Diablo III- Skills Article CXI: Witch Doctor, Decay Skills- Spirit Barrage

Spirit Barrage (108 Mana): A hail of spirit bolts impacts the target and any other enemies occupying its space, dealing 190% weapon damage as Physical damage.

While Spirit Barrage lacks a lot of the flavor of most Witch Doctor skills in its appearance and effect, it’s a strong, if simple, attack that can be used to hand out a lot of damage.  Not quite an area of effect attack, the fact that it hails down at a target rather than striking it means that enemies in cramped quarters will make you happier to use the skill.  The mana cost is no longer all that high by the time you qualify for the skill, so it’s certainly not painful to use.

The Spirit is Willing (108 Mana): A hail of spirit bolts impacts the target and any other enemies occupying its space, dealing 190% weapon damage as Physical damage.  Each time this barrage hits a target, you regain 44 Mana.

This rune turns Spirit Barrage into the equivalent of most classes’ resource generator skills, reliably picking up a considerable amount of Mana for you- as long as the target you hit with it doesn’t die from the first hit or two.  While you’re using The Spirit is Willing, you want to make sure you’re hitting something that will at least survive the majority of the hits from the attack, so it combines rather curiously with a lot of the other Witch Doctor skills, which you’re going to want to rely on to damage everything that’s at a lower Life total.  Choosing your target can be time consuming, though, so don’t take too long to think about it or you’ll find you’ve wasted your time thinking and the enemies are already dogpiling you.

Well of Souls (108 Mana): A hail of spirit bolts impacts the target and any other enemies occupying its space, dealing 190% weapon damage as Physical damage.  3 additional spirits seek out enemies individually (possibly selecting the primary target) and strike them, each dealing 30% weapon damage as Physical damage.

Not very spectacular, Well of Souls nonetheless provides a good opportunity to spread the damage around, just in case you weren’t already using enough areas of effect to mangle your enemies.  Don’t concern yourself too much with where the extra bolts go- the damage isn’t large enough to worry too much about- much like many other secondary damage effects from Witch Doctor skills.  Just let it happen, it’ll help in its own way.

Phantasm (108 Mana): Summon a spectre at the target location that lasts for 5 seconds and deals 45% weapon damage as Physical damage per second to all enemies within 10 yards.  You may have up to three Phantasms at a time.

Phantasm completely overwrites Spirit Barrage into a nifty damage zone that you can use to make sure things die on the way to you- or that you can cluster up with its two copies to put the heavy hurt on something that’s standing still.  While the cost makes maintaining three Phantasms constantly a bit of a pain in the Mana pool, they are still effective even singly, so don’t worry too much about keeping them constantly relevant- instead focus on placing each one in a good spot.

Phlebotomize (108 Mana): A hail of spirit bolts impacts the target and any other enemies occupying its space, dealing 190% weapon damage as Physical damage and healing you by 3% of the damage dealt.

While it doesn’t actually have anything to do with phlebotinum, which appears to be where it draws its name from, Phlebotomize is a curious twist on Spirit Barrage- while the damage of the skill is nice, the 3% healing isn’t too terribly impressive.  Still, it can help you keep on your feet if you’ve got a lot of enemies onscreen trying to mangle you, so you may find this rune to your liking if you take damage a lot.

Manitou (108 Mana): A spirit hovers over you for 20 seconds, frequently throwing short-range bolts that deal 28% weapon damage as Physical damage and carry any side-effects of your own weapon.  Recasting Manitou only refreshes its duration.

Manitou is a curious permutation of Spirit Barrage, more directly related to the Phantasm effect you can overwrite the original skill with.  Because the Manitou is solitary, and its range is short, it is best used in one of two capacities- a damage source while you run away from something, keeping it in the range of the guardian spirit, or as an extra set of damage if you lean heavily on short-range spells like Firebats.  Keeping in mind that as a Witch Doctor you don’t have much in the way of protection from damage (just ways to keep things from attacking you to begin with), close-range combat is not very desirable- so you’re more likely to find yoruself kiting with Manitou than any other use.  This doesn’t change the fact that Manitou is a very useful rune for Spirit Barrage, particularly if you don’t, for whatever reason, like the actual Spirit Barrage spell.  Choosing between this and Phantasm is very dependent on how you play, though, so figure out whether you like damage zones or running around while still ‘attacking’ more- some Witch Doctors like both, making the choice difficult.