[WD items] Consolidated feedback on the WD PTR

Hey Blizz,

After testing all the new items for the Witch Doctor class for season 25 PTR, here is my consolidated feedback. This post is a summary of all my previous posts and include all my final thoughts and feedback.

The Arachyr 2 pc bonus is great, I like it very much, it allows for very interesting and dynamic gameplay. However the thread is very difficult to see in large monster pulls. Make the infested thread thicker and in orange color (like the original fire chains elite affix it was taken from).
→ Visibility issue of the infested thread

The Arachyr 4 pc bonus damage reduction is horrible, trying to apply infest to as many enemies as possible in a pull is the absolute opposite playstyle of trying to stand in webs regularly. It feels sooooooo clunky!
Add oculus pools in the mix and elite affixes that you need to dodge and you get something even more terrible to play :frowning:
I suggest you change the damage reduction part to to “you get 75% reduced damage for 15 seconds after casting Corpse Spiders, Firebat or Hex”. Because at some points Arachyr needs to keeps its backwards compatibility to hex angry chicken and firebats.
→ 4 pc damage reduction extremely clunky! Keep the damage reduction compatible with Angry Chicken and Firebats T16 builds

Shukrani’s Triumph: make it so that casting the following spells are not attacks that count towards ending spirit walk prematurely:

  • Soul harvest
  • Horrify
  • Big bad voodoo
  • Hex
  • Summoning gargs, zombie dogs and fetish army,
  • The locust swarm cast of Wormwood
  • Wall of death
    → Shukrani’s Triumph ends spirit walk too early by casting/maintaining self buffs.

Some items roll with a crippling predetermined affix

  • Spider queen’s grasp rolls with mana regeneration
  • Shukrani’s triumph rolls with mana regeneration
  • Gazing demise rolls with mana regeneration
  • depth diggers rolls with resistance to all elements
  • Arachyr’s Mantle (arachyr shoulder piece) rolls with resistance to all elements
  • Jade Harvester’s Joy (Jade shoulder piece) rolls with resistance to all elements
  • Mundunugu’s Descendant (Mundunugu shoulder piece) rolls with resistance to all elements
  • Pauldrons of the skeleton king rolls with vitality and armor. Those are not as bad as the items above but still prevent to loot a tri-factor pauldrons having Area Damage, Cooldown Reduction and Fetish Army damage in the case of the Zunimassa build.

These affixes should not be forced on the items as it cripples the items since we never want those stats in our builds:

  • Mana regeneration is an old mechanic that is a lot weaker than reduced ressource cost
  • Resistance to all elements is not an affix that WD want in the late game because 1 point of inteligence grants 0.1 resistance to all elements
    → Remove the automatic rolling of those stats on the afore mentionned items

Bovine Bardiche is not in the loot table of WD for 2H polearm weapons.
Barbarians, crusaders, monks and witch doctors are the only classes that can loot 2 hand polearms. Barbs, cruz, monks have bovine bardiche in their loot table, WD don’t.
→ Please add bovine bardiche to the loot table of WDs.

Damage reduction harmonisation of the witch doctor sets:

  • Mundunugu has 60% reduced damage on its 4-pc bonus set
  • Helltooth has 60% reduced damage on its 4-pc bonus set
  • Arachyr will be having 75% reduced damage on its 4-pc bonus set
  • LoD/LoN Dagger of Darts is extremely tanky

→ Can you please change Jade current 50% DR to 60% DR?
→ Can you please change the current Zunimassa damage reduction (3% per fetish) to:

  • 8% per fetish when you have 1-8 fetishes out
  • 1% per extra fetish in the 9-23 range. Total for 23 fetishes = (8 x 8) + (15 x 1) = 64 + 15 = 79% (very close to the current 78% total for 23 fetishes)

Someone in the replies of that thread commented that the 4-piece could give 55% DR when a fetish is summoned + 1% per fetish. Which also solves the issue.

Those changes would finalize addressing the WD toughness issue that you partially fixed with the new Lakumba. Especially for the Zunimassa set.

Those are all the items that particularily got my attention during the testing phase. Since you are dusting off the WD items, it would be really awesome if you could address those last remaining issues.

Thanks a lot,
Peace!

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These are my thoughts on the WD Updates:

(1) RE: Shukrani’s Triumph, Lakumba’s Ornament, Spider Queen’s Grasp​ and Brood of Araneae​: These are all useful additions, happy to get them.

(2) I am disappointed that, despite much feedback that players want the Arachyr set to be viable for creature skills, not just Corpse Spiders skills; yet and still, Arachyr is now a CS set.

It seems to me that the current 2-pc bonus, plus the old 4-pc bonus, would have been fine with the new/upgraded items, and enabled us to play Firebats and CS (although the Firebats items do need some updating). What we have now is a case of NOT giving the people what they want.

(3) In my testing in normal, the new Arachyr set is as powerful as Jade, maybe even stronger. I don’t know if it’s better than Mundunugu’s though. It might be that Jade and Arachyr need some minor buffs to be competitive with the Mundunugu set, which is the best for the WD I think.

(4) This infesting thread thing… I’m not feeling it, to use an expression. As we’ve noted, it’s hard to see. Also, it’s difficult to deploy: the WD needs to keep the Spider Queen close to get the DR bonus, and that limits opportunities to touch enemies with the thread.

On paper it seems like it might be a cool idea, but in practice, it’s a cruel joke… it’s hard to get a sense of how much damage it’s doing, if any at all.

Again, I am disappointed that, despite much feedback that players don’t like the mechanic of following the SQ’s butt to get the DR bonus (sorry if that sounds gross), it looks like this change will go through. The infesting thread doesn’t offer enough punch to make this DR mechanic work for me. I do think that the season buff is strong enough that this modified set can still do well, though.

(5) I do hope changes can be made to Firebats items so that a viable Firebats build can emerge, perhaps as a LoD build.

(6) Just a side note - it’s kind of clunky that Arachyr, which is supposed to highlight creature skills, needed to become a pets/creature hybrid to be effective. But as long as it works, people won’t care much, I guess.

I care. I’m like okay so now even fewer skills are getting used. Witch Doctor already has major issues with having many legendary items that are generally useless in T16. Toads, Mass confusion, firebomb, acid cloud, many runed skills.

Witch Doctor is in a far, far better place but it was probably always going to take more than one patch to address all of its issues.

  • Spirit of Arachyr (2-piece bonus): Summon a permanent Spider Queen connected to you by an infested thread. Enemies caught in the thread are infested. Corpse Spider attacks against infested enemies inflict the same damage to all infested enemies. The Spider Queen is commanded to move to where you cast your Corpse Spiders. Corpse Spiders now spawns with health.

  • Spirit of Arachyr (4-piece bonus): The Spider Queen now leaves behind webs that lasts for 15 seconds and Slows enemies. Infested enemies remain infested while on the web. You take 75% reduced damage while in the web and for 4 seconds after.

Player needs to position the enemy between WD and Spider. And while doing so, not attacking. CLUNKY mechanism.

I suggest 2pc: Spider Queen leaves behind webs that last 15 seconds, slows enemies and infest them for 8 seconds. The Spider Queen is commanded to move to where you cast your Corpse Spiders. Corpse Spider attacks against infested enemies inflict the same damage to all infested enemies.

DROP the stupid Infested Thread. Just use the SPider Queen’s Web to infest!

4pc: as suggested by StarEleven, WD gain 75% DR while enemies are infested.
Since enemies remain infested for 8 seconds even if they leave the web, WD still have DR for that duration.

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