Ok so, I have lurked here awhile reading builds and testing them .... and while most do exactly what they describe or claim to. The biggest thing that I have found (and best advice I can give) is that they do not work for everyone. I tried the VQ Bears Builds, I tried the Rainman, I tried the Gruesome feast build posted yesterday, and countless others before it. Again I am not saying these builds do not work .... They just do not work for me. They do exactly what the intend to do and succeed fairly well. They just do not fit my gameplay.
So my build is a standard splinter build but I will explain the choices I made and even the layout of the buttons as I feel this impacts performance as much as the correct type of build for you.
I chose splinters as I do stack a bit of IAS and these things hit like a mack truck ... unbuffed (as I usually am) each individual splinter hits for around 5k .... and with how fast I shoot them ...nothing stands very long.
Secondary (right click) is Grasp of the dead.... There are many ways you can rune this ... but in Inferno you need one hell of a snare so unbreakable is the way to go. I put this on right click as i want mouse activation and accuracy to ensure it is appropraitely placed.
1 and 2 is Spirit Walk (healing journey) and Soul Harvest (siphon) These are both healing for me.... I use them as such ... If i happen to be buffed, then so be it. Buffing for 5 stacks is not my goal or intent as that can likely get you killed. I keep these on 1 and 2 as they are the fastest buttons i hit.. most reliable for me.
3 is Hex (jinx) ... I already have two heals .... and hedge magic heals is very very weak anyways.... I use jinx to up damage on the target. Most times the best way to use this ability is in conjunction with spirit walk to put yourself right on the target you want hexed. For example tons of skeletons and a summoner... grasp of the dead on the pack of skeles... pop spirit walk and run through them ... get right on the summoner and hex em. He wont be summoning, and with your already high, fast damage, plus a 40% damage buff on the hexed target ... they generally dont live through one hex. I also use it if I am kiting ... throw it out there to hex and slow up at least one of the enemies you are figting.
4 is Rain of Toads... This spell is completely insane ... The targeting on it is awesome, it ticks really fast and hits a ton of enemies. Get a big pack drop a grasp let em clump up and hit this once or twice then mow anything left with splinters. The fact it can hit past waller mobs is huge plus and a pinpoint ranged aoe is very nice to have.
Passives should be fairly self explanitory but .... Spirit Vessel for second chance is a must have in my opinion. Blood Ritual is debateable .... Spells dont cost alot in this build aside from toads, and it is only for slight mana conversation, but mainly for the Health regen .... saves me potions

Overall I have done fairly well with this ... I can routinely clear act 1 in inferno with zero deaths and skipping no elites. Act 2 is a bit harder but definately doable... I do die to wasps as i am bad about not moving from the projectiles quick enough, but that is a personal issue lol. With a bit more gear I will be farming act 2 in no time.
My dps is only 14k and my life is right at 28k .... my stats are not great and I am having no issue in farming act 1 and begining of act 2.
My only suggestion is do what works best for you, by all means try the builds out there.... see what works .... then take what you liked from each one and make your own.
Good luck all,
Avitas
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Listen, none of us are happy about this. Also, none of us know what the state of the game really is. Would we be happy with what they've got by the end of the year? Maybe. Or maybe we'd be flooding the forums complaining about the bugs and broken mechanics and bemoaning Blizzard for delivering a poor experience and breaking their usual level of quality. It's easy to say "just give it to us" now, we might not be so happy if we got what we asked for.
We all enjoy the bar Blizzard sets for itself in regards to quality; this is price we pay for the luxury of that.
Blizzard only gets one chance to launch Diablo 3 and have the monstrous initial media / fan impression. Even if they zero-day patched the game into perfection, they'd catch seriously bad press for shipping a broken game. It'd be bad for us, bad for them.
That all said, no one was a more staunch defender / believer of a 2011 launch date than myself, so trust me I'm as upset as anyone. At this point I'm just looking forward (hopefully) to beta, as like many here I've never had the opportunity to play any iteration of D3 at all, as of yet.
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"That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
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If you haven't played D2 online in a few years, go run around for an hour and see what it's like when it's as out of control as it is.
I get some people don't want to play with others / socialize / etc., and for that you can play solo in private games online. Obviously that leaves the people without the internet access for the game, and I have sympathy for them but whether you agree it's Blizzard being greedy or you agree that this is simply how more and more games are working these days and that this will give us the best D3 experience as intended, this is the reality of D3. Just like WoW, some games are simply made now to be played online.
This client/server structure is what will give not just the majority of players the best experience but the overwhelming majority of them the best experience; not everyone can be pleased--does anyone really think Blizzard is going to risk having D3 fall into the same hacked/duped/spammed wasteland that D2 has become simply to satisfy a very small (if vocal) sliver of the player base? It wouldn't make any sense. Sure it makes them more money, but just look at it logically--the extra money is just gravy, a very happy byproduct that comes with giving the majority of D3 players what they want -- an online experience with a bedrock of genuine items and spam-less channels / games.
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Considering we have almost no real idea about just how dangerous HC PvE is going to be in D3, it seems a bit silly to throw it a funereal.
edit: Oh, I definitely agree 100% here with Jay Wilson, HC means HC, period. I would disagree with a softcore option here, it would remove some of the HC-ness of it. Asking someone to level/gear a SC duel character if they want to duel doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
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And we can all get behind the Activision sentiments I think. Blizzard has essentially maintained complete autonomy in their involvements with them, which we should all be grateful for.
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What's hard is that it's essentially impossible to find middle ground here; either people are seen as fanboys who think Blizzard can do no wrong and accept anything they're told without any skepticism, or as overly skeptical Blizz-haters that think Blizzard will never do anything right by the players, will always be months/years late, etc. I've obviously been open to being accused of falling into the former camp, and I realize I've been guilty tonight of leveling the latter accusation at you and others. Neither is fair.
All I'm really ever getting at here is that the people who really know what's going on with D3, as best as anyone really does (i.e., anything can happen, something game-breaking appears last minute and they have to postpone, or internal testing goings unbelievably well and we see beta ahead of schedule, etc.) are still saying they think can do this timetable. I think it's unreasonable to think they'd set even a caveat-laden goal this prominently if they didn't think they had a better-than-not chance of hitting it (i.e., 51%+, even slightly better than even odds).
Blizzard has had one sketchy history, we all know that. But I think we're seeing a new era of sorts, and SC2 was pretty pristine as far as living up to their timetable. D3 is a different beast (literally!) but I still believe it bodes well. They've been hyper cautious, as always, at every turn, so now that they've given us even this admittedly preliminary 'date', I'm confident.
/steps off the soapbox
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I understand no one wants to get caught with their hopes up, but 2011 is their goal and with internal testing already well underway does Christmas 2011 really seem so crazy?
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We know they're trying for 2011, and I think they'll manage it. Whatever they say in tomorrow's call will be the real tell.