Any Ideas how to make an effective build now?

[saint_of_killers]

Saint_of_killers I think i suggest replace Rain of Toads with Zombears for more damage. Also, in higher difficulty Dire Bats can be a viable option since you can deal damage from a distance, since survival is imprtant in inferno.

For the build, if you want to go uber with 100K damage then you aim for crit chance & crit damage & int in equip, looking Vit side-imprtantly. Insert an emerald into 1000 dps weapon is imprtant.

thanks for the advice.

I just spent a pretty gold piece on some upgrades. Testing out builds in MP3 instead of MP4 and its a lot better. I still can't seem to keep mana up enough to use Bears to the point where it wipes out Elites at fast enough rate for me to not constantly run away (really want old VQ back!). Even w/ Spiritual Attunement and VQ+darts before Bear spam.

I think I can stick w/ summoner build in MP3 and do fine vs. majority of elite packs. Next up - testing a pure Spirit build... maybe. I know I've seen a couple out there and have done one myself before when I had lesser gear on MP1.

[MCPWTB]

Saint of killers: Blood ritual is better than SA for Bears. BR scales with attack speed and you're using a 1.4 aps weapon.

I've been using sacrifice mana rune for mp 5 to instantly refill my mana up while I kill elites. I use GI/GF/Circle of Life passive with spirit walk mana rune and the zombie dog health globe rune. I often times can chain sacrifice on large groups of white enemies while keeping up 5 stacks of SH and 3+ stacks of GF. SH and GF double my listed DPS when both at 5. (For reference: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/M...7/hero/2080203)
This works well for me because I have a 2hander which gives me high base average damage.

In the past I've used BBV mana rune to stand there and spam bears, but in higher MP, it doesn't work so well, I just stick with BBV damage rune there. I used that in 1.04 after they changed VQ.

When I play with friends in mp8, I've been using Rush of Essence, BR, SV, and SW mana rune. I used Spirit Barrage: WoS rune with Bears or Acid Cloud. I've also seen Haunt mana regen rune being used by other players. This players suggested WoS, Bears or AC, and Haunt mana regen rune.


I just found out about this webpage, it's awesome, and it should help you figure out what's best:
http://d3up.com/b/70667

The page provides, for instance:
DPS Gain by Stat:

+1 Primary Stat	23.84
+1% Crit Hit	724.36
+1% Crit Hit Dmg	94.42
+1 Minimum Dmg	19.43
+1 Maximum Dmg	19.43
+1% Attack Speed	524.51
+1% Elemental Damage	347.11

They also have EHP gain by stat, so I can quickly check what I should prioritize.

[saint_of_killers]

Saint of killers: Blood ritual is better than SA for Bears. BR scales with attack speed and you're using a 1.4 aps weapon.

Ahh, thanks for that. Just checked out this article as well. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=362753 Very useful. However, I've wondered since I've started playing my WD more - why do ppl use Acid Cloud over Rain of Toads? Rain of Toads basically costs 0 mana and is just as useful of an aoe, imo, for LoH. Is it b/c Toads requires spam that doesn't coincide w/ Bear spam?

[Doctor Clock]

A few of reasons. One, Rain of Toads is a channeled spell, meaning you have to stand still for it to do more damage. Acid Cloud always does the same damage, letting you move around more. Two, Rain of Toads does 130% damage over two seconds. It essentially takes two seconds to do a little bit more damage than one Firebomb. Three, Acid Cloud, especially with the Acid Rain rune, has a much bigger AoE radius. Past a certain dps level, AoE is all that matters.

[Dogbert]

Zombie bears is just a gimmick skill. Wasted skill slot vs anything with reflect. And there's a lot of reflect in inferno.

[MCPWTB]

And what Monster Power are you assuming Dogbert?

I have no problems with reflects damage in MP5 and bears is my only means of attacking enemies. Even with Health Link + Reflects damage.


Zombie bears is so far from a gimmick it's not even worth explaining any further.

From:
http://www.diabloprogress.com/top_sk...ragon_level_50

Hardcore:

Spirit Walk	view runes	100.00% (50)
Summon Zombie Dogs	view runes	80.00% (40)
Soul Harvest	view runes	72.00% (36)
Gargantuan	view runes	72.00% (36)
Zombie Charger	view runes	62.00% (31)

Softcore:

Spirit Walk	view runes	100.00% (50)
Soul Harvest	view runes	86.00% (43)
Zombie Charger	view runes	76.00% (38)

And from top 500:
http://www.diabloprogress.com/top_sk..._heroscore_500

Hardcore:

Spirit Walk	view runes	99.80% (499)
Gargantuan	view runes	84.80% (424)
Summon Zombie Dogs	view runes	84.00% (420)
Soul Harvest	view runes	59.80% (299)
Zombie Charger	view runes	57.60% (288)

Softcore:

Spirit Walk	view runes	98.20% (491)
Zombie Charger	view runes	85.60% (428)
Soul Harvest	view runes	73.60% (368)

[Dogbert]

I always play on different mp but no higher than mp5. I pretty much instant gib myself vs any reflect monsters with laser bears.
Maybe it's cos i need life steal instead of loh or something. Acid cloud is better anyway. And a walk in the park vs reflect.

That site doesn't recieve updates very often. I wouldn't be surprised is that is as old as 1.0.4 skill usage.

Check out what some users wrote here: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...ing-here/page2

This one is better for skill and build usage: http://diablo.somepage.com/popular/witch-doctor
Acid cloud for ever

[Doctor Clock]

Zombie bears is just a gimmick skill. Wasted skill slot vs anything with reflect. And there's a lot of reflect in inferno.

If you have life steal, reflect isn't that bad. If your effective health is low and have no life steal, then reflect can be a problem. But that is more of a gear issue and hardly makes Zombie Bears a gimmick skill.

The link you provided shows that 58.19% of softcore WDs use ZB versus 35.46% using Acid Cloud.

[MCPWTB]

Updated Daily, but I suppose it's based on stale data (players with out-dated data). That other webpage you linked looks more up to date, so thanks.

But now I get the mis-understanding.

Bears without life steal is like playing Russian roulette.

Also, you use LoH and so of course you're going to use the best LoH attack, acid cloud.

My eventual goal is to get LoH (pants/ammy/rings) and Life steal. I already have a swap out ammy with ~650 LoH for when I was doing MP8 runs with friends. I would set up bad medicine with acid rain or slow burn and then run for my life in between casting WoS. No Bears! (Not enough mana)

[MCPWTB]

Just after I finished arguing about Life steal and bears, I ran into a reflect damage elite in the keep level 3 that did me in twice at MP5, mostly from reflects on bears. The first time I died so quickly I didn't even know they were reflects damage until after I died. The second time is just because I popped into SW but they mashed in my ghost before the 2 seconds were up, and I hit sacrifice, and three dogs blew up for 300% weapon damage each == dead.

It was the giant rock like creatures that can turtle up and become a shield temporarily.
Demonic Tremor:
http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Demonic_Tremor

There were five of them, one was a yellow. And I was wearing my newly found Litany of the Undaunted (All resists, int, and reduces damage from elites 7%)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/M...7/hero/2080203

So there we go, reflects damage can own me in a heart beat.

But that's ok; if it was all easy, the game wouldn't be fun to grind.