Found a more fun kiting build than darts... (hell)

[harlsom]

So after having a fun time in NM enjoying direbat/vq spam I entered Hell and have been frustrated for days.

Getting cooldowns active for VQ to kick in is just too dangerous as I need the cd's to survive not just for VQ spam.
It's been a bit of a grind from 52-57 but now I'm pretty happy with my build - I'm solo'ing everything in act2 hell and haven't died for almost the whole act up to zoltan's archive.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#bSUZRP!eZV!caaaZZ

Yeh I'm not up to inferno but I really hit a roadblock in hell and was spending half my time changing out skills waitin for the cooldown and discovering it sucked.
There is definately some room for different rune choices here but I'm enjoying this. I've taken out all kinds of champs including invulnerable minions and waller/molten/jailer/arcane type combos - without dying. There is definately a lot of kiting involved but its more like, around in circles cycling skills, rather than just run away desperately getting shots in now n then.

tl;dr
spam fire spiders, locust swarm groups, keep hex up, save fetishes for big groups/champs, get grasp up, use spirit walk as decoy to get some space so u can spam more spiders, run around in circles. I definately find the extra second on spirit walk most helpful to get a bit more space. Severance might be decent if you tend to fight a lot in enclosed spaces. I prefer open spaces tho, easier to run in circles.

Not an insane ownage build but I can survive now and kill stuff so I'm happy with how it's progressing :-)

[LucianDK]

Looks like a promising build there. Which also seems pretty easy on the mana. Like you, I find VQ to be quite a trap and simply unsustainable given the need to have skills on cooldown constantly. But how do you deal with fast flyers like the bugs in Act2?

[harlsom]

I don't think I've encountered a champ pack of those bugs yet. I've fought a few champs of the leaping guys which can be tough as they just jump out of the snare. With stuff like that and fast packs or avengers there is definately more running away involved but with snare spam and hex spam its manageable so far

[Chaosmage]

The problem is that the main damage skills are both non targetable. Locust swarm is only effective on huge mobs and spiders hit random targets. you have no way of directing damage to a priority target.

[LucianDK]

The problem is that the main damage skills are both non targetable. Locust swarm is only effective on huge mobs and spiders hit random targets. you have no way of directing damage to a priority target.

Yep, thats what I thought as well. While Spider Jars is a fun skill, its not terribly precise and takes time to deal its damage, which is why I think so many people gravitate towards Poison Dart - Splinters.

[yxalitis]

the links aren't seem to be including runes or passives., can you let me know what they are?
And agreed, I find locusts and spiders bad, bad attacks.
While darts-.splinters seems boring, it does the job far, far better, can even kill off screen, and most importantly, allows you to stay far, far away, and still attack specific targets. My second skill is haunt, with the slowdown rune. it does massive damage, can be targeted to a group of targets right on the edge of the screen, and once active, you are free to run away, knowing the damage is being accrued.

[LucianDK]

Appears fine for me.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ZRP!eZV!caaaZZ his link works, shows runes and passives with no problem.

[Bamnz]

This is very close to the build i was using to get me to inferno finally for the same reasons. Locust swarm just rapes and it seems to refresh its timer on each new application so decimates groups within secs.

I use fire bomb with the roll the bones rune myself. If used properly i think it can hit a target multiple times, 2 bounces is almost 3 splinters of the darts not to mention the added AoE. Ghost bomb was also nice for taking down packs but not so good on bosses. if i were to use spiders though i'd prob use the leaping ones for added range.

My fetish army i have runed for ambush. The 250% weap DMG per fetish is just too nice of a burst.

To finish i have my hex set to heal just cos i didn't want it to be useless on bosses. I can see the appeal of the 20% extra dmg though.

In all i found hell very easy with that set up. Only thing i struggled with was Belial and just changed spec to bears for him as it got annoying. Everythign else i 2 shotted at most. locusts lets me focus on avoiding ****

edit: just noticed you have pestilence. in my experience that rune was not needed especially considering most of the time they'd be gripped close for a while for locusts to spread nicely. either burning or mana rune i went with. And speaking of Grasp, the corpse rune is loads of fun. doesn't matter where it is placed, the corpses can rain on any mob on screen. I am using the extra slow now in inferno till i am more confident but raining corpses made me giggle :P

[yxalitis]

Appears fine for me.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ZRP!eZV!caaaZZ his link works, shows runes and passives with no problem.

Weird, the first link has the same URL as your link, but when I click on it, it goes here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...UZRP21eaVaaaca

[sacridoc]

I used Locust Swarm through Hell also. I used Poison Dart / Gargantuan / PtV most of the time though.

It's an easy, effective build to play until you get to the point where Locust Swarm no longer kills things as quickly.

Still, it'll work through Hell very well except for a few instances. I usually changed specs for boss fights where Locust Swarm isn't as useful.

Locust Swarm is great because you can use it with 0 mana items/abilities and PtV without any problems and still do good enough damage in Hell.