I posted this up a little earlier today - http://www.diablo3builds.com/levels-1-30-witch-doctor-build-guide/ Wouldn't mind hearing from others who think they have a more effective means of a build in this level range and up. What I've noticed so far are the builds and skill runes that don't appeal to me in normal so far have some appeal for hardcore.
How would this build work in a party? I'm playing currently with a Wizard and Monk as a Barbarian, and the Witch Doctor would never get close enough to make Poison Dart useful. Primarily the Monk tanks while Barb uses Leap/Cleave/AE abilities. Wizard is primarily used for debuffs and crowd control because monsters die so fast. In a party with meleers, I would think (haven't tested) that Poison Dart would suffer due to not having readily available targets, whereas Haunt might have a good use, and then later with Lingering Spirit rune (35) you'd have a longer duration spirit. For a spamable attack, perhaps Firebomb for the AE damage? Mainly curious if the solo player might experience things different than the grouped player.
I should've mentioned in my OP that I did my first play through solo. I think he's good to have if you're doing all of Normal alone and probably a requirement from Nightmare onwards while soloing. As for groups, I've only just started joining random ones and he isn't really necessary. I'm still playing around with different builds but am yet to settle on anything specific as random groups have random class makeups which makes it hard to find a good synergy. I did a bit of Act 2 on Nightmare with another WD and the Gargantuan worked well given we didn't have someone to tank.
