How would you like to play your WD - With Pets or Petless? der=0><

[z00t]

IF
It is affected by Big Bad Voodoo
THEN
It is an ally.

Will Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan be affected by Big Bad Voodoo? Almost certainly.

IF
Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan be affected by Big Bad Voodoo
THEN
Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan are allies.

IF
Pets are allies summoned by the player character. (My definition of pets)
AND
Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan are summoned by the player character.
THEN
Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan are pets.

Will the other spells be affected by Big Bad Voodoo? We don't know yet!
BUT, using the above:

IF
Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan are summoned by the player character
AND
They are considered as allies by the game
THEN
They are considered as pets.

*SO*

If it is summoned by the player character
AND
It is considered as an ally by the game
THEN
It is considered a pet.

That's an interesting way to look at it, I just have a different definition of Pets :P.

To me, every Summonable Pet is an Ally, but not every Summonable Ally is a Pet.

Your definition is more precise, though. Mine is based more on flavour. For instance - how long does a Summonable Ally need to last before I count it as a Pet? I don't think I can come up with a duration off the top of my head.

[Tryzx]

Fetishes created by Fetish Sycophants last indefinitely, as far as I'm aware,

They only last 60 seconds. Sorry :P

As for what I consider as pets: Zombie Dogs and Gargantua. The rest are spells for me.

[z00t]

Oh yeah, it says so right on the tooltip. Huurrrr, thats what I get for talking off the top of my head.

Looks like most of the guys here prefer playing with pets from the looks of things so far, which is not entirely unexpected :P.

[sgtTenor]

Why not both? One of the things I really liked about D2 is that I could make several different variations of each class and stick with it. As much as I like experimentation, I would like to stick to a certain build rather than change it from time to time.

As it is I don't see the WD as a true pet class like the Necromancer was but, They do have Zombie dogs (which seem underwhelming in beta) and Gargantuan. you could have both or either one. Still it's nothing like the necro where you can have golems, skeliies, and mage skellies. Too much fun.

For pet WD http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...PYT!eXd!cZaccY

For caster WD http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ZXi!XfW!cbYYaY

These are just ideas of course. I haven't delved too much in how viable these would be. As it is there are so many combinations to try out. So I guess I'll experiment with both WD's in tandem as I don't want to rush to max level so fast. I'll probably do the same for all the other classes have 2 different characters per class.

[Greymouse]

yeah, i'm thinking both too.

conceptually i'd love the WD to be a pet class, because i love playing those. but with easy respecs, a full on DOT + CC based version (with adjoining gear on reserve) is just too tempting to ignore for team play.

Why not both? One of the things I really liked about D2 is that I could make several different variations of each class and stick with it. As much as I like experimentation, I would like to stick to a certain build rather than change it from time to time.

As it is I don't see the WD as a true pet class like the Necromancer was but, They do have Zombie dogs (which seem underwhelming in beta) and Gargantuan. you could have both or either one. Still it's nothing like the necro where you can have golems, skeliies, and mage skellies. Too much fun.

For pet WD http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hcSPYT!eXd!cZaccY

For caster WD http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#hedZXi!XfW!cbYYaY

These are just ideas of course. I haven't delved too much in how viable these would be. As it is there are so many combinations to try out. So I guess I'll experiment with both WD's in tandem as I don't want to rush to max level so fast. I'll probably do the same for all the other classes have 2 different characters per class.

[Vivv]

Thinking of going with pets at first to see how they do. Other then the sk the dogs are not bad at lasting. Been playing the beta since Oct. and i remember when the dogs could not die and i would kill the sk with darts only right as he was down the stairs. Now since they changed the dmg its been nice. But the pet less wd is also good. When you can rune graps and you have leaping spiders most things do not make it to me. Toss in soul harvest and bats, pet less wd more then hold there own. With me I will be trying everything up till 30 or so just to get a feel for all the skills. I do know at 19 i will be running spiders with queen rune, dogs, and gargantuan. I think after playing with all of that i will know if i want to go pet less or not.

[WDfromBg]

OMG! In the past most people wanted to use pets, now it becomes modern not to use pets. ( Strange!
Blow up zombie dogs, people! It is the sweetest skill in the game D

[Cisgo]

I think pets should be fun, I just hope they can stay upright for a few hits at inferno level. I plan on trying to support them in my build by damage reduction passives and trying to stack thorns to make up for thier low damage output:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ZiT!Zcg!acaaaY

[sgtTenor]

OMG! In the past most people wanted to use pets, now it becomes modern not to use pets. ( Strange!
Blow up zombie dogs, people! It is the sweetest skill in the game D

Yeah sacrifice looks cool but it's one of those risk reward types of skills. Zombie dogs cool-down takes far to long to have sacrifice really be useful. 60 seconds is far to long to be in tandem with sacrifice. Not sure why the cool-down is so long for a summon.

I do know at 19 i will be running spiders with queen rune, dogs, and gargantuan. I think after playing with all of that i will know if i want to go pet less or not.

Interesting build but I wonder how spider queen works? Is it complete summon or something like fetish army where it lasts 20 seconds or so. Interestingly enough you have 3 skills that are pets with 3 skill slots that are useful. That could work especially with the amount of pets on the screen. Will have to test that out as well.

2 weeks is still so far away.

[Kebel]

Petless. Dogs die anyway and having everything centered to make them useful with sacrifce and all other supporting skills like boogie man seems too much.

I'm personally planning to use a build centered around Grave Injustice and Vision Quest passives to spam 2 secondary skills as damage instead. Something like http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ceXdUR!ZTU!YbbYaZ