A new WD set might already be done, who knows. But here are some ideas for a new set and related equipment to go with it.
Mass Confusion looks like a cool skill, but it seems like it’s rarely used.
I’d like to see a helm or other item that buffs the Mass Confusion / Mass Hallucination rune. (“Mass Hallucination: Amid the confusion, a giant spirit rampages through enemies, dealing 400% weapon damage per second as Physical to enemies it passes through.”)
For example, something that makes that rune last 3 seconds longer, adds 3 yards to the radius, and casts 3 spirits that do 3 times as much damage. Or something like that. This could be further buffed by a set bonus.
Or, maybe enemies that are Confused by the skill (I’m talking about the skill, not any particular rune) could do a sacrifice explosion for good AoE damage. It would be cool to see WDs do something that just blows stuff up all over the screen, like Wave of Light or Land of the Dead.
Or maybe the WD could get damage reduction for each enemy confused, and also get a damage buff for every enemy charmed.
Or something.
I’d like to see the Grin Reaper helm become usable in a set.
Perhaps a set bonus could buff the damage of any pet summoned by a piece of equipment and make said pets last forever. To keep this from being too much damage, the damage of WD pets (Gargs, Dogs, Fetish) would not be buffed by the set.
The Necro has the Jesseth Skullshield which looks cool.
Why not make a shield for the WD in a new set? It could be designed to look like an African Warrior shield, or to look like an African Mask. Just to give the WD a different look.
I started the game after the BBV nerfs in patch 2.4.2, and after the nerf which killed the Zero Dogs build.
Maybe those can be brought back in this power creep environment. (Although I wonder if Zero Dogs was nerfed for lags due to graphics intensity.)
I believe the Lidless Wall was intended to be a WD shield… There was brief experimentation with it back in vanilla and it failed compared to both Avg. Dmg and Crit on a mojo. End of story.
Now, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t try again…just throwing it out there.
IMO, yes and yes.
I believe they could/should go back to vanilla BBV values…the cooldown is simply prohibitive for the (now) minimal effect.
I also believe that is why they killed 0-dog. Intensity of the effects and “unintended play”…their canned build killer explanation. (CM wiz’s out there…? Amirite? )
I’d love to see something with zombie chargers and mass confusion, maybe
2pc- Each use of zombie charger reduces the CD on mass confusion by 2 seconds. Mass confusion now gains the effects of all runes and can be cast on a cursor location
4pc- Zombie chargers gain the effects of the undeath rune and enemies killed while effected by mass confusion will spawn a zombie charger.
6pc- You take 50% reduced damage for 20 seconds after using mass confusion. Mass confusion and zombie charger deal (a lot) more damage, and zombie chargers can charge much further before decaying.
The Zunimassa’s Haunt 6 piece bonus provides a 15,000% damage bonus to your pets for hit by Mana spenders, including Spirit Barrage, but you’re right in saying that there’s no set that’s dedicated to Spirit Barrage only
I’d really like to see Sacrifice modified in such a way as to make it viable. There are already 2 items that provide a direct buff to Sacrifice, and at least half a dozen that buff Zombie Dogs. A new set that synergised these skills would be fantastic, increasing the damage of Sacrifice, and perhaps causing a Zombie Dog to be automatically raised every X number of seconds (the Mass Confusion rune ‘Devolution’, and the Grasp of the Dead rune ‘Death is Life’ might also have a interesting and useful role to play here - another possible synergy?) Use Piranhas to group, and Sacrifice a Zombie Dog to cause all the grouped enemies to explode (and possibly spread a curse to nearby enemies, à la Haunt/Locust Swarm?)
I’m obviously just spitballing, but I think there’s some interesting potential with Sacrifice that I’d like to see explored. Admittedly, the idea might hew a little too closely to the playstyle of the EP Monk, or the Necromancer’s Corpse Explosion, but Sacrifice is a really neat skill that I’d like to see being given more love and attention.
Yep. Unfortunately no set gear to boost the damage of spirit barrage. In addition, other mana spenders serve so much better to trigger 6 pc zuni. It would be nice if manitou and phantasm be considered as ‘pets’. I mean they sure look the part visually and last longer than silly 6 sec skeletal turrets.
Perhaps a spirit barrage set could allow manitou to cast phantasm on enemies rather than their default spells. With the grin reaper, you could have 3 manitou up.
If I was a betting man, I’d bet some of my money on a new set based on Spirit Barrage (SB). Reason being, the SB LoN/LoD builds provide a base they can build around. I keep reminding myself that, the game is in maintenance mode, and the limited resources might mean less innovation, to use a term.
I’d personally like to see something new done with Mass Confusion, or Sacrifice. The odds may be against it. We’ll see. In the meantime, if the players want something, they should ask for it. Blizz says our feedback is important.
Popular (powerful) builds with the Zunimassa set are focused on fetishes or gargantuans. About the only popular (powerful) Helltooth build focuses on gargantuans. I’d like to see more viable Summoner builds that focus on multiple “pets”.
A step in that direction would be something for Zombie Dogs, similar to Short Man’s Finger for Gargantuans. Maybe a rework of Tall Man’s Finger, or new ring, that increases their number and damage. This one item would provide options for current builds, and possibly make new builds “viable”.
Also, tweaks that would increase toughness and/or ease the Witch Doctor’s dependence on Soul Harvest for survival, allowing him/her to “command from afar” like a proper summoner. My preference would be more damage reduction, not just armor or resistances. Or, maybe the more powerful dogs would divert more attacks away from their master.
These suggestions are from the perspective of a casual player with a little over 1000 paragon.
Hopefully, they give the zombie dogs more love so in pet builds they are more useful than as a shield or enemy distraction. THEN Mass confusion with the devolution rune becomes exceptionally useful (100% chance to spawn a zombie dog).
Acid Cloud (Su Wong), Spirit Barrage (they have taken CHD off The Barber for some reason) and Zombie Charger need work.
The weapons they made to enhance the primary skills that actually do little to enhance them like Mordulla’s Promise, Rhen’Ho Flayer and The Spider Queen’s Grasp also need some work to make them anything other than a filler until you get what actually benefits any build.
EDIT:
A set with Mass confusion in it is not silly as the Last Breath does cooldown - If it included while active, set skills (neglected ones) increase their damage by 30,000% and had all mass confusion runes, it would be very useful.
Zombie Dogs are so quintessentially Witch Doctor for me, it’s a shame they’re not viable in the top tier, and have largely been relegated to speed builds. There are so many items that provide a bonus of some sort to Zombie Dogs (by my count, 2 sets, 6 items, the Enforcer gem and a bunch of passives).
I’ll be really interested to see what Blizz comes up with for the poor WD. Something that makes us more appealing in group play would be nice, but I’ll try not to get my hopes up… we’ll soon see.
I still have faith that when they said they are bringing all the sets and legendary’s up to an equivocal level for their class, that they meant it.
I love the dogs too. They can be generated in so many ways - grasp of the dead, runes etc etc etc… It seems really silly that there is not one situation where they can do the same level of damage as Gargs or fetishes.
I would really love a Spirit Barrage Based Set. Thats something i was always missing. Also agreed it would be great for Mass Confusion to be included in it as utility, maybe to proc dmg reduction or something more creative.
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