Butcher is tougher because of the enrage timer but this build can help you get past him. Will update on success of higher ACTs but for now let me help.
The Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#feUiTd!ZVU!cccZcZ
I made a post awhile back about a powerful Zombie bears build for Hell difficulty and have found that hands down no other spell in your arsenal can outmatch the damage output of this spell, a good 2 second bear spam will wipe whole packs or chunk health quickly and efficiently.
I've tried alot of other peoples Inferno builds and frankly, they are way to slow and/or too squishy. For inferno I think the perfect build lies in being survivable and having the burst to deal with packs and champs without spending 20 minutes kiting them.
However, I think the biggest problem people have with Inferno is knowledge. You need to know exactly how every one of your skills works, how long the activation is, how long are your CDs, and what mods do on each and every pack. Knowing when to cast your spell, where to cast it, when to flee and how much damage you can soak up before you have to kite again.
I'll try to put as best of a guide as I can together for everyone by breaking down each skill and when and how to use.
ACTIVES
1) Zombie Bears - I think is hands down the best damaging skill you can get, no other spell is it's equal, nothing. Knowing how efficient this spell is and knowing the the damage you're able to push and it's radius will either make you or break you.
- She casts 3 bears in a row each time she performs her arm swing animation. LEARN TO COUNT THE WAVES!
- You have to be a little brave when using this spell to get the most out of it. Use it when a huge pack is charging you, stand there for a couple seconds to get a few bears out and let them demolish the horde before you begin your kiting of rare or harder packs. YOU MUST MUST GET TO KNOW THE RANGE OF THIS SPELL!
- Use in conjunction with spirit walk to give yourself a free "Invulnerability" window to spam it down a champion pack's face before retreating
- Use if a mob has the "WALL" mod and was dumb enough to wall you in a U. Often the bears will all spawn in a tight formation and charge straight down the U torwards the monster that sued it. Taking a full force charge will chuunk a mobs health before you have to retreat.
- Use right after your minions or follower initiate combat as often times, the minions will have the initial aggro. Initiate your Vision Quest passive, burst for a few seconds, If the minions haven't turned their attention to you, use it till you're out of mana.
- When you have to kite champion packs and they don't have vortex or mortar and they are spending time chasing you cast it in their general direction.
- Often times the mobs will run straight through a couple packs of bears to try to get you and end up having 100k of their HP disappear in the process. Same goes for nonchamp packs. Don't burn out your mana casting it in one go, use it enough to get 6-9 bears going then retreat and kite again.
2) Haunt
- One of your main kiting spells and mana sustains. Don't scoff at this, this will save you lots of time and your life. I'm not 100% but I believe the mana regen does stack with Vision Quest passive and does stack with multiple mobs.
- Use on the tougher harder to target mobs that like to run away. The 15 second duration is excellent to give you a constant supply of extra mana especially when you need to focus on the minion servants.
- An extremely long range combat initiation spell. Often times if you don't have a mob under your cursor directly it can target other random mobs near it. If you come across a huge rare pack, put this on the rares and deal with the minions. By the time you refocus your attention a third of their life will be gone. Making the fight that much easier.
- If the target dies it just moves on.... free mana? Yes please!
3) Spirit Walk
- This will save your life more than anything else you have.
- I believe the health regen ticks 3 times for 7% each. Once as soon as you activate spirit walk and another two times before it ends. This comes from person observation as I've seen it regen about a quarter of my life.
- If you are fighting a pack with certain extremely dangerous mods like Wall, Vortex, Jailed, Frozen, this will automatically break those CCs. Save this as an escape mechanism when fighting these mob types. For Vortex you have to wait till AFTER the Vortex is finished before you can use it.
- Emergency reposition, if you find yourself backed into a corner don't hesitate to use this to escape and reposition yourself to kite monster packs. That long hallway just turned into the perfect kiting room.
- Spirit walk gives you a decoy affect as mobs will often stay and attack the body you left behind. USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! Spirit walk to reposition yourself and spam bears at the mobs while they are focused on attacking the spirit. Often times there will be a few seconds before mobs register you as showing up again and going back to following you.
- As Spirit walk does not require a cast animation to use, it's instantaneous, you can use it to give yourself temporary invulnerability. Use the invulnerability to temporarily tank mobs, begin a mana dump bear spam to do a heavy damage burst (Either finishing a mob or clearing a huge wave).
- Of course health regen if you find yourself low. However, try not to rely on it to heal and focus on the offensive or defensive maneuver.
- From activation to the time mobs refocus you, you'll have approximately 3 seconds. I know the duration is 2 seconds but mobs sometimes won't register "you" right away. USE THE 3 SECONDS to get the job done. KNOW YOUR LIMIT.
If you need a quick health burst use in conjunction with Soul harvest for a huge health replenishment. If you time yourself correctly you will have enough time to charge into a pack, spirit walk, activate soul harvest for full 5 stacks, turn around and bear spam for 2-3 seconds and annihilate a wave before they can respond to you. Use it to help do short bursts as well as survive. KNOW THIS SPELL LIKE THE BACK OF YOUR HAND.
- This will separate the good WDs from the best
- IMPORTANT - HAS NO CAST ANIMATION, can be used instantly and on the run.
4) Hex
- People underestimate this spell and that's why they fail. This offers more utility than mass confusion or hysteria. While those two have incredibly long durations 25+ seconds this will be your bread and butter CC for important situations.
- The shaman will immediately target the closest enemy to it's proximity to cast Hex on. Use this knowledge to target the specific rare you pulled away from a group to kill.
- The shaman will cast it repeatedly 2-3 times before disappearing. This has the added benefit of constantly interrupting mobs and giving you breathing room to spam zombie bears down it's throat till it's dead. The interrupt will severely hinder certain monster mods and neutralize others.
Mortars become easy cake since the mob becomes chain CCed in his spot and will not cast mortar in their close combat range. SPAM BEARS DOWN IT'S THROAT if you manage to isolate a rare pack. If you killed a packs minions and only one is left that's pretty much a guaranteed kill if you cast Hex in it's face and spam bears.
- He heals! This is your healing potion on a stick. He instantly heals you for 1900 health as soon as he appears then periodically heals for another 3-4 times before he disappears.
Think of it as a regen potion that can CC. What's not to like?
- IMPORTANT- This spell has no cast animation and can be cast instantly and on the run. That rare just won't stop chasing you? Poof he's a chicken now turn around cast bears on him to do massive damage then run away again.
5) Gargantuan
- This guy can do some of the most crucial roles in a fight. Tank and stun. Bruiser is incredibly powerful when fighting packs as the 3 second stun is more than enough time to spam bears on his target and either kill it or chunk a huge portion of it's life.
- Constantly burn it's CD to keep Vision quest ready.
- Won't last long in prolonged fights but just enough time to give you a distraction to run in cast bears and decimate a pack before you have to run away.
- Careful if you're casting during a fight. This DOES have a cast animation and will stop you. If done at a bad time you can hurt yourself pretty bad.
- ALWAYS remember to have just enough mana to be able to cast this spell. If your vision quest deactivates because you neglected to have mana to cast this spell you'll have to spend time running in circles doing nothing till your mana regens. You DID remember to cast haunt on those monsters right?
6) Soul Harvest
- Ah, the WD signature spell. This is what makes those zombie cubs into bears. The 500+ int increase from a five stacked harvest will increase bear damage by 2/3rds. This means if your bears can do 20k they just jumped to 35k and can crit for 50k.
- Health gain, try to time this spell in use with spirit walk to maximize stacks. Don't be afraid to spirit walk to charge through a mob and soul harvest. This will almost always put your character in a better position to angle bear spams for maximum damage.
- Don't be afraid to use it to burn a CD for Vision Quest even if you have no stacks.
PASSIVES
First slot is actually a personal choice selection.
If you find yourself super squishy don't be afraid to take Jungle Fortitude to boost yourself until you get better gear. A good alternative once your health is Spiritual Attunement to maximize mana and give you a bigger breathing room to activate Vision Quest.
Slot two should go to Spirit Vessel.
This is one of the most powerful passives you can get. Don't be afraid to use this offensively as well as defensively. You may ask, "What do you mean use it offensively?". By that I mean don't be afraid to tank a mob with your face for a bit while you spam bears down it's throat.
This will allow you to push your dps to the absolute limit before having to back off. If this is up feel free to be more confident to push the maximum amount of damage you can before backing off the mob. Tanking the mob and letting him push you to under 25% before you spirit walk and soul harvest your health pack gives you the advantage because you can trade damage much better.
Oops you were over confident in spamming your damage and Vessel procced? Either keep spamming to make sure that mob dies or back off and kite/regen your health. Either way, you won that exchange. Don't be afraid to kite the mob for a minute and half so that Vessel returns to CD before you go gung ho again.
Also, a VERY nifty thing about this passive is it will automatically reset if you DO happen to die. Say you might be unfortunate enough to have kited a rare pack next to your rez point. Now that you're rezzed you're at full mana and CD has been reset. Go crazy and DPS that thing down till it's dead.
Third slot should be for Vision Quest.
One of the most useful and important skills for this build. Don't try this build unless you have this selected.
TIPS
When going into your full damage cycle what I would do to initiate a fight is summon Garg right outside of pack range and run forward. When you get close let your Garg go in and follow behind him with a spirit walk -> soul harvest -> Hex -> Zombie Bear spam.
This is usually enough to wipe all the little minions or significantly damage rare packs. Afterwards back off cast haunt on targets and get ready to begin kiting packs. Try to keep ahead of packs with periodic spirit rush walks and turning around to cast a quick zombie bear rush before beginning to run again.
MOB PACKS
- Vortex mobs. Try save spirit walk after they cast vortex so you can quickly escape spam a quick zombie bear attack then run again while casting haunt on the mobs. Try to use terrain like rocks to prevent you from getting sucked in, you'll just be thrown against the rock and therefore breaking the vortex. Your haunt can move through rocks. Don't be afraid to just use haunt until you killed 2 or 3 before moving in for the kill on the last monster.
- Jail mobs. Again save spirit walk to break jail. Cast a few bear waves before you rush out.
Often times they'll jail you outside their range and will walk torwards you after they jail. Use this opportunity to give them a facefull as they close before you spirit walk away.
- Mortar mobs. Rush in with spirit walk and spam bears at point blank. They will either keep eating your damage or decide to run away. If they run back off heal up and wait for spirit walk to return before you repeat. Constantly keep moving and do not stop unless you are right on top of the mob.
Fast mobs. Usually these mobs will try to rush you as quick as possible and get in your face. If they have minions kill the minions first before engaing the champs.
This is probably when you want to play chicken with these mobs and try to cram bears in their face too since you can't run away very effectively from them. Use your spirit walk for the invulnerability, soul harvest for life, and spirit vessel to burst them down as quickly as possible.
Also don't be afraid to use a potion during this encounter. Try to time your CDs. Use spirit walk first for the invuln, then pop Hex and soul harvest for life. Hopefully Hex will have hit one of the fast mobs (they'll usually be the closest thing near you because all the small minions are dead), then just tank them till they are dead if you can.
Use bears to chunk a huge portion of their life while they charge you, spirit walk when they get on top of you, back off max distance and activate bears and let them run into you again while eating your damage. Then proceed to tank them especially if Vessel is up.
Shielded mobs. Haunt the shielded ones and kite them. As soon as shield drops turn around and spam bears in their face. As soon as their shields are back up pop spirit walk, hex, and soul harvest your life back up to full, kite them, then repeat.
