Pure caster WD

[konfeta]

What Darkmere said. Though I would think that you will want to drop Firebomb or Spirit Barrage. Both seem to be direct damage nukes that you cast after you fire off Acid Cloud and Haunt. I would use Firebomb because it is probably the more "basic," efficient attack for small groups. If you go with Barrage, you might end up whacking things in melee for killing targets between big tough ones and super large groups.

Alternatively, drop either Horrify or Mass Confusion - both prevent your opponent from attacking you in some way, and you will retain the versatility of having Firebomb for main attacking and Spirit Barrage to lay down Armageddon on enemies under effects of Horrify or Mass Confusion.

Or, since you can drop Spirit Walk - you already have 2 crowd control skills that you can chain one after another, and you might want the versaitility of having the most efficient nuke for the situation. Though having 5 damage oriented skills might be too redundant overall. The choices

[The Rockman]

Like konfeta says, other than another skill you might want to think about is Soul Harvest (boosts spell damage based on monsters nearby should work well with Horrify or Mass Confusion).
Lastly your just gonna have to try it out when D3 in released.

[Fain]

Oops, I meant to include Soul Harvest on the list. That leaves me with a problem of three skills to drop. I'd probably drop either Horrify or Mass Confusion, Spirit Walk (depending on how the skill works in game) and Firebomb since it's the only fire-based skill on the list.

I know it's early, and time will tell.

Thanks to those who responded with feedback.

[paxarcanum]

I don't agree with you guys. In my opinion a pure caster WD will be as viable as a wizard.
The Witch Doctor got lots of direct damage spells. For me there's a big difference between animal/zombie themed direct damage spells and true summon spells. The WD has :
Plague of toads wich is much similar to wizard's charged bolt
Zombie charger, basically a poison missile spell
Poison dart
Grasp of the dead an AOE slow damage spell
Sacrifice, only work with Mongrels
Soul Harvest
Firebats similar to inferno
Acide cloud
Firebomb
Wall of zombies or the attacking bone wall
Spirit barrage
(And probably more)

He also got some crowd control spells like horrify, mass confusion but also grasp of the dead and wall of zombies.

[The Rockman]

I don't agree with you guys. In my opinion a pure caster WD will be as viable as a wizard.
The Witch Doctor got lots of direct damage spells. For me there's a big difference between animal/zombie themed direct damage spells and true summon spells. The WD has :
Plague of toads wich is much similar to wizard's charged bolt
Zombie charger, basically a poison missile spell
Poison dart
Grasp of the dead an AOE slow damage spell
Sacrifice, only work with Mongrels
Soul Harvest
Firebats similar to inferno
Acide cloud
Firebomb
Wall of zombies or the attacking bone wall
Spirit barrage
(And probably more)

He also got some crowd control spells like horrify, mass confusion but also grasp of the dead and wall of zombies.

I said earlier it depends on what you class those semi-summoning spells as.