Diablo 3: Witch Doctor tips please

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Anyone got any tips for this class? I'm finding some basic ones such as don't worry about a weapon as he doesn't use one but what type of stats should I be looking out for?

[Sennex 1,903]

Last time I played as a witchdoctor passed level 20 was when it was first released on PC

 

I need to look at the class again for specifics, but I do remember always hanging back and letting my abomination thing, and dogs kill everything for me. I vaguely recall using a dart or something.

 

Let me load up a Witch Doctor later on and I will check it out for you.

 

Other than that, just remember to stack the hell out of Intelligence. You do not need Str or Dex. 

 

A website out there had this on gear:

 

Intellect > Crit Chance >= Crit Damage > Attack Speed

 

I partially agree but want to check it out.

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Cheers Bart. You said last night that life per hit isn't really necessary for a witch doctor. Is that because he should stand away from the fight?

[Sennex 1,903]

Keep in mind that I play most all Ranged classes like this; but yes, you should not be near combat, it is why you have so many pets and stuff to jack with folks.

 

That being said in Diablo 3, I am NOT a master of all classes, I am just going off the little time I have played each class, and other games like Diablo 3.

 

Witch doctors and Sorcerers are to me the epitome of "Glass Cannon", they can knock the shit out of anything, but do not let them get touched, as they break.

 

Oh wait I just remembered something that got me through a ton of fights. There is a spell that you get, where you can phase out and become a ghost for a bit of time to regen health and mana. I will look up later what it is called.

 

Hell, I might just reroll my WD to get better answers for you later on tonight

[Diddums 4,346]

Die less.

[Sennex 1,903]

Looking at the skills as I unlock the runes, I want to say I went with this:

 

Darts - Flaming Dart rune (Setting shit on fire is handy until you hit the demon levels, they still take damage, only slightly less than normal, not enough to make you change the rune though)

Grasp of the Dead - Death is Life Rune (As it damages it drops health and summons more dogs. This was OP as hell at release, and I attribute it how I beat Diablo so quickly. That was 2 years ago though, no idea how good it si now)

Zombie Dogs - ???

 

Sacrifice or Soul Harvest. I remember exploding my dogs a lot once they got surrounded, not 100% though as the Int buff is nice on Soul Harvest. I most likely changed it a lot depending on the situation

 

Acid Cloud

 

Gargantuan (Big Bad Voodoo when grouped)

 

You can target Acid Cloud directly over your Grasp of the dead, just hit one, and then the other on the same mob. Stand back spamming darts while your pets run around fighting. 

 

Sacrifice your dogs as you need to for bosses, and then re-summon. I don't recall the cooldown being that bad when I did this before.

 

As always, stack INT gear!

 

I will post specific runes where not mentioned as I unlock them

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Cool, thanks! Haven't used Acid Cloud yet as it didn't sound as effective. I also didn't want to blow up the zombie dogs but you make a good point about the cooldown as I should have them most of the time.

[Sennex 1,903]

They could have nerfed all of it from what I remember.

 

The thing with Grasp, is it slows and its a damage over time, put Acid cloud into it, and you have more damage, all while your dogs are chewing on the bad guys. So while the damage is small, it does stack with everything else in the area.

 

Also, blowing up your dogs is like a last resort, but it was a viable tactic back in the day. Also the Cooldown on dogs seems longer now than it was before.