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

[Zoltar]

I do like the idea of a petless WD a lot, but I also LOVE the Gargantuan. That guy is just bad ***, and I might try to fit him into my Spirit-Caster build. If I was just going to make a fun build without regard to effectiveness, I would pick the following skills:

Spirit Barrage
Gargantuan
Zombie Wall
Mass Confuse
Haunt
Grasp of the Dead

[Alb]

I'm planning on trying a petless WD first....i am not a summoner lover

[jamesL]

I assume an ally is any character or creature within the game which can help you of it's own accord. It does not have to be steered or directed or otherwise controlled.

do you consider Haunt an ally ?

I'm not sure I consider Haunt or Call of the Ancients either pets or allies.

But I'm not sure why

Haunt just seems like "Chained Lightning"
its a skill that kills one enemy, then when it finishes, it goes and hits others
its not under your control, it has no life bar,
have no idea if it receives buffs

Haunt an enemy with a spirit, dealing 575% weapon damage as Arcane over 12 seconds. If the target dies, the spirit will haunt another nearby enemy.

If there are no targets left, the spirit will linger for up to 10 seconds looking for new enemies.

and, I'l definitely be using every pets and summon and ally
I'm almost positive I'll be using a WD as my main HC char
hope to take him into hell, but no further and farm stuff
I just don't see pets lasting in Inferno, not with the cooldowns imposed

[Zoltar]

I don't know if you can have a strict litmus test on what is and isn't a pet, because there are always going to be exceptions and skills that are borderline. But I don't think Haunt isn't a pet. It's short duration, spammable, and the spirit isn't targetable. The only part of it that seems "pet-ish" is the part where it will linger around looking for new eneimes.

[z00t]

do you consider Haunt an ally ?

I'm not sure I consider Haunt or Call of the Ancients either pets or allies.

But I'm not sure why

Pcguy was just making a point that the definition of an 'ally' is something that is concrete.

There are spells which say things like: "All nearby allies get +3% attack speed" for example. Everything that is affected by that aura must therefore be an 'ally'. (Haunt is not affected by auras which affect allies, so does not count as an ally)

The definition of what a 'pet' is, is actually just as clear. If it gets affected by the Fierce Loyalty passive, it must count as a pet :P.

I can say that Gargantuan runed with Wrathful Protector doesn't feel like a pet to me, but it is probably still technically a pet.

Also, wow - the number of petless WDs shot up :P. Go us! I hope that Blizzard makes it quite do-able in Inferno without requiring godly gear.

[pcguy]

do you consider Haunt an ally ?

I agree with what z00t said.

I will edit my post here, because I did not intend for it to be confusing

Also, I would like to add that if you use a skill, and a portrait of whatever you just summoned appears in the top left of your screen where your allies portraits are, you can bet that that spell is considered a pet.

The portrait is another qualifier for an ally/pet.