Dual Wand Witch/Shadow?

As the title suggests, I want to find out if a Dual wand build could feasibly be created. If so, what should I be looking for in terms of passives/skills?

I figure with the additional amplification to spell damage that the wands will give, I could spec the Whispers of Doom to get Elemental Weakness + the Element Curse of my choice for incredible amounts of damage.

The problems I've run into:

Wand damage sucks, so I'm running dual weapons that don't provide much in the way of damage unless I spec a LOT of points for it.
If I DO spec those points, I miss out on a lot of survivability in terms of ES/Life.
Most of the Dual Wielding bonus nodes are scattered across the map, meaning a trip to the Shadow tree (if Witch) for the bonuses.
Even with the massive investment into wand damage, other weapons easily outshine that damage output with just a fraction of the skill points, leaving even more of a survivability gap.

Anyway, NO I don't think this build would be very effective. NO I don't think this build would end up as flavor of the week. YES I think it would be incredibly fun if I do manage to get it to work, and I'd appreciate any help with the crafting of this build.


Final thought: Don't forget to mention any secondary equipment you think I should have on hand in case of an emergency.

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ZadkielVenerat wrote:

Anyway, NO I don't think this build would be very effective. NO I don't think this build would end up as flavor of the week. YES I think it would be incredibly fun if I do manage to get it to work, and I'd appreciate any help with the crafting of this build.

<3 U.

Thats the way i ve been playin D2 all my life, and what finally killed D3 for me.
Anyways, i m quite new to the game (just look at my enormous amout of posts!)

so when i hear the dual wand build and u mention that the phys dam is crap - why not go for mass spell damage? or stuff like "elemental hit" as damage sources? (dont know yet which skills really make sense =D)

so maybe u could just try to gather attack speed and use spells based on attacks, not sure if resoluted technique might be an option to make sure u have a steady damage output.

then u might to start as a templar, and somehow creep up to the mage tree, or vice versa.

err sry for that question, but what is the hidden bonus of Whispers Of Doom? seems to have no upside for me at all...

best regards, keep up the fun builds =D
grz measer

Whispers of Doom lets you stack 2 curses on your targets.

So, if I was going Lightning damage, I would stack Elemental Weakness (-30% to all resist) with Conductivity (-30% Lightning resist, +10% chance to shock) for greatly enhanced damage.

ah now i get the decription. sounds like enemy spellcasters get another one to pick from when cursing you.

well, twice enhanced damage makes sense

but still the main question, want to deal the main damage via phy hits, spell attacks, or spells itself? imo spell attacks would be a fine way, since u might get good attack speed when dw.

€dit: the gemini bubble is set i guess? cause it also mainly supports speed

Level 70 Lightning Wand Witch

If you use Discharge this build can throw up to 6 charges worth of discharge and will do massive damage with power siphon. Alternatively you can *not* have a skill point and take a 7th maximum power charge from the bandit quest. What node you drop is up to you.

It's not super optimized (it's mostly setup for just damage nodes and ES nodes) and level 70 is up thee in terms of whre you can get (but you can get there). But any physical damage bonuses will increase your wand lightning damage, you have storng shock chance, and you can discharge for full charges, It'll be fun I guarantee.

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Autocthon wrote:

Level 70 Lightning Wand Witch

If you use Discharge this build can throw up to 6 charges worth of discharge and will do massive damage with power siphon. Alternatively you can *not* have a skill point and take a 7th maximum power charge from the bandit quest. What node you drop is up to you.

It's not super optimized (it's mostly setup for just damage nodes and ES nodes) and level 70 is up thee in terms of whre you can get (but you can get there). But any physical damage bonuses will increase your wand lightning damage, you have storng shock chance, and you can discharge for full charges, It'll be fun I guarantee.

Phyical damage quite good.Especially for wands. elder power, plus large circle of wand damage doubles wand physical damage. Add critical damage support, and additional fire damage and you almaust double your crit multiplier and deal 90%+ of physical damage as elemental. Add projectile for packs,critical high hp enemies and you are golden with power syphon.

p.S too little ES for CI improve pathing, and don't take spell damage and lighting damage passives. 50% spellpower from wands 6 power/frenzy charges is enough to practicaly one shot anything with discharge,if not add warlord mark.

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bormoth wrote:

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Autocthon wrote:

Level 70 Lightning Wand Witch

If you use Discharge this build can throw up to 6 charges worth of discharge and will do massive damage with power siphon. Alternatively you can *not* have a skill point and take a 7th maximum power charge from the bandit quest. What node you drop is up to you.

It's not super optimized (it's mostly setup for just damage nodes and ES nodes) and level 70 is up thee in terms of whre you can get (but you can get there). But any physical damage bonuses will increase your wand lightning damage, you have storng shock chance, and you can discharge for full charges, It'll be fun I guarantee.

Phyical damage quite good.Especially for wands. elder power, plus large circle of wand damage doubles wand physical damage. Add critical damage support, and additional fire damage and you almaust double your crit multiplier and deal 90%+ of physical damage as elemental. Add projectile for packs,critical high hp enemies and you are golden with power syphon.

p.S too little ES for CI improve pathing, and don't take spell damage and lighting damage passives. 50% spellpower from wands 6 power/frenzy charges is enough to practicaly one shot anything with discharge,if not add warlord mark.

I have literally never played a witch beyond level 30. I have about *this much* idea what lategame damage values look like.

I was pretty sure I didn't miss many ES nodes though >.>

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Autocthon wrote:

I have literally never played a witch beyond level 30. I have about *this much* idea what lategame damage values look like.

I was pretty sure I didn't miss many ES nodes though >.>

Well yo need literaly for pure ES around 6k-10k ES. There were complains of piety lvl 72 map sniping 6k ES character offscreen with lighting storm. And generaly you need enough ES to disange.

Do yourself a favor, don't use CI and use hp instead. At least at first playthrough. Shock stacks make you recieve 40% more damage and stack up to 3 times. So let's say 500 burning damage over 6 seconds may turn to 1.1k damage over 6 seconds.

Act 3 merciless marketplace mobs with puncture can puncture you for over 3k damage over 5 seconds if you run.

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bormoth wrote:

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Autocthon wrote:

I have literally never played a witch beyond level 30. I have about *this much* idea what lategame damage values look like.

I was pretty sure I didn't miss many ES nodes though >.>

Well yo need literaly for pure ES around 6k-10k ES. There were complains of piety lvl 72 map sniping 6k ES character offscreen with lighting storm. And generaly you need enough ES to disange.

Do yourself a favor, don't use CI and use hp instead. At least at first playthrough. Shock stacks make you recieve 40% more damage and stack up to 3 times. So let's say 500 burning damage over 6 seconds may turn to 1.1k damage over 6 seconds.

Act 3 merciless marketplace mobs with puncture can puncture you for over 3k damage over 5 seconds if you run.

Honestly I'd just use ES w/ no CI until later in the game anyway, hell I have nothing against getting HP nodes on CI users (they still give stun threshold, and thats still survivability).

Dual wand builds really only make sense if you are doing physical damage, in my opinion. Otherwise, with elemental damage, you have so much more potential just using a wand and shield.

The reason why is simply that almost all the dual wielding passives that would make a dual wand build worthwhile cater to physical damage. Plus, Frenzy boosts physical damage with each Frenzy Charge you get.

If you want more information about dual wand viability you can take a look at this build writeup I made for what became my main Closed Beta character.