Legacy of Nightmares Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor Is Here To Stay
by JR Cook - 8 years ago show comments
Earlier today, Community Manager Nevalistis hopped into the official forums to present the development team’s official stance on the Legacy of Nightmares Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor build. For those of you outside the loop, this build has been rising in prominence and prowess during Season 10 due to a bugged interaction with the Phantasm rune on Spirit Barrage. Phantasm is being treated like a pet and therefore gains much benefit from the Enforcer
gem and items like Mask of Jeram. Despite this being a known bug, the developers will not be making any changes to the build.
Hey all,
There’s a lot of great discussion and a ton of build sharing going on around Legacy of Nightmares builds for the Witch Doctor that focus on the interaction between Spirit Barrage (Phantasms) and several pet-oriented Legendary powers. It’s wonderful to see such constructive conversation and information sharing as various community members explore the strengths and intricacies of this emergent gameplay.
There has also been some concern that this interaction will be nerfed. We wanted to share our thoughts on this today and reassure the Witch Doctor community that, at this time, we have no intentions to make changes to Spirit Barrage (Phantasms) or its currently existing interactions with items such as Mask of Jeram, Ring of Emptiness or The Barber.
While this is somewhat inconsistent philosophically from the changes that we’ve made in the past regarding this skill and rune combination, we looked at the situation objectively and asked ourselves a couple questions:
- Is it fun?
- Is it balanced?
Ultimately, we’ve decided that the answer to both of these questions is yes, and there is much higher risk in adjusting the balance of this skill or the other items than there is to let the community continue to enjoy this fun and unique build. We will continue monitoring its performance, of course, and we’re prepared to make any changes if something extreme arises. In the meantime, please continue to theorycraft and Spirit Barrage to your heart’s content!
-The Diablo Dev Team
Above, the team remarks that this is a bit of a change in stance for them, as they have been known to curb situations like this in the past. Think back to the Static Charge Monk, for example. However, the community was begging for Phantasm to be left alone, as this build replaces the highly effective and incredibly lag-inducing Arachyr
Firebats Witch Doctor in the 4-player meta. Spirit Barrage – Phantasm operates on similar efficiency throughout the rift with virtually no lag. This is mainly due to the build utilizing no Area Damage, which is the main offender and main tool by comparison for Arachyr Firebats Witch Doctors.
How are you receiving this news? Were you a concerned Witch Doctor that is now relieved? Drop a comment below and let us know.
