I just hit Nightmare and was curious if any WD players ended up swapping out any of their own abilities from Normal into Nightmare. I'm currently using this:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZYdRU!ZbV!aZZZZa

Are there any suggestions what I should change out and should I start focusing on specific stats now as I work my way up to Hell - Inferno Modes? My one debate is replacing my Darts to either Haunt or Locust Swarm and do the pets get better as meatwalls or are they useless from Nightmare+ (using Templar as a follower)? I'll add more questions if needed later...

int , vit , will get you through ..defensive stats / health regen / life steal / and pickup radius are all optional and depend on your build ,

this is my build now in hell http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aiTdUX!ZWb!baaZZZ , only stacking int and vit at the moment blue attack speed rings constant mobility while spamming the aoe , and the flaming dart does insane single target damage especially with big bad voodoo .. im used to inferno on my monk so i sorta build my wd for fun , although you will have to wait for some of these runes , you can easily plow throu most of nightmare if you focus on the goal of 1. pet is a distraction only , 2. you can spam aoe then keep running runnign running and spirit walking walking walking etc , 3. if something doesnt die from a few acid rains , you stop and drop it with a fast single target attack , i liked flaming skulls and the mana regen dart for those , aoe slow and damage from grasps is great though if your having trouble

also hex and angry chicken rune = amazing fun .. just saying

@Khadyn said:

I just hit Nightmare and was curious if any WD players ended up swapping out any of their own abilities from Normal into Nightmare. I'm currently using this:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZYdRU!ZbV!aZZZZa

Are there any suggestions what I should change out and should I start focusing on specific stats now as I work my way up to Hell - Inferno Modes? My one debate is replacing my Darts to either Haunt or Locust Swarm and do the pets get better as meatwalls or are they useless from Nightmare+ (using Templar as a follower)? I'll add more questions if needed later...

I'm about halfway through nightmare with my WD, so I can't speak on anything later than that, but I have a few thoughts.

-I'd swap out zombie dogs in favor of gargantuan. In my experience, the dogs don't scale quite enough to keep pace with the scaling strength of monsters in nightmare and above. By Act 2 in NM, my dogs were getting killed almost immediately. Gargantuans scale up enough to at least take some hits for you before you need to resummon them.

-I do like locust swarm, especially with the rune that makes it spread to 2 enemies, but I wouldn't replace darts. But if you can fit it into your build somewhere else, locust swarm has been useful for me as an opener.

I experimented a ton with different builds. Basically on nightmare and hell, getting a higher DPS mainhand or 2h weapon will trump everything you do build/skill wise, character tooltip dps is king. I ran the entire spectrum from full summoner, spirit caster, dart spam, fetish summon, and just about everything else I could think of throughout nightmare and hell. I'll just post a few of my observations and you can build off of those.

Zombie bears once you get it is *ridiculous* but not useful in inferno. Dire bats and Splinter darts are two of our best skills throughout the game. Locust swarm and toad spam is great fun if you have enough DPS to kill stuff before you die. You should only need a couple survival skills for NM/Hell.

Gargantuan is good all the way through, I've used him even into A2 inferno. Dogs are useless in hell and beyond unless you're using some niche builds (gruesome feast, zombie handler, circle of life + Dogs with final gift, grasp with death is life). IMO your build has too much defensive ability and no real strong aoe. Locusts or dire bats will let you kite better if you need to, and you dont need as much defense until late hell at most. Hit the AH and buy a high dps main weapon and watch stuff melt.