Witch doctors squishy?

[saberon]

As a side note: Weapons.

Yes, there are 1h + OH witch doctor items.
No, you don't want them.

You want a big, slow 2h with fucktons of +dmg on it. If it has a socket, get the biggest ruby you can find and stick it in. Ideally about midway through Nightmare you should have 1200+ damage as a base.

As for passives, I personally prefer: 20% damage reduction, 10% mana + 10% int health bubbles, 15% mana cost to health + 1% health return.

[Deleted]

Where's the Dire bat love? It's seriously one of the best tools in the arsenal of anything we have as Witch doctors.

At low gear level it hits like a truck
At medium gear level it hits like a Freight train.
At high gear level it hits like a Freight train transporting trucks.

[Blackdecker]

Where's the Dire bat love? It's seriously one of the best tools in the arsenal of anything we have as Witch doctors.

At low gear level it hits like a truck
At medium gear level it hits like a Freight train.
At high gear level it hits like a Freight train transporting trucks.

This is one of the most epic posts that i ever seen.

[asharia]

Where's the Dire bat love? It's seriously one of the best tools in the arsenal of anything we have as Witch doctors.

At low gear level it hits like a truck
At medium gear level it hits like a Freight train.
At high gear level it hits like a Freight train transporting trucks.

Sucks all your mana. Doesnt travel in a straight line or 'track' onto a target.

Thats jsut some negatives, that i find with it. Obviously every spell is great in the right situation. Its fairly useless in a single target fight though, especially if you're far away from a moving target.

[Skallfraktur]

Dire bats is the best dps ability we have for those rarepacks. Rare elite with invunerable minions? NP just kite and throw dire bats at the rare because it'll go straight through the minions anyway. Dire bats also clear packs of mobs really quick, even om inferno.

I'm rolling with

Poison darts - splinters

Mass Confusion - 20% extra dmg to confused mobs (Will probably switch this for mummy wall or grasp of the dead)

Fire bats - Dire Bats

Spirit walk - mana return

Soul harvest - siphon

Hex - periodic healing.

I downed SK on inferno mode yesterday on the first try with 5 stacks of the nephalem valor buff so this spec works great both for killing those rare packs and for killing bosses. Mass confusion is probably the worst skill and can definately be changed for something that helps me kite easier.

[Xeonxi]

As a side note: Weapons.

Yes, there are 1h + OH witch doctor items.
No, you don't want them.

You want a big, slow 2h with fucktons of +dmg on it. If it has a socket, get the biggest ruby you can find and stick it in. Ideally about midway through Nightmare you should have 1200+ damage as a base.

As for passives, I personally prefer: 20% damage reduction, 10% mana + 10% int health bubbles, 15% mana cost to health + 1% health return.

I understand that all of our dmg is % weapon dmg based so I guess that a 2h is probably better. I never imagined using one because I've always looked for int shields or huge dmg off hands. Can other WD confirm this?

[johanxshinigami]

WD's are fine as far as I am concerned. They have plenty of ways to kite+Pets.

[oplawlz]

I understand that all of our dmg is % weapon dmg based so I guess that a 2h is probably better. I never imagined using one because I've always looked for int shields or huge dmg off hands. Can other WD confirm this?

2h or a bow, whichever you can find with the highest damage

[Irisel]

Can they use a shield? Do so if they can, it adds a huge chunk of survivability. I'm using a shield on my Monk that's currently in Nightmare. Been using it in Normal too.

I've also heard of people using a summoning build and just pewpewing from afar while their minions tank.

Also, try to find rings with +X Life Per Hit, those things can heal you quite a bit.

Zombie dogs die VERY fast. They might have been tanks up until about Skele Kings, but after that, they die damn fast.

[Imnick]

Gargantuan isn't an awful tank but I'm not sure if he's worth the skill slot

[asharia]

I found that once i started hell, the garg started to become fairly useless. He would pretty much get 2-3 shot by elites, and with no way to control him, he'd just stand in things and die. I gave up on the dogs somewhere in nightmare.

2h or a bow, whichever you can find with the highest damage

2h weapons attack slower. Thats why they have higher dps/dmg.

[saberon]

2h or a bow, whichever you can find with the highest damage

I was lucky enough to find a 2h with +12-24 damage bonus on it, with a socket which I put a +12-24 damage ruby in it. I think I went from ~300 damage to ~1300 or something crazy like that.

But yeah, slow 2h/bow is win. Even more so because of Soul Harvest.

[Mega Gengar]

As a Witch Doctor I have completed the game on Normal and Nightmare without dying once, only just finished Nightmare so I'm not sure about hell.

Also I've been sticking with a 1h and an off hand, I haven't found a 2h that has given me higher damage yet. Then again I haven't found a 2h with a decent amount of int on it.

[Skallfraktur]

I'm rolling with a 1h and OH. 1 hands can be reaaally good. Mine got 620 dps 35% dmg 170-340 dmg and some int + vitality etc.

[Deleted]

Sucks all your mana. Doesnt travel in a straight line or 'track' onto a target.

Thats jsut some negatives, that i find with it. Obviously every spell is great in the right situation. Its fairly useless in a single target fight though, especially if you're far away from a moving target.

Of course it sucks your mana away. That's why you use a specific setup like this .

It 1-2 shots normal hell mobs and Fetish army plus pile on make short work of champions and rares. With that setup mana issues are not a problem unless you spam mindlessly in the wrong direction and not hit anything.

I agree the arc on the dire bat's path is annoying but that's with reason of the power it hits for. Pile on is a great twist to zombie wall hitting for 29k non-crit and upto 50k crits. You just have to make sure all skills are on Cooldown. Except fetish army keep that for the Champs.

In honesty I end up in melee all the time, but with all the Health and Escape button you're absolutely fine to stand in melee range and Decimate things.

Check out the video i threw together just to prove a point of the underrated dire bats.