Quote (ae1337 @ 6 Sep 2012 11:31)
What is close to bears?
Consider character with decent balanced gear, that doesn't need minions and doens't need to stay back, can just facetank all trash and elites.
3x 238% damage per cast, pierce, can multihit. Nothing is even close to zombie bears.
Obviously this has to be taken into account. If you, for some strange reason, don't happen to have unlimited funds and can't facetank all trash and elites throughout all content, then maybe putting yourself within 10 yards of hordes of enemies is not the best idea.
On the other hand, regardless of how much gold you have to spend on gear, you're going to need some defensive stats to deal with the amount of pressure elites will be putting on you within close range compared to what you need at more range, hindering your damage output, even if only slightly at high gear levels.
Also, Dire Bats (the ability in comparison) has a 40 yard range @ 220% damage, with pierce and roughly 20 less mana cost. 3x 236% damage @ ~10-15 yards (slightly more with wall glitching) vs 220% damage over 40 yards. AC/PoT also offers massive AoE damage, with decent range, and nice LoH coefficients.
It's very hard to determine which is better at high gear levels, so I think it boils down to playstyle. BUT, anyone with a brain would consider Dire Bats much better for budget characters.