Voodoo Doll Spec Discussion

[Spaghettimonster]

I'm not even going to consider the Doll a Damage piece. It looks to me like a completely Crowd Control and Healing weapon. That being said, here is what I'm thinking about how to use points, feel free to critique this and make fun of it. LoL

(3/5) Attune. (3 seems like the minimum)
(1/5) Poke. (Cheap and It will actually let you level the Skill!)
(0/5) Swarm. (Too expensive, if you wanna do Damage buy a Staff!)
(5/5) Heal. (Bread'n'Butter)
(0/5) Curse. (Might be nice if your Staff spells get the damage boost.)
(0/5) Scorch. (It looks flashy and pretty and sounds cool, but it's junk.)
(1/5) Cure. (This seems like a last resort big heal for when you're in a tight spot I might put more in it eventually)
(5/5) Grave Shackles. (Crowd Control, Need I say more?)
(5/5) Life Drain. (This is how you heal yourself. FTW)
--Passive Effects--
(0/5) Focus. (40 Voodoo isn't that much, when you get Concentration in Staff Skill this becomes Obsolete.)
(5/5) Spirit Ward. (A Must for PvP, and probably PvE at some point.)
(25/25) Total

This game doesn't seem very DOT friendly. The poisons for the Dagger and the Wound for the Cutlass seem pretty weak. As far as I've used Scorch so far, even with Curse it doesn't do much.

What do you guys think?

I have no idea if the Curse damage bonus applies for Staff Spells, If so that would be pretty overpowered and one might opt for insane magic dps using that.

[TobiasOhawk]

The Doll is at best a support tool rather than an offensive weapon. Here is my recommendation.

(3/5) Attune. (Lets you attune either 3 friends to heal or 2 friends and an enemy you intend to drain.)

(1/5) Poke. (You get one point by default and you should leave it that way for leveling up.)

(1/5) Swarm. (Again 1 point by default and no reason to spend any more)

(5/5) Heal. (Your friends will thank you for this one, great recharge rate.)

(1/5) Curse. (Only 1 point needed here for the 60 second 30% increase in damage taken.)

(0/5) Scorch. (Useless skill as other weapons are better for causing high damage.)

(5/5) Cure. (Slower recharge than heal but can remove an unfriendly curse.)

(0/5) Grave Shackles. (Unless you plan to max this skill to hold enemies in place while you or someone else charges a staff attack then ignore it, lower ranks of this skill don't last long enough to be much help.)

(5/5) Life Drain. (This is how you heal yourself. FTW No arguments there, max this bad boy!)

--Passive Effects--
(0/5) Focus. (No need to spend points here as you'll have plenty of voodoo later on.)

(0/5) Spirit Ward. (I'm not sure about this one, I have it maxed on Tobias but any doll wielding enemy can be neutralised very easily so it's only use may be in PvP which I haven't tried yet.)

This is how I'll be spending points on my new and improved Pirate, but the points spent above only add up to 18 so you'll have 6 more points to spend as you please.

As for your Curse damage question, you can Curse enemies then switch to any weapon and still receive the 30% increase in damage.

[RemiBoncoeur]

While the doll might not do the kind of damaged that a lv25 cutlass can, or a maxed out siege charge... it's still a really powerful weapon (and usually the go-to in PvP):

My suggestions:

(5/5) Attune. (Lets you attune either 3 friends to heal with 2 enemies, or the other way around.)

(5/5) Poke. (This might surprise you, but it recharges so quickly at this stage that it's like hacking away with a sword or dagger!)

(1/5) Swarm. (eh, I suppose you could pick this instead of poke... a question of taste, then.)

(2/5) Heal. (Your friends will thank you for this one, great recharge rate.)

(1/5) Curse. (with the exception of other players in PvP, whatever you're killing should really be dead by the time the curse wears off.)

(3/5) Scorch. (I put some points into this to try and make it useful... and by the time it recharges, it looks to me like it's done an extra 2 touches worth of damage. While you might not think that's a lot, it's definitely getting used when touch and swarm are both recharging and I have nothing better to hit with!)

(3/5) Cure. (I think it's really kind and noble to max out your healing powers for other people... but I chose to do more damage. Up to you.)

(1/5) Grave Shackles. (Now HERE'S one I wish I'd put more points into! In PvP, this becomes very useful for keeping people from running away from your attunement, and from if you want to switch weapons.)

(5/5) Life Drain. (Best. Skill. Ever.)

--Passive Effects--
(0/5) Focus. (A waste, especially once some of the voodoo staff passives are available)

(0/5) Spirit Ward. (It looks like it gives you only a TEN PERCENT chance to avoid an enemy voodoo spell when you've put FIVE POINTS into it... that's a little weak, and only worth it if you've randomly got five points lying around. If that's the case... give them to me.)

[Caleb Killagin]

You will want 5/5 Cure and 5/5 Heal.
Put 3/5 Attune, 1/5 Curse(Makes them take more damage, ), 1/5 Scorch, 1/5 Grave Shackles.

[ScurvyCory]

Attune: 5/5
Poke: 1/5
Swarm: 5/5
Heal: 2/5
Curse: 1/5
Scorch: 1/5
Cure: 2-3/5
Grave Shackles: 2/5
Life Drain: 5/5

[Spaghettimonster]

I have a few questions about a few skills, I'm thinking about going a different route.
("Rank" abbreviated as "R")
What changes when you go from Curse R1 to Curse R2? Do you get more +%Dmg Increase or does it just last longer?
How long do Grave Shackles last at R5?

[Spaghettimonster]

I did a slight tweak, I think it's a lot better. This will probably be my lv 25 build. I really like the passive resists, as staff damage is a big factor toward higher levels I hear. Although later as I think about this more I might take a point out of Life Drain and put it into Shackles. Crowd Control is really important I think.

(3/5) Attune. * [Select up to 3 targets (friendly and enemy) at once]
(1/5) Poke. * [CD 5s]
(0/5) Swarm. * [CD 12s] (High cost, short CD)
(5/5) Heal. * [CD 10s]
(1/5) Curse. * [CD 30s]
(0/5) Scorch. * [CD 25s] (Poor Damage, Long CD, High Cost)
(1/5) Cure. * [CD 30s] (Long CD, but very useful as a backup heal.)
(4/5) Grave Shackles. * (need CD info) [Worth every point]
(5/5) Life Drain. * [CD 30s]
--Passive Effects--
(0/5) Focus. * [+40 Voodoo]
(5/5) Spirit Ward. * [+10% Resistance]

I think Poke/Life Drain is all you need in this tree for damage. Swarm is very expensive, and the CD is really short. This means that if you go this route you're going to run out of Voodoo quickly if you keep it on CD. Right now I'm only lv 8 with the Doll and I was kiting two lv 20+ Veterans at once in Theives Den yesterday with R1 Poke and having no problem. I can stay at routhly 90% Voodoo Healing someone else nearby and keeping Poke on cooldown. Curse is very high Voodoo cost as well, so if you plan on keeping that on your enemy you will need Voodoo reserves, those won't be available with a Swarm build.

Basically what can happen here is one can over burden your Voodoo supply. Imagine that you are in a fight and you use all of these high cost Hexes really often, Grave Shackles to keep some control of the situation, Curse to boost that damage, all of a sudden your Voodoo is half way gone and you just started the fight! If you swarm a few times your Voodoo is completely gone, but if you use Poke steadily that Voodoo level will maintain and even recover. This gives you the ability to sustain. Sustaining Health isn't that big of a problem because of Life Drain and potions, but Voodoo is relatively scarce. You have to find a balance if you are going to sustain.

So, with this build I think one can easily outlast an opponent who drains himself quickly. Resists for Survivability vs. Casters. Shackles for Crowd Control. Life Drain for Health Recovery, Poke to just nibble away until you wear them out.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by TobiasOhawk

(1/5) Swarm. (Again 1 point by default and no reason to spend any more)

Actually, you aren't forced to put a point into Swarm. I have none and I'm keeping it that way.

(0/5) Spirit Ward. (I'm not sure about this one, I have it maxed on Tobias but any doll wielding enemy can be neutralised very easily so it's only use may be in PvP which I haven't tried yet.)

If the MMO trend holds, these kinds if mitigation passives will become extremely coveted as new content is released. I'm going to max this for my toon.

I'm curious about what benefit you think you get from 5/5 Cure? What makes it worth more than 1 point?

[RemiBoncoeur]

For curse, the duration is extended.

Not sure about grave shackles, though I have a new pirate that I plan on maxing it out with - I guess I'll keep you posted, unless someone beats me to it

[kaylin]

5/5 heal and 5/5 cure all the way!! I miss my doll on my level 35 pirate. I still use it to heal my friends but it's maxed so no reps I made a new pirate and enjoy being able to fully use my doll again!

[Danny the Red]

I seem to be alone here but I actually like the doll as an offensive weapon. While leveling up I found I could take on much higher targets by attuning them and running circles around them then standing toe-to-toe with a cutlass or dagger.

I probably gained about 10 notoriety levels just by taking on stumps with maxed-out poke and swarm and an occasional maxed out life-drain to heal myself.

Of course now that I've mastered the doll I'm trying to level up my cutlass and pistol.

I do like my ranged weapons though. My cannon right now is much higher then my sailing because I like to stand off and sink the Juggernaut a few times every time I'm on.

[Chris]

ok i still dont understand the big deal about 5/5 heal and cure? makes no sense since it only heals buddies and if u are pirating alone those 10 sp will do u nothing

[The Beautiful Letdown]

Originally Posted by RemiBoncoeur

For curse, the duration is extended.

Not sure about grave shackles, though I have a new pirate that I plan on maxing it out with - I guess I'll keep you posted, unless someone beats me to it

I would recommend at least 3 dots in grave shackles because they give good extra rep

[Chris]

the more points u have on shackels the longer they will stay on an enemy i think and the faster it recharges

[Shhlatkinz]

Attune: 4/5 -- I never actually needed to attune more than 4. Attuning 4 gives you rep extremely quickly until you max.

Poke: 5/5 -- Even if you only use the doll for healing, a lot of the time healing, you also need to help kill the enemy. It's also 1 of the 3 main attacks for the doll, it's a must to max it to me.

Swarm: 5/5 -- Same reason as poke.

Heal: 3/5 -- I also when healing someone, never needed more healing than 3 points. You should put more points if your one of those people who is always healing more than 1 person though.

Curse: 1/5 -- It's very useful (kinda self-explanatory on why it's useful), especially when your main hex attacks are maxed.

Scorch: 0/5 -- It's really one of the things you use when you wait for your other hex's to load, but it does such little damage, and there's no room for a useless point.

Cure: 1/5 -- Obvious reasons, it's great to have a huge heal when you need it. But I would never put more, because it's not needed.

Grave Shackles: 1/5 -- It really does look awesome, and gives great rep when trying to max voodoo.

Life Drain: 5/5 -- Best skill of voodoo. Does loads of damage, and gives the health to you. Need I say more?

Focus: 0/5 -- It's really useless. Getting up to 40 extra voodoo points is really not needed and will make extremely little difference, especially when you get staff, and your voodoo amount shoots up like a rocket.

Spirit Ward: 0/5 -- One of the more useless skills in the game. If not the most.

[Spaghettimonster]

Originally Posted by Chris

ok i still dont understand the big deal about 5/5 heal and cure? makes no sense since it only heals buddies and if u are pirating alone those 10 sp will do u nothing

Do you like being healed?

Ok then, make sense?

Originally Posted by Shhlatkinz

Spirit Ward: 0/5 -- One of the more useless skills in the game. If not the most.

It's really easy to destroy casters if you have this passive. I can't wait to get a little higher level and PvP against some Staff guy hurling Flaming Skulls at me only to sulk in disappointment when he sees "Resist" pop up on his screen... and then dies. Oh what fun it will be!

There are no partial resists in this game (yet), so when you resist a huge attack you COMPLETELY resist it all...

Isn't it funny how you think it's useless and I think it's probably top 5 best in game, lol!