What's the point of Spirit Barrage?

[yovargas]

I feel like I'm missing something with this skill. Dart-Splinters can do 180 dmg for 10 mana while Spirit Barrage does 190 dmg for 108 mana. Okay, so it can target in the back, that's nice I suppose (though surely not worth 10 times the cost) but so can Haunt which, runed, can do 288 dmg for 98 mana and can jump to multiple enemies. It just seems so much less efficient than either of these as a single-target skill. Even with the +mana rune it doesn't seem worth it over Dart or Haunt. (Haven't gotten to the other runes yet but they all sound lame.) Am I missing something?

[WD pimpin summons]

I don't understand it either.

[zUkUu]

could be decent if the cost would be cut in half.

it goes over walls and barricades, but that's about its only plus point apart from the 10% more damage.

[nurman]

Personally I think it's retarded.

[yovargas]

I also hate that it's called Spirit Barrage but is most definitely NOT a barrage! :P

[Karmic]

I use Spirit Barrage as my main left click attack. It does a lot of damage, casts quickly, and hits more reliably than any other skill.

With mana regen gear, blood ritual, rush of essence, and the mana refund rune, Spirit Barrage actually gives me mana back when I cast it. I think it's a good skill...you just need a proper build for it.

[Phillter]

With...blood ritual, rush of essence

Those are two very valuable skill slots, mind if I ask what build you are using? I'm looking for anything I can use that isn't Zombie Bears in Inferno and still being viable...

[Thrakhath]

Splinters does 180 damage RUNED while Spirit Barrage does 190 damage unruned. Your comparison is unfair.

Spirit Barrage hits enemies anywhere, cannot miss, and can go through walls.

With one rune, it is almost halved in cost. If you happen to have Rush of Essence, this becones cheap enough to spam for a very long time.

With another, it becomes one of only two spells the WD has that gives a % of damage dealt as life.

With another, it deals 280% damage total, and becomes an awesome barrel breaker.

Phantasm and Manitou are so different that they are not even the same skill...

[yovargas]

With another, it becomes one of only two spells the WD has that gives a % of damage dealt as life.

But doesn't Haunt do this better?

With another, it deals 280% damage total

It can do 280% total but runed Haunt does 288% guaranteed plus can hit multiple enemies.

[Karmic]

Haunt only gives a set amount of life, which means it doesn't scale with damage. Also, Haunt does 280% weapon damage over 2 seconds, and doesn't stack with itself. Spirit barrage can hit for that much every single cast...you can cast it a lot more than just once every 2 seconds.