Well I guess I better expand my original post since there is a lot of debate here. First off, I have never played any of the other classes beyond beta so if you're looking for someone who can compare classes by experience, stop reading.
What I meant by awesome is that, to me, the WD is the most unique class in D3 like the necro was in D2. All other classes have been somewhat 'done' before in other video games and D2. <- This is obviously strongly opinionated so don't interpret it as me stating a fact.
What I meant by powerful is that I've cleared the game on it's hardest difficulty with the WD (and with 20k less DPS than what I currently do) and I can farm wherever I please. This, to me, is a sufficiently successful class in D3. Sure the DH and Wiz can probably do more damage, but from experience that do lack some better attributes that the WD has. I've duo'd with DH's in inferno whimsyshire (some with almost double my reported 'DPS' on the character sheet) and yet I still found that they died way more often and did pretty much the same damage as I did.
WD DOES have the best crowd control in the game. With Spirit Walk, Hex, Grasp and Wall of Zombies, I barely die anymore and can escape from almost any situation. People who say they should lower the CD on Spirit Walk to make it more like smoke screen, NO. Use your skills properly and they become better than smoke screen.
For people who say that the WD is very 1-dimensional and the only viable build is with poison darts I do agree mostly. But how is this different from the DH spamming tentacles which is what I see all of them do. However, I actually enjoy the darts play-style and with enough AS it becomes a pretty fun machine gun. If you're looking for a wide range of skill viability then WD is probably not your class. Zombie bears is fun but I don't see it useful outside of boss fights due to its high mana costa and close range, therefore having no long-term viability.
And now for the obligatory 'WD pets suck' comment. They do suck. Hard. And it's sad because I perceived them to be the most unique and characterizing aspect of the WD before I realized they were useless in inferno. However I am extremely hopeful about them getting a buff. This isn't something Blizzard would shake off and ignore. And if they do, the wrath of thousands of fanboys will continue to rain fire on them via forum posts. I look forward to using them again when Blizz fixes their stats, and then truly the WD will be the best ranged everrrrrr.
My next class will be monk since the WD is all I'll ever need in a ranged class and sufficiently performs all of my goals regardless of whether the DH or Wiz can do it faster and with more stylei
All pony mobs are melee so with 80% slow on grasp you can easily slow and burn them. Only hard mobs are champs and rares but still doable with some zombie wall blocking and graps slows
Just copypasting this from my post that I made on the official forums.
TLDR: expressing my disappointment with the new "Battle.net" system compared to the old one used in D2
Remember in Diablo 2 when you were creating a multiplayer game you could choose a title for your session, and other people could see that title in the games list and join if they wanted to?
Well I was kinda shocked when I saw that it was completely removed with the new "Battle.net" and replaced with an entirely new system. It never really bothered me that much at first but now that I've cleared the entire game, the whole aspect of it is really disheartening. All you can do now is choose a quest and get mixed with random people in the process, hoping they want to do the same things you do.
What if I dont want to quest?
What if I just wanna chill or hang out with new people?
What if I want to farm some gear and do nephalem valor runs with randoms?
What if I wanna do whimsyshire?
-Join random public Act 1 quest
-"Hey guys wanna do whimsyshire?"
-"No, gtfo we're questing"
What if I want to do some trading / show off some gear / check out other people's gear?
All this stuff is impossible to do with the new system. I mean it's great when you're actually progressing through the content for the first time, but now that I've done all the quests on all the difficulties, sometimes I just sit at the main menu and think wtf am I supposed to do?
My first instinct is to go out and farm some gear, make some money, build a better character. Well how can I do this if all I can do is choose a damn quest in public games?!
So I say ok, I'll go out and farm some gear solo. WOW, this is REALLY boring. I wanna be running around out there with 3 other people, killing everything in our path and rejoicing over these awesome gear drops. I want to meet new people and make new friends that are interested in doing more than just quests.
So I plead to you Blizzard, please update D3 battle.net so that it was similar to D2 and we can create public games with titles. With this new system you seem to think that all people care about is doing quests. Well to me, the Diablo series is much more than that. It just feels like there is no endgame motivation to do anything once you've cleared all the content.
I've never felt so disconnected to other people in any online multiplayer game I've ever played before.
So I have a thread which has youtube links in it. I just copy and past the youtube URL and the video is automatically embedded. However if I go back and edit the post, all of the youtube links dissapear for some reason. Any fix for this?
Spirit Walk (Mana Regen rune): First off this skill is amazing. If you don't have it in your build, you're either not in inferno yet or just a terrible witch doctor. Increased movement speed, absorbs 50% of your life worth of damage and regenerates 30% of your mana over 2 seconds with the Honored Guest rune. Incredible. Essential for kiting, emergency damage absorption and mana regen.
Poison Dart (Splinters rune): This is my main attack. With the Splinters rune it does 180% weapon damage assuming all 3 darts hit the target. Low mana cost and high single target damage make it great for both trash and bosses. Simple.
Wall of Zombies (Pile On or Barricade rune): This is the only aoe attack in my build and a personal favourite of mine. High damage, long cooldown, awesome looking and incredibly hard to aim. Does a whopping 765% weapon damage with a 25 second cooldown. It takes a while to learn how to aim with it but with practice it becomes worth it. This attack isn't really a staple in the witch doctor build so you can choose another skill if you want, but be wary of the mana cost of other aoe skills since I don't use any of the mana regen passives. A personal strategy of mine is to use the hex skill to de-mobilize champions/bosses, then drop the zombies on them while they can't move. *Edit* I've actually switched to the Barricade rune now since it helps with kiting by blocking the path of monsters and also does a nice amount of damage too.
Grasp of the Dead (80% Slow rune): Essential for kiting both mobs and bosses. The Unrelenting Grip rune slows enemies down to a crawl making them easy to kite and also to drop Wall of Zombies on. Also does a fair amount of aoe damage as well. (Great for slowing treasure goblins too!)
Hex (Healing Rune): Another awesome skill that I think is completely underrated. For champions and rares in inferno, this skill makes them slighty easier to deal with by controlling one of them while you deal with the rest. It does work on some bosses like Zoltun Kulle/Belial and gives you a good opportunity to line up a Wall of Zombies attack. The heal rune provides an instant heal of about 1800 as soon as you use the skill, and will keep healing you periodically throughout the duration.
Horrify (Extra Radius rune): This skill is just a random crowd control button that can be switched out for any other skill in the WD arsenal really. I used to use Mass Confusion but switched to Horrify for the shorter cooldown. I don't really use this skill on bosses, it's mainly for champs and mobs that get too close to you. My other choice for this slot is Haunt with the health regen rune to use on bosses. Haunt does a fair bit of damage, only has to be cast every 12 seconds and returns a bit of health in the process. *Edit* I've actually switched Horrify out for Soul Harvest since it gives you a pretty sweet DPS boost and makes farming whimsyshire much easier.
Notes on other skills (feel free to contribute):
Big Bad Voodoo: Pretty good in co-op games but I dislike it due to its long cooldown. Use it in place of Horrify if you like it. Fetish Army: Also dislike due to its long cooldown Gargantuan and Zombie Dogs: Ahaa, are you serious Blizzard?! Absolutely useless in inferno. Both get 1 shot and deal little damage. Avoid at all costs. (Although I do sense a buff coming in the future for these to make them viable. Maybe scaling their life and damaging in proportion to the witch doctor) Firebomb: Can replace Poison Dart for champs and trash since it does have nice aoe but for bosses its better to use Poison Dart since it does more damage. Mass Confusion: Another great crowd control spell aside from horrify, however the cooldown does seem a bit too long even with the 45 second cooldown rune. Soul Harvest: A very viable skill all around that gives you a nice DPS boost. However I dislike having to constantly run into mobs to apply it over and over. Use it in place of Horrify if you like.
Passives:
Jungle Fortitude: A very general passive with straight 20% damage reduction. I found that with this passive, a lot of attacks that would've one-shot me in inferno just brought me down to very low health instead, allowing me to use a potion and Hex heals to heal myself back up quickly. If you still get one-shot a lot even with this passive then switch it to something else. *EDIT* I use Spiritual Attunement now.
Spiritual Attunement: Just a great mana regen passive. I've started using this since switching to a 1-hander increases your attack speed a lot and you spend more mana so I use this passive to compensate. Jungle Fortitude doesn't really help much after Act 1 inferno anyways.
Spirit Vessel: Sweet Jesus this passive has saved my ass so many times. I never really liked this passive at first, but playing in inferno makes you see how viable it really is. Basically it saves you from death every 90 seconds and puts you in spirit walk mode allowing you to make a quick escape. You WILL die a lot in inferno and this skill is just a lifesaver (literally huehuehue). But wait that's not all! The passive also reduces the cooldown on Spirit Walk by 2 seconds! Whaaaat, shit I'm sold.
Pierce the Veil: Straight up 20% damage increase at a cost of 30% more mana on all your skills. Since the bread and butter of the build is Poison Dart (10 mana per cast) you don't really have to worry about mana anyways. Zombie Wall and Grasp will bring your mana down a fair bit but this is countered by using spirit walk for that 30% mana back. This passive gives you that extra DPS boost that is quite needed in inferno.
I have heard about the zombie bear build and tried it myself. Choosing all the mana regen passives and spamming zombie bears for high damage. However I didn't care for it much for 3 reasons:
-you miss out on other great passives and have to keep your other skills on cooldown.
-you have to get in reasonably close range to use.
-it seemed that even with all the mana regen skills and passive you still couldn't spam it endlessly.
Gear:
I focus on gear that gives you both intelligence and vitality. Some attack speed on rings/amulets will boost your DPS nicely too. Act 1 inferno is pretty forgiving on gear and stats but before you go into Act 2, you want to aim for at least 30k health and 20k DPS. Buy a nice weapon off the AH if you need to. I didn't go into Act 2 until I had a 966 damage 2-hander which I bought off the AH for about 1.7 million gold (they are much cheaper now). Do Act 1 Nephalem Valor farm runs if you need some cash. My gear as of May 24th: youtube.com/watch?v=g3jsaCmZE1Y
My gear as of June 6th: Check the Diablo kill video at the bottom. Gear is at the beginning.
Follower:
I use the Templar as a follower. His heals are quite usual in most situations even though his aggro is absolute crap. Just stack his gear with as much strength as you can get for some extra DPS.
His skills: Heal - basic heal with 15s cooldown Loyalty - extra life regeneration Charge - does a nice 3 second stun Guardian - heals you and knocks back enemies when you are low health
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining.
Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those. Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts. Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies. Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them. Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk Although you can't use Spirit Walk to run through the walls, you can just use it to run through the monsters and kite them the other way. Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do. Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
Boss Kill Videos:
Skeleton King:
A very simple and pretty easy fight. Not much of an explanation necessary, kill adds asap and avoid his swirling swing. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) so you probably won't kill him as fast a I did.
Queen Araneae:
A pretty straightforward fight. She only really has one attack, spitting poison in melee range. She will charge you and use the attack so just move out of range (Spirit Walk if you have to). She also spits spiderwebs at you which slow you down. You can just walk out of these if you have time or use Spirit Walk to remove the snare. At a couple of intervals she will disappear and spawn a few adds. Just put down Grasp to slow them and pick them off with Poison Dart. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) and made a lot of lazy mistakes which you might not be able to do with lesser stats.
The Butcher:
I found the fight quite challenging the first few times I did it, but it was quite easy to master with practice. You do need a reasonable amount of DPS for this fight since there is an enrage timer (3 minutes I think) where the floor will fill up completely with fire. Stay at a reasonable range from him so you don't get melee'd and have time to react to his attacks.
He has a hook attack where he will point at you, then send a hook in your direction which will drag you back to him and perform a melee slam which will most likely 1-shot you. You can avoid this attack easily by just moving out of the way when he points at you. If you do get caught, use Spirit Walk immediately and you will be able to run away without getting melee'd.
He also has a ranged attack which sends out a bunch of chains in a cone area and hits you for about half your health or more. When you get hit by this attack, use a potion and the Hex skill to bring your health back up to full. If these are on cooldown then use a health well. You want to try to stay at full health at all times.
Lastly he will have a charge attack which is quite visible and easy to dodge. After he charges into the wall he will be stunned for a couple seconds which is a good time to use Pile On zombies for a nice damage chunk.
Magda:
A pretty simple fight at the beginning of Act 2. In fact, I found a lot of regular mobs in Act 2 were harder than this fight -.- She only has 1 ranged attack which you have to watch out for. It's a big ball of purple/blueish flies that moves pretty slowly but follows you, so just run until it disappears. At regular health intervals she will go invulnerable and spawn 4 melee adds. Just kite them with Grasp/Hex and kill with Darts and Pile On. Repeat until dead.
Zoltun Kulle:
This was the longest boss fight I've done to date, mainly because of all the kiting. At all points during the fight you want to stay a good distance from Zoltun so you have time to react to his fireball attack. The first phase is just kiting the 2 big construct monsters with Grasp and killing them with Darts and Pile On. Hex does not work on the constructs but does work on Zoltun (more on that later)
There are 3 attacks from Zoltun that you have to watch out for.
Fireball - Shoots a pretty fast fireball at you that can can just dodge. If you are in close range of Zoltun this will most likely kill you.
Falling Rocks - As soon as the ground starts to shake, run and don't stop until all the rocks have fallen. Use Spirit Walk if you have to. This attack can one-shot you if you're not careful.
Tornadoes - Fairly easy to dodge.
Once the 2 constructs were killed, I kited Zoltun around in a circle and tried to keep him just a bit off-screen. Use Darts to damage him but be prepared to move for fireballs. A common strategy that I used was to pop Spirit Walk, run right past him and use Hex, then turn around and drop Pile On to do some nice damage.
As far as I know, there is no enrage to this fight so just focus on good dodging and he will be killed eventually.
Belial:
Prepare your anus
Had to change by build to this one: http://us.battle.net...dUQP!WVZ!aaYZbb you'll see why during the fight.
Strategy explained during the video, sorry if I sound like shit.
Ghom:
Not really much to say here, it's an incredibly easy fight for ranged classes in general. Just kite him around in a circle and avoid the gas clouds. The small slimes can be killed easy enough. Use Grasp and Zombie Wall to help kiting.
Cydaea:
This fight was a bit overwhelming at first but once you figure out how to deal with the spider adds it's pretty easy. First off, she only has one ranged attack which spreads out more the farther you are from her. So try to keep a safe distance to be able to dodge her attack. The little spiders she spawns don't have to be DPS'd directly and you can let Grasp take care of them for you.
Use Darts to attack her when she's down on the ground and watch out for little spider spawns. At certain health intervals she will disappear into the air and small spiders will start spawning wherever you are standing. Try running in a zig-zag pattern to get the spiders lumped together and use Grasp and Zombie Wall to slow them and kill them.
Once she's back on the ground continue DPSing her with Darts and repeat for the rest of the fight.
There is a sweet spot that I found where if she is located at the top of the map, you can stand just offscreen below her and spam her with Darts and she won't even move. Check out 5:40 to see the sweet spot in action
Azmodan:
Build used for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UQRX!ZWV!aacYaZ
A rather challenging fight that required a lot of moving around and timing. I did another walkthrough video like Belial that explains the fight step by step.
Iskatu:
I was able to use my normal build for this fight. Just kite everything around in a circle and use Grasp for slowing and damage as well. Throw up a Zombie Wall when you can even though they walk through it, it's still pretty good damage. Use Spirit Walk and Horrify when things get too messy. When the boss comes out try to hit him with Darts as much as possible but you still have to keep kiting everything during the whole fight.
Rakanoth:
Ugh, I hate to say it but I caved in to the zombie bears build for this fight. It's just too damn impossible to do with any other builds I've tried. The boss himself isn't so hard to do, but it's those GODDAMN tongue fucker adds that one-shot you on top of the boss as well. So here's the build for zombie bears: http://us.battle.net...UdQP!UWV!cYZYZb
- Start off outside the encounter and get 5 stacks of Soul Harvest from trash mobs. (use Soul to Waste Rune so the stacks last 60 seconds)
- Run inside, summon zombie dogs and start the fight.
- Aggro the boss and Spirit Walk down into the bottom corner.
- Use Fetish Army, Big Bad Voodoo and start spamming bears.
- Use Spirit Walk again whenever it comes off cooldown.
You will most likely get one shot due to his ranged attack but the Spirit Vessel passive will save you from death. You should be able to down him before he does that attack again.
Diablo:
Witch Doctor build for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UjRT!bWV!aaaaaZ
Finally Diablo himself. The fight is pretty long and challenging so props to Blizzard for that. Despite the strategy I used, you still need a lot of practice and luck to kill him. Strategy explained during the video, works for all ranged classes as well.
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What I meant by awesome is that, to me, the WD is the most unique class in D3 like the necro was in D2. All other classes have been somewhat 'done' before in other video games and D2. <- This is obviously strongly opinionated so don't interpret it as me stating a fact.
What I meant by powerful is that I've cleared the game on it's hardest difficulty with the WD (and with 20k less DPS than what I currently do) and I can farm wherever I please. This, to me, is a sufficiently successful class in D3. Sure the DH and Wiz can probably do more damage, but from experience that do lack some better attributes that the WD has. I've duo'd with DH's in inferno whimsyshire (some with almost double my reported 'DPS' on the character sheet) and yet I still found that they died way more often and did pretty much the same damage as I did.
WD DOES have the best crowd control in the game. With Spirit Walk, Hex, Grasp and Wall of Zombies, I barely die anymore and can escape from almost any situation. People who say they should lower the CD on Spirit Walk to make it more like smoke screen, NO. Use your skills properly and they become better than smoke screen.
For people who say that the WD is very 1-dimensional and the only viable build is with poison darts I do agree mostly. But how is this different from the DH spamming tentacles which is what I see all of them do. However, I actually enjoy the darts play-style and with enough AS it becomes a pretty fun machine gun. If you're looking for a wide range of skill viability then WD is probably not your class. Zombie bears is fun but I don't see it useful outside of boss fights due to its high mana costa and close range, therefore having no long-term viability.
And now for the obligatory 'WD pets suck' comment. They do suck. Hard. And it's sad because I perceived them to be the most unique and characterizing aspect of the WD before I realized they were useless in inferno. However I am extremely hopeful about them getting a buff. This isn't something Blizzard would shake off and ignore. And if they do, the wrath of thousands of fanboys will continue to rain fire on them via forum posts. I look forward to using them again when Blizz fixes their stats, and then truly the WD will be the best ranged everrrrrr.
My next class will be monk since the WD is all I'll ever need in a ranged class and sufficiently performs all of my goals regardless of whether the DH or Wiz can do it faster and with more stylei
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TLDR: expressing my disappointment with the new "Battle.net" system compared to the old one used in D2
Remember in Diablo 2 when you were creating a multiplayer game you could choose a title for your session, and other people could see that title in the games list and join if they wanted to?
Well I was kinda shocked when I saw that it was completely removed with the new "Battle.net" and replaced with an entirely new system. It never really bothered me that much at first but now that I've cleared the entire game, the whole aspect of it is really disheartening. All you can do now is choose a quest and get mixed with random people in the process, hoping they want to do the same things you do.
What if I dont want to quest?
What if I just wanna chill or hang out with new people?
What if I want to farm some gear and do nephalem valor runs with randoms?
What if I wanna do whimsyshire?
-Join random public Act 1 quest
-"Hey guys wanna do whimsyshire?"
-"No, gtfo we're questing"
What if I want to do some trading / show off some gear / check out other people's gear?
All this stuff is impossible to do with the new system. I mean it's great when you're actually progressing through the content for the first time, but now that I've done all the quests on all the difficulties, sometimes I just sit at the main menu and think wtf am I supposed to do?
My first instinct is to go out and farm some gear, make some money, build a better character. Well how can I do this if all I can do is choose a damn quest in public games?!
So I say ok, I'll go out and farm some gear solo. WOW, this is REALLY boring. I wanna be running around out there with 3 other people, killing everything in our path and rejoicing over these awesome gear drops. I want to meet new people and make new friends that are interested in doing more than just quests.
So I plead to you Blizzard, please update D3 battle.net so that it was similar to D2 and we can create public games with titles. With this new system you seem to think that all people care about is doing quests. Well to me, the Diablo series is much more than that. It just feels like there is no endgame motivation to do anything once you've cleared all the content.
I've never felt so disconnected to other people in any online multiplayer game I've ever played before.
Here's the thread if you want to add to it http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5151724054
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First off, my everyday witch doctor build here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZRkdU!bWV!aaaaYZ
Explanation for my choices
Spirit Walk (Mana Regen rune): First off this skill is amazing. If you don't have it in your build, you're either not in inferno yet or just a terrible witch doctor. Increased movement speed, absorbs 50% of your life worth of damage and regenerates 30% of your mana over 2 seconds with the Honored Guest rune. Incredible. Essential for kiting, emergency damage absorption and mana regen.
Poison Dart (Splinters rune): This is my main attack. With the Splinters rune it does 180% weapon damage assuming all 3 darts hit the target. Low mana cost and high single target damage make it great for both trash and bosses. Simple.
Wall of Zombies (Pile On or Barricade rune): This is the only aoe attack in my build and a personal favourite of mine. High damage, long cooldown, awesome looking and incredibly hard to aim. Does a whopping 765% weapon damage with a 25 second cooldown. It takes a while to learn how to aim with it but with practice it becomes worth it. This attack isn't really a staple in the witch doctor build so you can choose another skill if you want, but be wary of the mana cost of other aoe skills since I don't use any of the mana regen passives. A personal strategy of mine is to use the hex skill to de-mobilize champions/bosses, then drop the zombies on them while they can't move.
*Edit* I've actually switched to the Barricade rune now since it helps with kiting by blocking the path of monsters and also does a nice amount of damage too.
Grasp of the Dead (80% Slow rune): Essential for kiting both mobs and bosses. The Unrelenting Grip rune slows enemies down to a crawl making them easy to kite and also to drop Wall of Zombies on. Also does a fair amount of aoe damage as well. (Great for slowing treasure goblins too!)
Hex (Healing Rune): Another awesome skill that I think is completely underrated. For champions and rares in inferno, this skill makes them slighty easier to deal with by controlling one of them while you deal with the rest. It does work on some bosses like Zoltun Kulle/Belial and gives you a good opportunity to line up a Wall of Zombies attack. The heal rune provides an instant heal of about 1800 as soon as you use the skill, and will keep healing you periodically throughout the duration.
Horrify (Extra Radius rune): This skill is just a random crowd control button that can be switched out for any other skill in the WD arsenal really. I used to use Mass Confusion but switched to Horrify for the shorter cooldown. I don't really use this skill on bosses, it's mainly for champs and mobs that get too close to you. My other choice for this slot is Haunt with the health regen rune to use on bosses. Haunt does a fair bit of damage, only has to be cast every 12 seconds and returns a bit of health in the process.
*Edit* I've actually switched Horrify out for Soul Harvest since it gives you a pretty sweet DPS boost and makes farming whimsyshire much easier.
Notes on other skills (feel free to contribute):
Big Bad Voodoo: Pretty good in co-op games but I dislike it due to its long cooldown. Use it in place of Horrify if you like it.
Fetish Army: Also dislike due to its long cooldown
Gargantuan and Zombie Dogs: Ahaa, are you serious Blizzard?! Absolutely useless in inferno. Both get 1 shot and deal little damage. Avoid at all costs. (Although I do sense a buff coming in the future for these to make them viable. Maybe scaling their life and damaging in proportion to the witch doctor)
Firebomb: Can replace Poison Dart for champs and trash since it does have nice aoe but for bosses its better to use Poison Dart since it does more damage.
Mass Confusion: Another great crowd control spell aside from horrify, however the cooldown does seem a bit too long even with the 45 second cooldown rune.
Soul Harvest: A very viable skill all around that gives you a nice DPS boost. However I dislike having to constantly run into mobs to apply it over and over. Use it in place of Horrify if you like.
Passives:
Jungle Fortitude:A very general passive with straight 20% damage reduction. I found that with this passive, a lot of attacks that would've one-shot me in inferno just brought me down to very low health instead, allowing me to use a potion and Hex heals to heal myself back up quickly. If you still get one-shot a lot even with this passive then switch it to something else.*EDIT* I use Spiritual Attunement now.
Spiritual Attunement: Just a great mana regen passive. I've started using this since switching to a 1-hander increases your attack speed a lot and you spend more mana so I use this passive to compensate. Jungle Fortitude doesn't really help much after Act 1 inferno anyways.
Spirit Vessel: Sweet Jesus this passive has saved my ass so many times. I never really liked this passive at first, but playing in inferno makes you see how viable it really is. Basically it saves you from death every 90 seconds and puts you in spirit walk mode allowing you to make a quick escape. You WILL die a lot in inferno and this skill is just a lifesaver (literally huehuehue). But wait that's not all! The passive also reduces the cooldown on Spirit Walk by 2 seconds! Whaaaat, shit I'm sold.
Pierce the Veil: Straight up 20% damage increase at a cost of 30% more mana on all your skills. Since the bread and butter of the build is Poison Dart (10 mana per cast) you don't really have to worry about mana anyways. Zombie Wall and Grasp will bring your mana down a fair bit but this is countered by using spirit walk for that 30% mana back. This passive gives you that extra DPS boost that is quite needed in inferno.
I have heard about the zombie bear build and tried it myself. Choosing all the mana regen passives and spamming zombie bears for high damage. However I didn't care for it much for 3 reasons:
-you miss out on other great passives and have to keep your other skills on cooldown.
-you have to get in reasonably close range to use.
-it seemed that even with all the mana regen skills and passive you still couldn't spam it endlessly.
Gear:
I focus on gear that gives you both intelligence and vitality. Some attack speed on rings/amulets will boost your DPS nicely too. Act 1 inferno is pretty forgiving on gear and stats but before you go into Act 2, you want to aim for at least 30k health and 20k DPS. Buy a nice weapon off the AH if you need to. I didn't go into Act 2 until I had a 966 damage 2-hander which I bought off the AH for about 1.7 million gold (they are much cheaper now). Do Act 1 Nephalem Valor farm runs if you need some cash.
My gear as of May 24th: youtube.com/watch?v=g3jsaCmZE1YMy gear as of June 6th: Check the Diablo kill video at the bottom. Gear is at the beginning.
Follower:
I use the Templar as a follower. His heals are quite usual in most situations even though his aggro is absolute crap. Just stack his gear with as much strength as you can get for some extra DPS.
His skills:
Heal - basic heal with 15s cooldown
Loyalty - extra life regeneration
Charge - does a nice 3 second stun
Guardian - heals you and knocks back enemies when you are low health
Champions and Rares:
A few people have be asking how to deal with certain champs in inferno. There are some champs with affixes that just seem impossible to do. Off the top of my head these are the ones that I feel need explaining.
Fast - I generally skip fast champs. Simply because they are impossible to kite and will just run up to you and 1-shot you. Some champs like skeletons in Act 1 move so slow that even with the Fast affix they are still kite-able so it's possible to do those.
Invulnerable Minions - My most hated affix. I will instantly skip these rares since my main strategy is to pick off the minions then focus on the rare himself which is pretty easy with the Hex skill. Trying to only damage the rare and avoid his minions at the same time is too much of a headache and very hard to do with Poison Darts.
Mortar - Do-able but takes some practice. It's simple a combination of shooting Poison Dart once then moving back, shooting, moving, shooting, moving etc. It will generally take a while to kill them so put down Grasp constantly and try to line up a nice Pile On. I tend to try and keep the champs a little bit off-screen which seems to be out of range for them to use Mortar. Use Spirit Walk for emergencies.
Illusionist - Do-able but kind of annoying. Just kite them regularly though Grasp and use Darts and Zombies to damage. If they move too fast to kite them just skip them.
Jailer and Waller - Spirit Walk
Teleport - I've found that if the champs are a bit off-screen they won't teleport to you. So just spam Darts and hope they hit. If they do teleport to you then just Spirit Walk away. However I have found that some champs with teleport are almost impossible to do.
Vortex - Same strategy as Teleport.
Boss Kill Videos:
Skeleton King:
A very simple and pretty easy fight. Not much of an explanation necessary, kill adds asap and avoid his swirling swing. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) so you probably won't kill him as fast a I did.
Click here for Skeleton King kill. Maxed out number of youtube links in thread
Queen Araneae:
A pretty straightforward fight. She only really has one attack, spitting poison in melee range. She will charge you and use the attack so just move out of range (Spirit Walk if you have to). She also spits spiderwebs at you which slow you down. You can just walk out of these if you have time or use Spirit Walk to remove the snare. At a couple of intervals she will disappear and spawn a few adds. Just put down Grasp to slow them and pick them off with Poison Dart. In the video I was quite overgeared for the fight (23k DPS) and made a lot of lazy mistakes which you might not be able to do with lesser stats.
Click here for Queen Araneae kill. Maxed out number of youtube links in thread
The Butcher:
I found the fight quite challenging the first few times I did it, but it was quite easy to master with practice. You do need a reasonable amount of DPS for this fight since there is an enrage timer (3 minutes I think) where the floor will fill up completely with fire. Stay at a reasonable range from him so you don't get melee'd and have time to react to his attacks.
He has a hook attack where he will point at you, then send a hook in your direction which will drag you back to him and perform a melee slam which will most likely 1-shot you. You can avoid this attack easily by just moving out of the way when he points at you. If you do get caught, use Spirit Walk immediately and you will be able to run away without getting melee'd.
He also has a ranged attack which sends out a bunch of chains in a cone area and hits you for about half your health or more. When you get hit by this attack, use a potion and the Hex skill to bring your health back up to full. If these are on cooldown then use a health well. You want to try to stay at full health at all times.
Lastly he will have a charge attack which is quite visible and easy to dodge. After he charges into the wall he will be stunned for a couple seconds which is a good time to use Pile On zombies for a nice damage chunk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uc_G55_qaQ
Magda:
A pretty simple fight at the beginning of Act 2. In fact, I found a lot of regular mobs in Act 2 were harder than this fight -.- She only has 1 ranged attack which you have to watch out for. It's a big ball of purple/blueish flies that moves pretty slowly but follows you, so just run until it disappears. At regular health intervals she will go invulnerable and spawn 4 melee adds. Just kite them with Grasp/Hex and kill with Darts and Pile On. Repeat until dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtOB3QYiFmw
Zoltun Kulle:
This was the longest boss fight I've done to date, mainly because of all the kiting. At all points during the fight you want to stay a good distance from Zoltun so you have time to react to his fireball attack. The first phase is just kiting the 2 big construct monsters with Grasp and killing them with Darts and Pile On. Hex does not work on the constructs but does work on Zoltun (more on that later)
There are 3 attacks from Zoltun that you have to watch out for.
Fireball - Shoots a pretty fast fireball at you that can can just dodge. If you are in close range of Zoltun this will most likely kill you.
Falling Rocks - As soon as the ground starts to shake, run and don't stop until all the rocks have fallen. Use Spirit Walk if you have to. This attack can one-shot you if you're not careful.
Tornadoes - Fairly easy to dodge.
Once the 2 constructs were killed, I kited Zoltun around in a circle and tried to keep him just a bit off-screen. Use Darts to damage him but be prepared to move for fireballs. A common strategy that I used was to pop Spirit Walk, run right past him and use Hex, then turn around and drop Pile On to do some nice damage.
As far as I know, there is no enrage to this fight so just focus on good dodging and he will be killed eventually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDABp8OyA9U
Belial:
Prepare your anus
Had to change by build to this one: http://us.battle.net...dUQP!WVZ!aaYZbb you'll see why during the fight.
Strategy explained during the video, sorry if I sound like shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcV8iKXgNT8
Ghom:
Not really much to say here, it's an incredibly easy fight for ranged classes in general. Just kite him around in a circle and avoid the gas clouds. The small slimes can be killed easy enough. Use Grasp and Zombie Wall to help kiting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2vD451cTF0
Cydaea:
This fight was a bit overwhelming at first but once you figure out how to deal with the spider adds it's pretty easy. First off, she only has one ranged attack which spreads out more the farther you are from her. So try to keep a safe distance to be able to dodge her attack. The little spiders she spawns don't have to be DPS'd directly and you can let Grasp take care of them for you.
Use Darts to attack her when she's down on the ground and watch out for little spider spawns. At certain health intervals she will disappear into the air and small spiders will start spawning wherever you are standing. Try running in a zig-zag pattern to get the spiders lumped together and use Grasp and Zombie Wall to slow them and kill them.
Once she's back on the ground continue DPSing her with Darts and repeat for the rest of the fight.
There is a sweet spot that I found where if she is located at the top of the map, you can stand just offscreen below her and spam her with Darts and she won't even move. Check out 5:40 to see the sweet spot in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtAr-91iTlM
Azmodan:
Build used for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UQRX!ZWV!aacYaZ
A rather challenging fight that required a lot of moving around and timing. I did another walkthrough video like Belial that explains the fight step by step.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKrkcuW7KaU
Iskatu:
I was able to use my normal build for this fight. Just kite everything around in a circle and use Grasp for slowing and damage as well. Throw up a Zombie Wall when you can even though they walk through it, it's still pretty good damage. Use Spirit Walk and Horrify when things get too messy. When the boss comes out try to hit him with Darts as much as possible but you still have to keep kiting everything during the whole fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=582NswRKU84
Rakanoth:
Ugh, I hate to say it but I caved in to the zombie bears build for this fight. It's just too damn impossible to do with any other builds I've tried. The boss himself isn't so hard to do, but it's those GODDAMN tongue fucker adds that one-shot you on top of the boss as well. So here's the build for zombie bears: http://us.battle.net...UdQP!UWV!cYZYZb
- Start off outside the encounter and get 5 stacks of Soul Harvest from trash mobs. (use Soul to Waste Rune so the stacks last 60 seconds)
- Run inside, summon zombie dogs and start the fight.
- Aggro the boss and Spirit Walk down into the bottom corner.
- Use Fetish Army, Big Bad Voodoo and start spamming bears.
- Use Spirit Walk again whenever it comes off cooldown.
You will most likely get one shot due to his ranged attack but the Spirit Vessel passive will save you from death. You should be able to down him before he does that attack again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kio_QQG_Pf8
Diablo:
Witch Doctor build for this fight: http://us.battle.net...UjRT!bWV!aaaaaZ
Finally Diablo himself. The fight is pretty long and challenging so props to Blizzard for that. Despite the strategy I used, you still need a lot of practice and luck to kill him. Strategy explained during the video, works for all ranged classes as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu1OliCGH5E
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