Diablo 3 Builds - Build Ideas For PvM & PvP In Diablo 3

For those that are looking for a way to quickly and socially blast through the early levels, group play is probably the fastest and most enjoyable way to play Diablo 3. The first early levels go by quickly but here are a few ways to optimize your build and provide amazing damage as a wizard in group play.

The wizard’s iconic role is an AOE damage dealer and this build focuses largely on that. This guide assumes that you have either a Monk or Barbarian (preferably both) to tank the mobs allowing you to focus your role as a group damage dealer.

Levels 1 – 10

The first ten levels as a wizard you really play themselves. Your level 1 starting spell Magic Missile to be a bread and butter signature all the way through the first levels. It’s easier to target single mobs with than Shock Pulse, it gives you a range advantage and you don’t get the another alternative until 11. Combine that with the Charged Blast Rune and you have a decent signature spell to use when out of arcane power.

The second big breakthrough comes at level 5 when you obtain Arcane Orb. This spell is ideal for your right click slot and allows you do great damage toward small packs and even works as a fairly strong, but expensive, single target nuke.

You also obtain Frost Nova which I found superior over Diamond Skin through the early levels in group play because it allows you to completely control mob packs combined with spells like Cyclone Strike. I assigned this and later Ray of Frost to my open skills.  Ray of Frost becomes a much better option to use on large life mob like bosses or uniques.

At this point I found Power Hungry to be a better passive option because in group play I rarely took direct hits from melee mobs.

Levels 10 – 20

I continued to use Arcane Missile until level 15 when Electrocute became an option. This wasn’t done because I necessarily think the later is a better move, but because it was much easier to target the fast and frantic mobs of Act 2.

Arcane Orb is still a huge component of your group AOE damage. Combined with a high damage two hander it allows for some amazing AOE DPS that can decimate mob packs. At this point you obtain the Obliteration rune which adds flat damage to an already awesome spell.

The other amazing rune option is Shatter for Frost Nova. If you’re following my suggestion to AOE tightly packed groups of mobs via a tank, this rune becomes insanely powerful during the early levels of the game. With high enough DPS groups this kept most mob packs perpetually frozen.

Prodigy is an interesting passive at this level but is only viable if you decide to return back to Arcane Missile. It isn’t worth using because Electrocute doesn’t work properly with it to return Arcane Power. Hopefully once the bug is fixed Electrocute and prodigy will be a much better combination, best stick with Glass Cannon which does more damage anyway.

Levels 20 – 30

Here is where you have an interesting choice to make. Disintegrate is an amazing high damage move but generally is better with slower but higher damage two handers. This is especially true once given the option to rune it with Convergence.  It isn’t, however, necessarily better than Arcane Orb. I would suggest you experiment with both spells to see which you prefer and place it as your Arcane Dump.

Once you have room Magic Weapon becomes an amazingly attractive spell to have. What is important about the ability is that it adds % damage to your weapon which in turns determines the damage your spells do. Since it adds it directly to your weapon and is calculated before your damage modifiers like intelligence are calculated, it can make a significant impact to your overall damage potential.

Other spells that have a home on your spell bar would include Diamond Skin with Prism. This option allows for both a defensive spell in Oh Crap situations and an offensive spell that allows more spamming of your main arcane utilizing spell.

Strategy

Group play via the wizard is an amazingly smart idea. It allows you to focus on maximum damage and faster clears which results in better experience.

If using arcane orb try not to waste the arcane on single target mobs, especially if they are trash mobs. Always try to aim your arcane orb so you are hitting the center of the pack to maximize its AOE potential.

If you choose the option to use Disintegrate, the real trick is in sweeping for maximum damage. For the same reasons it is best to use a large two handed weapon with Disintegrate, it’s also smart to try to sweep over as many enemies as possible.

Save your defensive cool downs for unique packs, there is nothing worse than blowing your frost nova on a Leaping Sandsquirmer in Act 2 to run into a big pack of Mortar enchanted mobs.

Also make sure to pick your groups wisely. Barbarians and Monks are your best friend and be sure to communicate well with your team. Most of all enjoy the added benefit of more drops and faster clear times.

Because full groups often move fast, require single target DPS as well as AOE, this build – which you can begin using at level 30, will ensure you’re a productive Witch Doctor almost to the end of Hell mode no matter the group’s composition.

Build – Mouse over for a quick visual.
Mouse 1 – Poison Dart with Splinters.
Mouse 2 – Grasp of the Dead with Unbreakable Grasp.
Skill 1 – Spirit Walk with Honored Guest.
Skill 2 – Soul Harvest with Swallow Your Soul.
Skill 3 – Acid Cloud with Lob Blob Bomb.
Skill 4 – Horrify with Stalker.

Why These Skills

Because Poison Dart deals 100% of your weapon damage as Poison, you’re going to want a high DPS weapon in order to maximise your single target DPS. If you’re using a weapon with great caster stats yet low physical DPS, your DPS is going to suffer – grab one off the AH if you don’t having something to use.

You’ll want to use PD when you encounter packs with a minimal amount of mobs and for those times after you’ve emptied your mana pool after using Acid Cloud. The Splinters rune skill ensures we get an additional 2 darts which you’ll use while you regain mana. It’s cheap to use and you can continuously cast it on an empty mana pool.

Spirit Walk is great for a number of reasons. First, it allows you to escape death by sprinting away. I’ve found it to be invaluable when you get a pack of Champions that have difficult affixes. Alternatively, you can use it to sprint in to a large pack of mobs, use Soul Harvest to get 5 stacks (the maximum) while quickly running back out to chain cast Acid Cloud. The Swallow Your Soul skill rune supports dashing towards the mob as you’ll regain 39 mana per target.

Acid Cloud combined with the Lob Blob Bomb skill rune will allow you to AOE large groups of mobs. As you get deeper into Hell, the size of mobs can be so great that your DPS is off the charts. It’s also important to note that Acid Cloud – just like PD – uses the physical weapon damage of your weapon. Low DPS weapon = low DPS Acid Cloud. Using the Lob Blob Bomb skill run, we gain an extra 25% damage after the initial cast which is also converted to Poison.

Horrify and Grasp of the Dead are primarily used as utilities to keep mobs away from you and/or others. The Stalker skill rune provides a speed boost of 20% for 4 seconds after you cast it and you can then move into Spirit Walk if you require extra speed.

Passives

Spiritual Attunement – This increases your mana pool by 20% which ensures we can get a few extra Acid Cloud’s off. The passive regen also allows us to sustain casting Poison Dart while our mana pool is empty.

Spirit Vessel – This build uses Horrify, Spirit Walk and Soul Harvest – which means we get the full benefit of using this passive to reduce their CD’s. It has the added benefit of saving you from a death strike every 90 seconds which is extremely useful given how crazy things are getting in Hell.

Bad Medicine – When you deal poison damage to an enemy, their damage output is reduced by 20% for 3 seconds. The big question here is – given Acid Cloud is a poison based skill, does this passive apply to single target only or does AOE get the benefit? I’m unsure at this time but will report back when I have more information. I don’t want to assume that it does but it makes sense that it would.

Many of the spells, skill runes and passives used in this build have great synergy between them, making you a valued Witch Doctor as you group up to grind your way through the 30-55 levels. When you get to bosses, you might consider replacing Horrify with Big Bad Voodoo in order to provide the entire group with a DPS boost.

If power leveling is something you’re interested in, you’ll want to check out this strategy that will take your level 50 to level 60 in under 9 hours. You may be thinking that the best leveling areas would be in hell but you would be wrong.

Leveling in hell can be slow as the increase in experience doesn’t justify the increase in difficulty/HP that mobs have in hell. Without powerful equipment or friends that can work as a team, you won’t find power leveling as quick in hell as you will in the strategy below.

This quick power leveling guide is quite simple because all you will be doing is running a series of quests from the end of Act 3 until Act 4 first quest in Nightmare difficulty. An added bonus to this strategy is collecting experience gear for these leveling runs but having survivability gear is far more important without stating the obvious.

So if you want to start power leveling your way to level 60, you’ll want to start with the last quest/sub-quest in Act 3 which will give you some champions/elites, Azmodan, and 2 quest rewards. Each quest reward will grant you 44,000 exp totaling 88,000. Starting Act 4 first quest will entail a boss fight + additional 44,000 give or take.

With these runs being so incredibly short for most people, you can easily level much quicker than other methods out there. In Diablo 3, experience is static and not dependent upon your heroes’ level unlike the d2 structure so this is incredibly valuable for any player.

The secret level has been unveiled, and boy it can’t be anymore different then the Diablo 2 secret cow level. Almost everyone that was following Diablo 3 back in 2008 knows there were a lot of people voicing their opinion about how “cartoonie” the game looked (which people still do today), so Blizzard decided to make a T-shirt that was a rainbow with unicorns saying Diablo 3, stating it was the official logo.

With the release of Diablo 3, the development team decided to not add another secret cow level but play on their humor of the unicorn(pony) T-shirt and make the secret level Whimsyshire. Below are the steps you need to take to acquire this secret level:

Step 1 (Acquire the following items):
- The Black Mushroom from Cathedral level 1 in Act 1
- Leoric’s Shinbone from the fireplace in Leoric’s Manor in Act 1.
- Liquid Rainbow in a Mysterious Cave from a Mysterious chest in the Oasis Act 2. To enter the cave you must find a random spawn vendor in the Oasis.
- Wirts Bell from a vendor in the Bazaar Act 2. This item costs 100,000 gold.
- Gibbering Gemstone drops from Chiltara, a rare spawn in the Frozen Cave Act 3. This is in the same area that you destroy the ballistics.
- The recipe for the Staff of Herding drop of Izual in Act 4.

Step 2 (Build the Staff):
- Using all the items found above, the recipe for the Staff of Herding, and 50,000 gold. This is built at the Blacksmith.

Step 3 (Enjoy):
- Take the staff to the open red glowing crevasse on Old Tristram Road in Act 1, use the staff and accept the quest.

If you’ve had a chance to play on this secret level or you’re just seeing it for the first time, lets hear what you have to say about this fun and overly happy secret pony level.

Trying to solo Diablo as a Witch Doctor on Normal mode? This build/guide should help and assumes you are level 30.

Build – Mouse over for a quick visual.
Mouse 1 – Poison Dart with Splinters skill rune.
Mouse 2 – Wall of Zombies – no skill rune available before 32.
Skill 1 – Summon Zombie Dogs with Final Gift skill rune.
Skill 2 – Sacrifice with Next of Kin skill rune.
Skill 3 – Fetish Army – no skill run available before 34.
Skill 4 – Gargantuan with Humongoid skill rune.

Why These Skills?

There is little use for AOE abilities in all 3 phases of the Diablo fight on Normal difficulty but because of a need to constantly move, Poison Dart is ideal due to it’s long ranger than Corpse Spiders (not by a huge amount) or similar spells that require you to stand still a little longer while chain casting.

Wall of Zombies is useful for distracting/escaping the Shadow Clone’s that spawn in phase 2 of the fight but you need to focus fire them down quickly before getting back on Diablo. Because of it’s short CD, you should burn it every time.

Zombie Dogs are also useful for phase 2 of the fight and should be quickly Sacrificed in phase 1/3 due to quick deaths. Let them get a few hits in and when they begin to drop in health, blow them up. Be careful of blowing your CD and losing your dogs prior to phase 2 as they’re a great help there.

Fetish Army are your go to guys when your dogs are on CD as well as your Gargantuan. This is more likely in phase 2 so don’t burn it just prior to entering.

Gargantuan can tank Diablo but he can die quickly in phase 2 if you’re too slow to get the clones down. Focus them and you shouldn’t have a problem.

Don’t be afraid to move around a lot of the map in phase 2 as there are no other mobs on the map nor will you spawn any extras.

Phase 3 is almost a repeat of phase 1 but you’ll need to dodge his breath by running in the opposite direction or out range it by being at a distance.

It’s best to fight in either the east or west corner near the health pools in case you need them in phase 1 or 3. If you do use one, move towards the opposite health pool and use when required. They refresh so move back towards the other if you use both.

Soloing Diablo on normal difficulty as a Witch Doctor is not hard but your mistakes are less forgiving compared to playing with a group.

Passives

Zombie Handler – The additional dog means another opportunity for a health globe to drop when they eventually die. These globes can be used to top yourself and the Gargantuan up as well as any left over dogs.

Pierce the Veil – Because this build is not mana intensive, an additional cost of 30% is a non issue and nets us an extra 20% damage.

Fetish Sycophants – This passive has great synergy with Poison Dart and the Splinters skill rune as the additional darts provide us with additional opportunities to spawn Fetish Sycophants. 3% odds doesn’t sound high but you’ll get a team of them going in no time.

As we’re moving, shooting darts and then moving again, they will begin to spawn all over the place and can DPS Diablo while you’re moving away from his fire and cages. If you’re too slow and you get caught in a cage, you’ll want to mash your health pot hot key as Diablo will grab and release you with an almost empty HP pool.

Did you find this guide useful or have a better one of your own? Let us know in the comments below and submit your witch doctor build for normal difficulty so others can vote on it.

If you’ve reached Nightmare mode and you’re working on your Artisans, you’re no doubt in need of many pages of Blacksmithing and pages of Jewelcrafting.

If you’re buying them straight off the auction house – where they’re fetching a much higher price due to current demand or swapping required pages with friends, you’re only real choice is to grind for them.

The question is though, do they have a higher drop rate from bookshelves?

Logically, it sounds like common sense but looking at it technically, it’s unlikely there is any difference. In fact, the drop rate could even be lower going by what Blizzard have previously said about items that drop from bookcases and similar objects.

Having said that – it probably doesn’t hurt to check all bookcases for any loot given they’re not commonly found in all areas.

Levels 1-10

I’ve found Poison Dart with the Splinters skill rune (attained at level 6) to be ideal as you grind towards level 30. Splinters enables you to shoot 3 Darts instead of 1. There is little to no need for Numbing Dart from levels 1-30 as Grasp of the Dead with the Groping Eels skill rune is more than enough to slow large packs of mobs.

You’ll pick up Summon Zombie Dogs at level 4 but they feel like they suffer until you’re able to grab Sacrifice (level 13) a little later. The Rabid Dogs skill rune is nice but I’ve changed to Final Gift for the additional health orbs from level 19 onwards.

At level 9, you gain access to Soul Harvest which is the very first spell I use in an encounter with a pack of mobs. Due to little mana issues, you’re much better off using the Siphon skill rune (takes life from mobs to heal you) which becomes available at level 21 as you will experience some situations where running into a pack to get off your Soul Harvest can be dicey and lead to death.

You’ll want to assign a key or extra mouse button to free movement so you can move in and out quickly and without trouble. If you’re not using a move key, you best start now as you’ll rely on it in later difficulty modes.

Levels 10-20

Zombie Dogs really begin to come into their own once you gain Sacrifice at level 13 and become chain castable when skill runed with Next of Kin (level 24). Through levels 13-18, Sacrifice will often leave you with no Zombie Dogs at all which results in you retreating while it’s on cool down. Getting the Gargantuan at level 19 fixes that issue as he is a strong tank for large packs of mobs while you wait for your Zombie Dogs to refresh. The Humongoid skill rune improves his ability to gain agro of a large bunch of mobs, keeping you safe. This really only becomes an issues towards the late 20′s but it’s still nice to have.

Levels 20-30

Once you gain the basic spells and skill runes for this build, you can begin to attack much larger packs of mobs by running in, casting Soul Harvest and gaining 5 stacks. You then cast Grasp of the Dead to maintain them in a small clump. As you run out, your Zombie Dogs move in and you can begin chain cast Sacrifice to decimate them. You’ll often get lucky and be able to chain cast 4 or 5 times in a row. If timed correctly, you can recast Zombie Dogs and continue the explosions if required.

Witch Doctor Passives 1-30

As passives are somewhat more restrictive while leveling, you have little room for choice until you hit level 20. Jungle Fortitude is of little use at the later stages as we’ll be Sacrifing our dogs anyway. Spiritual Attunement also has little use as I have not experienced any mana issues. Circle of Life and Gruesome Feast make a good combination due it’s ability to stack with Final Gift. Pierce the Veil is a no brainer once you hit 27 and it’ll carry you along nicely to the mid 30′s.

We’ll have more information specific to Diablo 3 builds in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, check out the builds section in the navbar above or stop by the forum and get involved in the discussion.

Athene is the first to claim Level 60 with video proof. It’s unknown yet if anyone else has claimed before him but I personally know Kripparrian is yet to hit 60 and the Method guys were 59 at last check before the EU servers went down for maintenance. It’s unknown if any of the Korean guys managed to get it earlier. Regardless of who got world first, Athene beat Kripparrian in the rush to 60. We now look towards World First Inferno clear and World First Hardcore 60.

Kripparrian has hit 60 and his group are currently tackling The Butcher on Inferno mode.

That’s it for updates in this post, look for more information in newer ones.

World first information:

• Kripparrian is currently Level 13 18 22 28 30 34 35 48 49 50 currently 54 although a few hours ago Athene attained level 60.
• Athene’s group is currently in Nightmare mode and all currently Level 35 37 39 stopped streaming so unsure at this time. Unsure what Athene is doing now.
• Method’s (EU) group are currently Level 58.
• Reports are coming in that Diablo has been beaten in Nightmare mode on the Korean servers.
• Players have already reached Hell difficulty.
• (headed to bed now, I’ll continue updates in a few hours time) updating again back to bed now – I’ll continue updates regarding Inferno status tomorrow.

Servers are down for maintenance. Servers are back up!

Diablo 3 is live in Asia as well as Europe. It’s scheduled to go live shortly in the America’s American Diablo 3 servers are now LIVE!. You can watch the American launch online and that broadcast will go live within the hour is now active finished.

• The launch has not been without it’s problems and players in Europe have been receiving Error 37 when trying to log into the game. Bashiok advises that if you receive this error, you should continue to try to log in as they are increasing capacity as stability issues are being addressed. You can check out this link to get the server status of each region which includes the game servers, hardcore servers, gold AH and real money AH (due to go live in 1 week). Only time will tell if the American launch will run into any similar problems.

• If you’re still receiving Error 315300, Bashiok has advised players should submit a support ticket.

• Error 33 simply means your region is not live yet.

• Global play is currently disabled but should go live once the American servers go up.

• Normal mode has already been finished in the Asian regions although it’s still far too early to know who is going to make claim to the world first level 60 and hit Inferno first. If you don’t care about spoilers, there is this confirmation image – SPOILER warning.

• For Australian’s impacted by Game going into administration, Blizzard is kindly offering a rebate on the amount of money you lost. Read more here.

• If you’re looking for friends to play Diablo 3 with once the servers go up, check out that link to find people in your region.

• If you are seeing “Unsupported video card” error and your card is supported, Blizzard is aware of the issue:

We’ve read that some people have figured out a fix for the unsupported video card error by doing the following:

Search your computer for the file “D3Prefs.txt”. Open it in a text editor and edit the following line: DisableTrilinearFiltering “1″ (from 0) HardwareClass “1″. If that doesn’t work, try DisplayModeWindowMode “1″ (from 0).

• European users are reporting Error 3006 is caused by trading an equipped shield with the Templar which results in players being booted from the game and unable to log back into the game.

• Sixen’s live broadcast is about to go live.

• Error 12 fix (no licence attached to account) can be done by logging into your bnet account via the website and changing your password.

• Kripparrian has begun his live stream in his attempt to go for Diablo 3 world first.

• It has been reported that someone has already reached level 52 on the Asian servers but have run into a difficulty wall in Nightmare mode.

• Error 37 simply means servers are busy and is to be expected as the American servers have now gone live.

• Some players lucky enough to log in are receiving Error 316005 which appears to occur when you unsuccessfully create a character and then run out of character slots. No known fix yet.

• Players are reporting across various sites that they’re able to log in so it looks like the stability issues are slowly being addressed.

Looks like the American launch is being plagued by Error 37. Given the Asian and European launches had identical problems, this is not unexpected. Hopefully they’ll improve stability so more people can log on in the coming hours.

Check back throughout the day as we update with more information. Don’t forget to enter our Diablo 3 CE competition which includes a Jay Wilson signed poster!

Missed out on a Diablo 3 CE? Have you always wanted a Diablo 3 poster signed by Jay Wilson himself? We have all that plus more in our next giveaway thanks to our friends @Blizzard_ANZ

1st Prize

• Steelseries Diablo 3 Headset
• Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse
• Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse Mat
• Limited Edition BlizzCon 2011 Mini Tyrael Maquette
• Diablo 3 Poster signed by Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Game Director (we’re unsure what this looks like so no image unfortunately)
• Diablo 3 Collector’s Edition

2nd Prize

• Steelseries Diablo 3 Headset
• Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse
• Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse Mat

3rd Prize

• Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse
• Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse Mat

How To Win

Post a comment in this thread (the forum, not this article!) about which class you intend to roll first and why. Include your twitter handle in your post if it differs to your forum username.

Once you’ve done that, follow @Blizzard_ANZ and @Diablo3Builds and tweet out the following to let us know you’ve completed your entry!

“I want to win the Diablo 3 mega prize giveaway thanks to @Blizzard_ANZ and @Diablo3Builds”

After that, you’re done!

Competition will run from the 14th of May through to the 31st of May with the 3 winners announced on the 1st of June. Good luck to all!

Official confirmation can be found at the bottom of this thread.