Will WD's pets be able to tank inferno?

[Cisgo]

I think that for the Witch Doctor, the pets are more supplemental than a main strategy. Seems like the WD is mainly gonna be kiting and dishing out serious DOTs and DPS.

I could not agree more, this sums up what I think about the WD as well.

[sacridoc]

There's 2 ways that you could tank Inferno using pets really. Either you continuously summon weak pets and hope they get the job done, or you get Fierce Loyalty and get health regen. The issue with the first option is that your pets may be too weak without Fierce Loyalty.

The second option makes more sense if you're going to use pets. The main issue with this though is that you could limit your damage too much by having to take the pet passives. And also, your pets aren't going to be tanking everything for you because it makes more sense for you to tank larger enemies because you'll have more DR and regen than them most likely.

In both scenarios, the pets are meant to die I believe. I don't think that WD pets are meant to be permanent. They're meant to tank stuff for 30-60sec or whatever and then probably die. Or perhaps just tank for one fight and then die by the end of it and stay on cooldown. Pets will be able to tank Inferno, but I don't think any great build (that does any damage) will have pets that are so durable that they never die. The only option for this really is stacking thorns.

[sprocket]

Here's a challenge - make me a build that you think will be completely useless in Inferno, and I'll tell you how it can be fixed with equipment. You are going to find that it becomes difficult to make a build that is truly gimped.

Oh rly?...

[z00t]

Hah, I was so sure pets would be much better than playing petless in Inferno, but I was mistaken.

I'm not complaining though - petless is my preferred playstyle and I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that it's currently the norm :P.

I personally like rolling with Horrify, Spirit Walk, Soul Harvest, and Hex :P. I ought to use some of the other 'big cooldown' skills like Mass Confusion, but with my current non-amazing gear, I like Hex since I can use it even on trashy non-elite monsters without feeling bad :P.