Rockon87: Well, I am 27 and married for 3 years. I spent 8 years in the US Army w/ 2 deployments to Iraq (25 months total). After that I spent 2 years in college earning my Network Technology ATA. Before I was finished with my degree I received a job offer to be a Senior IT Technician for a software company here in the Seattle, Wa area. After 7 months of that position I was just promoted to Operations Engineer with my main focus on deploying patches to (and managing) our web servers.

Rockon87: I can summon Zombie Bears, drop Acid from the sky, puke out Firebats, and summon spirits to....well tickle my enemies and watch as they laugh because I am out of mana....
But really, I like to snowboard (if we ever get snow here in our mountains this winter) and go hiking.

Rockon87: Oh boy, I think like most this would be a very long list from everything from all the Blizzard games (except SC...never got into it), I used to be really into Command and Conquer, Rift and SWTOR, etc etc.

Rockon87: I don't think I have a favorite but right now I just play D3 because I can squeeze in the quick Rift runs when I have time and I don't have to wait on anything like getting 24 other people together to run a Raid in WoW, for example.

Rockon87: There are other classes? I have tried them all but none of them peak my interest like the WD.

Rockon87: Oh man, I vividly remember my mother yelling at me to "get off that damn game" when I would spend all afternoon playing D2.

Rockon87: Yep, I am in VUDU which comprises of some of the most intelligent players from the WD community. I tend to run solo but they are a great bunch of guys to bounce ideas off of.

Rockon87: I think this will be the same answer from most players....salvaging an item you didn't want to. I even hit the extra button that asks if you are sure....muscle memory from all the "crap" legendaries we find I suppose. The other embarrassing moment is that time when I ran out of mana in front of a horde of Diablo's minions....I mean...could you imagine that? Ha

Rockon87: I thought it was AWESOME that I found the whole Jade set before Kadala was handing them out. There was a point when she did not give out set pieces.

Rockon87: My first WD was named "ZooDoc" but back in Vanilla D3 we quickly realized how terrible pets were. They are great now but their pathing is still an issue, getting caught on walls, Zombie Dogs sometimes get stuck behind fetish, Gargantuan still just stands there at times.

Rockon87: Currently, at the competitive level, you can only "drain your foes' life force over time" (Jade) or "unleash your minions upon them" (Variations of pet builds). There is not currently a way to "call forth a surge of power to crush them". Sure I was able to get to GR 35 using a hybrid Zombie Bears/Fetish build but it was very clunky and relied on Fetish still to do most of the damage. I encourage the developers to focus on bringing our spenders up to par with our current competitive builds before making the current builds more powerful.

Rockon87: ZOMBIE BEARS......and you ask why? lol

Rockon87: I run all of our current competitive builds (Melee pets, Jade, Carnevil) except 1. I refuse to play the ZDPS WD. Builds like this annoy me

Rockon87: See question 20. (The last question)

Rockon87: Don't settle for the status quo. There was a time when the WD players had to fight to get to where we are now. We were the red headed step child of D3 for most of Vanilla. Now that we have a couple builds I don't see many pushing for more. However, if you do see a problem with the class also propose a fix. Nobody likes when you bring up an issue but you don't have an idea on how to fix it.

Rockon87: I actually like the Hellscape Mask....the one with the green vines/tentacles moving around on it.

Rockon87: Enchantress: Are you considered handsome among your people?
Male WD: Why do you think I wear so little?
Enchantress: Oh...

Rockon87: Surijak#1957

Rockon87: What would you like to see as a general improvement to the WD?

Rockon87: Oh boy, this is a very loaded question. I would like to limit my scope to just one of the spenders though if I may...Zombie Charger.

The issue with ZC (or any spender) simply begins with "You get out what you put in". What I mean is the damage / mana ratio for our spenders is terrible. It is understandable that our "most powerful" skills should cost the most resource however, these skills are not very powerful.

Here is a breakdown of each ZC rune:

Pile On Issue - The animation looks awesome on this rune but at the cost of the time it takes for the zombies to stack up. By the time they stack your enemy has moved, most of the time, especially in open area maps. Our skills need to be map neutral especially since we can't change skills in GRifts.
Pile On Proposed Fix - Faster animation, Pile pivots towards the initial target (if the target moves the pile turns as it is stacking up), add an AOE element to the ground slam when they fall. The AOE element of the attack can be increased by Pick up Radius or a set bonus. Increased rune damage.

Undeath Issue - "If the Zombie Charger kills any enemies" <<< the main issue with this rune. "On kill" effects do not scale with difficulty....see Life per kill, Grave Injustice, Mana per Kill, Chance for Health Globe on kill, etc"
Undeath Proposed Fix - Change to "Chance on hit/crit" Increase the movement speed/base damage of the zombies.

Lumbering Cold Issue - The graphic of this skill is great, however, typically I find that half of my bears are useless because there are no enemies to hit on the back half of the circle. Also, this skill is terrible in dungeon type maps since the bears get hung up on everything.
Lumbering Cold Proposed Fix - Instead of a circle maybe an arc in front of the WD? Also increase the movement speed/damage.

Explosive Beast Issue - This skill really doesn't make much sense anymore now that Sacrifice: For the Master has been changed. Also, the radius/damage is way too low.
Explosive Beast Proposed Fix - I don't honestly have one as I think this rune needs a complete redesign to distinguish itself more from Sacrifice. Multiple exploding dogs with bigger radii would be good.

Zombie Bears Issue - Animation is way too slow and typically misses the target. Damage is way too low.
Zombie Bears Proposed Fix - Probably obvious...increase the animation speed and damage.

I want to go back to question 11 and point out this, "call forth a surge of power to crush them". If the developers keep this exact phrase in mind when redesigning our spenders then there will be success. Not only should that include increasing the spenders damage either by increasing the base %, changing complimentary skills/passives, or set bonuses....but the redesign should also include the animations. I want to feel the"surge of power" when I hit an enemy with a Zombie Bear.
Set Bonus Ideas:

Set Includes: Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Legs, Boots, and Bracers.

2 Set Bonus: Standard XXX Int but also XXX Max Mana. Since the other builds require almost no mana consumption and Zombie Charger does, we need to support that. Max Mana scales off of most of our Skills and Passives.

4 Set Bonus: A Zombie Charger build is typically a mid range build so it needs a toughness boost. Since we get XXX mana from our 2 set I would dedicate the 4 set to Toughness. XX% Life, XXX AR or XXX Int, XXX Armor.

4a. Summon Zombie Dogs: Leeching Beasts heal you for 200% of your Life on Hit with every attack. (Or just Double Life on Hit with this set bonus but that just seems boring or too easy... :-\ )

6 Set Bonus: This is where you get your build changer. This could go many ways depending on w/e idea comes to mind. Here are a few of mine:

6a. If your Zombie Chargers don't hit a target they explode into a pool of bubbling poison/fire pit/frozen waste land that does the damage the Zombie Charger would have done over X secs. The pool radius is 10 yards and is increased by your pick up radius and can stack up to X times.

6b. Your Zombie Charger does XXX% more damage to enemies affected by Locust Swarm and will seek out targets within XX yards in front of your Witch Doctor which can be increased by Pick up Radius.

6c. Your Zombie Charger has XX% chance to produce a health globe when summoned. Changes the Gruesome Feast bonus to provide XX% more Int.

6d: Boost the Area Damage of your Zombie Charger to now have 50% chance to deal 75% of its damage to all enemies within 10 yards which can be increased by Pick up Radius. Further Area Damage can be added to this bonus.

Pick up Radius, Gruesome Feast, Grave Injustice were all an important part of running a Zombie Charger build so my ideas for the 6 set bonus would be based around those.

This obviously does not include changes to the skill itself which needs a damage boost IMO.

For follow up reading please see:

• Zombie Charger set ideas http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13244034442#1
• Tiki Bears GRift run http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/16202170682#1