05-08-2013, 07:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-08-2013, 07:46 PM by Aahzmadius.)
So patch 1.08 went live last night, and I’d have to rate it as a rousing success-aside from that whole economy-shattering gold duplication bug thingee. But the gameplay itself is great. More monster density in Acts 1, 2, and 4 was promised, and Blizzard delivered. (Not sure about Act 4 yet and I have no idea when I’ll play there again.) We were told that we would get a lot more XP in higher MP games-and we did. Fewer monster hit points in multi-player? Yep. Pre-patch, we were generally farming MP3; last night we moved it up to MP4 and things went at least as quickly as before. And finally, at long last, just like Diablo and Diablo 2, D3 now has Identify All. And there was much rejoicing!
Last night we ran around in Act 2 for quite awhile. The group was [guildmate’s] barb, [guildmate's] DH, [guildmate's] wizard, and my WD. (Before [guildmate] got on, [acquaintance] was playing his wizard in our group.) The more-dense monsters fell by the wayside rather quickly. As we were chatting on Teamspeak, [guildmate] mentioned that, due to the increased mob density, I was probably going to need to add a more area-of-effect damage skill to my witch doctor’s bar. Spirit Barrage/Well of Souls works, but it fires out 4 souls, one after another; they don’t hit monsters all at once. We weren’t having any problems, so I was skeptical. But he pointed out that he played earlier with his WD and was running into some issues with the density increase (he foolishly uses a build similar to mine). He made a good argument, and I figured I needed to at least try something different.
My first thought was to change Spirit Barrage to Acid Cloud. I have a good AC proc on my helm, so that made some sense to me. I haven’t tried it yet, mainly because I like how SB works with increased attack speed. AC isn’t really that great for spamming; the idea is to cast it and let the poison left on the ground do some damage-over-time work. Then I thought about leaving SB alone and adding AC. In theory I could cast AC to start a fight, then start firing off SB for a few seconds before casting AC again. This would be very mana intensive, but I could probably get away with using both skills at this point. I will likely try out these ideas at some point, but my third idea for a tweak is the one I tested:
Firebats/Cloud of Bats
Switch out Rush of Essence for Blood Ritual
Both of these skills got buffs in 1.08, and I’ve been pleased with how they work in initial testing. FB/CoB dishes out a TON of damage that tears through trash mobs. It also works well on certain elite packs, depending on their mods. Plus, you have to get right up next to the monsters in order for it to hit them-BONUS ELEMENT OF DANGER! (But not recommended for HC.) For the fire chains guys, I’m standing back and hitting them with SB. But for most other stuff, I’m running right up to them, standing still, and channeling bats. Will the plagued elites die before I do? That’s the race! I’ll have to practice with it a bit more, but it seems like a viable skill. The increased life regeneration on Blood Ritual gives me a little more survivability as well as some additional FB mana management.
I’m still not sure the switch was necessary, partly because I was already using an AoE skill: Soul Harvest/Vengeful Spirit. It may not finish off mobs in MP4, but it certainly weakens them before SB does the actual killing. The conversation gave me a good excuse to test out the new skills, and so far I’m having fun with them. I think the most important thing to remember is, when you’re running with my witch doctor and you don’t ever see Big Bad Voodoo/Slam Dance being cast because I’ve removed it from my bar, it’s [guildmate's] FAULT.
Last night we ran around in Act 2 for quite awhile. The group was [guildmate’s] barb, [guildmate's] DH, [guildmate's] wizard, and my WD. (Before [guildmate] got on, [acquaintance] was playing his wizard in our group.) The more-dense monsters fell by the wayside rather quickly. As we were chatting on Teamspeak, [guildmate] mentioned that, due to the increased mob density, I was probably going to need to add a more area-of-effect damage skill to my witch doctor’s bar. Spirit Barrage/Well of Souls works, but it fires out 4 souls, one after another; they don’t hit monsters all at once. We weren’t having any problems, so I was skeptical. But he pointed out that he played earlier with his WD and was running into some issues with the density increase (he foolishly uses a build similar to mine). He made a good argument, and I figured I needed to at least try something different.
My first thought was to change Spirit Barrage to Acid Cloud. I have a good AC proc on my helm, so that made some sense to me. I haven’t tried it yet, mainly because I like how SB works with increased attack speed. AC isn’t really that great for spamming; the idea is to cast it and let the poison left on the ground do some damage-over-time work. Then I thought about leaving SB alone and adding AC. In theory I could cast AC to start a fight, then start firing off SB for a few seconds before casting AC again. This would be very mana intensive, but I could probably get away with using both skills at this point. I will likely try out these ideas at some point, but my third idea for a tweak is the one I tested:
Firebats/Cloud of Bats
Switch out Rush of Essence for Blood Ritual
Both of these skills got buffs in 1.08, and I’ve been pleased with how they work in initial testing. FB/CoB dishes out a TON of damage that tears through trash mobs. It also works well on certain elite packs, depending on their mods. Plus, you have to get right up next to the monsters in order for it to hit them-BONUS ELEMENT OF DANGER! (But not recommended for HC.) For the fire chains guys, I’m standing back and hitting them with SB. But for most other stuff, I’m running right up to them, standing still, and channeling bats. Will the plagued elites die before I do? That’s the race! I’ll have to practice with it a bit more, but it seems like a viable skill. The increased life regeneration on Blood Ritual gives me a little more survivability as well as some additional FB mana management.
I’m still not sure the switch was necessary, partly because I was already using an AoE skill: Soul Harvest/Vengeful Spirit. It may not finish off mobs in MP4, but it certainly weakens them before SB does the actual killing. The conversation gave me a good excuse to test out the new skills, and so far I’m having fun with them. I think the most important thing to remember is, when you’re running with my witch doctor and you don’t ever see Big Bad Voodoo/Slam Dance being cast because I’ve removed it from my bar, it’s [guildmate's] FAULT.