Here is my build suggestion for farming (for patch 1.08):
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ceUdYV!cTZ!ccZbbb
And this one for Uber Bosses:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#cidVYU!bce!cZabbZ
Here are some videos showing how my firebat build solo farm in mp 10, description of the build and more information can be found below as well.
Reason why use a shield: I HAVE NEVER FELT MY WD BEING SO TOUGH BEFORE
(I have never felt my Witch Doctor being so tough before!)
- Fun...you die less. With a shield, my WD can survive through explosion from act3 Fallen Maniac and elite death explosions in mp 10. While he can still clean up mobs at good speed. CoB can really make the dream come true.
- It kills fast with firebat cloud. Why? Because of the 501% weapon dmg and it ramp up to 1002% if you can stay there long enough! However, your WD has to be tough enough to tank that long. The longer you stand, the longer you can sustain the max. dmg of firebat cloud (so have a higher average output dmg.) Carrying a shield may lower your paper dps, but if you can stand and sustain longer in the mob, you can kill as fast....if not faster. (you kill faster if you have a higher average dmg; if you kite with firebat cloud, your dmg will be jumpy and average dmg will be worse)
- You play and face tank a lot like a 0dog build with less lag. You will love to see a big monster crowd and just walk into them. It's fun to tank with other WW barbs in the game.
- You don't need to switch gear for PVP anymore. Almost the same set of gear works for both mp 10 and pvp.
If you can't find a good shield, here are the alternative gear you can use for firebat build:
1. Life Steal Skorn - you tank with extra lifesteal
2. Manajuma's Carving Knife and mojo set (plus bad medicine passive)
Basic Gear requirement:
1. Full Zuni Set with Helm, chest, pox ring and boots. (a must have)
2. a life-steal Sword. A 3% life-steal 1-hand weapon with INT and Vital is highly preferred.
3. a good rare shield with INT, Vital, crit. chance, all resist ( with %life will be the best).
Other build suggestion:
1. armor close to 5000
2. HP close to 100k
3. Dps over 100k
4. all resist over 700 (stack as much INT as possible will help)
Optional gear:
1. Undaunted ring
2. Unity
3. Stone of Jordan ring (SoJ).
Firebat SoJ will help. However, other SoJ like haunted, spider, even Dog SoJ will help too. Try to get one with 6% and 30% elite dmg bonus is highly recommended.
4. Blackthrone Pants.
5. Gear with pick-up radius and health globe bonus.
6. melee dmg reduction gear:
IK gloves can roll high INT and melee dmg reduction (and good dps too).
Bracers can also have roll with melee dmg reduction (MDR). You can craft a shoulder with high INT, Vital, all resist and MDR these days (but it takes time). I highly recommend getting a cheap StrongArm w/ MDR. That gives much better ehp (armor, int, life%) than Lacuni.
7. a freezing witching Hour belt, blackthrone belt or a rare belt with high vital and INT.
8. Tal Rasha ammy and belt:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/tal-rashas-allegiance
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/tal-rashas-brace
Using both together, you get extra fire dmg bonus and elite dmg bonus (3% fire, 4% elite dmg bonus) However, witching hour belt has crit dmg and that seems to a better way to go.
How it works for farming:
1. Summon the dog. Walk into the mobs, click on soul harvest to get dps/all resist buff (and also slow down the mob around); then hold the firebat button...THAT'S IT..
The more monsters you have around you, the better it works. All the melee killed will give you extra mana from Zuni set.
2. When you do run out of mana, click the dog sacrifice button and you will have your mana refilled in full.
3. Dogs will be generated because of the passive "circle of life" also. Anytime you see the sacrifice button enabled, you can always blow them up to refill mana.
For Ubers:
1. use spirit walk and soul harvest in turns for mana gen.
2. Try to keep the life-link dogs around. Sacrifice them only for emergency mana.
3. use CoB to butcher the ubers.
Other favors of the build:
1. Blood Ritual (BR) can be replace with Glusome Feast(GF) for more damage from health globes. 1.08 patch buff the life gen of BR so we better take advantage of that. If 0 dog is in the group, put in a Grusome Feast instead.
2. If you find yourself not tanky enough, use Jungle Fortitude passive to replace Blood Ritual.
3. Haunt (draining spirit) can be replaced by Locust swarm (devouring swarm rune) or spider widow for mana gen. Haunt is better when the number of monsters are low. With a large number of monsters, Locust swarm is better. I prefer Haunt because I only run low of mana when only elites around (but nothing else)
I can solo mp 10 games without problem. The killing speed is very good using CoB!
P.S.
1. This is the most efficient build I tested so far with a shield. Other builds I tested with shield: bear, 0 pileon, spirit barrage... none of them come close to this. However, if you find any a better shield build, please post it out!
2. I have other toons playing with a shield also and there are other shield build post on other forum as well.
For example, I have my cm wiz do ubers with a shield before. My CM wiz, although not carrying a shield, she is already like a human Stormshield with over 5k armor and 7% elite dmg reduction from chantodo set bonus. (adding a shield on her I have to get IAS somwhere else and will lower her ehp...)
Enjoy and have fun Witch Doctors!
