Best weapons for Witch Doctor?

[DeadmanWalking]

Is there a 'best type of weapon' for witchdoctor like bows and xbows for hunters or will any weapon with high damage do?

Should I be wielding a shield or a voodoo doll in my offhand?

I was thinking of going with zombie dog wave build, where you have 5% chance of every kill producing a Z dog and then equipment that enhanced the range of gold/health orb pick up which enhances the range of the 5% every kill. That and orbs heal dogs too, so I will take equipment that enhances the heals of every orb you collect. Add a templar to the group who has regen which effects your dogs and eventually the rune that causes dog attacks to regen their and your hit points. Should be quite fun.

[probert]

There's witchdoctor specific weapons in the game, they tend to be daggers + fetishes/dolls for the offhand. I didn't see many until Act II normal, but they appear to be better itemized for a WD in contras to other useable gear.

I'm going with zombie dogs + AOE slow and exploding frogs. Seems to work fairly well. AOE damage plus slows seem really popular in groups.

[Blackmist]

The best weapons are the ones with the highest number on them.

That's how I'm doing it anyway, the only stat I'm looking for is DPS and primary stat. I just look at the damage stat on the character sheet to see if something is good or not. Plus, the odd nice thing, like +HP when getting health globes.

[DeadmanWalking]

There's witchdoctor specific weapons in the game, they tend to be daggers + fetishes/dolls for the offhand. I didn't see many until Act II normal, but they appear to be better itemized for a WD in contras to other useable gear.

I'm going with zombie dogs + AOE slow and exploding frogs. Seems to work fairly well. AOE damage plus slows seem really popular in groups.

I agree with your build for groups, but I am playing single player at the moment. I noticed that some attacks say, "Does 300% of weapon damage when frogs explode." so wouldn't having a two handed sword that did 20 damage be better than a dagger that did 10 damage when it comes to the frog damage? So 60 damage per blast as opposed to 30 damage?

Currently any dolls I have run into havent been worth the bonus of a shield. The shield comes with magical bonuses and has +100 defence on it (I am still in act I) and the doll only has magical bonuses on it. Unless the doll comes with something I need on my witch doctor that a shield can not give me (Like in diablo II class specific stuff came with +skill levels and shields did not) then I dont see the point of having a voodoo doll over a shield.

[Jeleh]

The WD items will have stuff on them you wont get on shields/1h like mana regen and max mana, personally I have just been looking for +int and +vit on the same items, big damage big hp pool, cant go wrong.

[saberon]

I've been using slow 1h's with favourable stats (int + Gold/Item% mostly). I find that the WD specific weapons have too low a damage value so they end up hurting you more than they help.

As for OH, I think I used a shield up until halfway through Act II. At that point, the fetishes end up being better.

As for my build, I'm rocking 3xDarts, Firebats, Voodoo Man (1), Int Buff (2), Poison (3) and Big Zombie Fucker (4), although I rarely if ever use the Poison.

[Aberration]

Ceremonial Knives and Voodoo Dolls for the off-hand. Poison spec everything ftw!

[Maelstrom51]

You want to use the class specific offhands. The flat damage they add is HUGE. You should also make sure your amulet and rings add flat damage. Its basically the number one stat in the game.

[Kujako]

You want to use the class specific offhands. The flat damage they add is HUGE. You should also make sure your amulet and rings add flat damage. Its basically the number one stat in the game.

Not true really. Intelligence ads 1% damage per point. So once you have more then 100 base damage from weapons and +damage bonuses, intelligence becomes better per point.

This is also why Soul Harvest is so freakin' powerful.

[Aberration]

Not true really. Intelligence ads 1% damage per point. So once you have more then 100 base damage from weapons and +damage bonuses, intelligence becomes better per point.

This is also why Soul Harvest is so freakin' powerful.

Soul Harvest is ridiculous.

[philefluxx]

Is there a 'best type of weapon' for witchdoctor like bows and xbows for hunters or will any weapon with high damage do?

Should I be wielding a shield or a voodoo doll in my offhand?

I was thinking of going with zombie dog wave build, where you have 5% chance of every kill producing a Z dog and then equipment that enhanced the range of gold/health orb pick up which enhances the range of the 5% every kill. That and orbs heal dogs too, so I will take equipment that enhances the heals of every orb you collect. Add a templar to the group who has regen which effects your dogs and eventually the rune that causes dog attacks to regen their and your hit points. Should be quite fun.

The WD feels akin to the Necro in D2. My guess is that we will wield wands/daggers and fetish for offhand.

[Postaldude]

Not true really. Intelligence ads 1% damage per point. So once you have more then 100 base damage from weapons and +damage bonuses, intelligence becomes better per point.

This is also why Soul Harvest is so freakin' powerful.

Actually intelligence gets a decreased % gain towards damage after 100 so... coincidence? lol

[Kujako]

The WD feels akin to the Necro in D2. My guess is that we will wield wands/daggers and fetish for offhand.

Feels to me like "Necro' Light", I miss the bone skill tree.

[Maelstrom51]

Not true really. Intelligence ads 1% damage per point. So once you have more then 100 base damage from weapons and +damage bonuses, intelligence becomes better per point.

This is also why Soul Harvest is so freakin' powerful.

Intellect only gives a 1% damage increase when at zero intellect. It actually only increases base damage by 1%, which means when you have 500 intellect already, 1 more intellect will give you a total of .2% more total damage. If your base damage is 100, +1 damage is 1% more damage, which is 5 times as strong as intellect.
Soul Harvest inflates the value of +damage even more.

[Deleted]

Soul Harvest is so badass, I'm rolling with the AOE slow and Dire Bats, cast 'til I'm /oom and there's rarely anything alive.

[Judgejoebrwn]

Intellect only gives a 1% damage increase when at zero intellect. It actually only increases base damage by 1%, which means when you have 500 intellect already, 1 more intellect will give you a total of .2% more total damage. If your base damage is 100, +1 damage is 1% more damage, which is 5 times as strong as intellect.
Soul Harvest inflates the value of +damage even more.

I'm not going to claim I'm 100% sure, but that's not the way I understand it. 1 Int = 1% base weapon damage. Across the board. Always. +1 damage = +1 damage. Across the board. Always. Saying "1 int gives you a total of .2% more total damage (at 500 int)" is correct, but you're still getting a full 1% increase in base damage. Let's look at a couple of examples:

20 DPS Weapon
1.00 attacks per second
19-21 Damage

Ring adds +2 damage = 21-23 damage = 22 DPS
Ring adds +2 intelligence = 0.4 damage (2% damage) = 20.4 DPS

100 DPS Weapon
1.00 attacks per second
80-120 Damage

Ring adds +5 damage = 85-125 = 105 DPS
Ring adds +5 int = 4-6 (5%) = 84-126 = 105 DPS

So point for point, int is better than +damage once base damage is higher than 100. This is what Kujako was talking about I believe, and that's how I understand it as well. As I said, I'm not 100% sure so if someone can prove otherwise I would love to see it.

-Judge

[philefluxx]

Feels to me like "Necro' Light", I miss the bone skill tree.

Ya I agree with you there, though I was always all about the Summoner tree + Amp Damage for my army with a wand that gave me points for bone shield for a protection.

[Znuff]

Damage Dealt = (Weapon Damage + Item Modifier Damage [armor, gems etc.]) * Intellect Points

So you need a "strong" base damage, then you multiply it by Intellect. That makes Intellect extremely valuable, and it scales with the damage of the weapon and weapon modifiers.

[fan141]

need onehand weapon or no?

[Maelstrom51]

I'm not going to claim I'm 100% sure, but that's not the way I understand it. 1 Int = 1% base weapon damage. Across the board. Always. +1 damage = +1 damage. Across the board. Always. Saying "1 int gives you a total of .2% more total damage (at 500 int)" is correct, but you're still getting a full 1% increase in base damage. Let's look at a couple of examples:

20 DPS Weapon
1.00 attacks per second
19-21 Damage

Ring adds +2 damage = 21-23 damage = 22 DPS
Ring adds +2 intelligence = 0.4 damage (2% damage) = 20.4 DPS

100 DPS Weapon
1.00 attacks per second
80-120 Damage

Ring adds +5 damage = 85-125 = 105 DPS
Ring adds +5 int = 4-6 (5%) = 84-126 = 105 DPS

So point for point, int is better than +damage once base damage is higher than 100. This is what Kujako was talking about I believe, and that's how I understand it as well. As I said, I'm not 100% sure so if someone can prove otherwise I would love to see it.

-Judge

Only problem here is that intellect and other modifiers increase the damage of +damage modifiers. So if you have 500 intellect, +5 damage will increase your damage by 30 (not 25. At zero intellect you have 100% damage, at 100 intellect you have 200% damage and so on).

Basically what it comes down to, is that whichever stat you have less of (weapon damage/+damage vs primary stat) will be the one that increases your damage the most. In most cases, this will be +damage. In the Witchdoctor's case, +damage is even more prominent thanks to Soul Harvest.