WD - I'm doing it wrong.

[Exile]

Hey guys,
I am one of the biggest defenders of the WD on the podcast, the class has been a power house in several areas, but I seemed to have hit a few problems. I am confident all of this is just user error. So I am wondering if the pro's here could help me out.

I am currently 23... so there are probably plenty of runes on the horizon that could fix my issues. I am also playing almost entirely in co-op. While I am "fine" in solo, I just don't feel powerful, unlike my wiz buddy who is destroying everything while I run around avoiding damage and recasting my minions.

- my spirit spells cost way to much, and don't really do a whole lot of damage. I find myself running around alot.
- I am obviously doing something wrong with my regen. Would love some advice here.
- Zombie dogs fall pretty flat. I am constantly recasting them. Considering dropping the skill.
- Gargantuan is sweet but his damage is pretty meh. Is he capable of being more than a meat-shield?

I am thinking that I have a serious INT problem at the moment. I am getting confused with my attack vs. my int when it comes to item stats.

Anyway, I throw myself at the mercy of the board....

[zUkUu]

Hey guys,
I am one of the biggest defenders of the WD on the podcast, the class has been a power house in several areas, but I seemed to have hit a few problems. I am confident all of this is just user error. So I am wondering if the pro's here could help me out.

I am currently 23... so there are probably plenty of runes on the horizon that could fix my issues. I am also playing almost entirely in co-op. While I am "fine" in solo, I just don't feel powerful, unlike my wiz buddy who is destroying everything while I run around avoiding damage and recasting my minions.

- my spirit spells cost way to much, and don't really do a whole lot of damage. I find myself running around alot.
- I am obviously doing something wrong with my regen. Would love some advice here.
- Zombie dogs fall pretty flat. I am constantly recasting them. Considering dropping the skill.
- Gargantuan is sweet but his damage is pretty meh. Is he capable of being more than a meat-shield?

I am thinking that I have a serious INT problem at the moment. I am getting confused with my attack vs. my int when it comes to item stats.

Anyway, I throw myself at the mercy of the board....

drop all mana-cinsumption spells that are meant as primary attack.
past normal all spells are unuseable due to the mana issue, namely unscaled mana regeneration.

use dart with splinter as primary single target DPS and fire bombs with rolling stone as aoe. get Pierce the Veil passive and there you go. your offense just raised by a huge amount and you combined both, spammable and DPS spells in those two spells. everything else (bats, barrage, charger etc) are simply not worth it, unless you have a spare slot for them.

gargantuan is decent enough in a group as he tanks okayish, but he is not a good damage source. I stick with him for now (hell) simply because that distraction can save your life.
Spirit Walk (with jaunt) is a lifesaver and should never leave your hotkeys.
Grasp is in later difficulties a mandatory skill as well, in normal you can use whatever you want basically.
I switch the last slot to play around. Big Bad Vodoo (later with slam dance, till then with +10 sec time) is a good choice, in particular against bosses or tough packs. the high cd makes it a dead slot for the most time, although an incredible useful one. Zombie Wall / Tower are fun too, but need to play more around with them. the hits from tower make it a "25 cd high damage spell", but that's more for fun then anything else.

[Malicious]

I'm using direbats atm, along with soul harvest + the heal rune. U can try using the big bad voodoo with rain dance rune (mana regen), it allows u to pretty much just spam while its up... although u do have to stay in the radius. For passives I use the one that increases your mana pool and also the one that converts some of the mana cost to life (the regen seems to nullify the health cost). All up it allows me to fire off enough bats to wipe out the weak horde packs.

I still use gargantuan, and I combine it with the hex fetish with the healing rune. My gargantuan didn't die too much unless we came across a hard boss pack with a damage mod (plague, molten etc). I think he's still great as a form of cc and distraction, and he does a bit of damage (not as good as other skills, but it doesn't require u to be using an action).

[jamesL]

and fire bombs with rolling stone as aoe.

Roll the Bones ?

[Deguello]

I am currently 23... so there are probably plenty of runes on the horizon that could fix my issues. I am also playing almost entirely in co-op. While I am "fine" in solo, I just don't feel powerful, unlike my wiz buddy who is destroying everything while I run around avoiding damage and recasting my minions.

I'm currently 22 but I am playing hardcore so I have probably over-leveled the mobs a little (I'm just past the palace), but my WD feels pretty strong.

I use Gargantuan instead of dogs and he hasn't died since I got him and has rarely been below half health. I Spirit Walk into a crowd, Soul Harvest, Grasp, and run out. I cast either Acid Cloud or Insect Swarm (I just got Cloud so I am trying it out). I move around and Splinters Dart whatever my Gargantuan is fighting and maybe cast another Cloud, but it is rarely needed.

About the only time I have to run around outside of boss/mini-boss fights is when I get a Waller and multiple mobs come after me.

I don't claim this is the best way or even that it will work for much longer but, for now, it takes care of business quickly and I'm pretty comfortable killing mobs before they can remotely put me in danger.

[LucEps]

My build at your level was something like this: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ZdUT!bY!aaaaaa My gear was almost entirely +Int and +Dmg, with a few items +Vit, just to stay alive. My strategy was pretty much just casting GotD, running in, using SH, and then just spamming the Frogs. My damage was good enough with the SH that everything died on one, maybe two frogs, with the GotD and Garg keeping the mobs in place. Still using approx. the same build at lvl 27. There are probably better/more effective ones, but this one works wonders for me! Try it out, and let me know

[quarky]

I am sure that at around 23ish I was using Corpse Spiders, Dire Bats, and dogs (blowing them up when the timer had run down, then recasting) and gargantuans to reasonable effect.

The meat shields (and the spiders helped) held up the monsters, while the odd dire bats did the real damage. I only really changed fromthat at level 27.