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
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!