D3 and Witch Doctor impressions

[shiram]

Just got to Act3 yesterday, about level 24.
First act was way too easy, even the act boss was a piece of cake.
Maybe it's because of my class/style of play.
I went Witch Doctor, because it was the most necro like class, I wanted to go something like a zoomancer.
The class feels like a mix of amazon and necro actually, as the first skill you unlock is a ranged dart attack, and I use it as my main attack, I actually have not used any normal attacks as of now, and don't plan to.
I hate the skills and stats, levels feels alot less meaningfull than they did in D2. Overall the game feels a ton more casual, not only in the system, but in the graphics and ambiance as well.
There's always people tagging along with me, and my merc is always talking, I've lost the feeling of being a lone explorer against all odds...
But as far as the Witch Doctor, seems like a good easy class to play, but alot of the skill seems useless to me, maybe I have not unlocked the correct runes yet.
Also playing solo for now, trying to catch the story and all that good stuff, for at least one complete run.
Crafting is not great, but it could be usefull later on.
It's a competent game, but it did away with alot of the nuances that made D2 great.
maybe some patches will change the overall feel of the game

[Bane]

My brother plays one and he seems to fair very well, he's also around 25-30 in act 3 and has a higher survivability then my barb and also seem to kill faster at times. He as well has a background as a necro and seem to enjoy the skills of the witch doctor. It's a blast to see all his frogs and stuff runnign around all over the place, heh.. graphically it beats my barb's cleaves, leaps and such, hehe..

[shiram]

I kind of grew out of the barbs in between D2 and D3, and found a fondness for the ranged/magic classes. I'm sure I,ll try the melee classes eventually, if I don't get bored of the game first.

Also was thinking a ranged class would be easier as a first try for a new game.

edit more WD thoughts : i wanted pets, and to focus on them, but it seems this just does not work. The pets are based on some of your chars stats, and as such you need a shield to help improve their durability, but then you need a 2 handed weapon to boost your spells power. Not only that but the damage they do is pitiful, and even with a shield they usually die pretty quick. I liked the corpse explode thing for them, but that's basically using 2 spell slots for only one benefit.
The gargantuan is ok, but I don't see him being great in later difficulties.