Get an Epic Experience with Premium
  • posted a message on Spirit barage build.
    WD passives are crap anyways lol, neither darts nor spirit barrage is superior to the other.
    SB will always win out vs wallers, Vortex, Mortar, invulnerable minions, that's just the utility, while darts have a longer range.
    Without PtV, dart does less damage. With PtV, all your other skills will cost more.

    If you analyze it, it really is a matter of preference
    Posted in: Witch Doctor: The Mbwiru Eikura
  • posted a message on Spirit barage build.
    I still use ZB, ZB is bar-non the best damage for AoE
    splinter darts and spirit barrage both have their utilities, the damage is about the same, but with PtV i find my ZB hard to spam with VQ
    Posted in: Witch Doctor: The Mbwiru Eikura
  • posted a message on Spirit barage build.
    No, manitou sucks, the damage is so small the only thing it might be good for is proccing effects on your nearby enemies.
    Spirit is willing returns 44 mana when it hits something, making it sustainable without needing VQ

    The well of souls initial cast will hit a target, and then three more little spirits will come out to attack nearby targets one after another. (not all at once).

    Using my build, I use VQ and bear for aoe damage, and use spirit is willing for continued single target damage
    Posted in: Witch Doctor: The Mbwiru Eikura
  • posted a message on Spirit barage build.
    I used to use what the op suggested, but well of souls requires a "ramp up" in damage
    Here's what it's like
    First cast, A main spirit
    Second cast, B main spirit + A1 small spirit
    Third cast, C main spirit + A2 small spirit + B1 small spirit
    Forth cast, D main spirit + A3 + B2 + C1
    And it is after 4 casts that you will have 3 small spirits going out destroying faces
    It will absolutely destroy small groups of elites after 4 casts having 1 big spirit hitting for 190% while other 3 spirits hitting for a total of 90% per cast, but it really only starts to hurt after you ramp up the damage.!VfU!acaZab
    This is the build I use now. It is mostly the same as dart bear build with the advantage of dealing against wallers, vortex, invulnerable, mortar mobs, all because SB is a spammable skill that does not get blocked.
    While bear is still superior in aoe situations.
    Posted in: Witch Doctor: The Mbwiru Eikura
  • posted a message on Spirit barage build.
    Quote from TheDFO

    Quote from Derwiv33

    Quote from Findulidas

    Sure damage is higher than splinters, but not by very much, only 10% more of your dps or 5.5% more than splinters. Considering its massively larger mana cost its damage really isnt that great. 3% lifesteal isnt an awesome rune either, it only makes a diffrence when you hit about 100+kdps for decent healing and have very good resi/armor/health at the same time because otherwise that extra healing wont count for anything since you get almost instantly killed anyway. By then running most builds dps skills are viable.

    I have 60k DPS and I do 60-80k on white attacks with it (360-480 life per hit). Critical hits range from 150k to 200k (900-1200 life per hit). But like I said, it's not something that is "awesome", but it's certainly better than what the other spammable skills offer.

    And splinters costs way way less. Basically, this isn't a skill I would call spammable, unless you're building your build around it (like VQ allows spamming of bats or ZB). And like that build, you make sacrifices to make the build viable (VQ is only a passive in my build so I can spam ZB. I only have hex, as opposed to GotD, because it's got a longer cooldown. I might not have fetish army, except it's got that huge cooldown). The difference is, SB doesn't have the awesome damage.

    And against actuall spamable skills - just use splinters and your ENTIRE build can be surviving/damage. You don't have to worry at ALL about mana, where-as you do with a spamming SB build. Also, if you do go splinters, you probably are using PtV, which makes splinters more powerful then SB. Sure, it's slightly harder to hit, but the 1/10 base cost means it's not even close. If SB was between 20 and 50 mana, then you might be right, but it's not.

    The problem I see here is that you guys are so focused on certain builds that you aren't even considering anything else. For example in group-play there are no problems to get the mobs stay still because the melee-classes are tanking them. You can also use skills such as wall of zombies and unbreakable grasp to get the enemies to stay there for the full duration. You can also combine this skill with the zombie bears or dire bats. Zombie bears/Dire Bats for AoE damage, spirit barrage for more reliable single-target damage. It's not "one or the other", you can have both if you want.

    The way I see it, this skill is almost overpowered considering nothing stops it and you aren't putting yourself in any danger when using it. Almost all of its runes are viable as well (which can't be said for most skills). Obviously you disagree, but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the skill. I welcome any boosts it might get someday in the future, but I don't feel like it needs any boosts. :)

    PS: Poison dart, corpse spiders, firebomb, hex and haunt can all be categorized as single-target skills. Though firebomb is more of a hybrid and hex is a CC.

    No, I am trying this. I have tried it repeatedly, and I have never gotten it to work well, at least with my gear. I just recently tried using Manitou as an extra damage with ZB. It's nice, except I had to give up splinters for it. I'm not next going to try just going straight SB instead of splinters for those mobs that are hard to hit with ZB (wasps, goblins, mallet demons, etc). But the problem with just replacing splinters with this is that now I no longer have an almost free skill to use when I oom, or to break pots, or to break doors (it would cost me 200 mana to break most doors now). If we had unlimited skills, you'd be right, this would be a great replacement for those frantic moments when you just have to run, or it's a waller, or a wasp. But we have to give up another, more useful skill, to get this one.

    I do agree that the runes would be nice - if the base skill were worth while. If it did 220-250 dps, or cost 50% less mana, or did AoE. But it doesn't do any of those things.

    PS: PD, corpse spiders and haunt are all single target. Firebomb is not. It's default has AoE, and all it's runes give some form of multi target. It is also not particularly useful - it does too low base damage, and it's too slow and can miss fast moving mobs. Also, it doesn't go over wallers for some reason. Don't get me wrong, I love the skill, but it's just not very good. Hex doesn't do any damage by default, and it's got a cooldown. Haunt is a single target. I also find it terrible, as it only does 45% DPS when you break it down. Sure, you can spam it, but then you'd be better off going with an AoE which does MORE than 45% DPS. PD and Corpse Spider also cost way way less mana, and, with the exception of splinters, do a coorespondingly less amount of damage. I'm not really sure what you were getting at. But yes, there are other single target spells in the game. But none of them are good comparisons to show this skill isn't miserably bad.

    Edit: I just saw that an item can get an affix to lower the cost of SB by up to 12% (well, a unique can. I don't know if other items can too). Possibly if you had that, then you could make this sorta work. 12% reduction takes it from 108 to 97.2. 30% return over 10 seconds passive takes it to 75.6 or 68.04, depending on if the 30% counts before or after the first reduction. Then the 44 back on hit rune puts us down between 24.04 to 31.6 mana.

    Maybe actually doable. But a lot of work for something that will still be blown out of the water by a splinters build.

    Edit Edit: changed a not to a next.

    first of all, Spirit Barrage becomes sustainable single target dps if you rune spirit is willing and use the Rush of Essence passive

    People have disregarded Rush of Essence, but in fact it is a passive mainly linked with Spirit Barrage.
    with 1.4 attack speed, you will do 14 attacks of spirit barrage in 10 seconds. and this stacks, that means every second after 10 seconds of continuous attacks will gain you 420 mana per second.
    What you will see is your mana will go to half, and then stay there... then after the kill, it will replenish to full very quickly.

    since using this passive makes it sustainable single target, this out shines splinter vs wallers, cornering places, and enables you to "Pillar" a mob while hitting it through the pillar (increase survivability).

    and regarding "Haunt", it is an extremely strong spell if used along side a spam spell like spirit is willing or darts, as long as the fight is longer than 12 seconds (elites and bosses) think of this "dot" as a damage boost every 12 seconds that hits 500% damage "while doing something else".

    haunt with draining spirit + Rush of Essence makes your well of spirit sustainable vs groups of 3 elites. Every 12 seconds you get a 500%damage hit and you can spam Well of Spirit all you want. (while everything goes through walls and such)

    try Rush of Essence, Spirit Vessel and Blood Ritual as your 3 passives
    now you have sustained damage and all your CD's available (no VQ).
    Posted in: Witch Doctor: The Mbwiru Eikura