Diablo® III

Hi,

I did some testing because I was worried that my beloved Zombie Bear/VQ build wouldn't work anymore with 1.04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lszTiUkW-1Q&feature=player_embedded

All I did was switch out Vision Quest for Blood Ritual. It takes me about 10 minutes to do this run with my VQ build and as you can see in the video, even with a pre-patch no-VQ build it is roughly the same. It also was only my third or fourth run so I'm still not used to the freedom of casting spells whenever I want. It should only get better with time.
Yes, fighting elites without BBV is a bit more tedious now, but the loss of the 4CD-requirement seem to make up for it in farmrun-speed.
Gruesome Feast for Jungle Fortitude makes those non-BBV fights a lot easier but I wanted a 1:1 comparison between VQ and Blood Ritual.

Now keep in mind this is with 45 mana regeneration in 1.03. In 1.04 this no-VQ build will benefit from:

- 70 mana regeneration (56% increase). Could go up to 81 with a voodoo mask or even higher with new legendaries.
- weaker elites which require fewer Zombie Bears to kill them
- pets that will survive long enough to distract trash and elites
- bigger and better itempool with new legendaries and useful ilvl61+ weapons
- potentially more buffs that we don't know yet that could help this build

My current gear can be considered average to good but certainly not outrageously expensive or high-end.
If you have a 50k+ DPS glass cannon or hybrid I don't see why you wouldn't be able to continue your playstyle in 1.04.
If you run a tank WD your survivability will be improved a lot thanks to pets. Multiplayer experience will be a lot better. Unfortunately your killspeed will probably take a hit. But if you are in it for killspeed you shouldn't have gone for a tank in the first place.

You loose JF and it's bad for many builds. What is your attack speed? Btw I have 43k dps, but 73+ with slam dance, that was the main purpose of VQ to increase dps. Now it won't happen. For cd skills you don't just have to spam them, there are combinations like spirt/sh/GotD/paranoya that work pretty well for one who just choose right skills for the build, you can make tactics for different situations, not spamming as everybody say - u use those skills not spam. However thanks for the tip - your approach can be helpful. But as you say pets for tank - tank requires JF, and pets require JF

your MF is 11%... it is obvious that you can clear inferno. The point isn't if you can clear A3 or not, the point is that other classes can do this with an higher MF/GF and more efficently.

Hey Euronymous!

Just tried out your build farming Act 3 Solo and in a group this morning. Got some really good results. Nice Build! After 1.0.4 with our base Mana regen increased it should be really nice and maybe allow other passives as well.

@KyKaH
I didn't lose JF, I just switched VQ for Blood Ritual in the video and nothing else. 1.04 will add a 56% mana reg buff to this setup and I'm not even using mana reg on all slots.

Right now I switched JF to Gruesome Feast (not in this video) as I'm interacting a lot with health globes anyway. Plays extremely well and if it's still my top choice in 1.04 I will get some more resists or pets to make up for the damage reduction loss (although Gruesome Feast already adds some resists as a nice side-effect).

Of course you use those CD skills strategically even with VQ, but there are lots of situations where you can't maximize their potential, e.g. wasting BBV on a horde of trash mobs, re-casting Soul Harvest for lower damage in a fight against elites, wasting the fear-effect of Horrify or losing a few seconds of armor on Horrify due to overlap with Spirit Walk.

@Fatal
I could run more MF if I wanted to. It would cost more or lower my stats a bit but so would it for any other class. Which class can run A3 with that speed and MF significantly cheaper? Would like to know.

@Sudi
Great to hear. Can't wait for 1.04 to test some new toys.

18/08/2012 15:26Posted by Euronymous

Of course you use those CD skills strategically even with VQ, but there are lots of situations where you can't maximize their potential, e.g. wasting BBV on a horde of trash mobs, re-casting Soul Harvest for lower damage in a fight against elites, wasting the fear-effect of Horrify or losing a few seconds of armor on Horrify due to overlap with Spirit Walk.

It is because your build uses only 4 cd skills. Some builds have 5 and it's very very flexible. I use bbv only if I want to. See the problem that all builds are not the same, I even don't use bears.

I had a 5 CD build before but with bears it was too annoying to chase down ranged/kiting mobs. You're right that those builds are almost as flexible as builds without VQ.

Your build will be a lot better in 1.04, mana regeneration without VQ should be enough to get a nice passive over VQ.

My point wasn't that all VQ builds will be fine after patch. But a lot of people (incl. me) fear that they can't use Zombie Bears as their main attack anymore without wasting additional slots for mana regeneration skills.
For me personally that fear is gone now after being able to effectively play without VQ in 1.03 which I had forgotten was possible.

18/08/2012 15:58Posted by Euronymous

Your build will be a lot better in 1.04, mana regeneration without VQ should be enough to get a nice passive over VQ.

nope, it will stop working with my current gear. I will need to go down on attack speed, loose dps, and change damage bbv for mana bbv - another 30% dps gone. But as you say VQ gonna be useless for me

This video demostrates notthing... WD = Dead

@Vector: How? This video shows that it is possible to spam bears without VQ now. It shows that you can spam bears waaay more after 1.0.4 with higher base mana regen. What a troll :DD

nope, it will stop working with my current gear. I will need to go down on attack speed, loose dps, and change damage bbv for mana bbv - another 30% dps gone. But as you say VQ gonna be useless for me

Please explain. Not sure if I'm missing something here, but you need about 70mana/s which will be the amount that you have on 1.04 with exactly the same gear and spec.
If you want to be on the safe side, you just have to change one single item and get a mojo or voodoo mask with mana reg.
In a game that's mostly about gearing your char that shouldn't be too much to ask? Personally I would go for 80 mana reg with gear and not use a mana reg passive at all.
Also Plague of toads is confirmed to be a lot better and with your gear pets should be a huge upgrade over something like mass confusion.

/edit Plague of Toads possibly down to 12 mana/cast, problem should be solved ;)

@Vector
Then go play something else. I hear Barbs are good? Oh wait your tank Barb also sucks. 10k DPS tanks are just bad for clearing content on your own and were only able to do so because of a broken mechanic on WD. Show me one other class that can farm fast with 10k DPS.
You wil still be able to farm lower acts with something like Rain of Toads. Or get some new gear, prices for DPS gear fall everyday and you will be fine. Or find some high-DPS friends - they will love all your buffs and blocking pets.

I tried the same thing before 2 days and the only thing is that you need some practise and should be even easier after patch. GJ
Any advice about my WD? (don't look HGlobes, I know it's to much but it came along with other stats I was tring to improve I need new chest )