My aim here is to adapt that to a universal formula, and then specifically apply that to Diablo III.
Day[9]'s steps for stealing a build are as follows:
0) Get Inspired
1) Create Building Groups
2) Fill in Unit Mixes
3) Refine Refine Refine!
Finding inspiration is one of the key concepts behind stealing a build; you need to have a build to steal in the first place. You can see professionals playing in tournaments, or streaming on TwitchTV or other similar enterprises such as JustinTV. You can also find replays on dedicated replay sites or YouTube. Depending on which game you are looking for, you may also be able to find sites dedicated to builds.
When he says Building Groups, he refers to which buildings you should get relating to major stages of the game (mainly expansions and tiers of tech). I will adapt that to say that this refers to the major building blocks of your build.
Unit mixes refers to knowing specifically what units you can produce in each stage of the game. My interpretation of this is knowing *how* to use those building blocks in the correct manner.
Refine Refine Refine! is a continual process wherein you play games and test your overall strategy to determine its strengths and weaknesses, so that you can execute it better with cleaner play and crisper timings.
A Universal Adaptation of Day[9]'s formula:
0) Get Inspired
1) Figure out the major building blocks
2) Figure out the execution of the build
3) Refine your build and execution based on experience with it
Adaptation of said formula to my Witch Doctor build:
0) Get Inspired
My inspiration came from a pro-player on a Twitch Stream, TurkNukem. He keeps changing his equipment and skills, so I will type them as they were for reference:
Active Skills:
- Acid Cloud - Acid Rain (increased radius)
- Zombie Charger - Zombie Bears
- Spirit Walk - Honoured Guest (mana regen)
- Summon Zombie Dogs - Leeching Beasts
- Sacrifice - Pride (gain mana per dog sacrificed)
- Soul Harvest - Soul to Waste
Passive Skills:
- Grave Injustice (gain life, mana, and reduce cooldowns when enemies die nearby)
- Blood Ritual (pay 15% mana costs with life, increased hp regen)
- Gruesome Feast (bonus mana and intelligence for health orbs)
If you have read my previous posts, you will know that this is a far cry from what I have used previously. It sacrifices my beloved Pierce the Veil, and has no basic attacks that are not mana intensive. I am forever experimenting, and hoping to find a build that actually benefits from using mana.
This build is a good example of just that - it was a good bridge for me to break out of my usual style and try something completely different. It also contains several spells that I had previously overlooked, namely Sacrifice and Soul Harvest.
Sacrifice is good because it helps provide burst damage as well as a source of mana. It also gives you something to do with your Summon Zombie Dogs when it is off cooldown and you already have a full pack.
Soul Harvest is great because it basically acts as a flat damage bonus, essentially acting as a fourth passive skill that you have to refresh every 60 seconds. It gives you an extra 650 Intelligence at full stacks, which for me, provides comparable damage to what I lost from giving up Pierce the Veil.
1) Figure out the major building blocks
My adaptation of his build would not be a carbon copy of it; many of the finer details would be changed, mainly because my gear is not as good as Turk's.
Active Skills:
- Spirit Barrage - The Spirit is Willing
- I chose this skill because I can't maintain quite as much mana as Turk, requiring me to take a skill that isn't as intensive on mana. I picked this one because it is great for single target damage; better than any of the basic attacks.
- Acid Cloud - Acid Rain (same as his)
- I toyed with a few different runes for this. Several were tempting, but seeing the damage it does to spread out units, it makes it a solid choice.
- Spirit Walk - Honoured Guest (same as his)
- I grudgingly gave up Healing Journey in exchange for a more reliable supply of mana. It greatly increases my ability to maintain spamming spells, but it does hurt me against Reflects Damage champions. I do not currently have a good answer to reflects damage champions with this build.
- Summon Zombie Dogs - Leeching Beasts (same as his)
- Sacrifice - Pride (same as his)
- Soul Harvest - Vengeful Spirit
- I picked Vengeful Spirit after trying most of the other runes, including Soul to Waste. I can see the appeal of StW, but it makes casting the spell an obligation, rather than a privilege; whereas with Vengeful Spirit, it turns into a great feeling to cast it and watch minions fall around you. It also compliments Grave Injustice well, giving you a relatively low cooldown, high power spell to proc with the reduced cooldowns.
Passive Skills:
- Gruesome Feast
- Grave Injustice
- Blood Ritual
I grudgingly gave up my Pierce the Veil, as I am forced to admit that the 20% it gives pales in comparison to the roughly 100% bonus damage you get from just casting more powerful spells.
2) Figure out the execution of this build
and
3) Refine your build and execution based on experience with it
I have found that this plays fairly well, I originally was too aggressive with my Sacrifices, leaving me without dogs for significant periods of time, much to my detriment. I have since learned to wait on the Sacrifices until I have a new pack of dogs ready to cast, or until a time that I know my dogs are going to die anyway, and the damage from their explosions or the mana it generates will benefit me.
Most of my refinements are reflected in the build listed above, as my process of refinement is not as easily demonstrable as Day[9]'s. Suffice to say, I tried many combinations of spells, runes, and play styles.
In terms of general differences from my previous builds, each build I go through seems to have less of an emphasis on defence, and more on offence. This is partially due to my gear improving, and my skills no longer needing to compensate for my lack of survivability, and also a general shift in metagame; since the damage reduction patch, and with the introduction of Monster Power, it has become much more important to deal more and more damage in Diablo.
I originally intended to switch back to Andariel's Visage, but I am actually happy with the amount of life and mana that Zunimassa's Vision gives me, and so have not switched back (yet, though I will switch it out when doing the Infernal Machines and similar boss runs).
As ever, I will continue experimenting with my build, and refining my play style. But more on that later.
-Colin
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