So there's a new controversy going on about a Feat of Strength (an achievement on steroids) that Blizzard is apparently handing out to all those who were selected for the closed beta. In theory I am one of those and I assume I will see that achievement when I log into the game. Thing is, I don't care.
It looks like many people are up in arms over the fact that Blizzard has the nerve to hand out these unique achievements only to people who were invited in the beta. Being a Feat of Strength makes this even more valuable and practically a one-time only occurrence. Well, whoopty-doo. I'm on Blizzard's side on this one. They are free to hand out these achievements to whoever they damn please. Yeah, there were comparatively few people invited to the closed beta but that's why it's closed. Whining that you didn't get the achievement because you weren't invited in the beta is like whining that you didn't win the lottery.
Frankly I don't even know why there is a controversy. The very definition of "Feat of Strength" points towards a unique set of conditions that must be met, at a single point in time, in order to qualify for it. I don't remember anyone in WoW crying about the many Feats of Strength that were handed out over the years. I had a couple of those myself. If you weren't in the right place at the right time, no Feat of Strength for you, it's as simple as that! You win some and you lose some, that's how it is.
Not that it makes any difference. Personally I don't give a damn about achievements that don't confer a bonus of some sort. Like a pet or a cosmetic thing or whatnot. In WoW it made sense (for me) to complete certain achievements, especially the ones for collecting increasing numbers of pets, simply because they rewarded you with yet another pet. Then there were also tabards. But in Diablo 3, apart from sigils and banners, I don't think there's any "material" advantage to these achievements. I wouldn't mind an unique armor dye though...
Speaking of banners, that's another feature that seems tacked on to the game without bringing a lot of utility. I tried creating a banner in the beta but I quickly gave up and ignored that aspect completely. Sure, you can place banners on the ground, in the game, and everyone in your group will go OOOOOOOH AAAAAH. Or not.
I guess the devs were at a loss on how to give characters some form of customization. Their physical features can't be changed (useless in this game anyway because you can't see their faces) and character names aren't even visible for others to see when you're in a group. So they came up with the concept of banners. I'm perfectly fine with the existence of banners but I doubt I'll spend much time playing with them. I even gave the "unique sigils competition", that ran until recently, a pass. Another thing that I found annoying about them banners is that you can't create a different one for each character. One banner applies to all. Now I might be wrong here (and I hope I am) because I simply couldn't pay much attention to this feature. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Circling back to achievements in general, they can sometimes be a pain in the ass. A few times during the beta some genius in my group decided that he wanted to complete some achievement or other and he was pushing the rest of us to play in a certain way so he could get his lousy achievement. First of all, I was like, dude, it's a fricking beta, fuck achievements! Second, attempting more complex achievements in a group filled with strangers is poor form. One of these guys, for example, was trying to get the achievement for killing the Skeleton King without killing any of the skeletons. Tough luck buddy! The rest of us needed the health orbs so we killed those skeletons as they came.
So, kids, get over it. You didn't win the lottery this time. Better luck next time! Now I'm off to cry in a corner because I didn't get a Feat of Strength for pre-ordering the game a month before release.
Showing posts with label beta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beta. Show all posts
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Fallen Tooth drop rate increased?
I wanted to post this a while ago but I got sidetracked by other things. I believe that the Fallen Tooth yield rate from salvaging magic items has increased some time after beta patch 16. Fallen Teeth are rare (yellow) crafting materials that are used for some rare recipes.
I remember distinctly that at some point during the beta, Fallen Teeth were "nerfed" to a 5% drop rate. By "drop rate" I mean, of course, the chance of getting one when salvaging magic (blue) items. Well, after patch 16 I noticed that all of a sudden I was getting a lot more Fallen Teeth than before, and noticeably so, on all my characters.
Here's a screenshot which shows how many Fallen Teeth I got after salvaging 185 items.
So I got 185 Subtle Essences but also 22 Fallen Teeth. This roughly indicates a 11.9% drop rate but because the sample size is small, I can assume it's closer to 10%.
If this is indeed true, it means that the yield rate has been doubled. Was this ever mentioned in the patch notes? I don't recall. Has anyone else noticed this? Will Blizzard "nerf" the yield rate back to 5% or is it here to stay?
I remember distinctly that at some point during the beta, Fallen Teeth were "nerfed" to a 5% drop rate. By "drop rate" I mean, of course, the chance of getting one when salvaging magic (blue) items. Well, after patch 16 I noticed that all of a sudden I was getting a lot more Fallen Teeth than before, and noticeably so, on all my characters.
Here's a screenshot which shows how many Fallen Teeth I got after salvaging 185 items.
So I got 185 Subtle Essences but also 22 Fallen Teeth. This roughly indicates a 11.9% drop rate but because the sample size is small, I can assume it's closer to 10%.
If this is indeed true, it means that the yield rate has been doubled. Was this ever mentioned in the patch notes? I don't recall. Has anyone else noticed this? Will Blizzard "nerf" the yield rate back to 5% or is it here to stay?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The beta Barbarian
My review of the Barbarian is finally here, the very last class that I played in the beta. It's not that I hate the Barbarian, but as the only class to transfer from Diablo 2, I thought it would be the most boring. It turned out to be a lot more fun that I anticipated.The Barbarian is a big, lumbering brute who will smash anything in his path with his humongous weapons. I just love how enemies are flung across the screen like rag dolls by many of the Barb's skills.
I tried both male and female Barbarians but I am going to stick with a male because I like his voice better and he looks more experienced and threatening than the female.
In a departure from Diablo 2, this Barbarian uses a different type of resource - Fury, which acts very similarly to the WoW Warrior's Rage. Fury is also somewhat similar to the Monk's Spirit, although it is generated by using certain skills as well as getting hit. There's a fixed pool of 100 Fury and you start with an empty bulb. You build Fury as you push forward, hitting enemies and getting hit by them. When you're out of combat your Fury slowly depletes until it reaches zero. A later passive skill not only prevents it from depleting but also generates a small amount every second. Another passive adds an extra 20 Fury to your pool and also boosts the regeneration rate.
While initially I felt a bit constrained by the lack of Fury, I realized that the Barbarian isn't that much different from the Monk. His primary skills are powerful enough to do serious damage and a few hits will build up sufficient Fury to unleash more powerful skills.
Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
All of the Barbarian's primary skills generate Fury.
Lv 1 - Bash
This is first spell you start the game with. It generates Fury and does 150% weapon damage to a single target. It also has a 20% chance to know the enemy back. This is a very solid single target skill that will get a lot of use early in the game.
Lv 6 - Rune - Clobber
Your first rune at level 6 will improve Bash so that instead of 20% knockback chance it gets a 35% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds. This isn't much but I guess it's better than nothing. In those 1.5 seconds it's almost a given that normal monsters will be dead.
Lv 13 - Rune - Onslaught
A more interesting rune for Bash comes at level 13. It removes the knockback component but adds 2 "reverberations" that each deal 20% weapon damage. Essentially it allows you to deal 190% total damage with one Bash. The animation looks like small shockwaves which radiate forward from the point of initial impact. This is a very good improvement but at that level I'm not using Bash anymore so it might be moot depending on your play style.
Lv 3 - Cleave
My favorite primary skill comes early, at level 3. It easily replaces Bash because now it does AoE damage to monsters in a wide arc in front of your character. The damage is only 120% but it affects so many more enemies. I have always loved spells called "cleave" in games. In WoW, one of my Warriors' favorite spells was also Cleave. So for me this is a no-brainer.
Lv 9 - Rune - Rupture
An awesome skill is made a lot deadlier with this rune. The rune adds an explosive effect (for 85% weapon damage) to all enemies killed by your Cleave. The explosion will damage any enemy in a 8 yard radius. This makes Cleave amazing. Monsters will literally blow to bits around you in a chain reaction after cleaving them a couple of times.
Lv 11 - Frenzy
Frenzy is another old favorite from Diablo 2. The effect is similar. Each hit increases your attack speed by 15%, starting at 110% weapon damage. You can have a total of 5 frenzy stacks. The interesting thing is that the DPS display under your character's stats doesn't change while the stacks are up. Is this a bug or is it intended? I don't know, but it's hard to judge the effectiveness of this skill without a visual cue. While this skill is awesome for single targets (bosses especially) due to the high (185% total) damage, it kind of sucks for large groups of monsters. That's why I didn't use it a lot.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Secondary skills consume Fury.
Lv 2 - Hammer of the Ancients
At level 2 comes your first Fury spender. Learn to use it well because this could very well be one of your best secondary skills. Hammer of the Ancients slams the enemies in front of you for 200% weapon damage. In addition, it gets an extra 5% chance to crit. Positioning is obviously important here as it won't hit every monster around you, so you will have to make sure to gather them in front of you before unleashing this baby.
Lv 7 - Rune - Rolling Thunder
This rune gives Hammer of the Ancients a shockwave that extends forward for a lengthy 22 yards and deals 155% weapon damage to everything in its path. That's in addition to the skill's 200% damage. I just love this combo.
Lv 5 - Rend
Rend is one skill that didn't jive well with me. It does 210% weapon damage to all enemies around you but that damage is a DoT, over 3 seconds. I would rather not wait 3 seconds for the damage to take effect, if you know what I mean. I simply can't get the hang of DoTs on melee characters. DoTs are excellent for ranged characters because you can run around waiting for the monster to drop but on melee classes you are just being pummeled during that time.
Lv 11 - Rune - Ravage
This rune simply increases the range of Rend. Sorry but it didn't work out for me either way.
Lv 12 - Seismic Slam
This skill is somewhat similar to Hammer of the Ancients as it does 155% damage to everything close by in a 45 degree arc, also knocking them back. Due to the lack of runes in the beta this skill can't reach its full potential but it is very impressive nonetheless. The 45 degree arc is quite wide and it extends almost to the edges of the screen meaning that one hit will affect even enemies in the back, essentially "sweeping" everything away from you. This is my go-to secondary skill at level 13.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Ground Stomp
At level 4, along with an extra skill slot, you get Ground Stomp which is a very good crowd control skill. It will stun enemies in a 12 yard radius around you for 4 seconds (which is plenty) but has a 12 second cooldown. The cool thing is that it also generates Fury when used (instead of consuming it) so my advice is to use it whenever it is off cooldown.
Lv 12 - Rune - Deafening Crash
If you like crowd control, this rune is a no-brainer. On top of Ground Stomp's effects, it also slows down enemies after they recover from the initial stun.
Lv 8 - Leap
As much as I like Ground Stomp, Leap takes the cake. It should be called Leap Attack, because that's exactly what it does. The Barb leaps in the air and when he lands (preferably in the midst of his enemies) he does 85% weapon damage to everything in an 8 yard radius. It also slows the enemies' movement by 60% for 3 seconds. I love Leap because it allows me to quickly get in position right in the middle of the action and then hit those monsters hard with my AoE skills. But more than that, Leap can be used every time it is off cooldown (10 seconds) to boost your mobility, since jumping in a direction is quicker than running there. Furthermore, you can also use it to jump to lower of upper sections in the dungeon. It's much quicker than taking the stairs. If that's not enough, Leap also generates Fury when used, which gives you a further incentive to use it whenever it is off cooldown, whether to move or just to generate extra Fury. For example, if I'm fighting a tough boss, I'm standing right next to him anyway, but I will still use Leap every time it's up, for the extra Fury it gives me.
Force ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Ancient Spear
I was tempted to dismiss this skill when I first heard about it but after using it I understood its utility. It acts like a grappling hook, pulling the targeted enemy towards you, dealing 185% weapon damage and slowing it by 60% (so it can't run away quickly). In addition, it also generates Fury but has a 10 second cooldown. Just like Leap discussed above, Ancient Spear is best used whenever the cooldown is up, for the extra damage it provides (albeit to a single target) and the extra Fury. I find it invaluable for those pesky summoner skeletons who call their minions right in your face and then cowardly run away.
Lv 13 - Revenge
Your last skill in the beta, at level 13, is Revenge. It's a strange one. It is a semi-active skill, in the sense that it stays inactive until the 15% chance per hit received is triggered. Only then can you activate it for a decent 220% weapon damage to everything around you. The trouble is that in 5 minutes of play this skill barely activated twice. Granted, at level 13 a character is overpowered in the beta and manages to kill monsters extremely quickly, thus avoiding being hit very often. I'm guessing this skill might become more valuable later when it's hard to avoid being hit. For now, though, I find Revenge somewhat useless, especially since you have to keep an eye on it when it activates. Even then, you have to use it within a few seconds or else it expires. Having said that, I think Revenge could use some more testing and I plan to do so in the full game. I think there's more to it than meets the eye.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
Lv 10 - Pound of Flesh
At level 10 one of your choice of passives is Pound of Flesh which increases the chance to find health globes by 25% and also doubles their effectiveness. This is quite a solid passive which gives the Barbarian extra survivability but I skipped it because in the beta it's hard to die if you are paying attention. I can see how valuable this skill will become later in higher difficulties and for hardcore characters.
Lv 10 - Ruthless
This passive simply increases your crit chance by 5% and also your crit damage by 50%. The bonuses are so awesome that it's hard not to pick it.
Lv 13 - Nerves of Steel
While I'm sure this passive will be very useful for high-Vitality Barbarians, in the beta it is useless, unless you equip your Barb specifically with Vit gear. As it is, since my Barb's Vitality at level 13 is 38, this passive merely boosts my 213 Armor by an additional 38. Very unimpressive.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
Use Bash to bash stuff.
Level 2
Use Hammer of the Ancients whenever you have excess Fury and/or there are several monsters in front of you.
Level 3
Replace Bash with Cleave.
Level 4
Use Ground Stomp as often as possible. It mitigates damage taken and also increases your Fury.
Level 5
Skip Rend.
Level 6
Keep using Cleave and ignore the Bash rune.
Level 7
Rune Hammer of the Ancients with Rolling Thunder.
Level 8
Replace Ground Stomp with Leap.
Level 9
Ancient Spear is yummy. Use it at every opportunity, even on monsters you're fighting toe-to-toe.
Make sure to rune Cleave with Ravage.
Level 10
Grab the Ruthless passive and become even more awesome.
Level 11
Ignore Frenzy and Ravage.
Level 12
Replace Hammer of the Ancients with Seismic Slam.
If you're still using Ground Stomp, rune it with Deafening Crash, otherwise ignore it.
Level 13
Try Revenge if you feel it's better for you than Ancient Spear.
Ignore the Nerves of Steel passive.
This concludes my discussion of the Barbarian in Diablo 3's beta (patch 18, subject to change in future patches or the final game). Here's my level 13 build.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Barbarian is a lot of fun, much more than I expected. Every hit is massive and you will never get tired of seeing monsters thrown around like toys. I am very excited to play a Barbarian in the full game. Strangely enough, the Barb feels a bit more fragile than the Monk and even some of the ranged classes. I just hope he's viable at the end-game, in Inferno. From what I understand, a lot of people will be playing a Barb at launch and it's no surprise. It was one of the most popular classes in Diablo 2 and it remains so in Diablo 3.
Also read:
The beta Demon Hunter
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Monk
The beta Wizard
Sunday, April 22, 2012
More open beta auction house adventures
The open beta this weekend has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because a lot more people have had the chance to play the game. A curse because the servers are very erratic and the Auction Houses (both Gold and Real Money) are more often offline than functioning.
Yesterday I talked about how the previous evening I managed to more than triple my Beta Bucks in about 10 minutes. All that action happened on the Real Money Auction House.
Yesterday and today I switched my attention to the Gold Auction House (GAH).
One strategy that worked really well is that I kept an eye out for some special rings sold by one of the vendors in the game, namely Radek the Fence on the north side. The best rings in the game are the ones with 2-4 damage and an additional stat. For me, personally, the additional stat that works best with all classes is 5% increased attack speed (IAS). However, other people prefer attributes that are beneficial to their own class.
I bought 4 rings with +5 Strength in addition to 2-4 damage, as well as 6 rings with 5% IAS in addition to 2-4 damage. Honestly I was expecting the IAS rings to sell better but I was wrong. One of them did sell quickly but the biggest (and quickest) sellers were the +5 Str rings. I assume that Barbarians were very popular this weekend.
I spent 2084G x 4 = 8,336G for all 4 rings. I sold them for a total of 31,122 (varying amounts each) but essentially under 10K gold. I decided not to be greedy because it seems most people try to sell stuff for insane amounts of gold (tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands). I turned a very nice profit of 22K gold.
Even the 5% IAS rings aren't a complete loss at this point. I sold a single ring but that one already made up for more than half the cost of all 6 rings. If I sell the other 5 at a loss I will still turn a profit, overall.
Rings are not the only thing I traded. I also sold a bunch of hand crossbows that the same vendor sells. Since vendor items are generated randomly, sometimes these crossbows can have very good DPS rolls on them, occasionally over 19 DPS. These are probably the highest DPS 1-handed weapons in the beta. No wonder they are very prized. Myself, I have a couple of 18.3DPS hand crossbows on my Demon Hunter. So whenever I found 17+DPS crossbows on the vendor, I bought a few on them and flipped them for a higher price on the GAH.
Finally, crafted shoulders also sold for a nice profit but again, shoulders don't drop from monsters in the game, so the only way to obtain them is via crafting.
When trading on the Auction House I try, as always, not to flood it. I will post 1 or 2 of the same item but not more. I've already noticed that there are hundreds of hand crossbows for sale so probably others have also figured the crossbow thing out.
I might have sold a lot more had the Auction House been stable. Alas, it was mostly down for me so I couldn't even check on my auction, much less post items.
While these are good Auction House strategies for the beta, I'm skeptical that they will continue to work in the full game, at low levels. That's because people will outgrow the early levels very quickly and items which seem powerful now will be underpowered in a few short levels. For now, I'm just enjoying these little ways of making some extra gold in the beta.
Yesterday I talked about how the previous evening I managed to more than triple my Beta Bucks in about 10 minutes. All that action happened on the Real Money Auction House.
Yesterday and today I switched my attention to the Gold Auction House (GAH).
One strategy that worked really well is that I kept an eye out for some special rings sold by one of the vendors in the game, namely Radek the Fence on the north side. The best rings in the game are the ones with 2-4 damage and an additional stat. For me, personally, the additional stat that works best with all classes is 5% increased attack speed (IAS). However, other people prefer attributes that are beneficial to their own class.
I bought 4 rings with +5 Strength in addition to 2-4 damage, as well as 6 rings with 5% IAS in addition to 2-4 damage. Honestly I was expecting the IAS rings to sell better but I was wrong. One of them did sell quickly but the biggest (and quickest) sellers were the +5 Str rings. I assume that Barbarians were very popular this weekend.
I spent 2084G x 4 = 8,336G for all 4 rings. I sold them for a total of 31,122 (varying amounts each) but essentially under 10K gold. I decided not to be greedy because it seems most people try to sell stuff for insane amounts of gold (tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands). I turned a very nice profit of 22K gold.
Even the 5% IAS rings aren't a complete loss at this point. I sold a single ring but that one already made up for more than half the cost of all 6 rings. If I sell the other 5 at a loss I will still turn a profit, overall.
Rings are not the only thing I traded. I also sold a bunch of hand crossbows that the same vendor sells. Since vendor items are generated randomly, sometimes these crossbows can have very good DPS rolls on them, occasionally over 19 DPS. These are probably the highest DPS 1-handed weapons in the beta. No wonder they are very prized. Myself, I have a couple of 18.3DPS hand crossbows on my Demon Hunter. So whenever I found 17+DPS crossbows on the vendor, I bought a few on them and flipped them for a higher price on the GAH.
Finally, crafted shoulders also sold for a nice profit but again, shoulders don't drop from monsters in the game, so the only way to obtain them is via crafting.
When trading on the Auction House I try, as always, not to flood it. I will post 1 or 2 of the same item but not more. I've already noticed that there are hundreds of hand crossbows for sale so probably others have also figured the crossbow thing out.
I might have sold a lot more had the Auction House been stable. Alas, it was mostly down for me so I couldn't even check on my auction, much less post items.
While these are good Auction House strategies for the beta, I'm skeptical that they will continue to work in the full game, at low levels. That's because people will outgrow the early levels very quickly and items which seem powerful now will be underpowered in a few short levels. For now, I'm just enjoying these little ways of making some extra gold in the beta.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Open beta gold auctions
As most of you know (and if you don't, what planet are you from?) this weekend is open beta for Diablo 3. Blizzard is stress-testing their servers and what-not by giving access to everyone for a couple of days.
Last night I decided to take a look at the Auction House and see what's going on there. The last couple of patches reset by Beta Bucks back to 50 so I did a small experiment to see if I could sell any gold. In about 10 minutes, before going to bed, I increased my virtual money from 50 to over 184.
I started by selling gold on the Real Money Auction House (RMAH) in 1000G increments. The price was high, about 11-12BB / 1000G. As you can see, I sold a bunch of gold in this manner.
This is nothing out of the ordinary. Anyone can do it. What some people fail to do, and it's all to my advantage, is to check the price of gold before posting it. A savvy auctioneer will always do that. After all, you wouldn't want to sell your gold for 1/10 of its real worth, would you?
Apparently, some people are ignorant (and I won't call them idiots at this point because I don't know their circumstances) and that's just what they do. As you can see from the screenshot, I didn't just sell gold. I also bought under-priced gold.
Several batches were posted for 3.24BB, 1.50BB and even 1BB / 1000G. Come to papa! I bought all of that vastly under-priced gold and posted it back for the "correct" price.
This is a very neat way to make lots of BB. Unfortunately, this is just beta. People's behaviors will be skewed and biased since every beta tester got 50BB for free and Beta Bucks hold no value in real life. In the full game things will change. Real money will hold a higher value and people won't be so careless about spending it.
My point is that in the actual game I don't expect to make >$150 in just 10 minutes of play. It would be amazing if life worked like that but I'm trying to be realistic here. In the full game there will be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of smart people attempting to do the same thing I did last night. This means that it will be extremely hard to buy out really cheap gold because it will be instantly snatched by the person lucky enough to click the Buy button first. Even $15 in 10 minutes is a stretch. $1.50 is a more realistic amount. And that's only in the first few days, or first week. After that, gold prices will plummet.
I can almost see this as a game in itself: keep refreshing the price of gold and the moment a good deal appears, snatch it immediately! I have a feeling that the Auction House has a potential to become almost as addictive as playing the game itself. I just hope that Blizzard fix some of the AH interface and performance issues.
Last night I decided to take a look at the Auction House and see what's going on there. The last couple of patches reset by Beta Bucks back to 50 so I did a small experiment to see if I could sell any gold. In about 10 minutes, before going to bed, I increased my virtual money from 50 to over 184.
I started by selling gold on the Real Money Auction House (RMAH) in 1000G increments. The price was high, about 11-12BB / 1000G. As you can see, I sold a bunch of gold in this manner.
This is nothing out of the ordinary. Anyone can do it. What some people fail to do, and it's all to my advantage, is to check the price of gold before posting it. A savvy auctioneer will always do that. After all, you wouldn't want to sell your gold for 1/10 of its real worth, would you?
Apparently, some people are ignorant (and I won't call them idiots at this point because I don't know their circumstances) and that's just what they do. As you can see from the screenshot, I didn't just sell gold. I also bought under-priced gold.
Several batches were posted for 3.24BB, 1.50BB and even 1BB / 1000G. Come to papa! I bought all of that vastly under-priced gold and posted it back for the "correct" price.
This is a very neat way to make lots of BB. Unfortunately, this is just beta. People's behaviors will be skewed and biased since every beta tester got 50BB for free and Beta Bucks hold no value in real life. In the full game things will change. Real money will hold a higher value and people won't be so careless about spending it.
My point is that in the actual game I don't expect to make >$150 in just 10 minutes of play. It would be amazing if life worked like that but I'm trying to be realistic here. In the full game there will be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of smart people attempting to do the same thing I did last night. This means that it will be extremely hard to buy out really cheap gold because it will be instantly snatched by the person lucky enough to click the Buy button first. Even $15 in 10 minutes is a stretch. $1.50 is a more realistic amount. And that's only in the first few days, or first week. After that, gold prices will plummet.
I can almost see this as a game in itself: keep refreshing the price of gold and the moment a good deal appears, snatch it immediately! I have a feeling that the Auction House has a potential to become almost as addictive as playing the game itself. I just hope that Blizzard fix some of the AH interface and performance issues.
Friday, April 20, 2012
The beta Wizard
Since I finished leveling my Wizard to level 13, two patches were released, one of them wiping all characters in the process. Now the beta is in patch 18 but not much has changed between patch 16 and now so this Wizard overview remains relevant, but I was forced to start a brand new Wizard thanks to the character wipe. It's a shame because my previous one was really well equipped.
The Wizard is, essentially, the direct descendant of Diablo 2's Sorceress. Many spells are similar but there are plenty of new ones as well. If you liked D2's Sorceress, you'll most likely feel at home with the Wizard, although the resource system differs.
I picked (and will pick in the full game) a female Wizard. She's cute beyond words. I already concluded that the male looks too juvenile and inexperienced, barely a whelp, while the female is more like his older sister.
The Wizard uses a different resource than the Sorceress in Diablo 2, namely Arcane Power. Arcane Power (AP) is a purple swirly-sparkly plasma thing and also the fastest recharging resource in Diablo 3. You start with 100 AP and a later passive skill gives you another 20. From what I can tell, you can't go higher than that, but there are ways in which to boost regeneration rate, including items and other skills.
While the Wizard is somewhat constrained by her Arcane Power, because powerful spells tend to use a lot of it, she can switch to her primary skills which are free to cast, while AP recharges.
Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Magic Missile
This is first spell you start the game with. It does 110% weapon damage as Arcane. Early on this is your bread-and-butter skill but I found myself using it even later at level 13 when I was fighting the Skeleton King. For that encounter, this is the best primary skill because it allows you to stay at range and it also gets a rune, making it more powerful than the other primary skills.
Lv 6 - Rune - Charged Blast
Your first rune at level 6 will improve Magic Missile so that it now does 143% damage. No reason not to use it.
Lv 13 - Rune - Split
At level 13 Magic Missile gets its second rune which makes it slightly more powerful and also gives it a little bit of an AoE. This rune splits your missile into 3 missiles which hit for 50% damage each. Since the trajectories of the 3 are very tight, in many cases you will hit the same monster with a salvo, for a total of 150% damage. This rune is definitely worth it if you like Magic Missile.
Lv 3 - Shock Pulse
Shock Pulse is the direct descendant of Diablo 2's Charged Bolt. Here, it doesn't work so well. You fire 3 bolts but the range is short (about half the screen) and the bolts are chaotic. Even the skill tooltip mentions "medium range" and "unpredictable". The only way this spell felt useful was for firing it at point-blank range, where all 3 bolts had the chance to hit.
Lv 9 - Rune - Explosive Bolts
This rune attempts to make Shock Pulse better but the skill was crappy to begin with so it won't help a lot if monsters who die explode for additional AoE damage since they are so hard to kill anyway with this skill. I guess this skill could be made to work by getting lots of items with high attack speed increase and spamming the crap out of this skill. Even then, it brings you uncomfortably close to the action.
Lv 11 - Spectral Blade
I never understood the point of Spectral Blade in Diablo 2 and I was prepared to dismiss it in Diablo 3, yet I find myself really liking this skill. This is a short range skill which hits the monsters in front of you for 135% damage. You don't use your weapon directly, but instead a series of "spectral blades" slash the air in front. This spell is pretty good for finishing off stragglers or smashing objects. I can see myself using it even at higher levels, with caution. In the beta, once you get some good equipment, you can go all melee-wizard and kill everything in hand-to-hand combat. Well, except for the Skeleton King. That's the only place where I switch back to Magic Missile so I can take him comfortably at range.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Ray of Frost
Ray of Frost is one cool spell and you get it very early as your first secondary spell, at level 2. It projects a beam of frost that damages the target for 215% weapon damage, also slowing it by 30% for 3 seconds. Since you are vulnerable early on, this spell will get a lot of use. The only downside is that it can burn through your Arcane Power quickly if you keep the mouse button pressed. I found that it's best to use it in short burts. What's interesting is that at level 28 you get a rune which allows you to cast this spell for free.
Lv 7 - Rune - Numb
This rune simply increases the slowing down effect of Ray of Frost from 30% to 60%.
Lv 5 - Arcane Orb
One of the most used spells in the beta arrives early, at level 5. Arcane Orb does 175% weapon damage to all monsters in a 10 yard radius from the point of impact. It's a very potent spell but the high Arcane Power cost means that you can't fire it more than 3 times before your Arcane Power is entirely depleted. Another thing to watch out for is that the orb doesn't move very fast so you will have to "lead" moving targets if you want to hit them. In the beta, Arcane Orb is my secondary spell of choice. I just love AoE.
Lv 11 - Rune - Obliteration
This rune makes Arcane Orb even deadlier, increasing the damage to 228%. It also turns the orb red, from light purple.
Lv 12 - Arcane Torrent
Either Arcane Torrent sucks or else I couldn't get the hang of it. This spell reminds me a lot of Arcane Missiles from WoW because it fires a few missiles that deal 175% damage to all enemies at the point of impact. While the animation is pretty cool, with the missiles arcing out from your fingers and speeding towards the target, the range is medium and the aim is imprecise. Besides, the length of the animation means that it takes a precious second or two before the missiles hit. Sorry but I just didn't like this spell. Arcane Orb is a lot more predictable and does more damage thanks to the rune.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Frost Nova
As your first defensive skill, at level 4 you get Frost Nova, another great spell. This used to deal damage in addition to freezing all nearby enemies for 3 seconds but Blizzard has removed the damage component. Nonetheless, this spell is really cool because you can wade into a group of monsters, freeze them and then blast them with Arcane Orb. They won't even know what hit them. Oh, there's a 12 second cooldown.
Lv 12 - Rune - Shatter
This rune improves Frost Nova by causing monsters killed while frozen to have a 50% change of releasing additional Frost Novas. This is pretty nifty for creating a chain effect of destruction but in the beta you won't be able to see the effect a lot in action because monsters die so quickly, very often on the first hit, once you are well equipped.
Lv 8 - Diamond Skin
Diamond Skin is another defensive skill that you can choose to use instead of Frost Nova and it acts like an energy shield which absorbs a set amount of damage for 6 seconds. I've seen people using it to "tank" with their Wizard, in concert with Spectral Blade. It can certainly be used to that effect if you so choose. Just remember that Diamond Skill doesn't last indefinitely, and when it expires you will find yourself vulnerable again.
Force ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Wave of Force
At level 9 your 4th skill slot is unlocked and you get one of the most awesome Wizard spells. Wave of Force does a massive 200% weapon damage to enemies all around you, knocking them back AND slowing them down by 60%. It has a 15 second cooldown so you can't spam it, unfortunately. I just love this spell! It works especially well in concert with Frost Nova. Gather a bunch of monsters, freeze them and then blast them with Wave of Force. It's buckets of fun!
Lv 13 - Energy Twister
Energy Twister is one of those skills that feel pointless, useless, badly designed or all of the above. You fire a mini-tornado which spins randomly across the screen and fizzes out midway, dealing damage to monsters it hits, IF it hits. This spell is so random, not to mention costly, that it constitutes pure masochism to use it. Maybe runes can make it better but in the beta it is truly pointless.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
Level 10 is for passive skills. Yay!
Lv 10 - Blur
This one decreases melee damage you take. Fairly pointless at this level and I'm not sure I'd take it even later, outside of PvP because a Wizard is supposed to stay at range. If you get hit by melee enemies, you're not doing it right. I'm sure I will swallow my words in Hell/Inferno but we'll see.
Lv 10 - Power Hungry
Here's a very nifty passive. This one allows you to gain Arcane Power when you're healed by a health globe. Pretty cool. Since Arcane Power can be a problem if you like to blast away with costly spells, this passive allows you to recover your resource more quickly.
Lv 13 - Evocation
This passive reduces your cooldowns by 15% but I'm not sure how useful it is. The only spells that can use it are Frost Nova, Wave of Force and Diamond Skin. However the reduction is very small, meaning that you'll gain a couple of seconds which doesn't seem enough. I would just skip this one and keep Power Hungry.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
Magic Missile is the only spell at your disposal. Luckily it doesn't cost anything to cast so knock yourself out using it.
Level 2
Ray of Frost is the cool skill which comes immediately at level 2. Use it whenever you have Arcane Power. Remember, shorts bursts are better.
Level 3
Shock Pulse is your second primary skill. My advice? Skip it.
Level 4
Frost Nova, woohoo! Use it whenever it's off cooldown, when you're surrounded by monsters and when you're in dire straits or trying to escape.
Level 5
Arcane Orb can replace Ray of Frost if you wish. I suggest doing so. You can now take out huge groups of monsters with a couple of blasts.
Level 6
Rune your Magic Missile with Charged Blast.
Level 7
If you are still using Ray of Frost, now's the time to rune it with Numb.
Level 8
You can choose to replace Frost Nova with Diamond Skin. If you want to go melee-Wizard, it's not a bad idea.
Level 9
You get your 4th skill slot as well as Wave of Force. You will love this new spell with a passion, if you're anything like me.
You also get Explosive Bolts which augments your Shock Pulse. Skip it.
Level 10
A couple of new passives become available. Choose Power Hungry.
Level 11
Arcane Orb is now awesomer thanks to Obliteration.
Level 12
A new skill, Arcane Torrent. Skip it.
Shatter enhances Frost Nova. Equip it.
Level 13
Energy Twister, the most useless spell in the beta. Ignore it.
You also get Evocation as a passive but I suggest keeping Power Hungry.
This concludes my discussion of the Wizard in Diablo 3's beta (patch 16, subject to change in future patches or the final game). Here's my level 13 build. Though I run primarily with Spectral Blade, I switch to Arcane Missile for the Skeleton King fight so I can stay safely at range.
If played recklessly, the Wizard can be seen as a glass canon but in the beta it's hard to judge how effective or fragile it will be since it's fairly easy to out-level and out-gear all the monsters. Once the Wizard becomes powerful like that, she will rip through her enemies like a screaming banshee. But that's valid for all classes, in the beta. The Wizard was a lot of fun to play and, once again, because I love ranged classes so much, I will have a hard time choosing between her and the Witch Doctor, of course, after I get tired of the Demon Hunter.
Also read:
The beta Demon Hunter
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Monk
The beta Barbarian
The Wizard is, essentially, the direct descendant of Diablo 2's Sorceress. Many spells are similar but there are plenty of new ones as well. If you liked D2's Sorceress, you'll most likely feel at home with the Wizard, although the resource system differs.
I picked (and will pick in the full game) a female Wizard. She's cute beyond words. I already concluded that the male looks too juvenile and inexperienced, barely a whelp, while the female is more like his older sister.
The Wizard uses a different resource than the Sorceress in Diablo 2, namely Arcane Power. Arcane Power (AP) is a purple swirly-sparkly plasma thing and also the fastest recharging resource in Diablo 3. You start with 100 AP and a later passive skill gives you another 20. From what I can tell, you can't go higher than that, but there are ways in which to boost regeneration rate, including items and other skills.
While the Wizard is somewhat constrained by her Arcane Power, because powerful spells tend to use a lot of it, she can switch to her primary skills which are free to cast, while AP recharges.
Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Magic Missile
This is first spell you start the game with. It does 110% weapon damage as Arcane. Early on this is your bread-and-butter skill but I found myself using it even later at level 13 when I was fighting the Skeleton King. For that encounter, this is the best primary skill because it allows you to stay at range and it also gets a rune, making it more powerful than the other primary skills.
Lv 6 - Rune - Charged Blast
Your first rune at level 6 will improve Magic Missile so that it now does 143% damage. No reason not to use it.
Lv 13 - Rune - Split
At level 13 Magic Missile gets its second rune which makes it slightly more powerful and also gives it a little bit of an AoE. This rune splits your missile into 3 missiles which hit for 50% damage each. Since the trajectories of the 3 are very tight, in many cases you will hit the same monster with a salvo, for a total of 150% damage. This rune is definitely worth it if you like Magic Missile.
Lv 3 - Shock Pulse
Shock Pulse is the direct descendant of Diablo 2's Charged Bolt. Here, it doesn't work so well. You fire 3 bolts but the range is short (about half the screen) and the bolts are chaotic. Even the skill tooltip mentions "medium range" and "unpredictable". The only way this spell felt useful was for firing it at point-blank range, where all 3 bolts had the chance to hit.
Lv 9 - Rune - Explosive Bolts
This rune attempts to make Shock Pulse better but the skill was crappy to begin with so it won't help a lot if monsters who die explode for additional AoE damage since they are so hard to kill anyway with this skill. I guess this skill could be made to work by getting lots of items with high attack speed increase and spamming the crap out of this skill. Even then, it brings you uncomfortably close to the action.
Lv 11 - Spectral Blade
I never understood the point of Spectral Blade in Diablo 2 and I was prepared to dismiss it in Diablo 3, yet I find myself really liking this skill. This is a short range skill which hits the monsters in front of you for 135% damage. You don't use your weapon directly, but instead a series of "spectral blades" slash the air in front. This spell is pretty good for finishing off stragglers or smashing objects. I can see myself using it even at higher levels, with caution. In the beta, once you get some good equipment, you can go all melee-wizard and kill everything in hand-to-hand combat. Well, except for the Skeleton King. That's the only place where I switch back to Magic Missile so I can take him comfortably at range.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Ray of Frost
Ray of Frost is one cool spell and you get it very early as your first secondary spell, at level 2. It projects a beam of frost that damages the target for 215% weapon damage, also slowing it by 30% for 3 seconds. Since you are vulnerable early on, this spell will get a lot of use. The only downside is that it can burn through your Arcane Power quickly if you keep the mouse button pressed. I found that it's best to use it in short burts. What's interesting is that at level 28 you get a rune which allows you to cast this spell for free.
Lv 7 - Rune - Numb
This rune simply increases the slowing down effect of Ray of Frost from 30% to 60%.
Lv 5 - Arcane Orb
One of the most used spells in the beta arrives early, at level 5. Arcane Orb does 175% weapon damage to all monsters in a 10 yard radius from the point of impact. It's a very potent spell but the high Arcane Power cost means that you can't fire it more than 3 times before your Arcane Power is entirely depleted. Another thing to watch out for is that the orb doesn't move very fast so you will have to "lead" moving targets if you want to hit them. In the beta, Arcane Orb is my secondary spell of choice. I just love AoE.
Lv 11 - Rune - Obliteration
This rune makes Arcane Orb even deadlier, increasing the damage to 228%. It also turns the orb red, from light purple.
Lv 12 - Arcane Torrent
Either Arcane Torrent sucks or else I couldn't get the hang of it. This spell reminds me a lot of Arcane Missiles from WoW because it fires a few missiles that deal 175% damage to all enemies at the point of impact. While the animation is pretty cool, with the missiles arcing out from your fingers and speeding towards the target, the range is medium and the aim is imprecise. Besides, the length of the animation means that it takes a precious second or two before the missiles hit. Sorry but I just didn't like this spell. Arcane Orb is a lot more predictable and does more damage thanks to the rune.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Frost Nova
As your first defensive skill, at level 4 you get Frost Nova, another great spell. This used to deal damage in addition to freezing all nearby enemies for 3 seconds but Blizzard has removed the damage component. Nonetheless, this spell is really cool because you can wade into a group of monsters, freeze them and then blast them with Arcane Orb. They won't even know what hit them. Oh, there's a 12 second cooldown.
Lv 12 - Rune - Shatter
This rune improves Frost Nova by causing monsters killed while frozen to have a 50% change of releasing additional Frost Novas. This is pretty nifty for creating a chain effect of destruction but in the beta you won't be able to see the effect a lot in action because monsters die so quickly, very often on the first hit, once you are well equipped.
Lv 8 - Diamond Skin
Diamond Skin is another defensive skill that you can choose to use instead of Frost Nova and it acts like an energy shield which absorbs a set amount of damage for 6 seconds. I've seen people using it to "tank" with their Wizard, in concert with Spectral Blade. It can certainly be used to that effect if you so choose. Just remember that Diamond Skill doesn't last indefinitely, and when it expires you will find yourself vulnerable again.
Force ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Wave of Force
At level 9 your 4th skill slot is unlocked and you get one of the most awesome Wizard spells. Wave of Force does a massive 200% weapon damage to enemies all around you, knocking them back AND slowing them down by 60%. It has a 15 second cooldown so you can't spam it, unfortunately. I just love this spell! It works especially well in concert with Frost Nova. Gather a bunch of monsters, freeze them and then blast them with Wave of Force. It's buckets of fun!
Lv 13 - Energy Twister
Energy Twister is one of those skills that feel pointless, useless, badly designed or all of the above. You fire a mini-tornado which spins randomly across the screen and fizzes out midway, dealing damage to monsters it hits, IF it hits. This spell is so random, not to mention costly, that it constitutes pure masochism to use it. Maybe runes can make it better but in the beta it is truly pointless.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
Level 10 is for passive skills. Yay!
Lv 10 - Blur
This one decreases melee damage you take. Fairly pointless at this level and I'm not sure I'd take it even later, outside of PvP because a Wizard is supposed to stay at range. If you get hit by melee enemies, you're not doing it right. I'm sure I will swallow my words in Hell/Inferno but we'll see.
Lv 10 - Power Hungry
Here's a very nifty passive. This one allows you to gain Arcane Power when you're healed by a health globe. Pretty cool. Since Arcane Power can be a problem if you like to blast away with costly spells, this passive allows you to recover your resource more quickly.
Lv 13 - Evocation
This passive reduces your cooldowns by 15% but I'm not sure how useful it is. The only spells that can use it are Frost Nova, Wave of Force and Diamond Skin. However the reduction is very small, meaning that you'll gain a couple of seconds which doesn't seem enough. I would just skip this one and keep Power Hungry.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
Magic Missile is the only spell at your disposal. Luckily it doesn't cost anything to cast so knock yourself out using it.
Level 2
Ray of Frost is the cool skill which comes immediately at level 2. Use it whenever you have Arcane Power. Remember, shorts bursts are better.
Level 3
Shock Pulse is your second primary skill. My advice? Skip it.
Level 4
Frost Nova, woohoo! Use it whenever it's off cooldown, when you're surrounded by monsters and when you're in dire straits or trying to escape.
Level 5
Arcane Orb can replace Ray of Frost if you wish. I suggest doing so. You can now take out huge groups of monsters with a couple of blasts.
Level 6
Rune your Magic Missile with Charged Blast.
Level 7
If you are still using Ray of Frost, now's the time to rune it with Numb.
Level 8
You can choose to replace Frost Nova with Diamond Skin. If you want to go melee-Wizard, it's not a bad idea.
Level 9
You get your 4th skill slot as well as Wave of Force. You will love this new spell with a passion, if you're anything like me.
You also get Explosive Bolts which augments your Shock Pulse. Skip it.
Level 10
A couple of new passives become available. Choose Power Hungry.
Level 11
Arcane Orb is now awesomer thanks to Obliteration.
Level 12
A new skill, Arcane Torrent. Skip it.
Shatter enhances Frost Nova. Equip it.
Level 13
Energy Twister, the most useless spell in the beta. Ignore it.
You also get Evocation as a passive but I suggest keeping Power Hungry.
This concludes my discussion of the Wizard in Diablo 3's beta (patch 16, subject to change in future patches or the final game). Here's my level 13 build. Though I run primarily with Spectral Blade, I switch to Arcane Missile for the Skeleton King fight so I can stay safely at range.
If played recklessly, the Wizard can be seen as a glass canon but in the beta it's hard to judge how effective or fragile it will be since it's fairly easy to out-level and out-gear all the monsters. Once the Wizard becomes powerful like that, she will rip through her enemies like a screaming banshee. But that's valid for all classes, in the beta. The Wizard was a lot of fun to play and, once again, because I love ranged classes so much, I will have a hard time choosing between her and the Witch Doctor, of course, after I get tired of the Demon Hunter.
Also read:
The beta Demon Hunter
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Monk
The beta Barbarian
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The beta Monk
When the Monk class was revealed I thought "This isn't my type". In the beta, so far, the Monk has been a lot more fun than I anticipated. Diablo 3 only has 2 melee classes (pending an expansion) but I like the Monk more than the Barbarian. I was even considering making it my main in the full game but at heart I am a ranged player, through and through.
The Monk is Diablo 3's Bruce Lee. (S)he has access to a wide range of skills using fists, feet, elbows and other body parts. But fear not, the Monk can equip weapons just like any other class and the damage it deals is based on the DPS of those weapons.
When I rethought my choice of genders, I firmly settled on the male. In patch 15 I played a male Monk to 13 and after the patch 16 character wipe I decided to try a female. For some reason I don't enjoy playing the female as much as I liked the male. There's no rationale behind this but I felt that the male had more "impact".
This class review would have been out sooner, had it not been for the patch 16 character reset. It forced me to play the class again from scratch, just to experience the new skills and runes. Although the changes aren't that big, with a couple of runes swapped for their higher level counterparts, it does make the class perform subtly differently.
The Monk uses Spirit as a resource. Spirit appears as a swirly, milky liquid which might give the wrong connotation but it is what it is. You start with 150 Spirit and there's a passive skill (at just level 13) which adds another 100 to your pool. Spirit doesn't recharge on its own, neither does it deplete. Instead, it is replenished by using the Monk's primary offensive skills. All other skills (secondary, defensive and so on) consume Spirit. In other words you build Spirit with your primary skills and use it for more powerful skills and abilities.
Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Fists of Thunder
You start the game with this skill. It's pretty straightforward: each hit generates 6 Spirit and does 110% weapon damage in the form of Lightning. Like most of the Monk's primary skills, this one has a special effect on the third strike. In this case, the effect is to deal damage to all enemies in front of you, also knocking them back a few yards. This is a very solid primary skill which is just as good at level 13 as it is at level 1.
Lv 6 - Rune - Thunderclap
This rune used to be higher level before patch 16 but now it has been swapped with Bounding Light which is now level 52. Thunderclap improves Fists of Thunder a lot. Now you will teleport a short distance to your target and hit them, also dealing 35% AoE Lightning damage to targets around you in a 6 yard radius. Believe me when I tell you that this rune makes Fists of Thunder an amazing skill, one that I am still using at level 13 and I have a feeling I'll be using at much higher levels.
Lv 3 - Deadly Reach
At level 3 you get the chance to try another primary skill. Deadly Reach projects beams of "force" as you hit for 110% weapon damage. Each third hit extends 25 yards in front. The first hit projects 1 beam, the second 2 beams and the third 3 beams. Each beam can hit a different monster. So this skill has a moderate AoE effect. I find it great for smashing objects such as urns and barrels. This skill also generates 6 Spirit per hit.
Lv 9 - Rune - Piercing Trident
At level 9, Deadly Reach is enhanced by the Piercing Trident rune. This rune simply "increases the area of effect of the second and third strikes". I haven't really noticed a big difference here but in the beta this is the only rune for this skill so you might as well grab it.
Lv 11 - Crippling Wave
In addition to generating 6 Spirit per hit, Crippling Wave does some AoE damage in the form of a sweeping attack which hits monsters in front of your character for 110% weapon damage. Each third hit strikes all the monsters around you, slowing them down by 30% and also slows their attacks by 20% for 3 seconds. Though I wasn't impressed by this skill, I can imagine that it will come in handy at higher difficulty levels where you need to keep enemies under control, with as many debuffs as possible.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Lashing Tail Kick
My favorite secondary skill comes very early, at level 2. This is, by far, my favorite way of spending Spirit. The Monk spin-kicks all enemies in a 360 degree circle for a healthy 200% weapon damage and knocks them back across the screen. It's actually funny to see those monsters flung like rag dolls. I'm afraid that the effect might be too much and Blizzard will tone it down at some point. In the meantime I'm gonna enjoy it, especially since the cost is comparatively low, only 30 Spirit. With a full Spirit bulb you can do 5 of these kicks in a row for a total potential damage of 1000%. This skill is best used when surrounded by monsters, so you can hit as many of them as possible. I like wading into huge groups of monsters and unleashing a couple of "tail kicks". This skill works equally well on bosses such as the Skeleton King as a Spirit spender because each hit does 200% damage to single monsters or multiple ones, regardless.
Lv 7 - Rune - Vulture Claw Kick
Wait, does Lashing Tail Kick even need a rune? Of course it does. This rune that you get at level 7 makes an awesome skill even awesomer. It converts the damage to Fire and ups it to 220% weapon damage.
Lv 5 - Tempest Rush
Now here's a skill that took me a while to understand. This is a channeled skill, meaning that for best results you need to hold the mouse button pressed while you are using it. It causes your character to dash around the screen (guided by the mouse, of course) and knock back all the enemies in its path, slowing them down by 60% for 2 seconds and dealing 50% weapon damage to them. I'm trying to find a purpose for this skill but I simply can't justify the high Spirit cost. Lashing Tail Kick does a ton more damage and it also knocks back enemies, but whatever, try Tempest Rush and use it if you like it. It's an interesting concept but I have a feeling it is very situational and not very useful in most cases.
Lv 11 - Rune - Northern Breeze
Tempest Rush gets a rune. Yay. The rune reduces the cost of the skill somewhat. While you're channeling it, instead of using 10 Spirit, it uses only 8. Is that on a per second basis? Maybe.
Lv 12 - Wave of Light
Another visually impressive skill which failed to impress me. You might have seen this used in gameplay videos. The visual is rather striking because the Monk calls down a giant "bell" thing which slams down in front of him and does 215% weapon damage as Holy, presumably in a small radius, as well as an additional 45% damage to all enemies in a line. As I said, this is a weird skill. I've seen very few Monks use it and personally I dislike it because of the "line" aspect which requires you to be very careful with positioning, before using this skill. You don't want to waste it by having that damage go in a direction where there aren't any enemies. Apart from that, the cost is prohibitive: at 75 Spirit you can only use it twice in a row before you run out dry. Once again, I think Lashing Tail Kick is a much better (and waaay cheaper) choice.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Blinding Flash
The Monk's first defensive spell, which comes at level 4, can be very useful. This is a debuff which blinds enemies in a 20 yard radius and makes them wonder around in confusion for 3 seconds. The cost is low (10 Spirit) but there's a 15 second cooldown. This is a good spell to use whenever you are surrounded and in danger, or whenever you want to take as little damage as possible when charging into a group of monsters.
Lv 12 - Rune - Self Reflection
This rune increases Blinding Flash's duration from 3 to 4 seconds. Nothing major here but you might as well grab that 1 extra second.
Lv 8 - Breath of Heaven
The Monk is the only class in Diablo 3 which can actively heal herself (and her allies within 12 yards) and Breath of Heaven is the skill which accomplishes this. I tend to prefer this over Blinding Flash and it gets a fair amount of usage. Not only can you use this in a support role, whenever a nearby ally is low on health, but you can use it as a third healing option (apart from healing orbs and potions). This skill has a 15 second cooldown and a 25 Spirit cost.
Techniques ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Dashing Strike
Dashing Strike is like a WoW Warrior's Charge. You charge at the target (for 25 Spirit) and root them in place for 1 second, while dealing 100% weapon damage. I find the Spirit cost to be a bit steep but this skill allows me to instantly position myself in the middle of a large group of monsters where I can unleash destruction with Lashing Tail Kick. It is also very useful for killing ranged enemies or for catching up with that pesky Treasure Goblin. I'm pretty sure it will also be very popular in PvP.
Lv 13 - Exploding Palm
Exploding Palm is a DoT skill, which does 220% weapon damage to the target, over 3 seconds. If the target dies during this time, it will explode and damage nearby monsters for 30% of the target's maximum life. This one is interesting but also a bit situational. It will obviously work best if used on monsters with a lot of health (such as champions, rares, bosses and so on) which are also surrounded by lots of minions. Even then, you will have to refresh the spell until the monster dies. I haven't found anything to hint that the DoT is over so I'm always worried that I might refresh it too early or too late. At 40 Spirit, it is also rather costly so I find myself circling back to Lashing Tail Kick which does more AoE (and the same amount of single-target) damage but costs less. Now, of course, it is hard to judge the true merits of this skill because it is un-runed. The proper rune could transform it into something much more useful.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
Level 10 can't come quickly enough because this is where each class gets access to its first 2 passive skills.
Lv 10 - Fleet Footed
The Monk starts with an excellent passive. Fleet Footed gives a flat 10% increase in movement speed. I do believe this stacks with other movement enhancements. This passive is so good that it overshadows the rest of the ones available in the beta. It makes the Monk feel very quick on her feet.
Lv 10 - Resolve
This passive is hard to quantify because you can't exactly measure the damage that monsters do, but from the looks of it, it is a permanent 25% damage reduction, because you are kicking ass constantly, right? This is a very solid passive which will be invaluable in Inferno but in the beta I just don't die on my Monk so it is irrelevant.
Lv 13 - Exalted Soul
Another solid passive, Exalted Soul simply increases your maximum Spirit by 100 for a total of 250. Depending on your style of play, this can allow you to use Spirit-intensive skills more often.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
You start with Fists of Thunder. Use it and learn to love it.
Level 2
Lashing Tail Kick becomes the first secondary skill.
Level 3
Deadly Reach is another primary skill. I suggest sticking with Fists of Thunder.
Level 4
Defensive skills are unlocked, and the first one is Blinding Flash. No other choice but to use it, especially since it's a very solid skill.
Level 5
Tempest Rush is now available as a secondary skill. I suggest ignoring it.
Level 6
Ah, runes finally. Thunderclap enhances Fists of Thunder. Your bread-and-butter gets some jam to go with it.
Level 7
Another rune becomes available. Vulture Claw Kick improves Lashing Tail Kick and makes it awesomer.
Level 8
Breath of Heaven is your second defensive skill. If you like healing yourself (and others) grab it instead of Blinding Flash.
Level 9
The 4th skill slot is unlocked and it can be filled with a technique called Dashing Strike.
The Piercing Trident rune which improves Deadly Reach also becomes available.
Level 10
Passives are in the house. You have a choice between Fleet Footed and Resolve. I suggest the former.
Level 11
The 3rd primary skill, Crippling Wave, is available.
Another rune, Northern Breeze, enhances Tempest Rush.
Level 12
Another secondary skill is unlocked: Wave of Light. Yawn.
Level 13
Finally, at the beta level cap, you get the Exploding Palm technique which could replace Dashing Strike. Whatever.
Another passive, Exalted Soul, is unlocked.
This concludes my discussion of the Monk in Diablo 3's beta (patch 16, subject to change in future patches or the final game). My level 13 Monk beta build is simple and fun. Exploding Palm is something that I don't use very often but I can easily replace with Dashing Strike, the overall effect being negligible. The Monk is a lot of fun to play and it trumps the Barbarian in my mind. It will most likely be the first melee class I try in the full game. I have a feeling that the Monk will be particularly well suited to Inferno, with very high Dexterity which will give it tons of Dodge and also the various debuffs that it can apply to targets.
Also read:
The beta Demon Hunter
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Wizard
The beta Barbarian
The Monk is Diablo 3's Bruce Lee. (S)he has access to a wide range of skills using fists, feet, elbows and other body parts. But fear not, the Monk can equip weapons just like any other class and the damage it deals is based on the DPS of those weapons.
When I rethought my choice of genders, I firmly settled on the male. In patch 15 I played a male Monk to 13 and after the patch 16 character wipe I decided to try a female. For some reason I don't enjoy playing the female as much as I liked the male. There's no rationale behind this but I felt that the male had more "impact".
This class review would have been out sooner, had it not been for the patch 16 character reset. It forced me to play the class again from scratch, just to experience the new skills and runes. Although the changes aren't that big, with a couple of runes swapped for their higher level counterparts, it does make the class perform subtly differently.
The Monk uses Spirit as a resource. Spirit appears as a swirly, milky liquid which might give the wrong connotation but it is what it is. You start with 150 Spirit and there's a passive skill (at just level 13) which adds another 100 to your pool. Spirit doesn't recharge on its own, neither does it deplete. Instead, it is replenished by using the Monk's primary offensive skills. All other skills (secondary, defensive and so on) consume Spirit. In other words you build Spirit with your primary skills and use it for more powerful skills and abilities.
Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Fists of Thunder
You start the game with this skill. It's pretty straightforward: each hit generates 6 Spirit and does 110% weapon damage in the form of Lightning. Like most of the Monk's primary skills, this one has a special effect on the third strike. In this case, the effect is to deal damage to all enemies in front of you, also knocking them back a few yards. This is a very solid primary skill which is just as good at level 13 as it is at level 1.
Lv 6 - Rune - Thunderclap
This rune used to be higher level before patch 16 but now it has been swapped with Bounding Light which is now level 52. Thunderclap improves Fists of Thunder a lot. Now you will teleport a short distance to your target and hit them, also dealing 35% AoE Lightning damage to targets around you in a 6 yard radius. Believe me when I tell you that this rune makes Fists of Thunder an amazing skill, one that I am still using at level 13 and I have a feeling I'll be using at much higher levels.
Lv 3 - Deadly Reach
At level 3 you get the chance to try another primary skill. Deadly Reach projects beams of "force" as you hit for 110% weapon damage. Each third hit extends 25 yards in front. The first hit projects 1 beam, the second 2 beams and the third 3 beams. Each beam can hit a different monster. So this skill has a moderate AoE effect. I find it great for smashing objects such as urns and barrels. This skill also generates 6 Spirit per hit.
Lv 9 - Rune - Piercing Trident
At level 9, Deadly Reach is enhanced by the Piercing Trident rune. This rune simply "increases the area of effect of the second and third strikes". I haven't really noticed a big difference here but in the beta this is the only rune for this skill so you might as well grab it.
Lv 11 - Crippling Wave
In addition to generating 6 Spirit per hit, Crippling Wave does some AoE damage in the form of a sweeping attack which hits monsters in front of your character for 110% weapon damage. Each third hit strikes all the monsters around you, slowing them down by 30% and also slows their attacks by 20% for 3 seconds. Though I wasn't impressed by this skill, I can imagine that it will come in handy at higher difficulty levels where you need to keep enemies under control, with as many debuffs as possible.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Lashing Tail Kick
My favorite secondary skill comes very early, at level 2. This is, by far, my favorite way of spending Spirit. The Monk spin-kicks all enemies in a 360 degree circle for a healthy 200% weapon damage and knocks them back across the screen. It's actually funny to see those monsters flung like rag dolls. I'm afraid that the effect might be too much and Blizzard will tone it down at some point. In the meantime I'm gonna enjoy it, especially since the cost is comparatively low, only 30 Spirit. With a full Spirit bulb you can do 5 of these kicks in a row for a total potential damage of 1000%. This skill is best used when surrounded by monsters, so you can hit as many of them as possible. I like wading into huge groups of monsters and unleashing a couple of "tail kicks". This skill works equally well on bosses such as the Skeleton King as a Spirit spender because each hit does 200% damage to single monsters or multiple ones, regardless.
Lv 7 - Rune - Vulture Claw Kick
Wait, does Lashing Tail Kick even need a rune? Of course it does. This rune that you get at level 7 makes an awesome skill even awesomer. It converts the damage to Fire and ups it to 220% weapon damage.
Lv 5 - Tempest Rush
Now here's a skill that took me a while to understand. This is a channeled skill, meaning that for best results you need to hold the mouse button pressed while you are using it. It causes your character to dash around the screen (guided by the mouse, of course) and knock back all the enemies in its path, slowing them down by 60% for 2 seconds and dealing 50% weapon damage to them. I'm trying to find a purpose for this skill but I simply can't justify the high Spirit cost. Lashing Tail Kick does a ton more damage and it also knocks back enemies, but whatever, try Tempest Rush and use it if you like it. It's an interesting concept but I have a feeling it is very situational and not very useful in most cases.
Lv 11 - Rune - Northern Breeze
Tempest Rush gets a rune. Yay. The rune reduces the cost of the skill somewhat. While you're channeling it, instead of using 10 Spirit, it uses only 8. Is that on a per second basis? Maybe.
Lv 12 - Wave of Light
Another visually impressive skill which failed to impress me. You might have seen this used in gameplay videos. The visual is rather striking because the Monk calls down a giant "bell" thing which slams down in front of him and does 215% weapon damage as Holy, presumably in a small radius, as well as an additional 45% damage to all enemies in a line. As I said, this is a weird skill. I've seen very few Monks use it and personally I dislike it because of the "line" aspect which requires you to be very careful with positioning, before using this skill. You don't want to waste it by having that damage go in a direction where there aren't any enemies. Apart from that, the cost is prohibitive: at 75 Spirit you can only use it twice in a row before you run out dry. Once again, I think Lashing Tail Kick is a much better (and waaay cheaper) choice.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Blinding Flash
The Monk's first defensive spell, which comes at level 4, can be very useful. This is a debuff which blinds enemies in a 20 yard radius and makes them wonder around in confusion for 3 seconds. The cost is low (10 Spirit) but there's a 15 second cooldown. This is a good spell to use whenever you are surrounded and in danger, or whenever you want to take as little damage as possible when charging into a group of monsters.
Lv 12 - Rune - Self Reflection
This rune increases Blinding Flash's duration from 3 to 4 seconds. Nothing major here but you might as well grab that 1 extra second.
Lv 8 - Breath of Heaven
The Monk is the only class in Diablo 3 which can actively heal herself (and her allies within 12 yards) and Breath of Heaven is the skill which accomplishes this. I tend to prefer this over Blinding Flash and it gets a fair amount of usage. Not only can you use this in a support role, whenever a nearby ally is low on health, but you can use it as a third healing option (apart from healing orbs and potions). This skill has a 15 second cooldown and a 25 Spirit cost.
Techniques ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Dashing Strike
Dashing Strike is like a WoW Warrior's Charge. You charge at the target (for 25 Spirit) and root them in place for 1 second, while dealing 100% weapon damage. I find the Spirit cost to be a bit steep but this skill allows me to instantly position myself in the middle of a large group of monsters where I can unleash destruction with Lashing Tail Kick. It is also very useful for killing ranged enemies or for catching up with that pesky Treasure Goblin. I'm pretty sure it will also be very popular in PvP.
Lv 13 - Exploding Palm
Exploding Palm is a DoT skill, which does 220% weapon damage to the target, over 3 seconds. If the target dies during this time, it will explode and damage nearby monsters for 30% of the target's maximum life. This one is interesting but also a bit situational. It will obviously work best if used on monsters with a lot of health (such as champions, rares, bosses and so on) which are also surrounded by lots of minions. Even then, you will have to refresh the spell until the monster dies. I haven't found anything to hint that the DoT is over so I'm always worried that I might refresh it too early or too late. At 40 Spirit, it is also rather costly so I find myself circling back to Lashing Tail Kick which does more AoE (and the same amount of single-target) damage but costs less. Now, of course, it is hard to judge the true merits of this skill because it is un-runed. The proper rune could transform it into something much more useful.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
Level 10 can't come quickly enough because this is where each class gets access to its first 2 passive skills.
Lv 10 - Fleet Footed
The Monk starts with an excellent passive. Fleet Footed gives a flat 10% increase in movement speed. I do believe this stacks with other movement enhancements. This passive is so good that it overshadows the rest of the ones available in the beta. It makes the Monk feel very quick on her feet.
Lv 10 - Resolve
This passive is hard to quantify because you can't exactly measure the damage that monsters do, but from the looks of it, it is a permanent 25% damage reduction, because you are kicking ass constantly, right? This is a very solid passive which will be invaluable in Inferno but in the beta I just don't die on my Monk so it is irrelevant.
Lv 13 - Exalted Soul
Another solid passive, Exalted Soul simply increases your maximum Spirit by 100 for a total of 250. Depending on your style of play, this can allow you to use Spirit-intensive skills more often.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
You start with Fists of Thunder. Use it and learn to love it.
Level 2
Lashing Tail Kick becomes the first secondary skill.
Level 3
Deadly Reach is another primary skill. I suggest sticking with Fists of Thunder.
Level 4
Defensive skills are unlocked, and the first one is Blinding Flash. No other choice but to use it, especially since it's a very solid skill.
Level 5
Tempest Rush is now available as a secondary skill. I suggest ignoring it.
Level 6
Ah, runes finally. Thunderclap enhances Fists of Thunder. Your bread-and-butter gets some jam to go with it.
Level 7
Another rune becomes available. Vulture Claw Kick improves Lashing Tail Kick and makes it awesomer.
Level 8
Breath of Heaven is your second defensive skill. If you like healing yourself (and others) grab it instead of Blinding Flash.
Level 9
The 4th skill slot is unlocked and it can be filled with a technique called Dashing Strike.
The Piercing Trident rune which improves Deadly Reach also becomes available.
Level 10
Passives are in the house. You have a choice between Fleet Footed and Resolve. I suggest the former.
Level 11
The 3rd primary skill, Crippling Wave, is available.
Another rune, Northern Breeze, enhances Tempest Rush.
Level 12
Another secondary skill is unlocked: Wave of Light. Yawn.
Level 13
Finally, at the beta level cap, you get the Exploding Palm technique which could replace Dashing Strike. Whatever.
Another passive, Exalted Soul, is unlocked.
This concludes my discussion of the Monk in Diablo 3's beta (patch 16, subject to change in future patches or the final game). My level 13 Monk beta build is simple and fun. Exploding Palm is something that I don't use very often but I can easily replace with Dashing Strike, the overall effect being negligible. The Monk is a lot of fun to play and it trumps the Barbarian in my mind. It will most likely be the first melee class I try in the full game. I have a feeling that the Monk will be particularly well suited to Inferno, with very high Dexterity which will give it tons of Dodge and also the various debuffs that it can apply to targets.
Also read:
The beta Demon Hunter
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Wizard
The beta Barbarian
Sunday, April 15, 2012
5-man groups are a reality...
...of sorts.
You know how in Diablo 3 you can only have 4 people maximum in a group, right? Well, it turns out that there's a bug of some sort in beta patch 16 which occasionally allows a 5th person to join the group. Check out this screenshot that I took yesterday evening. Sorry for blurring the names but I don't want to disclose anyone's character's names.
There I was chillin' out on my female Monk with 3 other random people, when all of a sudden a 5th person, the level 1 Barbarian at the bottom, joins the group. Luckily I was quick enough to take a screenshot before he was automatically booted from the group.
Thing is, this wasn't an isolated incident. It actually happened twice last night, in different groups. The second time I wasn't quick enough to save a screenshot.
This is something that, to me, never happened before patch 16. My suspicion is that there are so many people in the beta now (Blizzard just invited an additional 275K players into the beta) that occasionally the system hiccups.
If you were hoping that 5-man groups had become a reality, I'm sorry to disappoint. It's unlikely that Blizzard will increase group size. As it is, with so many skill and spell effects, not to mention summons and minions, the screen can sometimes become chaotic.
Has this happened to you recently? Have you ever found yourself in a 5-man group?
You know how in Diablo 3 you can only have 4 people maximum in a group, right? Well, it turns out that there's a bug of some sort in beta patch 16 which occasionally allows a 5th person to join the group. Check out this screenshot that I took yesterday evening. Sorry for blurring the names but I don't want to disclose anyone's character's names.
There I was chillin' out on my female Monk with 3 other random people, when all of a sudden a 5th person, the level 1 Barbarian at the bottom, joins the group. Luckily I was quick enough to take a screenshot before he was automatically booted from the group.
Thing is, this wasn't an isolated incident. It actually happened twice last night, in different groups. The second time I wasn't quick enough to save a screenshot.
This is something that, to me, never happened before patch 16. My suspicion is that there are so many people in the beta now (Blizzard just invited an additional 275K players into the beta) that occasionally the system hiccups.
If you were hoping that 5-man groups had become a reality, I'm sorry to disappoint. It's unlikely that Blizzard will increase group size. As it is, with so many skill and spell effects, not to mention summons and minions, the screen can sometimes become chaotic.
Has this happened to you recently? Have you ever found yourself in a 5-man group?
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The beta Witch Doctor
I will say this from the start: I never expected the Witch Doctor to be so much fun. I had always viewed this class as a sort of Necromancer Plus, and Diablo 2's Necromancer never managed to capture my attention.
After playing the Witch Doctor in the beta to the maximum level of 13, my opinion of this class improved to a high degree.
The Witch Doctor is a combination of several archetypes. I see it as a ranged class because most of its offensive skills are used at range. Yet, some of these skills are only medium range, which sometimes may put the Witch Doctor closer to the action than he/she would like. On the other hand the Witch Doctor is also a summoner with its multitude of creepy minions. Thirdly, the Witch Doctor has access to some of the most powerful and effective debuffs (or curses) in the game. Now you may argue that the Necromancer also had these 3 traits, to which I will reply that you are right, but the Witch Doctor really is a Necromancer on steroids.
The Witch Doctor uses a resource type that's very familiar to most RPG players: Mana. Mana is very straightforward: you use it to power your skills and spells. In Diablo 3, Mana has a fast recharge rate (which can be further increased by some passives), although it is not as fast as, say, the Wizard's Arcane Power. The Mana pool also increases with level.
Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Poison Dart
Poison Dart is the first skill you start the game with, and it's deceptively simple. For a negligible Mana cost (I don't understand why it's not free), it fires a single dart which does 100% weapon damage in the form of poison. On its own, this skill doesn't shine, but once you start adding runes to it, it doesn't become half bad. I have tried a couple of different Witch Doctor builds in the beta and one of them still uses Poison Dart (runed) at level 13.
Lv 6 - Rune - Splinters
For your first Witch Doctor rune, you get Splinters, which augments Poison Dart. Now instead of firing 1 dart for 100% weapon damage, you will fire 3 darts for 60% damage each, or a total of 180% damage. Not bad, considering that your 2nd or 3rd dart can hit monsters behind the first one killed by your barrage. Besides, Poison Dart runed with Splinters is pretty good for smashing urns and stuff, as you can smash several of them in a row, with just one shot.
Lv 13 - Rune - Numbing Dart
I will admit that I didn't try Numbing Dart at all, and the reason is simple: all this rune does is it causes Poison Dart to slow the enemy by 60% for a paltry 2 seconds. I really don't see the point of this rune, at least not in the beta and maybe not outside PvP. Either way, I think it needs an upgrade, if people are to use it. Either increase the slowing effect, its duration, or both. But in the beta, Poison Dart is not exactly a speed demon, meaning that before you can hit multiple enemies with it, the slowing effect will wear off on the initial ones.
Lv 3 - Corpse Spiders
I started out skeptical about this skill but later on I incorporated it in one of my two builds. The base skill itself is quite annoying and I don't recommend using it before you can slap a rune on it. What it does is, the Witch Doctor throws a jar which breaks, releasing 4 spiders which attack for 16% weapon damage (64% total?) "before they die". It's unclear how long their lifespan is and how many attacks they manage during that time. Suffice to say that the throwing animation makes this skill feel very slow and unwieldy, especially when it is assigned to the primary mouse button. Also, the spiders aren't exactly champion sprinters. They just skitter towards the target at a comfortable speed.
Lv 9 - Rune - Leaping Spiders
Leaping Spiders greatly improves Corpse Spiders. Now, instead of crawling to the target, the spiders effectively leap at it (think Alien facehugger), which makes the skill feel a lot more responsive. Furthermore, the spiders' damage is increased a little to 19% weapon damage and the distance they can jump is also increased to 25 yards. I have managed to improve the feel of Corpse Spiders even more by turning Elective Mode on and assigning this to the "2" key. This allowed me to effectively spam the skill by punching the key repeatedly. The jar will break where your mouse pointer is. The cool thing about this skill is that the Mana cost is only 5 (which is nothing, as Mana regenerates much quicker than you can use it with the skill), and you can spam it indefinitely. A favorite trick is to cover the ground in spiders before a boss appears or spawns, and when he does, he'll be covered in creepy-crawlies.
Lv 11 - Plague of Toads
Although I've seen many people use Plague of Toads, I couldn't warm up to it. It feels a bit like Corpse Spiders but even though the tooltip says 130% weapon damage (which is a lot more than Corpse Spiders), it didn't seem as effective to me. Coupled with the fact that it's much shorter range and a lot more inefficient (34 Mana a pop), it quickly fell off my radar. Unfortunately there aren't any runes for it in the beta but I'm sure later on it will be augmented in more interesting ways.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Grasp of the Dead
Five minutes into your new Witch Doctor you will reach level 2 and also one of the skills that I absolutely adore. I have found Grasp of the Dead indispensable in my short career, and both of my builds feature it. So what does it do? 1) You can place it wherever your cursor is, including at the edges of the screen, so the range is practically unlimited; 2) It slows enemies by 60% in a fairly large radius; 3) It also deals Damage over Time (DoT) to all the monsters inside its radius. The tooltip says 20% weapon damage (as physical) over 8 seconds (which is both the duration and the cooldown of this skill), but does that mean 20% each second, or 20% spread over all 8 seconds? To me it seems it's the former, because monsters are chewed to shreds inside the circle. As I said, I love this skill. There might be better skills out there but I have a feeling I will make room for this even at level 60. Oh and the Mana cost is 122, but the Mana will recharge fully during the 8 seconds in which the skill is on cooldown. The one "flaw" of Grasp of the Dead? The cooldown. It would have been really cool if it didn't have a cooldown and you could spam it, limited only by your mana, but I guess that would have made it overpowered.
Lv 7 - Rune - Groping Eels
Groping Eels is a very good - and straightforward - addition to Grasp of the Dead. It increases the DoT from 20% to 26%. It makes a great skill even better and you can equip it very early, at level 7.
Lv 5 - Firebats
Here's another cool skill. Firebats is like your personal flamethrower. Hold the mouse down and spew a constant stream of flames in the form of bats, which deal 150% weapon damage as fire. The downside? It will gulp all your Mana in a few seconds. Also, the range isn't that great. I recommend using it only when monsters are packed close together, or otherwise wait for the rune at level 11.
Lv 11 - Rune - Dire Bats
Dire Bats improves upon Firebats, such that I use it in both my builds. Instead of a stream of flaming bats, you will now fire a single large fiery bat which has much bigger range (40 yards, which is effectively the edge of the screen) and does more damage (220%). What I like about this skill is that the bat feels partially guided. It won't seek out monsters but if you fire it in close proximity to a monster or group of them, it seems to maneuver towards them. It will also pass through several monsters and damage all of them, though I haven't exactly determined how that works. Thanks to its huge damage, this rune allows Firebats to be very useful for AoE-ing large packs of monsters and it also works well on bosses. Although the rune doesn't improve Mana efficiency, it does make it feel more economical due to the fact that you don't hold the button down anymore.
Lv 12 - Haunt
Haunt is featured in one of my builds. At first sight it does massive damage: 575% weapon damage as arcane. The catch? That damage is spread over 15 seconds, however the Mana cost is very decent, only 98. When I first tried Haunt I wasn't very impressed because the effects aren't obvious immediately. It takes some time for this skill to work its magic (haha get it?) but it has a couple of aces up its sleeve that make it worthwhile. For one thing, this is a guided missile. It will seek out monsters in the general direction of your mouse pointer. You don't have to be precise. For another, if the monster dies while the DoT is in effect, Haunt will jump to (and afflict) another nearby enemy. It is unclear whether the DoT is reset on the new enemy or it starts where it left off on the previous one. I find Haunt great because I can spam several of them on different monsters (you can also target specific monsters if you want) and then run around kiting them. I have a feeling that it will be great for tough bosses, where you can endlessly run from them, occasionally refreshing Haunt.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Summon Zombie Dogs
Zombie Dogs is another popular skill and it's the first summoning spell that Witch Doctors get, and early on at that. It summons 3 of these critters that follow you around and damage your foes. All fine and dandy, until you meet a tough boss like the Skeleton King. That's one of the weaknesses of Zombie Dogs: they die quickly on harder bosses. Another weakness is that they have a long cooldown (60 seconds), meaning that you can't re-summon them repeatedly when they die. Third weakness is that their damage doesn't seem to be that great. For that reason, I am not thrilled with them in the beta. There are passive skills which improve all your pets and runes also help to make them more useful so maybe they will be a lot better later on.
Lv 12 - Rune - Rabid Dogs
Luckily in the beta we also get access to the first rune for Zombie Dogs. Rabid Dogs colors your critters a bright green, which is a great improvement over the drab grey they start out as. More importantly, they also get a DoT, on top of their usual damage, which deals 9% weapon damage (your weapon, not theirs) over 3 seconds. It doesn't seem like much but it is something. I haven't noticed much difference but at this level my Witch Doctor is too powerful for most monsters anyway.
Lv 8 - Horrify
Horrify is the most basic type of defensive spell. It makes all monsters inside 12 yards run away in fear for 4 seconds. I've only used it a couple of times, so I can have an excuse to talk about it here but in the beta I don't see the utility. I'm sure it will prove useful at higher difficulty levels, when survival becomes very important, or in PvP. Unfortunately the cooldown is long (20 seconds) and though there's a passive skill which reduces this by 2 seconds, I think that's not enough, so even in Inferno I doubt I'll use this.
Terror ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Soul Harvest
Now here's a skill that is trickier to master. It's deceptively simple but it took me a while to get the hang of it. Soul Harvest is, simply put, a buff. When activated, for each enemy in a 16 yard radius, up to 5 enemies maximum, you will gain 130 Intelligence. The buff expires in 30 seconds and has a 15 second cooldown. When I first used this, my mistake was that I didn't activate it when enemies were close. After I corrected my mistake, I learned to activate it correctly. The increase in Intelligence is significant. However, the 130 Intelligence per enemy applies at level 60. Currently at level 13 the buff gives "only" 36 Intelligence per enemy. If used correctly, this skill can improve your damage considerably. If you can make sure to always activate it when there are 5 or more enemies nearby, you can deal incredibly huge amounts of damage almost 100% of the time. The only time it might not be so useful is on bosses, assuming they don't have minions, but even then, a buff is a buff. To give an example, my level 13 Witch Doctor has 53 Intelligence and does 27.99 damage. When Soul Harvest is at the maximum 5 stacks, my Intelligence jumps to 233 and my damage more than doubles, to 60.93. That's... frigging amazing! Whatever my level 60 build will include, I'll be sure to save Soul Harvest a spot.
Lv 13 - Sacrifice
Sacrifice is a skill that works in concert with your Zombie Dogs. You can't use it on its own, because it detonates your Dogs for 200% weapon damage each, to enemies within 12 yards. This skill is somewhat similar to Diablo 2's Necromancer's Corpse Explosion. The problem is that you can't use it very often since Zombie Dogs are on a long 60 second cooldown. But there is a tactical aspect to Sacrifice. If you wait until your Dogs are almost dead, that's the best time to detonate them, especially if they are off cooldown. The skill effect is quite impressive, I'll give you that, but I haven't had much use for it in the beta. I'm waiting to test it more extensively in the full game, but right now you need to dedicate 2 (out of 4) precious keys to Sacrifice + Zombie Dogs and that's simply not worth it.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
At level 10 the first 2 passive skills are unlocked.
Lv 10 - Circle of Life
Here's a potentially interesting passive skill. For each monster that dies within 12 yards, you get a 5% chance that a Zombie Dog will spawn. You can increase that range by wearing items which increase your gold pickup range. Now, the first problem with this passive is that it doesn't seem to work if you are already using Zombie Dogs. If you thought that you would get an army of Zombie Dogs in short order, think again. This works bets if you don't normally use Zombie Dogs but would like to have some minions, nonetheless. The second problem is that the number of Dogs that spawn is same as the number of Dogs you can summon with your Zombie Dogs spell, namely 3, or 4 if you enhance this with a later passive skill. Third issue is that the summoned Dogs are the basic, non-rune-enhanced variety. For these reasons, I don't see this passive as being very useful, at least not at these low levels.
Lv 10 - Jungle Fortitude
Instead of Circle of Life, at level 10 I would pick Jungle Fortitude. The effect is simple: 20% less damage from all sources for you and your minions. Though it doesn't make much of a difference in the beta, it does allow you to play more recklessly if that's what you want. I bet that this passive will be invaluable for hardcore characters, in Inferno and PvP.
Lv 13 - Spiritual Attunement
At level 13 Witch Doctors get the most useful passive skill in the beta, one that not only increases their Mana pool by 20% but also increases the regeneration rate by an extra 1% of maximum Mana each second. I would pick this over Jungle Fortitude any day, especially since there isn't much danger in the beta, whereas there are some very Mana-intensive spells that can benefit from this.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
Poison Dart is all you get in your first slot. Use it to kill stuff.
Level 2
Your second skill slot (right mouse button by default) is unlocked, as well as Grasp of the Dead, one of the most awesome Witch Doctor skills in the beta (and possibly the game)! For best effect, use it at range on groups of monsters. You will love it when you see how their health bars are depleted. Make sure to equip the best weapon possible (with the best DPS) which will improve the damage of Grasp of the Dead (as well as most other skills). Since Grasp of the Dead is an AoE DoT, it will be very effective in killing or seriously damaging large groups of monsters. Just be aware of its 8 second cooldown. You can also use it defensively, by placing it on advancing groups of monsters, which will slow them down enough for you to hit them with other spells. Since the duration of the DoT is the same as the spell's cooldown, you can chain this as long as you need to, whenever it's off cooldown.
Level 3
Corpse Spiders becomes available as a primary skill. I suggest hanging on to Poison Dart, as Corpse Spiders is sluggish without a rune. You get more control with Poison Dart. But that's purely my personal preference.
Level 4
Your third skill slot ("1" key) becomes available, as well as Zombie Dogs. There's absolutely no reason not to use it. Always keep your Zombie Dogs up, and re-summon if they die and the skill is off cooldown. Zombie Dogs can be very effective decoys. I wouldn't call them tanks because they will die from a powerful boss or when there are scores of enemies attacking them, but they play a very good role: that of meat shield. The Witch Doctor is, in my opinion, a ranged class and needs to keep its distance from monsters. Zombie Dogs will distract those enemies (although their damage is low) enough for the Witch Doctor to do her (black) magic.
Level 5
Firebats becomes available as your secondary skill. You can choose to replace Grasp of the Dead with this but I preferred not to. The reason is that Firebats, although an awesome spell, will deplete your Mana very quickly and it has a rather short range, requiring you to get close to the action. In contrast, Grasp of the Dead feels free to cast and can be cast at the edges of the screen, before monsters can even detect you.
Level 6
The first rune becomes available, namely Splinters which enhances Poison Dart. Equip it and you will notice a marked improvement, if you are still using Poison Dart at this point.
Level 7
A second rune is unlocked. Groping Eels enhances Grasp of the Dead and gives it an extra bit of oomph (damage), which makes that skill even better. If you liked Grasp of the Dead before, you'll like it even more now.
Level 8
You get your second defensive skill, Horrify. I don't see any reason to use it over Zombie Dogs.
Level 9
Level 9 unlocks your fourth skill slot ("2" key) and also gives you a new skill to put in that slot, Soul Harvest. As discussed above, Soul Harvest has amazing potential, provided it is used correctly and refreshed accordingly. I would strongly advise using it. The only thing you will have to keep in mind is that you need to be more pro-active and to consider each move in advance. It would be a waste to use this skill when there are no monsters nearby or when there are only 1-2 of them, because then you'll have to wait for the cooldown before you can use it again. But if you can hit 5 monsters with it, you can double your damage for the next 30 seconds.
The Leaping Spiders rune is also unlocked at this level and if you haven't used Corpse Spiders until now, I suggest you give it a try. This rune makes that skill worthwhile.
Level 10
At level 10 your first two passive skills become available. I picked Jungle Fortitude, for the reasons outlined above.
Level 11
Plague of Toads becomes available as your primary skill. Personally this one didn't work very well for me so I chose to stick with Poison Dart.
The Dire Bats rune is unlocked for your Firebats and it transforms that skill a lot. I suggest at least trying it, if not outright adopting it, going forward.
Level 12
Haunt is a new secondary skill that I highly suggest trying. If you like working with DoTs, this is the skill for you. One of my builds uses it.
The Rabid Dogs rune is now available for your Zombie Dogs. It gives them extra damage so there's no reason not to equip it if you like running with minions.
Level 13
The third passive skill is unlocked. Spiritual Attunement is better than the other passives, at least in the beta, because it increases your Mana pool as well as the regeneration rate so you can use more costly spells.
Poison Dart gets its second rune, Numbing Dart. I ignored this one completely because it's irrelevant in the beta.
Finally, a new skill, Sacrifice is now available. As discussed above, this works in tandem with Zombie Dogs but none of my builds use it.
This concludes my discussions of the Witch Doctor's skills in the beta. I have used two different builds with great success but you should know that the Witch Doctor was the only class where I turned on Elective Mode for both builds, so I could arrange my skills the way I wanted them. I found that the game was too limiting in the way skills are assigned to each key. So here are my two level 13 builds:
Build 1 - This build features:
Poison Dart (runed with Splinters) on left mouse
Firebats (runed with Dire Bats) on right mouse
Grasp of the Dead (runed with Groping Eels) on key "1"
Corpse Spiders (runed with Leaping Spiders) on key "2"
Poison Dart is for cleaning up or smashing objects. Firebats provides the Mana-intensive nuke. Grasp of the Dead provides the AoE. Corpse Spiders is for massive spamming.
Build 2 - This build features:
Firebats (runed with Dire Bats) on left mouse
Haunt on right mouse
Grasp of the Dead (runed with Groping Eels) on key "1"
Soul Harvest on key "2"
Firebats provides the Mana-intensive nuke and is also used to smash objects (yeah, it's Mana-intensive but there's no other choice in this build). Haunt provides the powerful fire-and-forget DoT. Grasp of the Dead provides the AoE. Soul Harvest is the massive damage buff.
Both of these builds are a lot of fun. Lately I've been running with the second build because it feels even more fun, with the caveat that it burns through your mana a lot faster, with Firebats and Haunt which are both costly to use.
The Witch Doctor is a very versatile and fun class. It plays sufficiently different than all the other classes in both Diablo 3 and 2 to make it feel like a brand new concept. At several points during my beta career I almost made up my mind to make it my main in the full game. Eventually, I decided I would go the "safe" route, with the Demon Hunter, but I will definitely level a Witch Doctor to 60 shortly after my Demon Hunter.
Also read:
The Beta Demon Hunter
The beta Monk
The beta Wizard
The beta Barbarian
After playing the Witch Doctor in the beta to the maximum level of 13, my opinion of this class improved to a high degree.
The Witch Doctor is a combination of several archetypes. I see it as a ranged class because most of its offensive skills are used at range. Yet, some of these skills are only medium range, which sometimes may put the Witch Doctor closer to the action than he/she would like. On the other hand the Witch Doctor is also a summoner with its multitude of creepy minions. Thirdly, the Witch Doctor has access to some of the most powerful and effective debuffs (or curses) in the game. Now you may argue that the Necromancer also had these 3 traits, to which I will reply that you are right, but the Witch Doctor really is a Necromancer on steroids.
The Witch Doctor uses a resource type that's very familiar to most RPG players: Mana. Mana is very straightforward: you use it to power your skills and spells. In Diablo 3, Mana has a fast recharge rate (which can be further increased by some passives), although it is not as fast as, say, the Wizard's Arcane Power. The Mana pool also increases with level.Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.
Next is a review of all the skills and runes in the beta, broken down by skill slot, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own opinions and tastes.
Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Poison Dart
Poison Dart is the first skill you start the game with, and it's deceptively simple. For a negligible Mana cost (I don't understand why it's not free), it fires a single dart which does 100% weapon damage in the form of poison. On its own, this skill doesn't shine, but once you start adding runes to it, it doesn't become half bad. I have tried a couple of different Witch Doctor builds in the beta and one of them still uses Poison Dart (runed) at level 13.
Lv 6 - Rune - Splinters
For your first Witch Doctor rune, you get Splinters, which augments Poison Dart. Now instead of firing 1 dart for 100% weapon damage, you will fire 3 darts for 60% damage each, or a total of 180% damage. Not bad, considering that your 2nd or 3rd dart can hit monsters behind the first one killed by your barrage. Besides, Poison Dart runed with Splinters is pretty good for smashing urns and stuff, as you can smash several of them in a row, with just one shot.
Lv 13 - Rune - Numbing Dart
I will admit that I didn't try Numbing Dart at all, and the reason is simple: all this rune does is it causes Poison Dart to slow the enemy by 60% for a paltry 2 seconds. I really don't see the point of this rune, at least not in the beta and maybe not outside PvP. Either way, I think it needs an upgrade, if people are to use it. Either increase the slowing effect, its duration, or both. But in the beta, Poison Dart is not exactly a speed demon, meaning that before you can hit multiple enemies with it, the slowing effect will wear off on the initial ones.
Lv 3 - Corpse Spiders
I started out skeptical about this skill but later on I incorporated it in one of my two builds. The base skill itself is quite annoying and I don't recommend using it before you can slap a rune on it. What it does is, the Witch Doctor throws a jar which breaks, releasing 4 spiders which attack for 16% weapon damage (64% total?) "before they die". It's unclear how long their lifespan is and how many attacks they manage during that time. Suffice to say that the throwing animation makes this skill feel very slow and unwieldy, especially when it is assigned to the primary mouse button. Also, the spiders aren't exactly champion sprinters. They just skitter towards the target at a comfortable speed.
Lv 9 - Rune - Leaping Spiders
Leaping Spiders greatly improves Corpse Spiders. Now, instead of crawling to the target, the spiders effectively leap at it (think Alien facehugger), which makes the skill feel a lot more responsive. Furthermore, the spiders' damage is increased a little to 19% weapon damage and the distance they can jump is also increased to 25 yards. I have managed to improve the feel of Corpse Spiders even more by turning Elective Mode on and assigning this to the "2" key. This allowed me to effectively spam the skill by punching the key repeatedly. The jar will break where your mouse pointer is. The cool thing about this skill is that the Mana cost is only 5 (which is nothing, as Mana regenerates much quicker than you can use it with the skill), and you can spam it indefinitely. A favorite trick is to cover the ground in spiders before a boss appears or spawns, and when he does, he'll be covered in creepy-crawlies.
Lv 11 - Plague of Toads
Although I've seen many people use Plague of Toads, I couldn't warm up to it. It feels a bit like Corpse Spiders but even though the tooltip says 130% weapon damage (which is a lot more than Corpse Spiders), it didn't seem as effective to me. Coupled with the fact that it's much shorter range and a lot more inefficient (34 Mana a pop), it quickly fell off my radar. Unfortunately there aren't any runes for it in the beta but I'm sure later on it will be augmented in more interesting ways.
Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Grasp of the Dead
Five minutes into your new Witch Doctor you will reach level 2 and also one of the skills that I absolutely adore. I have found Grasp of the Dead indispensable in my short career, and both of my builds feature it. So what does it do? 1) You can place it wherever your cursor is, including at the edges of the screen, so the range is practically unlimited; 2) It slows enemies by 60% in a fairly large radius; 3) It also deals Damage over Time (DoT) to all the monsters inside its radius. The tooltip says 20% weapon damage (as physical) over 8 seconds (which is both the duration and the cooldown of this skill), but does that mean 20% each second, or 20% spread over all 8 seconds? To me it seems it's the former, because monsters are chewed to shreds inside the circle. As I said, I love this skill. There might be better skills out there but I have a feeling I will make room for this even at level 60. Oh and the Mana cost is 122, but the Mana will recharge fully during the 8 seconds in which the skill is on cooldown. The one "flaw" of Grasp of the Dead? The cooldown. It would have been really cool if it didn't have a cooldown and you could spam it, limited only by your mana, but I guess that would have made it overpowered.
Lv 7 - Rune - Groping Eels
Groping Eels is a very good - and straightforward - addition to Grasp of the Dead. It increases the DoT from 20% to 26%. It makes a great skill even better and you can equip it very early, at level 7.
Lv 5 - Firebats
Here's another cool skill. Firebats is like your personal flamethrower. Hold the mouse down and spew a constant stream of flames in the form of bats, which deal 150% weapon damage as fire. The downside? It will gulp all your Mana in a few seconds. Also, the range isn't that great. I recommend using it only when monsters are packed close together, or otherwise wait for the rune at level 11.
Lv 11 - Rune - Dire Bats
Dire Bats improves upon Firebats, such that I use it in both my builds. Instead of a stream of flaming bats, you will now fire a single large fiery bat which has much bigger range (40 yards, which is effectively the edge of the screen) and does more damage (220%). What I like about this skill is that the bat feels partially guided. It won't seek out monsters but if you fire it in close proximity to a monster or group of them, it seems to maneuver towards them. It will also pass through several monsters and damage all of them, though I haven't exactly determined how that works. Thanks to its huge damage, this rune allows Firebats to be very useful for AoE-ing large packs of monsters and it also works well on bosses. Although the rune doesn't improve Mana efficiency, it does make it feel more economical due to the fact that you don't hold the button down anymore.
Lv 12 - Haunt
Haunt is featured in one of my builds. At first sight it does massive damage: 575% weapon damage as arcane. The catch? That damage is spread over 15 seconds, however the Mana cost is very decent, only 98. When I first tried Haunt I wasn't very impressed because the effects aren't obvious immediately. It takes some time for this skill to work its magic (haha get it?) but it has a couple of aces up its sleeve that make it worthwhile. For one thing, this is a guided missile. It will seek out monsters in the general direction of your mouse pointer. You don't have to be precise. For another, if the monster dies while the DoT is in effect, Haunt will jump to (and afflict) another nearby enemy. It is unclear whether the DoT is reset on the new enemy or it starts where it left off on the previous one. I find Haunt great because I can spam several of them on different monsters (you can also target specific monsters if you want) and then run around kiting them. I have a feeling that it will be great for tough bosses, where you can endlessly run from them, occasionally refreshing Haunt.
Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Summon Zombie Dogs
Zombie Dogs is another popular skill and it's the first summoning spell that Witch Doctors get, and early on at that. It summons 3 of these critters that follow you around and damage your foes. All fine and dandy, until you meet a tough boss like the Skeleton King. That's one of the weaknesses of Zombie Dogs: they die quickly on harder bosses. Another weakness is that they have a long cooldown (60 seconds), meaning that you can't re-summon them repeatedly when they die. Third weakness is that their damage doesn't seem to be that great. For that reason, I am not thrilled with them in the beta. There are passive skills which improve all your pets and runes also help to make them more useful so maybe they will be a lot better later on.
Lv 12 - Rune - Rabid Dogs
Luckily in the beta we also get access to the first rune for Zombie Dogs. Rabid Dogs colors your critters a bright green, which is a great improvement over the drab grey they start out as. More importantly, they also get a DoT, on top of their usual damage, which deals 9% weapon damage (your weapon, not theirs) over 3 seconds. It doesn't seem like much but it is something. I haven't noticed much difference but at this level my Witch Doctor is too powerful for most monsters anyway.
Lv 8 - Horrify
Horrify is the most basic type of defensive spell. It makes all monsters inside 12 yards run away in fear for 4 seconds. I've only used it a couple of times, so I can have an excuse to talk about it here but in the beta I don't see the utility. I'm sure it will prove useful at higher difficulty levels, when survival becomes very important, or in PvP. Unfortunately the cooldown is long (20 seconds) and though there's a passive skill which reduces this by 2 seconds, I think that's not enough, so even in Inferno I doubt I'll use this.
Terror ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Soul Harvest
Now here's a skill that is trickier to master. It's deceptively simple but it took me a while to get the hang of it. Soul Harvest is, simply put, a buff. When activated, for each enemy in a 16 yard radius, up to 5 enemies maximum, you will gain 130 Intelligence. The buff expires in 30 seconds and has a 15 second cooldown. When I first used this, my mistake was that I didn't activate it when enemies were close. After I corrected my mistake, I learned to activate it correctly. The increase in Intelligence is significant. However, the 130 Intelligence per enemy applies at level 60. Currently at level 13 the buff gives "only" 36 Intelligence per enemy. If used correctly, this skill can improve your damage considerably. If you can make sure to always activate it when there are 5 or more enemies nearby, you can deal incredibly huge amounts of damage almost 100% of the time. The only time it might not be so useful is on bosses, assuming they don't have minions, but even then, a buff is a buff. To give an example, my level 13 Witch Doctor has 53 Intelligence and does 27.99 damage. When Soul Harvest is at the maximum 5 stacks, my Intelligence jumps to 233 and my damage more than doubles, to 60.93. That's... frigging amazing! Whatever my level 60 build will include, I'll be sure to save Soul Harvest a spot.
Lv 13 - Sacrifice
Sacrifice is a skill that works in concert with your Zombie Dogs. You can't use it on its own, because it detonates your Dogs for 200% weapon damage each, to enemies within 12 yards. This skill is somewhat similar to Diablo 2's Necromancer's Corpse Explosion. The problem is that you can't use it very often since Zombie Dogs are on a long 60 second cooldown. But there is a tactical aspect to Sacrifice. If you wait until your Dogs are almost dead, that's the best time to detonate them, especially if they are off cooldown. The skill effect is quite impressive, I'll give you that, but I haven't had much use for it in the beta. I'm waiting to test it more extensively in the full game, but right now you need to dedicate 2 (out of 4) precious keys to Sacrifice + Zombie Dogs and that's simply not worth it.
Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
At level 10 the first 2 passive skills are unlocked.
Lv 10 - Circle of Life
Here's a potentially interesting passive skill. For each monster that dies within 12 yards, you get a 5% chance that a Zombie Dog will spawn. You can increase that range by wearing items which increase your gold pickup range. Now, the first problem with this passive is that it doesn't seem to work if you are already using Zombie Dogs. If you thought that you would get an army of Zombie Dogs in short order, think again. This works bets if you don't normally use Zombie Dogs but would like to have some minions, nonetheless. The second problem is that the number of Dogs that spawn is same as the number of Dogs you can summon with your Zombie Dogs spell, namely 3, or 4 if you enhance this with a later passive skill. Third issue is that the summoned Dogs are the basic, non-rune-enhanced variety. For these reasons, I don't see this passive as being very useful, at least not at these low levels.
Lv 10 - Jungle Fortitude
Instead of Circle of Life, at level 10 I would pick Jungle Fortitude. The effect is simple: 20% less damage from all sources for you and your minions. Though it doesn't make much of a difference in the beta, it does allow you to play more recklessly if that's what you want. I bet that this passive will be invaluable for hardcore characters, in Inferno and PvP.
Lv 13 - Spiritual Attunement
At level 13 Witch Doctors get the most useful passive skill in the beta, one that not only increases their Mana pool by 20% but also increases the regeneration rate by an extra 1% of maximum Mana each second. I would pick this over Jungle Fortitude any day, especially since there isn't much danger in the beta, whereas there are some very Mana-intensive spells that can benefit from this.
Next, I will talk about my level progression from 1-13.
Level Progression
Level 1
Poison Dart is all you get in your first slot. Use it to kill stuff.
Level 2
Your second skill slot (right mouse button by default) is unlocked, as well as Grasp of the Dead, one of the most awesome Witch Doctor skills in the beta (and possibly the game)! For best effect, use it at range on groups of monsters. You will love it when you see how their health bars are depleted. Make sure to equip the best weapon possible (with the best DPS) which will improve the damage of Grasp of the Dead (as well as most other skills). Since Grasp of the Dead is an AoE DoT, it will be very effective in killing or seriously damaging large groups of monsters. Just be aware of its 8 second cooldown. You can also use it defensively, by placing it on advancing groups of monsters, which will slow them down enough for you to hit them with other spells. Since the duration of the DoT is the same as the spell's cooldown, you can chain this as long as you need to, whenever it's off cooldown.
Level 3
Corpse Spiders becomes available as a primary skill. I suggest hanging on to Poison Dart, as Corpse Spiders is sluggish without a rune. You get more control with Poison Dart. But that's purely my personal preference.
Level 4
Your third skill slot ("1" key) becomes available, as well as Zombie Dogs. There's absolutely no reason not to use it. Always keep your Zombie Dogs up, and re-summon if they die and the skill is off cooldown. Zombie Dogs can be very effective decoys. I wouldn't call them tanks because they will die from a powerful boss or when there are scores of enemies attacking them, but they play a very good role: that of meat shield. The Witch Doctor is, in my opinion, a ranged class and needs to keep its distance from monsters. Zombie Dogs will distract those enemies (although their damage is low) enough for the Witch Doctor to do her (black) magic.
Level 5
Firebats becomes available as your secondary skill. You can choose to replace Grasp of the Dead with this but I preferred not to. The reason is that Firebats, although an awesome spell, will deplete your Mana very quickly and it has a rather short range, requiring you to get close to the action. In contrast, Grasp of the Dead feels free to cast and can be cast at the edges of the screen, before monsters can even detect you.
Level 6
The first rune becomes available, namely Splinters which enhances Poison Dart. Equip it and you will notice a marked improvement, if you are still using Poison Dart at this point.
Level 7
A second rune is unlocked. Groping Eels enhances Grasp of the Dead and gives it an extra bit of oomph (damage), which makes that skill even better. If you liked Grasp of the Dead before, you'll like it even more now.
Level 8
You get your second defensive skill, Horrify. I don't see any reason to use it over Zombie Dogs.
Level 9
Level 9 unlocks your fourth skill slot ("2" key) and also gives you a new skill to put in that slot, Soul Harvest. As discussed above, Soul Harvest has amazing potential, provided it is used correctly and refreshed accordingly. I would strongly advise using it. The only thing you will have to keep in mind is that you need to be more pro-active and to consider each move in advance. It would be a waste to use this skill when there are no monsters nearby or when there are only 1-2 of them, because then you'll have to wait for the cooldown before you can use it again. But if you can hit 5 monsters with it, you can double your damage for the next 30 seconds.
The Leaping Spiders rune is also unlocked at this level and if you haven't used Corpse Spiders until now, I suggest you give it a try. This rune makes that skill worthwhile.
Level 10
At level 10 your first two passive skills become available. I picked Jungle Fortitude, for the reasons outlined above.
Level 11
Plague of Toads becomes available as your primary skill. Personally this one didn't work very well for me so I chose to stick with Poison Dart.
The Dire Bats rune is unlocked for your Firebats and it transforms that skill a lot. I suggest at least trying it, if not outright adopting it, going forward.
Level 12
Haunt is a new secondary skill that I highly suggest trying. If you like working with DoTs, this is the skill for you. One of my builds uses it.
The Rabid Dogs rune is now available for your Zombie Dogs. It gives them extra damage so there's no reason not to equip it if you like running with minions.
Level 13
The third passive skill is unlocked. Spiritual Attunement is better than the other passives, at least in the beta, because it increases your Mana pool as well as the regeneration rate so you can use more costly spells.
Poison Dart gets its second rune, Numbing Dart. I ignored this one completely because it's irrelevant in the beta.
Finally, a new skill, Sacrifice is now available. As discussed above, this works in tandem with Zombie Dogs but none of my builds use it.
This concludes my discussions of the Witch Doctor's skills in the beta. I have used two different builds with great success but you should know that the Witch Doctor was the only class where I turned on Elective Mode for both builds, so I could arrange my skills the way I wanted them. I found that the game was too limiting in the way skills are assigned to each key. So here are my two level 13 builds:
Build 1 - This build features:
Poison Dart (runed with Splinters) on left mouse
Firebats (runed with Dire Bats) on right mouse
Grasp of the Dead (runed with Groping Eels) on key "1"
Corpse Spiders (runed with Leaping Spiders) on key "2"
Poison Dart is for cleaning up or smashing objects. Firebats provides the Mana-intensive nuke. Grasp of the Dead provides the AoE. Corpse Spiders is for massive spamming.
Build 2 - This build features:
Firebats (runed with Dire Bats) on left mouse
Haunt on right mouse
Grasp of the Dead (runed with Groping Eels) on key "1"
Soul Harvest on key "2"
Firebats provides the Mana-intensive nuke and is also used to smash objects (yeah, it's Mana-intensive but there's no other choice in this build). Haunt provides the powerful fire-and-forget DoT. Grasp of the Dead provides the AoE. Soul Harvest is the massive damage buff.
Both of these builds are a lot of fun. Lately I've been running with the second build because it feels even more fun, with the caveat that it burns through your mana a lot faster, with Firebats and Haunt which are both costly to use.
The Witch Doctor is a very versatile and fun class. It plays sufficiently different than all the other classes in both Diablo 3 and 2 to make it feel like a brand new concept. At several points during my beta career I almost made up my mind to make it my main in the full game. Eventually, I decided I would go the "safe" route, with the Demon Hunter, but I will definitely level a Witch Doctor to 60 shortly after my Demon Hunter.
Also read:
The Beta Demon Hunter
The beta Monk
The beta Wizard
The beta Barbarian
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