobs... stay... spam bats... pull 3 more mobs... stop... spam bats... Just run, Locust Swarm now and then, some Haunt if you feel it, Piranhas at CD )to see a lot of ppl following you while some zombie fishes gnaw they heads)... are you at the end of the floor? yep? turn around, spam bats... profit.
I want to be honest, but isn't this build just incredibly boring? Again, I may have played it wrong, but I gave it a spin because the chance to facetank most mobs was appealing. Basically, save for your firebats most of your DPS output (LP w/ pestilence, Haunt w/ life return) is there to support you and part of your setup rotation, then you open up with firebats and basically turret enemies down, w/ fetish + pets adding peripheral DPS?
The way I played it was Piranha, LP a mob, Haunt another mob, then park my ass and firebats things down. Can't really spam anything as mana gets taxed quickly.
Again, there may be something I'm missing. Tough and strong, I agree. Fun? Meh.
I must admit that this build is boring in many ways due to low DPS lead to slow clearing speed.
And the rotation doesn't have much variety too.
Still, I think each build has their boring side in it's own way.
So, you need to choose what kind of boring you want to live with.
In the early day, I like to play Bear Doctor the most.
I like it's huge damage number and how fast they can stomp thing to the ground.
But the down side of DPS build is it fragile, And the Elites doesn't drop dead that fast.
With some horrible Affix combine, It's very hard to stay alive for entire fight.
Especially when you try to burst them down with your short-rang Zombie Bear.
You must run a lot or die a lot, and that's boring for me.
Because I hate running or die in a couple second.
It's the point that you need to choose.
Between a high DPS Witch Doctor build who kill thing fast but need to run a lot or die a lot.
Or a Tanky Witch Doctor build who have low DPS but can stand and fight everything.
Boring by running around the deadly group of Elites or boring while stand still and watch them die slowly.
It's up to each person's play style that which way is the most suitable for him/her.
The ruby increase the pure damage of your pets.... But the emerald increase the pets crits..
any thoughts on this?
donvigo
I run this build with some minor changes, but I keep the pets, and this gem issue has been a problem for me as well.
The Ruby does bump up your pet damage quite a bit, however the Emerald only does so much. I can't remember where I saw/heard that your pets can only do 50% Crit Damage. I haven't tested this but I think it's right. So the emerald will have no effect on your pets DPS if you already have over 50% crit chance. Ruby on the other hand will increase both yours and pets DPS.
Pet has critical hit damage cap at 50% indeed.
So, Ruby is a better choice for weapon slot in this build.
And all of our skill are DoT or channeling spell which doesn't profit much from critical hit rate too. (They can crit on the first hit only)
By that, I prefer to priority Int and attack speed as a main stat to aim.
I was running a straight pets build since ROS came out and it felt like it was missing something. Your build has what i'm looking for. I switched to this build last night and it's really fun. I love seeing a whole room become infected with Locus after casting it once. Thanks for the great build! I've made a few changes [i can play without Spirit walk on my bar and I like Leaching beasts over life link. ] but I know I'll be running this build for a while.
Core > Move Speed
Offense > Attack Speed
Defense> Life Regeneration
Utility > Area Damage
You should keep your bonus move speed close to maximum move speed bonus (25%) at all time.
If you have some gear that provide move speed bonus for you, you can distribute the extra point to DPS stat like INT.
But I recommend to get all 25% extra move speed from Paragon Point.
Because move speed from Item can reforge to another useful stat like +% damage or +% Attack speed or etc.
Which is worth more than 250 INT from Paragon point.
For Defense.
Extra Health just make you a big sack of meat, and bonus armor won't give you much, unless you have 8k+ of armor.
All resist doesn't scale very well after you have more than 1k too.
So, I think Life Regeneration give the best bonus per paragon point.
I put 40 point on it and it give me 6k Life regen per second. Which is nice.
For Utility category. Area Damage can improve your damage a little.
It not much, but I think it's the most useful stats compare to the rest.
Resource cost reduction doesn't make much different even at full level, and can easily replace by bonus mana regeneration.
Life on Hit proc only once for DoT and channeling spell. And I think pet can't proc any on hit effect.
Gold find... No, thanks.
Hey there. I' not quite 70 yet (been slogging through story mode between work), but I've got some gear that gives total of 23% Locust damage, and 15% poison, so was looking for a good build to take advantage of that and found yours. Looks good, but are there other runes you've toyed with, like Piranhado, Big Stinker, or Leeching Beasts?
Going to test this out on my alt WD sometime during the week when I get bored of the monk. Just found a nice legendary ceremonial knife so looking forward to doing some testing.
Hey there. I' not quite 70 yet (been slogging through story mode between work), but I've got some gear that gives total of 23% Locust damage, and 15% poison, so was looking for a good build to take advantage of that and found yours. Looks good, but are there other runes you've toyed with, like Piranhado, Big Stinker, or Leeching Beasts?
Each skill has their pros and cons. So, you can choose whatever you feel that it suit you the most.
I try all of it too, and found out that I like Zombie Piranhas the most, because it's wide area effect.
Same goes for every skill, you need to try it and choose what you like.
Just avoid some Runes that change the skill properties like Frozen Piranhas because it will change damage type to cold that don't apply Bad Medicine.
1) What buff you prefer more: "+%Physical dmg"(for pets) or "+%Fire dmg"(for yourself")??
a) If you don't have pet-buffs-items(Mask of Jeram, Tasker and theo, 4-zuni set)?
if you have some of this from (a)
2) Changes in build for hardcore. What you think?
a) simple way: change hount to spirit walk. (but as a hc-player - afraid to play without passive "spirit vessel")
take spirit vessel: change bad medicine?
I prefer +% Fire damage for your Firebats because it's more reliable.
It's need more than 1 piece of Legendary bonus to make your pet more effective as damage dealer than your Firebats.
Mask of Jeram maybe an only piece that can play individually if you have a really high Damage and Attack per second.
Other piece or sets bonus don't worth the effort to invest in your pets.
For Hardcore.
You can change Haunt to Spirit Walk for more survivability as you like.
But I think trade Bad Medicine with Spirit Vessel is not a good idea.
Spirit Vessel is good for a fragile build that can die in a split second.
But for this build, thing like that are hardly to happen because you have a lot of Pets and 45% damage reduction from all skills sum up.
Even with half DPS gear, this build still a bit over-tanky in my opinion.
So, if you want to play it more safely, try to aim for defensive stat from gear and you'll be fine.
I've gotten Ukhapian Serpent, Hwoj Wrap and Jaren. I have a lack of fire dmg so I'm using a mix of Physical and Poison % increases. I really like the idea of going really tank instead of glass cannonespeciallywhen going into T2+. All other builds rely on the used of Spirit Walk and Vessel to keep you up in T2+ and I'm pretty sick of playing that way.
My problem with the build is when I'm sometimes grouped up with my monk friend who is really tank. I feel pretty useless at that point. When he leaves though all my other friend who are all dps complain hard when I afk because minibosses wreck them. It's nice that the new meta game practically requires someone to be the beefy guy and take the mobs attention past T2.
Is there a certain weapon to shoot for on this build? I'm using a crappy thing right now.
Big fan of this build, I started using it right when I hit 70 and am loving it. I was fortunate to get Uhkapian Serpent shortly after hitting T1 rifts. Are you still currently using this build, and if so, can you link your profile I'd like to see what other gear I should be aiming for.
For Hardcore.
You can change Haunt to Spirit Walk for more survivability as you like.
But I think trade Bad Medicine with Spirit Vessel is not a good idea.
Spirit Vessel is good for a fragile build that can die in a split second.
But for this build, thing like that are hardly to happen because you have a lot of Pets and 45% damage reduction from all skills sum up.
Even with half DPS gear, this build still a bit over-tanky in my opinion.
So, if you want to play it more safely, try to aim for defensive stat from gear and you'll be fine.
I was lucky to get Mask of Jeram. And now experiment with some VB-fetish buids. For now i like more "agressive" build with 'Pierce the veil' and 'Spirit vessel'. (like from build "Fire Doc/VB+FP"). Mostly because i afraid to play withoiut SV: you are some kind "risky melee range" and without SV it can be some bad elite affixes and RiP.(i twice almost die... ) With SV you know - you can't die instantly. If it is activated - you can return home, or avoid fights and wait cd-off.) So for hc play without SV scary for me. But i also understand idea of build(like it, rly!) and understand that all 4 passives 'must be'. I can take more defensive stats, but will lose dps. How much dps/toughness you need for solo T2, T3? Resists? For example i can take "Ukhapian Serpent (60lvl) with 30%reduce" or 2sets(blackthorne) or change smth.But with lower dps mobs will live longer and dps yourself... I will try some more experiments, hope will survive.
2-nd thing i don't like in the build: No bbVoodoo. But it can be replaced with Gargantuan i think...
--------------------------------------------
Is there a certain weapon to shoot for on this build? I'm using a crappy thing right now.
Any fast weapon with good damage is fine.
For some thing specific, I think The Gidbinn and Starmethal Kukri is a godly weapon for Witch Doctor who play pets build.
And I'm looking for them too.
Big fan of this build, I started using it right when I hit 70 and am loving it. I was fortunate to get Uhkapian Serpent shortly after hitting T1 rifts. Are you still currently using this build, and if so, can you link your profile I'd like to see what other gear I should be aiming for.
Sadly, I playing on SEA server, and Blizzard don't make an English profile page for people in Asia server yet.
Since I have The Grin Reaper and Homunculus, I can drop some skill for more damage.
Spirit Barrage and Zombie Bear is for Mimics only. (Free cast by Mimic proc from The Grin Reaper)
Piercing Vail instead of Jungle Fortitude for more DPS.
In game, I have 450k damage and 9m toughness.
I can solo clear T1 Rift within 10-12 min and T2 Rift within 15-18 min. So, normally, I go for T1.
There's still many piece of gear that I want to replace for more DPS (chest, sash, legs, hand, amulet)
And I'm still looking for Mask of Jeram and those godly Ceremonial Knife too.
Quote fromOSIK.bp»How much dps/toughness you need for solo T2, T3? Resists? For example i can take "Ukhapian Serpent (60lvl) with 30%reduce" or 2sets(blackthorne) or change smth.But with lower dps mobs will live longer and dps yourself... I will try some more experiments, hope will survive.
2-nd thing i don't like in the build: No bbVoodoo. But it can be replaced with Gargantuan i think...
I have 450k damage and 9m toughness (around 1200-1400 of each resist) and can solo T2 with a decent speed.
Can solo T3-T4 without dying too, but it's a bit too slow to clear each mob. So, I think it doesn't worth the time you spend.
After different tests can also suggest to try Healing-Voodoo. In hard situation can be very useful and can help to be more "tanky"... Especially for party.
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Let me correct you.
The less time you spend on running = The more inefficient you are = the less legendaries you get = the less XP you you get = DING maximum level of being counter productive achieved.
Currently played toon: https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Rage-2973/hero/97362116
You are fast and productive... as long as you don't pull 2 mobs... stay... spam bats... pull 3 more mobs... stop... spam bats... Just run, Locust Swarm now and then, some Haunt if you feel it, Piranhas at CD )to see a lot of ppl following you while some zombie fishes gnaw they heads)... are you at the end of the floor? yep? turn around, spam bats... profit.
And the rotation doesn't have much variety too.
Still, I think each build has their boring side in it's own way.
So, you need to choose what kind of boring you want to live with.
In the early day, I like to play Bear Doctor the most.
I like it's huge damage number and how fast they can stomp thing to the ground.
But the down side of DPS build is it fragile, And the Elites doesn't drop dead that fast.
With some horrible Affix combine, It's very hard to stay alive for entire fight.
Especially when you try to burst them down with your short-rang Zombie Bear.
You must run a lot or die a lot, and that's boring for me.
Because I hate running or die in a couple second.
It's the point that you need to choose.
Between a high DPS Witch Doctor build who kill thing fast but need to run a lot or die a lot.
Or a Tanky Witch Doctor build who have low DPS but can stand and fight everything.
Boring by running around the deadly group of Elites or boring while stand still and watch them die slowly.
It's up to each person's play style that which way is the most suitable for him/her.
The Ruby does bump up your pet damage quite a bit, however the Emerald only does so much. I can't remember where I saw/heard that your pets can only do 50% Crit Damage. I haven't tested this but I think it's right. So the emerald will have no effect on your pets DPS if you already have over 50% crit chance. Ruby on the other hand will increase both yours and pets DPS.
So, Ruby is a better choice for weapon slot in this build.
And all of our skill are DoT or channeling spell which doesn't profit much from critical hit rate too. (They can crit on the first hit only)
By that, I prefer to priority Int and attack speed as a main stat to aim.
Core > Move Speed
Offense > Attack Speed
Defense> Life Regeneration
Utility > Area Damage
You should keep your bonus move speed close to maximum move speed bonus (25%) at all time.
If you have some gear that provide move speed bonus for you, you can distribute the extra point to DPS stat like INT.
But I recommend to get all 25% extra move speed from Paragon Point.
Because move speed from Item can reforge to another useful stat like +% damage or +% Attack speed or etc.
Which is worth more than 250 INT from Paragon point.
For Defense.
Extra Health just make you a big sack of meat, and bonus armor won't give you much, unless you have 8k+ of armor.
All resist doesn't scale very well after you have more than 1k too.
So, I think Life Regeneration give the best bonus per paragon point.
I put 40 point on it and it give me 6k Life regen per second. Which is nice.
For Utility category. Area Damage can improve your damage a little.
It not much, but I think it's the most useful stats compare to the rest.
Resource cost reduction doesn't make much different even at full level, and can easily replace by bonus mana regeneration.
Life on Hit proc only once for DoT and channeling spell. And I think pet can't proc any on hit effect.
Gold find... No, thanks.
a) If you don't have pet-buffs-items(Mask of Jeram, Tasker and theo, 4-zuni set)?
if you have some of this from (a)
2) Changes in build for hardcore. What you think?
a) simple way: change hount to spirit walk. (but as a hc-player - afraid to play without passive "spirit vessel")
take spirit vessel: change bad medicine?
I try all of it too, and found out that I like Zombie Piranhas the most, because it's wide area effect.
Same goes for every skill, you need to try it and choose what you like.
Just avoid some Runes that change the skill properties like Frozen Piranhas because it will change damage type to cold that don't apply Bad Medicine.
It's need more than 1 piece of Legendary bonus to make your pet more effective as damage dealer than your Firebats.
Mask of Jeram maybe an only piece that can play individually if you have a really high Damage and Attack per second.
Other piece or sets bonus don't worth the effort to invest in your pets.
For Hardcore.
You can change Haunt to Spirit Walk for more survivability as you like.
But I think trade Bad Medicine with Spirit Vessel is not a good idea.
Spirit Vessel is good for a fragile build that can die in a split second.
But for this build, thing like that are hardly to happen because you have a lot of Pets and 45% damage reduction from all skills sum up.
Even with half DPS gear, this build still a bit over-tanky in my opinion.
So, if you want to play it more safely, try to aim for defensive stat from gear and you'll be fine.
My problem with the build is when I'm sometimes grouped up with my monk friend who is really tank. I feel pretty useless at that point. When he leaves though all my other friend who are all dps complain hard when I afk because minibosses wreck them. It's nice that the new meta game practically requires someone to be the beefy guy and take the mobs attention past T2.
Is there a certain weapon to shoot for on this build? I'm using a crappy thing right now.
With SV you know - you can't die instantly. If it is activated - you can return home, or avoid fights and wait cd-off.) So for hc play without SV scary for me.
But i also understand idea of build(like it, rly!) and understand that all 4 passives 'must be'. I can take more defensive stats, but will lose dps.
How much dps/toughness you need for solo T2, T3? Resists?
For example i can take "Ukhapian Serpent (60lvl) with 30%reduce" or 2sets(blackthorne) or change smth.But with lower dps mobs will live longer and dps yourself... I will try some more experiments, hope will survive.
2-nd thing i don't like in the build: No bbVoodoo. But it can be replaced with Gargantuan i think...
For some thing specific, I think The Gidbinn and Starmethal Kukri is a godly weapon for Witch Doctor who play pets build.
And I'm looking for them too.
Sadly, I playing on SEA server, and Blizzard don't make an English profile page for people in Asia server yet.
So, I can show my profile only in Korean language like this.
http://kr.battle.net/d3/ko/profile/YoyoTanya-1946/hero/28612289
Since I have The Grin Reaper and Homunculus, I can drop some skill for more damage.
Spirit Barrage and Zombie Bear is for Mimics only. (Free cast by Mimic proc from The Grin Reaper)
Piercing Vail instead of Jungle Fortitude for more DPS.
In game, I have 450k damage and 9m toughness.
I can solo clear T1 Rift within 10-12 min and T2 Rift within 15-18 min. So, normally, I go for T1.
There's still many piece of gear that I want to replace for more DPS (chest, sash, legs, hand, amulet)
And I'm still looking for Mask of Jeram and those godly Ceremonial Knife too.
I have 450k damage and 9m toughness (around 1200-1400 of each resist) and can solo T2 with a decent speed.
Can solo T3-T4 without dying too, but it's a bit too slow to clear each mob. So, I think it doesn't worth the time you spend.
After different tests can also suggest to try Healing-Voodoo. In hard situation can be very useful and can help to be more "tanky"... Especially for party.