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[Witch Doctor] List of Weak Runes, Skills Blizzard should target for 1.0.4

Witch Doctor

As we get closer to 1.0.4 and the first balance patch, and now that we've all had time to play with all of the skills and runes, I would like to make a consolidated list of weak runes and skills with suggested improvements.

Disclaimer: These are not the best solutions, just my proposed solutions. These are solutions Blizzard can implement quickly by tweaking numbers. Some skills need a full Runic overhaul. Pets need a lot of love. Let's focus less on the numbers I threw on paper and more on the consensus that these are the skills/runes that need attention.

Edit1: After receiving a lot of feedback on some particular skills, I have added these comments below in italics.

Poison Dart

  • Numbing Dart - slow% could be a little better
  • Snake to the Face - proc chance could increase a bit to make this more reliable, only useful with IAS build

Corpse Spiders

  • Spider Queen - little more dmg
  • Widowmakers - Spined Dart is much better; +1-2 mana per hit would be better
  • Medusa Spiders - a slightly higher slow duration to compete
  • Blazing Spiders - 1-2% damage increase would let it compete with leaping

Plague of Toads

many feel the mana cost could be reduced

  • Addling Toads - the confuse % is way too low to be reliable, up to 20%
  • Toad of Hugeness - many feel this skill is useless... let it eat Elites at a shortened duration or something

Fire Bomb

  • Flash Fire - remove the damage reduction
  • Fire Pit - damage % is way too low, compare to Venom Hydra or similar dot-spot abilities, triple it
  • Pyrogeist - needs faster spewing
  • Ghost Bomb - double the damage of the wider explosion

Grasp of the Dead

  • Groping Eels - up to 30% imo
  • Death is Life - 10% drop rate or chance at larger globe

Fire Bats

  • Vampire Bats - whenever I used it, I felt like I would rather be doing more damage, % way too low, triple imo
  • Plague Bats - make it 250%
  • Hungry Bats - I immediately swapped back to Dire Bats for the AoE, have them seek with less % but continue to a second target or something

Haunt - fairly weak overall, I found

many comments feel Haunt is fine, with many using it as a mana funnel

  • Consuming Spirit - health returns are way too low to even notice, compare to Hex heal which also needs a late-game buff
  • Lingering Spirit - early game, awesome; lategame never works as things live too long
  • Grasping Spirit - okay as a slow, but Grasp is much better if you need one
  • Draining Spirit - again returns are way too low many feel it is fine

Locust Swarm - from notxjack:

"flaming locusts and devouring locusts can be useful on certain fights"

  • Pestilence - cool effect, but late-game won't help its damage any
  • Cloud of Insects - reduce the time for a DoT, don't extend it.. make it deal same dmg over 6 seconds
  • Diseased Swarm - double poison damage

Zombie Dogs - all Runes really need a damage buff since they don't LIVE long lategame ; or boost survivability so the damage happens

  • Final Gift - needs a higher % or chance at larger globes

Horrify - solid overall

  • Ruthless Terror - replace with a different Rune, imo.. oh crap buttons shouldn't be your Mana Regen sources

Spirit Walk - must have

  • Umbral Shock - increase damage to make it less dangerous to use late-game

Hex

  • Hedge Magic - scale on target's life, totally useless late; 25% per heal? 25% too high as suggested below, 15-20% should be ok
  • Angry Chicken - aoe increased
  • Painful Transformation - damage too low ; 15%?
  • Unstable Form - increase explosion radius

Soul Harvest

  • Swallow Your Soul - make it 7% mana per enemy
  • Siphon - make it 15% Life probably too high, either cap targets at 4 with 15% or reduce to 7.5%
  • Vengeful Spirit - make it 100% dmg

Sacrifice - relies on Dogs being more useful while alive, would be used more with a Dog cd buff

  • Pride - make it 35% mana regained
  • For the Master - make it 20% Life per dog

Mass Confusion - reduce cd in my opinion, competes with Horrify, Horrify up much more often

  • Mass Hallucination - up to 40% damage

Zombie Charger - it doesn't appear to aim well, damage/range ratio too low to use over Bats for example (except bears)

Spirit Barrage

  • Spirit is Willing - make mana %
  • Well of Souls - damage double
  • Manitou - increase lobbing range, double duration

Acid Cloud - solid overall

many feel it needs a mana cost reduction; I only ever used it with VQ + Mana Regen passive, and so I may not have noticed this as much

Wall of Zombies - the cooldown felt very long after being used to Grasp of the Dead

many feel the cooldown is fine and the skill is powerful as is

  • Pile On - NEVER HITS WHAT I WANT IT TO, awesome otherwise

Gargantuan - like Dogs, needs a survivability buff

  • Wrathful Protector - needs a bit more uptime to be worth using.. 20s duration

Big Bad Voodoo

  • Rain Dance - just make it a Mana % or better yet, a Resource % for all Resource types so your team benefits

Fetish Army

  • Tiki Torchers - seemed weak compared to other choices, 25% burn dmg?

Passives

  • Gruesome Feast - increase duration slightly (15 seconds), ADD BUFF ICON
  • Zombie Handler - reduce cooldown of Dogs and Garg as well, imo
  • Fierce Loyalty - 150% Thorns, 50% WD's Armour buff?
  • Grave Injustice - needs some added functionality against bosses without Adds (Butcher, Belial) ; double regeneration amount imo

Posted Jun 24, 2012, 2:46 AM UTC · edited

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