haha fast n efficient para leveling is the key i switched from doing purely xp run using hf ring + cain full set to item + gf + xp run equipping sun keeper + goldskin since i needed the gold for some upgrades. Went from 2m gold to 20m gold in 3 days lolz. My gf/xp/item speed runs nets me 800k gold + 40m xp per hour on average.

I got a pvl55 DH too so i know what u meant .. DH cant rush in and demolish everything using bears like WD does Instead hv to clear huge mobs from a distance using Ball Lightning .. my DH however can facetank most elites with perma-gloom using Bola Shoot/Thunder Ball to stun target on a spot where i plant stacks of Spike Traps/Echoing Blast... same thing with my WD who can stay in middle of pack and spam Bears while leeching lots of health back from crits. Its fun to play a range character that can tank while watching other melee run around or spin non stop lolz.

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 17 2012, 12:11 PM

Get a pair of Sun Keeper (open socket for u & LoH for your Templar) and u will get around 50% xtra MF even on mp0 Goldskin 100% GF is nice but the affix "Chance for enemies to drop gold when you hit them" is what makes it worthwhile to use for gold farming.

Haha ikr ... hate wallers with arcane just as much as arcane + vortex (only RoT helps when walled) ... however my latest hated affix is RD/molten/fast/MINIONS .. !@#$%^ minions takes so much damage that what they reflect back kills me in few shot regardless of high LS i hv.. had to resort to hitting them in SW mode to stay alive lolz

Altho barb's sprint doesnt require cooldown it still needs Fury .. no mobs = no fury generation (unless using full IK set), likewise WD SW/Jaunt + Horrify/Stalker gives the most MS but hv cooldown .. if there's still mobs to kill the cooldown can be reduced by using Grave Injustice passive. On lower mp speed farming, i can chain combo Jaunt/Stalker most of the time reducing farming time greatly while 1-shotting any mobs using Acid Rain.

I believe WD hv the most survival skill out of all characters. As yuhhaur pointed out, Spirit Vessel passive gives u a second set of life (u will nvr get 1-shot) plus u hv SW to get out of trouble fast not to mention other crowd control skills such as Paranoia, Hex, Horrify.

My current "oh-shit" affix on mobs during high mp key runs (mp6-8) nowadays are rd/fast/molten/MINIONS .. so damn irritating lolz (Blizz pls fix RD on Minions ASAP).. waller/frozen/arcane/vortex combo comes in a close second haha.

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 18 2012, 03:21 PM

lol bro cant resist can u
tbh if u read clearly i wrote down MS as in movement speed .. vault/tumble is not MS (same case as barb's Leap) .. TA after it gives the added MS
MOST is not BEST lolz .. most as in a lot/more than 1 skills ... i do agree Gloom is the best but it still cant beat perma WoTB haha

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 18 2012, 03:32 PM

imho Bears is overkill for mp1 (ofc depending on your current gears n dps oso) .. personally i find Acid Rain large AoE to be better and gives more dmg total for huge packs.

The real reason i enjoy playing my WD...



51xx intel from 27xx intel unbuffed
220k dps from 120k dps unbuffed

all this from GF/SH combo .. how much gold u need to upgrade gear to get that much dps increase? lolz
WD may not be the best character out there but its definately the cheapest to gear and still get high dps ... WD dmg is more skill dependant rather than gear dependant like other classes. Any new players with tight budget can roll a WD and farm efficiently

For example a DH with high dmg Manticore but no ias from other gears is gimped but a WD with a high dmg Skorn without any ias gears still do considerable high dps due to 2 of its main attack (RoT & Acid rain) has no travel time so its not gimped by low attack speed, Getting high CC to use Acid Rain on low lvl speed farming also is cheap for a WD .. i got my Giyua (6% CC + 6%CC to Acid Cloud) for only 3.5m ... tell me which single item can give me 12% CC for that amount of gold with respect to other classes gear setup?

p/s: However when it comes to doing ubers where there are no mobs around to gain advantage of GF/SH, WD is at a disadvantage ... hv to focus more on survival skill passives while dishing lower dps ... WD play a more support role during ubers.

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 18 2012, 04:28 PM

Why i rolled a WD? Bcos i was flat broke and my 1st toon (a DH) was stuck with no gold to do major upgrades.. i was able to finish Inferno solo without being carried with really tight budget gear using my WD .. then i start farming using my WD and up till now its my WD dat provides the most drops/legs & gold to equip my other toons. Early on with no great gears my WD was able to farm efficiently due to its skill/build (GF/SH to get dps .. pets, SW. SV to provide survivability)

As i pointed out WD is a good character to roll for a new player with tight budget. On low lvl mp farming the GF/SH combo dps boost can be maintained most of the time as u can kill fast n jaunt/stalker to next pack. However on higher mp games, WD cannot rely on that dps boost anymore as the health scaling of mobs by mp lvl make it impossible for a WD to get a high enough dps to do that. Even tho wd wont always get the max dps boost using GF/SH combo .. the minimum is at least 40% dps boost so its still high (without having to spend millions on gear upgrades)

The thing is bro, a WD doesnt need to cast AR faster as its a DoT type of attack where u dont need to spam and attack repeatedly using high ias.

A good fact pointed out by Aleune here ... mana issue for WD ... on low lvl mp u wont notice it at all .. but on higher mp is where u find urself OOM more frequently. This is where WD is at a disadvantage ... i hope Blizz do sumthing about WD mana issues (eg lessen mana cost @ better low mana attack that can generate mana faster)

With my current gear setup i can farm quite fast up to mp6 without going OOM .. but anything higher than that i will start to hear the annoying msg "You dont have enough mana" hahaha

---

Added on December 18, 2012, 5:01 pmBcos 1 AR attack is enough to kill whole pack bro .. DoT ensure that if the mob hv a bit of health left it will still die after u are alrdy long gone using Jaunt/Stalker to next pack (include Skorn Bleed into the equation and even higher health mobs will still die after 1 attack of AR)

Useless or not depending on each own experience playing such builds ... i can do burst dmg using Bears on low level mp farming but the hassle of getting close n all make me pick AR .. see mob .. click mob ... jaunt/stalk to next mob ... high PR make sure u wont miss any gold dropped .. farming made easy n fast

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 18 2012, 05:01 PM

+1

If blizz do this maybe, just maybe WD can start doing mp10 without running into mana problem

Not expecting "unlimited" mana to a point can spam bears forever something along the lines of what other classes hv .. eg crits generates mana (which also wont be imba since hard for WD to get high crit on gears)

Also depend on what mp u r playing bcos the more health mobs hv = more mana need to be used to kill them b4 u go OOM .. u can either use low mana attacks such as splinters, ghost bomb @ RoT and take forever to kill an elite pack on high mp (8-10) or u can use high mana attacks such as Bears and kill faster but run the risk of going OOM .. either way mana limits the killing speed/efficiency of WD and so far mana regen (on gears + passives) wont supply u enough mana to kill on high mp b4 u go OOM ... even using low dmg sucky attacks such as widowmaker @ spined dart wont generate enough mana .. ofc on low lvl mp there will be np with lack of mana.

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 18 2012, 07:46 PM

Thats why for Bear users imho its better to use 2h wpn with low attack speed ... u hit harder with higher crits without running the risk of going OOM. So u focus u dps gears (gloves, rings, ammy) to get highest CC & CD possible to crit more often and harder.. not going for ias, therefore trifecta gears will make it slightly cheaper.. coupled with high LS on a 2h wpn ... each crit will replenish ur health pool very fast. The downside is u cannot rely on ToTD for pickup radius so u sacrifice 1 random roll on some gears for pickup radius ... a fair tradeoff considering the high dps u gain from it. Your paper dps will show lower dps than those who stack ias but in reality u deal more dmg thru crits.

Bears (3 x 236% wpn dmg) (using high base dmg 2h wpn) x max crit hit dmg possible (300% from Skorn + 100% from 2 rings + 100% on ammy + 50% on gloves = awesome crit dmg .. if only we can sustain mana better

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 19 2012, 11:49 AM

Yeah this is what ive been doin for some time alrdy 2 x Sun Keeper = arnd 50% MF (which equates to 2 mp level) so basically u can do mp0 with same MF as doing mp2 but way faster killing speed (benefits GF/GI, CoL, Jaunt/Stalker combo). I run mp0 with 84k dps only but still deliver frequent crits with Acid Rain which melts white mobs fast.. elite packs are dealt with some Bears @ Sac when mana is low.
This morning's speed run alrdy gv me few legs with IK chest & Shen Long fist being "worthy" drops

Craft a vitality HF ring and hope for a life%, MF & GF rolls (another roll can be either str, armor @ AR) for the best HF ring on Templar follower.
The best setup for Templar follower for MF is: Sun Keeper + Stormshield with 20% MF + puzzle ring (for that xtra gob drops) + vit HF ring + ammy with high MF & vit ... relic try to get high vit + armor/ar/block chance.
I switch to Azurewrath + Star of Azkaranth ammy for higher mp key runs so my Templar can freeze elites frequently (coupled with Garg/Bruiser stun ... it help me keep tough elite packs in place while i spam bears on them)

I hv xtra Sun Keeper if u want to borrow currently using 1k dps open socket + high intel/vit Sun Keeper for myself & a LoH Sun Keeper for my Templar



Just to get Henry salivating haha


This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 20 2012, 12:12 PM

haha not poison lor give u encouragement to motivate u farm more lolz

imho templar is better than enchantress for few reasons:
- more MF on templar
- templar is tankier (he always last to die .. after my garg die .. then me lolz)
- using Azurewrath + Star of Azkaranth + Stormshiled he is like supertanker who freezes elite .. with templar u dont need zdog .. Templar + Garg = 2 good tanker alrdy .. Templar freeze & Garg deal dmg
- his passive give u xtra mana regen which is very important to WD (mana = damage)
- Templar is melee so he get hits more often which will spawn gobs if u equip him with Puzzle Ring (i alrdy hv lots of leg from gobs spawn from puzzle ring ... latest was a Skorn)
- Enchantress is good for crowd control but WD alrdy hv a lot of crowd control skills.

Okie np ... nxt time i see u in game i pass u a 9xxk dps Sun Keeper with open socket

i dont think i'll be doing mp10 for now ... need to increase my AR & Armor before i attempt mp10 ... maybe a higher dps LS Skorn is needed as well.. my experience with mp9 uber runs with some LYN members taught me that mp10 is suicidal for me now haha.
the problems i foresee a WD attempting mp10 ghom are .. going OOM due to huge health of mp10, pets dying fast due to poison (unless u stack life regen + thorns on gear & use Fierce Loyalty passive) ... big dmg attack such as bears will make u go OOM while low dmg attack such as splinter @ RoT will take forever to kill mp10 Ghom.

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 20 2012, 02:44 PM

Snake to the face is nice especially if u have high attack speed .. that can keep Ghom stun.
Jaunt u might want to change to Honored Guest for mana regen so can spam Bears more.
Mass Confusion wont be effective bcos its meant for large mobs ... even if u want it for stun, the 60 second cooldown for a 3 sec stun wont make it a good choice.
Slam Dance can be good but i dont see a 20% increase in ias % 30% dmg for 20sec (while hv to wait another 100 sec to be able to use it again) will make a big difference.
Frightening Aspect is a good choice since it increase Armor.. however do u expect to get hit by Ghom in the 1st place? most of the time u will get dmg from his poison cloud not melee attack.

Suggestions:
U need to deal huge dmg to kill Ghom ASAP .. Bears is the obvious choice but u need some kind of attack to supply u mana ... for this i would suggest Haunt/Draining Spirit .. Haunt is a click n forget attack .. DoT for 6 sec .. DS rune will return u 20.4 mana per sec which totals up to 122 mana over 6 sec.
Another big dps attack to supplement Bears .. Wall of Zombie/Pile On is a good choice ... 800% wpn dmg is HUGE and getting PO to hit Ghom would be easy as he is a large target .. PO then Bears while waiting for cooldown on PO

Fiddled around with some under-utilised WD attack spells and after some testing, here are my findings:

Haunt Cost: 98 Mana
Haunt an enemy with a spirit, dealing 575% weapon damage as Arcane over 6 seconds. If the target dies, the spirit will haunt another nearby enemy.
Draining Spirit
The spirit returns 20.4 Mana per second.
- Another option for WD to regen mana .. 122.4 mana over 6 sec helps keep mana pool from dipping too low when spamming high mana spells such as Acid Rain @ Bears. Its DoT attack also works well with Acid Rain (stacking 2 DoTs attack on target makes them die faster.)
I used it on my speed run build as primary attack, alternating between Haunt & AR .. surprisingly i nvr go OOM even when i spam AR a lot (didnt hv to use Sac/Pride at all unless i had to nuke a tough elite pack). Haunt wont be wasted as it will jump to another target ensuring the mana return is kept flowing. Another thing i like about Haunt is the fact that u dont really need to aim using it ... all u need is to face the mobs and click Haunt .. it will home in on nearest target. Will give Haunt a try on uber runs later to see how well it works.

Spirit Barrage Cost: 108 Mana
Bombard a target with a spirit blast that deals 230% weapon damage as Physical.
Phlebotomize
Regain 3% of damage dealt with Spirit Barrage as Life.
- Not many ppl realise that with SB/Pheb u can tackle RD packs better even with low LS on 1h+mojo setup. Damage using SB is also quite high with mana cost slight lower than Bears.. however it deals more dmg per single unit compared to Bears. Altho i alrdy hv high LS on my Skorn, the xtra 3%LS helps a lot especially when facing RD MINIONS .. most of the time i can kill myself if i use Bears on RD Minions (due to Bears hitting many targets) but using SB/Pheb, RD minions are piece of cake now lolz. Its a great Gob killer as well bcos of it high range (no need to chase n be close to gobs). SB/Pheb now replace RoT as my primary attack on higher mp key runs.

Give it a try and any feedback (be it positive @ negative) is most welcome

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 21 2012, 07:41 AM

Which WD gear in particular u r looking for bro? I think i hv some spare mojos, wd headgears, ceremonial knives and even zuni set (minus the ring) & manajuma set lying around on my mules.

In theory 0cd zdog gives huge dmg + unlimited mana + unlimited health globe. However in real game play its not so the case. 1st of all to get 0cd on zdog u need to be 1h + mojo & the mojo u need to use is Homunculus which has low avg dmg .. basically equipping 0cd zdog gears will make your dps lower therefore dmg for Sacrifice also lower. Another thing is u need to summon zdog then wait till zdog engage mobs then only use Sac (deal damage) .. total time taken is not really 0 .. so u dont really need 0cd. Unless we are talking about pvp or uber runs where here is tankers in party.

Zombie Bears build with Gruesome Feast + Grave Injustice passive coupled with Soul Harvest is clearly your best bet to deal massive damage in real game play. You can either:
a) obtain high paper dps (200k-300k) by stacking ias (together with CC & CHD) and equipping a 1h wpn (with high base CHD + OS) + Ukh Serpent Mojo (with at least 250-300 avg dmg) @ Manajuma Set with similar stats. However u will run into some problem against RD packs due to only 3% max LS on 1h (Soul Barrage/Pheb can add another 3%LS but SB is best for single target .. it doesnt clear huge packs like Bears does)
b) go 2h with high dps Skorn + high base CHD + open socket + (min of 5%LS if u want to handle RD packs efficiently). The only problem here is u lose pickup radius (needed for GF/GI) from ToTD mojo .. so u need to sacrifice 1 random roll on some gears for pickup radius. Another problem is mana regen (u lose mana regen from mojo) so u need to use full Zuni set + 1/2 mana regen passive (Blood Ritual & Spiritual Attunement) and use 1 mana regen attack spell (Widowmaker, Spined Dart @ what i currently use is Haunt/Draining Spirit)

Gruesome Feast + Soul Harvest can easily boost your dps from 30-100% of your base/paper dps. On my current setup i can go from 27xx intel/12xk dps to 5xxx intel/2xxk dps after GF/SH buff. Spirit Walk + Grave Injustice passive will make chain combo possible if used correctly. If u feel u need to see such build/setup in action .. feel free to add me in-game @ Hulkie#6526. I am currently using such setup with 120k dps, 5.6% LS, 700AR, 3.5k armor & 53k hp. Key & Uber runs up to mp8 is doable .. mp9 is a challenge but mp10 is a suicide mission lolz (need to buff up my EHP & get higher dps b4 can tackle mp10).

This post has been edited by Gecko: Dec 23 2012, 04:28 AM

I'm considering to dabble in HC as well soon and from my SC experience i would definately roll a WD for HC... will add u up when i do so.
Did u solo all the way to inferno or did u do coop games? Hopefully u can carry me thru Hell at least lolz ... i will probably try solo Normal & Nightmare on my own