I've been planning out my Witch Doctor using this excellent tool (many thanks to the author!). I'm constructing my builds towards a layout of
Single Target nuke
Multi-target Nuke
Opener
Utility
Summons
Summons
This aims to support a playstyle of run up to the monsters, drop the opener, nuke, loot and onwards.
Here goes:
Level 1 Poison Dart
Level 2 Poison Dart, Grasp of the Dead
Level 3 Poison Dart, Corpse Spiders (a single target spell and a multi-target spell)
Level 4 Poison Dart, Corpse Spiders, Summon Zombie Dogs (the dogs are effectively a passive)
Level 5 Poison Dart, Plague of Toads, Summon Zombie Dogs (the toads are clearly annoying to use but hit harder and instantly and there's no issue at this early stage running up to the mobs to spam it).
Levels 6-8 Splinters, Plague of Toads, Summon Zombie Dogs (big upgrade to the dart making it competitive with more powerful high level spells when considering it's also cheap to cast).
Level 9 Splinters, Haunt, Plague of Toads, Summon Zombie Dogs (our fourth slot gets used for a spell that's useful if cast early in a long fight).
Level 10 Vermin, Splinters, Haunt, Plague of Toads, Summon Zombie Dogs (at this stage of the game given a defensive passive or a damage passive we may as well take the offensive option).
Level 11 Jungle Fortitude, Splinters, Haunt, Firebomb, Life Link (at last a hard-hitting aoe to replace the horrible toad spell. Also an upgrade to the dogs. We'll swap passives if we're not using any of the spells affected by Vermin).
Level 12-3 Vermin, Splinters, Haunt, Firebats, Life Link (because of the passive the bats beat the bombs and at this stage I'm assuming it doesn't matter foregoing some ranged safety).
Level 14 Vermin, Splinters, Haunt, Explosive Toads, Life Link, Horrify (arggh bloody toads. Still 169% weapon damage times 1.2 is just too strong to pass up).
Level 15 Gruesome Feast, Splinters, Haunt, Firebomb, Life Link, Horrify (I have no idea whether sometimes having +10-50% extra Int beats 20% extra damage but it applies to all spells and it lets us drop the toads for the much safer option of lobbing bombs from a safe distance. Even if the damage isn't better it gives us mana).
Level 16 Gruesome Feast, Splinters, Haunt, Firebomb, Life Link, Spirit Walk (Spirit Walk sounds like it lets us walk through walls, across rivers etc which seems pretty useful).
Level 17 Gruesome Feast, Splinters, Spider Queen, Firebomb, Life Link, Spirit Walk (straight replacement for our opener option).
Level 18 Gruesome Feast, Splinters, Spider Queen,
Fire Pit, Life Link, Spirit Walk (straight upgrade).
Level 19 Gruesome Feast, Dire Bats, Spider Queen, Fire Pit, Life Link, Spirit Walk, Gargantuan (the big guy seems like another spell that's effectively passive, the bats are a very long range very powerful spell that reads like it's single target).
Level 20 Gruesome Feast, Vermin (or Pierce the Veil if mana is a non-issue), Dire Bats, Spider Queen, Fire Pit, Life Link, Spirit Walk, Gargantuan
OK let's review it now. Our two passives give us damage and some mana regen, also occasional resistance boosts. Life Link and Gargantuan are close to being passives, they may just occasionally need to be recast if the summons dies. Our offensive spells are Spider Queen at the start followed up by Dire Bats (single Target) or Fire Pit (multi-target).
Level 21 Gruesome Feast, Vermin, Dire
Bats, Spider Queen, Fire Pit, Rabid Dogs, Spirit Walk, Gargantuan
Level 22 Gruesome Feast, Vermin, Dire
Bats, Spider Queen, Acid Cloud, Rabid Dogs, Spirit Walk, Gargantuan
Level 23 Gruesome Feast, Vermin, Dire
Bats, Toad of Hugeness, Acid Cloud, Rabid Dogs, Spirit Walk, Gargantuan
Levels 24-7 Gruesome Feast, Vermin, Resentful Spirit, Toad of Hugeness, Acid Cloud, Rabid Dogs, Jaunt, Gargantuan (I'm told that Resentful Spirit runes Haunt into a much shorter duration dot or even a nuke. It's worth trying it at this point and seeing if it's an improvement over the Dire Bats).
Level 28 Gruesome Feast Vermin, Resentful Spirit, Toad of Hugeness, Acid Cloud, Rabid Dogs, Jaunt, Humongoid.
Level 29 Gruesome Feast Vermin, Resentful Spirit, Toad of Hugeness, Acid Cloud, Final Gift, Jaunt, Humongoid.(Losing a bit of damage for more health globes seems a reasonable choice at this stage. This is around the end of normal/start of Nightmare so things may be getting a little harder).
Level 30 Fierce Loyalty, Gruesome Feast, Zombie Handler, Resentful Spirit, Toad of Hugeness, Acid Cloud, Final Gift, Jaunt, Humongoid. It's important at this stage to be picking gear that supports the Fierce Loyalty passive - attacker takes damage and health regeneration. We'll also drop Vermin for Zombie Handler so that we can face Nightmare difficulty with tougher minions).
Review at level 30. Stronger minions that benefit from our equipped items. Jaunt is likely to be the most useful utility spell, if not we've got lots of other options including Horrify, Mass Confuse and Big Bad Voodoo. I don't know which our best nukes to be, my next blog post will look at mana costs, area of effect and damage in the Witch Doctor nukes up to 30.
I don't like bashing on any class since different classes offer different playstyles for different people. However, playing the beta I personally did not like the witch doctor at all. I did not like the fact that some spells were "cast once and forget". I'm not sure if runes change this, but I felt like you would only have 4 real active spells.
ReplyDeleteGranted other classes have similar skills like the Monk's mantras or the wizard's armors, but many of those have benefits to recasting them even before their effects expired. I didn't see this for the witch doctor...or am I missing something?
I think it's very much part of Blizzard's overall plan that they make different classes to suit different types of players.
ReplyDeleteThis was true in WoW as well - Rogues handled best when played by people with really good twitch skills. I remember fighting a guy who used Gouge to control me and restealth. As a Rogue player myself I've tried the other side of this and it's incredibly difficult to Ambush, Gouge then retreat and restealth before Gouge wears off but this guy was amazing. Another Rogue friend was able to dot and restealth. Both guys were so good they were untouchable.
Witch Doctor specifically appeals to me because some spells are cast and forget. But that's how I like to play.
In some ways it's like an extension of the passives system. So you may have 6 actives and 3 passives, I'm more like 4 actives and 5 passives.
For Monk I am looking at:
ReplyDeleteSpirit Builder (Single Target)
Spirit Builder (AOE)
Spirit Spender (Single Target or AOE)
Spirit Spender (Opener/Mobility)
Spirit Spender (Utility/Heal)
Mantra
Adding in runes for putting up status effects. I will mostly be playing with a Barb friend, so I am looking into reducing enemy damage output and chance to hit, since we are both melee. Maybe a stun as well. If I am playing with ranged will sub in some snares, roots, runes etc.
Monk is a good example of a class that encourages a more demanding playstyle.
ReplyDeleteI was watching Force's Let's Play of the Monk and he demonstrated building with one spirit generator then switching to a different one for the powerful third abilty.
Factor in that several builders rune to give you very brief buffs then just playing the builders could be really complicated. You could build with Fists of Thunder for attacks one and two (because it's quicker) then finish it with Exploding Palm for aoe.
There's also a lot of abilities that speed you up so you could play the Monk at a very different pace.
I was quite tempted to play a quicker character as my first one but I think WD will be very useful when we're trying to get a foothold in Inferno with bad gear. Summoners tend not to be so gear dependent.
I think you have a good handle on the Monk and have a really good plan. I'll also be playing with friends, mainly a Demon Hunter who's going to want something to hide behind :)
I was thinking the same thing about the Witch Doctor. Summoning players typically have less trouble being undergeared. Correct me if I am wrong, but summons health amounts don't change with gear, only damage? This would make their "tankyness" not gear dependent. If your summons die, you can just resummon, or run away. Supposedly repair prices are going to be steep and dying will not be uncommon before becoming well geared.
ReplyDeleteI think the Monk will be a very fun and energetic class to play. Similar to a rogue in WoW. Which will be a change from my Warrior in WoW who was more about brute force, similar to a Barbarian.
"Correct me if I am wrong, but summons health amounts don't change with gear, only damage?"
ReplyDeleteIn D3 I don't only know.
Generally in games they often don't. WoW for instance launched without pet scaling.
Even if there is pet scaling it generally scales with one stat. Compared with a melee whose gear will improve damage, crit chance, crit damage, attack speed all of which interact exponentially.
Also the likely stat if there is gear scaling is INT. And the Witch Doctor has a couple of tricks to considerably inflate his INT long enough to get the last until killed summons out as super-beings then respec to his usual build.