Zombie Bears is ridiculous.
#1
Zombie Bears does INSANE damage. Unless you've tried it, you really have no idea. The only problem is that it has a HUGE mana cost. 2 or 3 casts of it will leave you with nothing.

I keep reading about viable Inferno WD builds, and almost all of them center around Zombie Bears. What bothers me about these builds is that to make them viable, you also need to use the Vision Quest passive to keep your mana flowing.

Quote:Any time you have 4 or more skills on cooldown, your Mana regeneration is increased by 300%.

So to make Zombie Bears useful, you need to select 4 skills and keep them on CD at all times - otherwise you'll be running out of mana. 2 of those CDs have to be Spirit Walk with the Honoured Guest rune, and Soul Harvest with the Swallow Your Soul rune. Yeah, Vision Quest alone isn't enough to keep your mana up for Zombie Bears. 2 more CD skills must also be chosen, and kept on CD at all times.

I'm not really opposed to this sort of build. My big beef is that this seems to be the only viable Inferno soloing build, and locks you into juggling cooldowns without any sort of visible way to actually track cooldowns (unless you stare at your action buttons - lol). It's really not my idea of fun.

I'm starting to get really frustrated with the WD at this point. There are so many really fun skills to use, but it seems that very few builds are actually usable in Hell+ difficulties while soloing.
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#2
It's also good to have Big Bad Voodoo with Rain Dance.

I wouldn't say it's the only inferno viable build but it depends how you're playing Inferno. If you're skipping content - especially champs - and going to act bosses there are quite a few other options. I've played a tanky build with Haunt as my main attack. That's compensating for being under-geared though.

Ultimately you're not supposed to be able to just waltz from Hell Act 4 into Inferno Act 1 in the way we did in earlier Act transitions. Farm enough gear and you can play any build you like.
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#3
I'm having some pretty decent success with this Zombie Bear build that doesn't rely on Vision Quest. I can't spam Bears 24/7, but I can Spirit Walk/Soul Harvest into tight packs and spam a good 8-9 Bear casts, which usually decimates everything. One major downside of Zombie Bears is the positioning, but I'm getting used to finding optimal places to launch Bears from.

Poison Darts/Splinters is still the best single-target damage skill and works when I run out of mana and need to kite.

Garg is a good tank alongside my Templar. Hex is really a great CC ability. It works awesome on Champ/Rare packs. I have great kiting ability too with the shortened CD on Spirit Walk, which lets me run into packs pretty much untouched and use Soul Harvest. Even when I am totally out of mana, I can usually kite enough thanks to Spirit Walk, Hex and whatever tanks I might have left to regen enough mana to unleash another round of Bears.

If I had to make a change, I might try loading up on +pickup radius and try Gruesome Feast instead of Jungle Fortitude because I find myself Spirit Walking through the middle of mob packs so often.
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#4
Link related.
When in mortal danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.

BattleTag: Schrau#2386
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#5
(05-28-2012, 07:16 PM)NiteFox Wrote: Link related.

I can do that. I just choose not to.
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#6
I've only recently opened up Zombie bears and I'm not really convinced on making the switch from Dire bats. Any one that can make a good case for either the bats or the bears? I'm looking for some hard hitting skill to anchor my progression to level 60 and inferno.
-< You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever >-
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#7
(05-29-2012, 03:26 PM)Magicbag Wrote: I've only recently opened up Zombie bears and I'm not really convinced on making the switch from Dire bats. Any one that can make a good case for either the bats or the bears? I'm looking for some hard hitting skill to anchor my progression to level 60 and inferno.

I haven't had too much experience with Bats, but I'm now in Inferno with a Splinters/Bears build. The raw power of Bears is amazing IF you can aim it right. If you just point wherever and spam it, the bears kind of move in all directions away from you and don't get much accomplished. If you aim it right, you can take down Champ/Rare packs in a few seconds. Like Bats, they can hit larger mobs multiple times.

Bears is really great when casting down hallways and staircases. It's also worthwhile to note that Bears start their journey from behind you and move forward, so another decent (yet risky, but incredibly fun) tactic is to jump into the middle of a pack with Spirit Walk and spam away.
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#8
I havent unlocked Zombie Bears yet, but I am a HUGE fan of Dire Bats. Like Bears, it costs of a ton of mana but the damage and long-range/piercing ability makes it an essential skill. I think come Inferno time, regardless of whether you are using Bears or Bats, mana regeneration on items might be worth considering instead of using Vision Quest as a passive. Looking at the WD's passives, it's hard to imagine wanting to use anything other than Jungle Fortitude, Spiritual Attunment, and Pierce the Veil (Bad Medicine could be an alt). Currently using this build in Act 1 Hell:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wi...ZbW!aaYaYb
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon


"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
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#9
The reason Bears seem dominant amongst the offered builds is that they "solve" everything - they just do so much damage you don't need to use anything else. They replace the fiddly nature of having to master a skillset entirely different from that of other classes, and (typically) replace it with the fiddly nature of Vision Quest. As I get nearer to 60 on my WD (don't hold your breath, that's not my priority toon right now, as I expect the class will be heavily changed come 1.1) I'm going to look for alternatives, because I don't enjoy using one skill over and over, nor intentionally keeping everything on CD.
Finally satisfied that this, in fact, a game in the Diablo series.
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#10
I tried out Da Bears (I refer to them in a Chicago accent) last night for the first time, and they are indeed ridiculous. I spent all of Nightmare & Hell hiding behind my dogs & garg so the playstyle needs a bit of getting used to, but I they do so much damage it almost feels like cheating.

Clearly, further "evaluation" is required...
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