just read the whole thing, very interresting stuff..
im not going hardcare, so this is just pure information for me - and for that i am grateful, thank you!
i just regained my trust into the WD.. Was really scared he was sucky!

got a level 34 softcore wd in nightmare, act 1. gonna employ this method and see how it goes.
survivability is still very important to me on softcore.

thanks for this!

in your example skill sets you say that you take soul harvest + mass confusion
but aren't both skills on the same slot?

in game, do the following:

Esc -> Options -> Gameplay -> [X] Elective mode

you can set your skills up however you want.

just an update:
still using this setup (tweaked slightly since i'm not yet a high enough level for some of the runes, iirc). about to finish act 1 nightmare with it. i use firebomb with roll the bones, which kinda sucks because you get a lot of wasted bounces unless the mob crowd is relatively decent. it's very effective and safe though. still don't think i've died while i've been using it. can't wait to unlock the last rune for firebomb. it gets old seeing that same animation over and over.

about to do my first act boss. gonna probably use your example setup.

This post was edited by Chocolope on May 19 2012 01:36pm

GL. I've found the bosses relatively easy (compared to nasty champion combos). Just spam Swarm and Haunt while you dodge everything.

Really appreciate this!

I would like more of an opinion on Grasp of the Dead. I would think slowing attackers to keep them off you would be key in higher difficulties.