Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
This Guide, is meant to serve people whom might be new to Diablo 3, or new to the Witch Doctor Class. It provides a structured easy to follow process that will enable the player to maximize the first 24 hours of a New Witch Doctor that is Created.
Getting power leveled, using exploits, or group play will yield faster results in gearing up a Witch Doctor initially. The point of this guide is to provide an option for players to be self sufficient, or use as a itinerary list on what you should be focusing with a new Witch Doctor.
Patch 2.3 Brings a lot of changes to the core mechanics of character development in Diablo 3. Crafting, and Reforging cost pre 70 have been significantly reduced, and low level crafting mats will be the same ones that drop at max level. With these changes it allows for us to craft solid 2h weapons consistently while leveling, and have the ability to re-roll stats on our items to maximize our dps/toughness capabilities. Secondly is the Kanai's Cube, which will allow us to equip up to 3 legendary powers directly to our characters, this allows for us to push for GR 45-50 Within only the first 24 hours of character development, depending on how your luck holds out with Loot drops.
**Just to be clear**
* This guide is here to help establish a well thought out (solo) structured plan to develop a new WD within only 24 hours (In Game Time)
* The fastest way to level in Seasons, or when creating a New WD is to do it in groups, exploits, or to get power leveled
* I developed this guide to show how the WD class can be fun, and very straight forward to play if you have a little guidance, and a plan on how to get it started the right way.
* Not everyone will be in groups, and or have a set schedule to always play with clan/guild mates all the time, so you can follow the guide at your own pacing, and after 24 hours of in game time invested end up having a Witch Doctor that is Torment Level 10 Capable or higher.
* If you have any questions the best place to contact me is while I'm Streaming, or in-boxing me on twitch. All this information can be found at the beginning of the guide.
The guide Will be broken up into "Three Phases"
**Leveling Phase**
* Getting your WD setup to level quickly to Max Level
* Efficiency in Bounty Quest Choices
* Difficulty Settings, Broken down by Levels
* Weapon Crafting, Broken down by Level
* Skill Choice, Broken down by Levels
* Tactics for Gearing while Level progressing
* Appropriate Stat Itemization on gear while Leveling.
The following in which you are about to read, is a start to finish Itinerary for our first 24 hours for a "fresh" solo Witch Doctor. If you are in a group, you can use this as a rough outline on what you should be focusing on as you progress through content. The leveling Phase is pretty straight forward, it list what difficulty, and skill setup you should be running at different level intervals. The second phase shows how you should prioritize your time to quickly Progress onward to Torment 6. The final phase is all about rounding out your build, and gear itemization to have your Witch Doctor Torment Level 10 ready.
**Crafting Changes**
* Crafting Materials that drop at low level are the same materials dropped at Lv 70
* Crafting costs (Pre-70) have been significantly reduced
**Mystic Enchantress Changes**
* Reforging cost (Pre-70) have been significantly reduced
* Allows you to min/max your gear while leveling very easily, with little to no cost to you
**Torment 1 ASAP**
* With the changes to the crafting system, Torment 1 is very easily obtainable by level 21
* The additional Exp Gained, and Gem Goblin are greatly effected by this difficulty
**Leoric's Crown Setup**
* Leroic's Crown will always drop (Up until Lv 65) from the King Leroic's quest in Act 1 Story Mode
* The Crown increases the effect of the gem inside it, by up to 100%
* If you complete the quest at Lv 18 or higher, it will roll with a guaranteed socket.
* I would highly recommend when creating a new WD, to begin in story mode. Complete all quests leading up to (But not actually killing) the King Leoric fight, and save the way point.
* After this is completed leave the game, and continue your leveling thru Adventure mode. At some point while leveling, your going to run into a gem goblin, or your going to develop your ruby gems up to "Star Ruby" Quality via jewel crafting.
* Optimally you want to obtain 2 Imperial Rubies from a Gem Goblin, one to put in your King Leoric's Helm, and one into your crafted weapons.
* Depending on how lucky I am, as soon as I obtain Imperial/Star Rubies I immediately leave adventure mode, and complete the King Leroic's Quest line to obtain my Leoric's Crown. This will make a big difference from levels 50-70.
* Worse case scenario where you happen to get bad Gem luck, you should always pick up the Helmet no later then Lv 50, and use whatever your highest level Ruby you have available.
**Gem Treasure Goblin & Torment Lv 1+**
* The Gem goblin Drops are effected by the game difficulty settings
* Torment Level 1 or high (Regardless of level) upon killing the Gem goblin it will drop Marquise gem levels or higher
* These gems will dramatically effect the rate in which it takes to get to level 70.
* Marquise Emerald Gem- 105% Increased Critical Damage on Weapon
At Level 21 you should be at torment level 1 difficulty. The biggest thing to look out for is the gem goblins, they take priority over everything else. Cave of the moon clan, and Halls of Agony tend to turn up a lot of goblins in general so be aware of this while completing these bounties.
**Item Stat Prioritization**
This is a generalization on what stats you want to have on each individual item slot. Keep in mind you should only really be Min-Maxing(AKA reforging) every 4 to 5 levels to not waste to many crafting materials.
* Shoulders --> Int, Vit, Armor, Life %
* Helm ---> Int, Vit, Critical Chance
* Chest ---> Int, Vit, Armor, Socket (3)
* Pants ---> Int, Vit, Armor, Socket (3)
* Boots ---> int, Vit, Armor, Increased Movement Speed
The reason we are starting in Story Mode is to setup for our "Leoric's Crown" for later. Complete all quests leading up until (Reign of the Black King) "The Royal Crypts". Once you have the way-point leave the game, and begin adventure mode. You should be around level 8-10 when you get to the "The Royal Crypts" check point. Don't dwell on doing side areas, your #1 focus should be is getting the way-point unlock as quickly as possible.
This Section will cover these major points: Bounty Choices , Itemization, and Skill Build
**Bounty Choices**
Bounties are pretty much straight forward. While leveling there certain bounties that we avoid, and specific acts we stay away from. When you start a new Witch Doctor, everyone can start off in "Adventure mode", granted they've completed story mode beforehand.
**Why do you only choose Act 1 Bounties Only?**
* Has the most easiest bounties to complete in game
* Monster A.I. pales in comparison to other ones from Acts 2-5
* Bounty maps objectives, usually spawn in the same areas
* I reiterate Monsters are pretty stupid in Act 1, they really don't pose a threat.
**What Bounties should I do, avoid sometimes, or skip all together?**
* Here is a Image the explains it all:
* Green = You should do these Bounties all the time
* Blue = You should do these bounties, when it doesn't involve killing a boss
* Red = You should never do these bounties.....period
**Why am I avoiding these Bounties?**
* One case, is how Difficulty level effects bosses greatly, Last thing you want to do is fight Skeleton King, Queen Araneae, or the Butcher on Masters+ Difficulty or higher, for the amount of time they take, it is not worth it.
* The area also could just be to large, and random to successfully locate the bounty objective quickly. This rears its ugly head with any bounties that takes place on Caverns of Araneae, or Fields of Misery
**What about the Maybe Bounties**
* It is ok to do these bounties, ONLY if the bounty that is given DOESN'T involve killing a Boss Monster.
If you complete all of the bounties, that are on the list, and all that remains are the ones that you should "NOT" do, it is more profitable to simply leave game to "Reset" the bounties.
**Pools of Reflection**
**Whats a pool of reflection?**
* Pools of Reflection provide a 25% bonus to experience
* This bonus persists until you reach a set amount of bonus experience (equal to approximately 10% of the current amount of Paragon experience needed to reach the next Paragon level) or your character dies.
* Gathering additional Pools of Reflection bonuses increases the amount of total experience bonus a character can receive until character death, stacking up to 10 times
*This experience bonus persists on logout
While doing bounties you will come across these pools of golden goodness, it is very easy to keep these stacks going from levels 1-61. So to increase the rate at which you level stack these pools without dying. From levels 61 onward, things can get a little tough, so be extra careful to not die as the increased exp makes a BIG difference on your way level 70.
**Phase 1 - Itemization**
**What Gear should I be focusing on while leveling up?**
* 2 Handed weapons are the best due to our skill choices, their accessibility, and how well their damage scales as we level up.
* The weapons scale Very well, and make it so we don't have to worry about finding a proper Off Handed weapon
* Equipping anything that increases the Damage for your Witch doctor. (Armor more specifically)
* Any type of gear, that increases the amount of experience you receive
* By Level 50 you should already be using the King of Leoric Crown that has a Socket for a Marquise Ruby Gem
**Things you need to focus on while leveling up**
* Picking up all items that drop, and breaking them down into crafting materials
* Keeping an eye open for Gem goblins, as their imperial gems are very strong for leveling
* Crafting 2 Handed weapons, frequent and often
* Only focusing on bounties that were listed above, to minimize down time.
* If you acquire a Imperial Ruby, or a Star Ruby pre- Lv 50 you should stop what your doing, and finish the King Leoric's quest line to obtain "King Leoric's Crown" to get the increased Exp rate that the crown will provide.
**Phase 1 - Skill Build**
**What is the most optimal Build in your opinion to level with?**
* Haunt, and Locust Swarm by far
* Damage over Time spells are very powerful tools while leveling, and scale Dramatically well with 2 Handed Weapons.
* The build that I have below is a build that works well into level 70, and beyond. If you need the level by level on what skills to you, you can check out the 24 Hour Witch Doctor Phase 1 Itinerary section located at the beginning of the guide.
Pretty straight forward here, should be the first thing you should be focusing on after hitting max level. 5-10 Runs through some Normal Rifts should easily acquire you a full set of Lv 70 Rare(Yellow) quality gear.
Running rifts, collecting Greater Rift keys, then acquiring gems. You want to repeat the process until you've obtained all the legendary gems possible, or just the one you specifically need. After this has happened you are going to be alternating between Regular/Greater Rifts to farm for blood shards, and to level up your initial Legendary gems to Rank 25.
A Standard Build that I like to use when I'm establishing the foundation to my WD is a Pet/Dot build, as it doesn't require any special gear for it to do well.
**Pet/Dot Build**
*Active Skills*
* Spirit Walk "Jaunt"
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled to the Bone"
* Hex "Jinx"
* Piranhas "Zombie Piranhas"
* Haunt "Poisoned Spirit"
* Locust Swarm "Pestilence"
*Passive Skills*
* Pierce the Veil
* Confidence Ritual
* Fetish Sycophants
* Rush of Essence or Spirit Vessel
The easiest thing I've found to work is to get every single slot filled with a Legendary Item with solid rolls. For my starting Legendary Gems choices I use: "Bane of the Trapped", "Efficacious Toxin Gem", "Esoteric: Alteration". These gems provide additional damage, and survivability that work very well with the build.
When to Start Kanai Cubing
Starting off with the Kanai cube, I usually only focus on its major function: "Extract Legendary Power". If I obtain a copy of a Legendary Item That I already have (or it simply rolled bad stats) I will go ahead and cube the item, to gain its Legendary power and equip it for my Witch Doctor.
**Weapon Kani Cube Popular Choices**
* Start Metal Kukri
* Rhen'Ho Flayer
* Furnace
* WormWood
* Dagger of Darts
* Scrimshaw
**Armor Kani Cube Popular Choices**
* Mask Or Jeram
* Carvnevil
* Grin Reaper
* King Leoric's Crown
* Belt of Transcendence
**Jewelry Kani Cube Popular Choices**
* Ring of Royal Grandeur
* Unity
* Convention of elements
* Obsidian Ring of the zodiac
**Phase 2 Review**
* Step 1. Acquire Rare (Yellow) Lv 70 Gear in every Slot
* Step 2. Run Regular Rifts for Greater Rift Keystones
* Step 3. Obtain all of the Legendary Gems (Or just the ones you need)
* Step 4. Level up your main Legendary Gems to rank 25
* Step 5. Obtain Legendary Gear in each slot, and reforge with strong rolls.
* Step 6. Start to Establish your Kanai Cube options
This is a good side goal to focus on, while doing your Normal Regular/Greater Rift Grind. The additional damage, and toughness that the gems provide will enable us to be able to start farming end game content, at the end of our first 24 in Game hours on our Witch Doctor. Gem choices will vary, but I recommend defiantly using Esoteric: Alteration Legendary gem due to how much toughness this gem will provide at higher greater rift levels.
* Identifying your end Game Build
Once you've established a solid skill/gear foundation from Phase 2, you want to make sure your capable of farming end game content. There 3 sets that can instantly take you to Torment 10 (Greater Rift 45), just by obtaining them, and having some solid gem choices.
Now I'm not saying that you have to have perfect rolls, or everything set up perfectly with your Kanai cube to get these builds to Torment 10. I'm just simply saying if you start to accumulate specific set pieces more so then others, it would be wise to commit to that set. This doesn't mean you will be stuck with that certain build forever, it will just be your vehicle to get you to your destination.
**Setting up for Kanai Cube Crafting**
There a lot of different recipes, that are useful with the Kanai's cube, but these are the most note worthy:
* "Archive of Tal Rasha" Extract Legendary Power
The best recipe by far hands down. In the Phase 2 section I've included a list of popular Legendary items to cube based upon what drops for you. Solidifying a strong Cube Legendary item setup will make it so the transitioning to Torment 10, and Higher Greater Rifts very easy, combined with one of the major 6 piece sets
* "Hope of Cain" Upgrade Rare item
Solid choice when your searching for a specific legendary drop. With basic crafting materials, and a Rare item of your choosing, it will provide you a legendary item of that item type randomly. Example: I use a Rare Ceremonial Knife, and place it in the Kanai's cube, I also place the crafting mats required to use this recipe, I transmute the items in the box, and it turns my Rare Ceremonial knife into the legendary "Last Breath". Another nice thing about this is, that the created legendary has a chance to roll with ancient affixes.
* "Skill of Nilfur" Convert Set item
Allows you to convert a set item (That consists of 3 pieces or higher) to another piece of that set randomly. This will allow us to obtain set items that are missing from making our sets, with our duplicate set item pieces we acquire. However be forewarned set items made this way will never be ancient
* After 24 Hours, welcome to "Endless Paragon Grinding"
At this point your WD should be farming end game level content (GR Lv 45+ & Torment 10). Your next step is to plan out how far you want to take your WD. Plan on ranking in top 1000? Paragon 600-700 With solid items should be more than enough. Top 100? Well you might need something closer to paragon 1000. However I will warn you now, Paragon level HEAVILY influences the outcome of Greater Rift progression in groups or solo. Botting, and "un-ethical" things will be done in the pursuit of people Ranking against each other. (which is fine because its human nature) If you want to push high level paragon levels, just realize the bigger picture, and be aware of what goes on.
**Exp Slaving**
*I'll try to put this as simple as possible*
* The old system made it so exp was individually earned (Even exp increasing effects)
* People didn't like how support classes could run high amounts of Exp gaining items, while the Damage dealers of the group couldn't do the same without sacrificing significant amounts of damage.
* Blizzard changed this, and made it so that all Exp increasing items would apply to the groups exp total, which then would be divided evenly among everyone in the party.
* Players Noticed the insane exp rates, by utilizing characters in the group that do nothing more than "support" the best they can, while wearing as much Exp increasing items as possible.
* Double Exp Slaves, with Double Damage Dealer group setups are the normal now.
So in short 2 people in the group should deal high amounts of damage, capable of carrying 2 other players who's focus isn't damage, but more on a Light "support" /Heavy Exp Gaining item build. So if you have dreams of grinding out high level paragon levels quickly, start building those High Exp gaining sets, or have your friends "slave" for your group.
* In Pursuit of Perfect item sets
So after you established what you wanted to do with Paragon farming, the only thing left is to start grinding Rifts for perfect gear sets. For weapons, and other smaller items, Using the "Hope of Cain" recipe would be a good way to attempt to pick up ancient item rolls for specific legendarys. Of course if you plan on really pushing the paragon levels eventually you will have a set of full ancient items easily. If you were to ask me which is more difficult, the paragon grinding or looking for full sets of ancient gear, paragon grinding in the long term is wayyyy more difficult.
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
Patch 2.3 (Currently on PTR) is bringing a lot of changes to all classes in general. With the ability of the new Kanai's cube allowing us to utilize up to 3 legendary affixes open up a lot of possibilities for new builds, and item combinations that were not possible before. We will go over what is mostly relevant to the Witch Doctor class, and what items/changes greatly effect them.
In this section I will only be covering the biggest skill changes that effect Witch Doctors the most. I've included a link to the general patch notes below so you can see all of the changes.
* The Toad/Shaman will be now summoned where the mouse cursor is placed at the time of the skill being cast.
* Summoned Shamans'/Toad cast range increased from 25 to 50 yards
* Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%
* Skill Rune - Jinx, Damage bonus increased from 10% to 30%
* Skill Rune - Toad of Hugeness
Every second for 5 seconds, the toad pulls in the farthest enemy within 45 yards, swallows him for 0.5 seconds, then spits him back out, leaving the enemy with a debuff that deals 750% weapon damage over 5 seconds and increases damage taken by 25%
Picture of Toad of Hugeness:
With the changes to hex have made it a very flexible skill that can't be fit into almost any build. The damage increase to the base skill, changes to toad of hugeness, and the damage increase for Jinx enable builds that lack survivability (Jade, Helltooth, Arachyr) to function much more smoothly. Since the ability to cast the Shaman/Toad at our mouse cursor location, it allows for us to hang back, and start of a fight vs a mob pack with solid crowd-control, that's on a low cool down.
* Arachyr Set also works very well with hex, due to its 4 & 6 piece set bonuses, this is a must take skill for this set.
* Jade set Benefits from the changes to hex, with the ability to control where the Shaman/Toad are summoned
* Most other sets, simply benefit from the damage increase that was granted in the recent change.
*Raise a wall of Zombies 28 yards wide from the ground that blocks enemies and attacks them for 800% weapon damage as Physical over 6 seconds*
Skill Runes
Skill Rune - "Communing with Spirits" Summon a 15 yard radius spectral ring that deals 1400% weapon damage as Cold over 6 seconds, Chills all enemies who walk through by 60%, and reduces their damage done by 25%
Communing with Spirits Picture
Might be the strongest rune, out of all the Wall of Dead arsenal with "Ring of Poison" being the only one that can match closely to it. The chill effect triggers "Bane of the Trapped", and reduces the enemies damage done by 25% for 3 seconds. With a Wrath of the Bone King, while using the Kanai cube for the "Furnace" Affix could make this potentially the best Rune choice for Wall of the dead.
Skill Rune - "Fire Wall" Summon a fire wall 40 yards wide for 8 seconds that burns enemies who walk through, dealing 1000% weapon damage as Fire over 4 seconds.
FireWall Picture
Not to much to say about this skill, the damage is "Ok" when used with the HellTooth set, but the "straight line" effect when it is cast, would benefit more if it were a "Circle" radius effect like some of the other Wall of Dead have. Getting enemies to "walk thru" the fire wall isn't to difficult, but not as optimal as if it did cast in a circular manner around the enemy, a "circle of fire" if you would.
Skill Rune - "Wall of Zombies" Increase the width of the wall of Zombies to 50 yards and knock all enemies back behind the wall
Wall Of Zombies Picture
Suffers from the same problems as the "Fire wall" rune, however the knock back effect with strong-arm bracers makes for an interesting combination. The weakness of this skill lies in that if the enemy doesn't touch the wall they will not take damage, and the way the zombie wall is cast doesn't hit enough enemies within its radius.*
Skill Rune - "Ring of Poison" Summon a 15 yard radius ring for 5 seconds that poisons nearby enemies, causing them to take 1200% weapon damage as Poison over 8 seconds
Ring of Poison Picture
One of my favorite "Wall of Death" Skill runes. Poison is a very strong element choice with Witch Doctors, and synergies well with many skills. The overall utility as compared to "Communing with Spirits" is lacking, however the overall damage output, Worm Wood with Kani Cube Effect "Furnace" makes for a very strong Wall of Dead rune to use.
Skill Rune - "Surrounded by Death" Raises a circle of zombies from the ground that traps and attacks nearby enemies for 1000% weapon damage as physical over 4 seconds.
Surrounded by Death Picture
*The circle radius is very nice for the skill, it entraps enemies, and deals damage to any enemy that touches the wall of zombies. Out of both physical elemental property skills for "Wall of Dead" this seems to produce the best results due to its utility, and damage*
Passive Skills
"Confidence Ritual" You deal 25% additional damage to enemies within 20 yards.
Nothing much to talk about here, solid new passive that gets the job done. You should take whenever possible due to its effects. wouldn't be surprised if a lot of players build this into a viable Hellfire Amulet option.
I'm going to keep this short and straight to the point. The crafting recipes that comes with the cube are solid, and will allow for us to easily build ancient, legendary sets and maximize our itemization to push high level greater rifts. With that being said, the major purpose of the cube is to provide us legendary affixes of some of the most important, and powerful items in game. With the ability to have 1 armor, 1 weapon, and 1 jewelry legendary affix equipped to our character, "Ring of Royal Grandeur", "Unity Ring", and "Mask of Jeram" , "Star Metal Kukri" don't have to take up precious item slots, and can allow for us to really push some powerful build combinations.
First we will cover what changes happened with the Helltooth set, showing off how the original set was, and how it has evolved since then.
Pre-Patch 2.3 Helltooth Version
**(2) Piece Set Bonus**
* 500 Int for a 2 Set bonus use to be solid, but with all the changes to most of the class sets, 500 int isn't what it use to be.
**(4) Piece Set Bonus**
* Reduction in the Wall of Zombie cast, was only meaningful if paired with Legacy Legendary items, than enabled for a 0 Cool Down Zombie wall build.
**(6) Piece Set Bonus**
* 300% Damage dealing Acid attack, that only hits in front of the Zombie Wall, that scales with physical damage, a very lack luster 6 piece bonus, and didn't enable the build to really do much.
Patch 2.3 Helltooth Version
**(2) Piece Set Bonus**
Solid 2 Piece set bonus, Marks the target with Necrosis (Slows, 1000% Weapon Damage, Increase Damage taken 15%, for 10 seconds), with most of the skills that WD use. A way better setup then the previous 2 piece set implementation, and provides group utility with the 15% increase Damage on monsters inflicted with Necrosis.
**(4) Piece Set Bonus**
* This is Where the damage mitigation comes in. You will notice that this occurs in all major sets for WD outside of the Jade set. As long as an enemy is inflicted by Necrosis you take 50% less damage, this will allow for us to get the toughness in which we need, without sacrificing to much damage in our gear setup.
**(6) Piece Set Bonus**
* 300% Increased Damage, per wall of Death cast, stacking up to 3 times. This is the bread and butter that really makes the build function. 900% increased damage, with Zombie Charger/Gargantuan is all you need to push this build up towards greater rift 60, and beyond
New Arachyr Set
Arachyr Set
**(2) Piece Set Bonus**
* 2500%(Up from 1500%) Weapon Damage dealing spider queen. She is controlled to move where ever you cast corpse spiders. She does AOE damage, and slows enemies. Not the strongest of 2 piece set bonus, but bane of trapped works well with it, and the damage she deals is "solid".
**(4) Piece Set Bonus**
* 40% Damage reduction when Hex is active, also it gains the effect of Toad of Hugeness automatically.Provides a small heal based upon your life per-second over the course of 10 seconds. Hopefully blizzard ups the damaged reduction to a clean 50%, and re-evaluates the healing effect of this bonus. But overall, it provides the toughness we need to survive higher level greater rifts.
**(6) Piece Set Bonus**
* 800%(Up from 500%) increased Damage to our creature spells. Gonna be honest here, the idea behind this 6 piece is pretty cool, however the only note worthy "Creature" spell that can actually get the most out of this bonus is Locust Swarm. Increasing the damage of this bonus, and or re-working the creature skills in general is necessary in my opinion to change the set for the better. However that might need an extended amount of time to work, so maybe altering how the 6 piece set bonus might be the best direction for blizzard.
Fantastic Legendary item that combos in with the new Hell Tooth changes. Cast three Wall of Deaths, for the price of one? Pretty much no brainer here, with the Helltooth 6 piece set bonus that amps damage per Wall of Death Cast.
**Coils of the First Spider**
The initial implementation of this item was lack luster, however with the change to reduce damage taken while channeling Firebats does make it interesting to look at a second time. The problem doesn't lye within the item, but the skill, now blizzard has made some changes in terms of mana management, and overall damage of fire bats but it just doesn't seem to be enough. Firebats needs a serious re-working, or some type of Damage increase within the item, to get it being used on a regular basis.
**Henri's Perquisition**
This is the new seasonal Witch Doctor Item coming in Patch 2.3 Season 4. It has a very solid damage mitigation effect, combined with a strong crowd control charm. Was very pleased with the overall testing of this item, and a good example of what a "solid" legendary looks like. It may or may not be used at the highest level of Greater rifting, but will provide ample damage mitigation until people are able to start pushing toward end game gear progression.
The only things that I feel might change in the up coming weeks to this list, is the overall placement of Carnevil, and Helltooth/Garg Builds. Blizzard stated that Helltooth in fact will receive another buff, and that Carnevil will have a change to the build to help "reduce lag" that the fetish darts can cause. I don't believe Arachyr, or Jade will be able to compete with Helltooth, or Zunimassa for at least this upcoming season.
Build Rankings
* 1. CarnEvil (As long as future changes don't impact the build negatively)
* 2. Helltooth/Garg
* 3. Melee/Zuni (As long as your using Bane of the Stricken)
* In previous patches it was ok for the Witch Doctors solo builds to fall behind when compared to other classes. This was due to the fact that what we lacked in solo play we made up for in groups. It didn't matter if it was 2, 3, and 4 person groups a Witch Doctor was always represented, because our support build was so dominant.
* When the changes to crowd control went thru in rendered the Zombie Dog "Stun Lock", and Tikilidan Visage "Perma-Fear" builds useless. This was perfectly fine, as long as our solo capabilities received some type of "boost/buff".
* Currently our solo builds are suffering greatly when compared to other classes, but until the PTR is officially announced "completed" their is still a chance that things can do differently. Their also might be a possibility we can still provide groups great utility with a new support focused style of build, but it has yet to be made/discovered yet.
Overall I think we have a variety of builds we can use to effectively hit Greater rift 50. Now I don't expect all of these builds to be 60+ viable, but 2 out of the 5-6 Builds we have would more than enough. The only thing I don't agree with is undermining the hard work, and effort that goes into making these builds solid, only to nerf them later Ex: Jade Set , and potentially future changes to CarnEvil.
Witch Doctor isn't in a great state at the moment, but that doesn't mean we lack potential to become better then what we currently are. Hopefully towards the end of PTR Patch 2.3 we will be in a much better state, otherwise we might end up taking seat for the next season.
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
If allowed I'll be updating my guides through this post (if possible). If this isn't the place to post this type of information my apologies, I guess we will figure out another way.
Here is a set of guides that I have so far, and many more to come:
How to approach the early game
Max level ---> Upgrade all Artisans ---> Initial Rare item set ---> Torment level 1 ---> Ring of Royal Granduer ---> Aughilds/Cains Set ---> Building towards Mid Game.
Max level
Grinding Bounties until Level 70, or getting power level'd get to 70
The game "truly" begins at level 70, this is your first priority over everything else.
Save all Gold acquired while leveling
Pick up, and salvage all items, that are not upgrades
Don't bother with saving gems that are not marquise or higher (Lv 61+)
If you have been saving all your gold, picking up everything and salvaging it, once you hit level 70 upgrading all artisans levels to max should be very easy. You won't be getting a lot of use out the Jewel crafting artisan just yet. Your focus should be in getting accustomed to the enchantress, and the black smith.
Enchantress
How she works:
* Myriam allows for one STAT roll on an item
* She will list what materials, and the gold amount it cost to do a re-roll on that specific stat of that item
* Primary stats can only be re-rolled for other primary Stats
* Secondary stats can only be re-rolled for other secondary stats
* Legendary items require 1 Forgotten soul per re-roll
* Legendary Jewelry (Rings/Amulets) will require a specific upgraded gem.
* Every re-roll increases the base-line cost of gold "EXCLUDING" Jewelry items (rings/amulets)
Black Smith
* Haedrig allows for the Breaking down of items, and crafting of gear
* While defeating enemies their is a % chance for plans to drop
* To have Haedrig learn a new crafting plan, he must meet the appropriate artisan level, and you must right click the plan while you have the black smith window open.
* Crafting items require Gold, and Crafting mats
* Legendary items require 1-2 Forgotten souls per craft
Jewel Crafter
* Shen allows for the combining, removal, and socketing of gear with gems.
* Marquise is the base level gem for all higher level gems
* Every 3 gems of the same type upgrade to (1) of the next level of gem, at higher levels though Deaths Breath is required along with the gold cost.
* I STRONGLY ADVISE, to not upgrade gems to quickly, or your gold will deplete very quickly.
Some legendary items offer unique stats on certain items in game, but for the most part these are stats you will be looking on predominately for your gear.
* Uhkhapian Serpent- Zombies dogs take 25%-30% of your damage taken
* Zunimassa 4 Piece Set, to make Summon Fetishes Army Last forever
* Aughild's Power + Aughild's Search + Aughild's Chest- Defense and increase Dmg to elites
* Cain's 2 Piece Set, to gain a 8% Attack Speed
* Swamp Land Waders: 20% Increased Poison Dmg
* Cindercoat: 20% increased Fire Damage
* Tall-Mans Finger: Combines all zombie dogs into one gargantuan one
* Unity Ring- For solo play, used with your follower allows for 50% Damage mitigation
Tall-Mans finger + Star Metal Kukuri Build
What element does the Tall-Man Finger build benefit most from?
* Fire/Poison/Physical
What other things improves this builds dps?
For Stats on gear:
* Int > Crit Chance > Crit Dmg% > Average Damage > Increase elemental damage
What set pieces/Loot make the build work better?
* Uhkhapian Serpent- Zombies dogs take 25%-30% of your damage taken
* Aughild's Power + Aughild's Search + Aughild's Chest- Defense and increase Dmg to elites
* Cain's 2 Piece Set, to gain a 8% Attack Speed
* Swamp Land Waders: 20% Increased Poison Dmg (Poison dog variant only)
* Hell Fire Amulet- Allows for an additional Passive
* Unity Ring- For solo play, used with your follower allows for 50% Damage mitigation
* Star Metal Kukri: Reduces Cooldown of BBV, and Summon Fetish Army By 1 second each time your fetishes deal damage.
* Tall-Mans Finger: Combines all zombie dogs into one gargantuan one
THE BIG TWO CATEGORIES FOR FETISH
Fetish Sycophants -Passive Skill-
Skills that proc the Passive the Best:
* Toads- "Rain of Toads"
* Firebats
* Poison Darts
* Corpse Spiders
* Firebomb
Facts about fetish psychopaths "Passive"
* These fetishes are not effected by Zunimassa Set
* They are whatever elemental property is your highest, within your build
* If they shoot Darts Via Carnevil, their dmg property is Poison
* They are NOT effected by "Increase Fetish Army Damage"
* They are considered "Pets", and can benefit from Mask of Jeram/ Task Theo Gloves.
* Compared to Summon Fetish Army, these fetishes die fairly easily
Fetish psychopaths -Summon Fetish Army-
* These fetishes ARE effected by Zunimassa Set
* These fetish NO LONGER CONFLICT with the Passive ones
* Have a much higher viability then the Passive fetishes
* W/E the run is set to I.E.: Fire, ALL fetishes that are summoned from it ARE in fact that element
These are the elements skills that are possible:
* They can be Physical Property
* They can be Poison Property
* They can be Fire Property
* If they shoot Darts Via Carnevil, their dmg property is Poison "It overrides w/e property they are currently set to."
* They ARE effected by "Increase Fetish Army Damage"
* They are considered "Pets", and can benefit from Mask of Jeram/ Task Theo Gloves.
Final things you should remember
* Fetishes Can die "From monster damage, time expiring*
* Recasting Summon Fetish Army, Replaces the current FA on the field of battle, and leaves the ones from passive alive
* Fetishes From the gibbidin do NOT apply to the Fetishes you generate via the passive, or the Skill. They are however affected from mask of Jeram (90% sure of this), but they can't critical hit.
* Fetishes Can benefit from Big Bad Vodoo, and other classes "buffs" They are considered allies.
Belt of Transcendence Fetish are the same as Fetish Sycophants
Fetish Sycophants take on whatever elemental Property that is the highest on your gear set.
Legendary Gems
I will be listing the most commonly used Gems for Witch Doctor Only
Legendary gems were implemented in patch 2.1, to further power up your characters
* Leg.Gems Can only be placed in Rings, Amulets
* So you can only have 3 Leg.Gems at once
* Gems will be leveled up through Urshi, who appears after you kill the Greater Rift Guardian
* Every level upgraded on the gems, increases the primary effect slightly
* Secondary Effects are unlocked at level 25
* killing a Rift Guardians grants you 3 Chances to upgrade your gem.
* Each successful upgrade= 1 increase in rank
Commonly used Witch Doctor Legendary Gems:
Bane of the Powerful
* Base effect: Gain 20% increased damage for 30 seconds after killing an elite pack.
* Increase rank grants: +1 second buff duration.
* Rank 25 unlocks: 15% Increased Damage to Elites.
Overall I feel that this gem is the most well rounded out of all gem selections. At rank 25 the duration is extended 55 seconds, at rank 35 65 Seconds, and at rank 50 80 seconds of 20% increased damage. Not mention the secondary effect adds 15% elite damage. If your stuck on a 3rd option for a legendary gem choice, or want a gem that solid in any build this gem is defiantly it.
Enforcer
* Base Effect: Increases the damage of your pets by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: 0.3% more pet damage per level.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Your pets take 25% reduced damage.
Solid choice in any pet build. The damage increase is counted as an "elemental" type, so it doesn't really maximize its damage potential with Jeram's Pet damage increase as it should. The secondary doesn't really make to big of a difference, but if you find your self running a build that uses Fetish Army, and Fetish Sycophants the 25% damage mitigation for pets really helps those builds especially through Greater Rifts.
Pain Enhancer
* Base Effect: Critical hits cause the enemy to bleed for 1200% weapon damage as Physical over 3 seconds.
* Upgrade rank grants: +30% weapon damage.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Gain Blood Frenzy, granting you 3% increased Attack Speed for each bleeding enemy within 20 yards.
This gem starts off a little slow, but by the time it begins to rich the higher ranks, is where this gem truly shines. The physical damage dot scales with Increase Physical% property items, and can be triggered by pets critical attacks. The secondary effect is a little lackluster, but is solid in builds that put you in close proximity of the enemies that you are fighting. Any pet build can benefit from this gem, but it may not always be the best option depending on what pet build it is.
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
* Base Effect: Poison all enemies hit for 2000% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Upgrade rank grants: +50% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Rank 25 unlocks: All enemies you poison take 10% increased damage from all sources.
Efficacious Toxin gem is as self sufficient as it gets. The dot can be applied by damage you preform, or caused by your pets. The Dot scales with Increase Poison% property items, and since the dot is poison property it auto triggers the secondary effect. After blizzard changed this gem to be trigger-able by pets, this gem is seeing alot of use outside of just the typical jade build. Long story short: If your build is poison base, or your looking for a 10% damage increase across the board this is the gem for you.
Simplicity
* Simplicity’s Strength
* Base Effect: Increase the damage of primary skills by 25%.
* Upgrade rank grants: +0.5% damage.
*Rank 25 unlocks: Primary skills heal you for 2% of maximum health on hit.
Simplicity gem below rank at rank 25+ works tremendously well with Rhen'ho Flayer, and Grin Reaper Poison builds. Addling toads, Explosive Toads, Spider Queen, and Rain of toads are definitely the way to go when using this gem. If you need LOH, but don't want to sacrifice stats on your gear to achieve this, Simplicity can provide that with its secondary 2% of your Health as life on hit effect.
Gogok of Swiftness
* Base Effect: 50% chance on hit to gain Swiftness, increasing your Attack Speed 1% for 4 seconds. This effect stacks up to 15 times.
* Upgrade rank grants: +1% chance.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Gain 1% Cooldown Reduction per stack of Swiftness.
For the Witch Doctor, Gogok is a solid gem choice for many builds, excluding Hexing pants, and Jade Builds. The attack speed helps with Fetish generation, and outputting damage with build such as Rhen'ho flayer, and Grin Reaper. the secondary isn't the best but it isn't the worst either. In the Carnevil build, since Attack speed GREATLY effects the damage output of that build, gogok is a definite must.
Boon of the Hoarder
* Base Effect: 25% chance to cause an explosion of gold when you kill an enemy.
* Upgrade rank grants: +1.5% chance on kill.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Gain 30% increased movement speed for 2 seconds after picking up gold.
* Drops only from Greed, found in The Vault. The only gem that doesn't drop from Grift Guardians.
**Ice blink (Season 3 Exclusive)**
* Your Cold skills now apply Chill effects and your Chill effects now slow enemy movement speed by an additional 5%
* The additional movement speed reduction is increased by .4% per rank
* At rank 25 you gain 10% increased chance to critically strike Chilled or Frozen enemies
This combined with Bane of the Trapped shall yield some very interesting results. Also depending on how well the movement speed reduction scales could literally leave enemies standing in their place unable to come directly at you. The 10% Crit chance is also nice, meaning you could drop Crit chance of some pieces of your gear, and run other stat affix's.
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
This is a list of the items that had the biggest impact on Witch Doctors for the upcoming patch (2.2). These items, may or may not have started off the way they are listed now, but it is safe to say these are in their finalized forms. If anything Changes I will go back and amend them
Zunimassa Gloves
* Added to allow for the 6 Piece set Bonus
* Takes away from the Possibility of running Tasker & Theo with Unity for Greater Rift play
Understandable why Blizzard wouldn't want Tasker & Theo to combo in with Unity. Pet build WD's with their improved damage, toughness, and skill improvement we would end up terrorizing the solo leader boards. I know a lot of people may not agree with this statement, but Zuni/SMK build can easily hit GR 46-48, while having a "Fishing potential" of Greater Rift 50-54 next season.
Zunimassa Pants
* Was Added after Player feedback to the Developers
* Enabled use of Unity ring with 6 Piece Zuni Sets.
These pants were included, after initial feedback with the Zuni set. Without having an additional piece to work with, it automatically made it so that a Player had to use Zunimassa Pox, and Ring of Royal Grandeur to get any viability out of the build. It was a solid choice to add an additional Zuni piece to the pants slot, being it is the most flexible area to work with.
Zunimassa Off Hand
*The picture you see isn't of the current PTR updated version*
* Added an additional 5th affix: *Increase Fetish Army Damage 25-30%*
* You can't re-roll this item to have *Increase Skill Damage*, unless you are rolling the new 5th affix off this item
The change to the 5th affix won't do anything for CarnEvil Builds, they still will be rolling "Increased Poison damage" on their off hands. For Zuni/Smk builds the New affix is a welcome "buff", having the additional 10-15% increased damage to Fetish army can't do anything but help.
Belt of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
* Allows for us to drop Fetish Sycophants passive, and run an alternative one
* Opens up options for 2 Hander's to generate Fetishes in a more reliable manner.
* Multiple builds for Witch Doctor, have flexibility in-regards to what pants we use.
* Works extremely well with Zunimassa's new 6 Piece set bonus.
*Just for a side note, the fetishes are the same ones from "Fetish Sycophants" Passive, meaning if you ran the passive with the pants you could only have "15" "Fetish Sycophants" at one time
Haunting Girdle
Not to much to say about the Haunting Girdle. The ability to have a double cast on the Poisoned Spirit is "ok", but with the inclusion of the "Belt of Transcendence" I'm 99.9% Sure that most Witch Doctors would prefer to have 15 Fetishes that provide additional damage, and toughness over simply having an additional haunt per cast. I think they item will find its uses, but only really in early stages of development in newly created/seasons Witch Doctor.
Homunculus
* New 5th affix: Increases Sacrifice Damage
* Secondary Affix Change: A Zombie dog is produced every 2 seconds, down from 4-6 seconds.
Very nice buff to this item. Zombie dog generation with this item is phenomenal, which allows us to maintain multiple stacks of Sacrifice "Provoke the Pack". This, and focus & restraint made the "Tiki Sac" Build for Witch Doctors the top end build on PTR for Witch Doctors.
Little Man's Finger
This is a highly entertaining ring, and is example of when blizzard does it "right". It isn't part of a "set", it has a solid legendary effect, and versatility to be inserted into many different builds. The only thing I worry about, is what the drop rate % will be once it hits live servers.
* Reduces the Cool down of "ONE" of our skills by 1 second for each time we use a mana spender
For zDPS, and early Witch Doctor Builds this will be a very useful ring. The only thing that holds this ring back is of the randomness of which skills will be reduced by one second, but shouldn't be to much of a problem in zDPS builds due to them benefiting from any of their long cool down skills be reduced.
Broken Ring of Promises
* After 5 non crit Consecutive hits your Critical Chance is increased by 100% for 3 seconds
**My original thoughts for how the initial way that the ring works**
*Depending on how blizzard is going to treat this ring, a lot of things can get pretty silly. In theory you could eliminate all of the Critical Chance in your Build, run pure attack speed with Critical Damage, you could easily maintain a 100% up time on the effect of the ring. I'd imagine Blizzard will add an additional stipulation in the form of "This effect can only occur once every <insert number here> seconds. Back in the "original ptr" Legendary Gem testing phase, Enforcer gem secondary provided pets with 40% increased critical chance increase or pets, needless to say this never mate it to the light of day on the live servers.*
**How the item works now.**
Pets no longer triggers the effect.
Apparently the Crit chance granted by the effect, carries over to your pets. With this being allowed, this ring would provide, an interesting way to itemize a WD for TIki/Sac play, or simple in efforts to Min-Max without worrying about the Crit Chance Stat whats so ever. Tiki/Sac could get a lot out of this ring until a Focus/Restraint were found, however if the WD prefers not to run focus and restraint, this would be the next viable option in Tiki/Sac play, while still allowing for a Unity ring to be used.
Focus & Restraint
I'm quite surprised to see this ring, not receive any additional alterations towards it. With the Tiki/Sac Build it turns it into a monster. The only reason this is possible to run this build in higher Greater rifts w/o unity is due to the fact Tiki/sac uses "Perma Fear" on the monsters, and runs high toughness. Blizzard can still make alterations to the ring set, but if they don't expect the top Leader Boards to reflect this set use, along with the traditional Tiki/Sac we have been using.
**Long story short**
* If you can use these rings in your build, DO IT.
In-Geom
*My original thought upon this weapon is as follows:*
* Nothing to complicated with this One-Handed weapon
* Reduces our base skills cool down from 4-6 seconds
This item, could be a really big game changer in a couple of our major builds, but most specifically our ZDPS group build. I would go more into detail about this item, however I'm pretty confident that this item will not make it through the PTR test phase, but if it does I will revisit and update this section.
**The current State of the weapon**
Almost useless, in its current state. I have to agree with the nerf to this weapon, as its previous form would of been game breaking for some classes. I would however hope Blizzard will address this issue, as I do not enjoy them spending development time on items, that end up being completely useless.
**Changes to Witch Doctor Active/Passive Skills & Set Items**
In terms of "Quality of Life" Changes for WD's Blizzard knocked it out of the park. A lot of our skills that haven't been used in a while will be use full. Hopefully in the future Blizzard can keep going back, and addressing the issues of some skills that are next to never used by most WD's. However one skill change, Spirit Walk, has unfortunately left the Jade build in ruins, and weakening the overall survivability of the WD.
* Enemies hit by your mana spenders take 275% additional from your pets.
* Gloves, and Pants have been including to obtain the 6 piece bonus.
The initial damage increase from 100% ---> 150% -----> 275% was defiantly needed to make this set bonus competitive with other classes set items, and builds. I would like to see a solid 300% implemented by blizzard, but isn't really necessary. I will say this however, reducing all Major 6 Piece Set items, for all classes to only requiring 5 pieces would defiantly add a lot more flexibility, and item combinations for all classes.
**Raiment of the Jade Harvester**
Blizzard made some changes to the Jade Harvester set for the better. I will say the only complaint I have about these changes is that, the (2) piece set bonus, should be the (4) piece set requirement, and drop the (4) Piece bonus to only (2) Piece requirement.
**(2) Set Bonus**
* When Haunt lands on an enemy already affected by Haunt, it instantly deals 10 seconds worth of Haunt damage
**(4) Set Bonus**
* Soul Harvest gains the effect of every rune
**(6) Set Bonus**
* Amount of DoT time detonated (via creeping death) increased from 30 to 40 seconds (This just increases Damage of the Harvest).
The overall set changes to the Jade set are fantastic HOWEVER.... The mechanics of what made the Jade Build so successful was related to the way Spirit walk worked so well with the build. With the changes to Spirit Walk, the Jades survivability within large mobs of groups is gone. Thus rendering the build useless.
**Things Blizzard could do to save the set:**
* Increase the Dot Time detonation cap from 40 to about 70-100 Seconds
This may seem like a little much, but if it proves to be to powerful Blizzard could always reduce it. If our survivability changes that's ok, we can make
due, but need something in compensation to make up for losing out on it.
* Allow for the 6 piece Bonus of Jade, to remove the Cool Down restraint placed upon Spirit Walk
Pretty straight forward here, reverts Spirit Walk to how it use to be only if you have 6 pieces of the Jade Set running. I think this would be a simple solution, and it wouldn't require Blizz to increase the damage any further with the jade build.
* Enable ,after Harvesting, a Scaling Damage absorption shield base upon how many enemies you landed harvest on.
I dunno if this would be more trouble than what its worth, but it would allow for the Witch Doctors toughness to be depending on how effect, and how often the player could cast soul harvest on enemies. This would no doubt cause more programming inside of the game, but I think it would make the play-style more interesting. However out of the 3 solutions/ideas I've listed the other teo are much easier to implement.
* Hex will now turn all enemies within a 12 yard radius into chickens, instead of just 1 enemy
* Increased the maximum range for both Hexing enemies and healing friendlies
* Minimum time between Hex casts by the Fetish Shaman increased from 3 to 4 seconds
* Duration for which enemies can be Hexed reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
A beautiful change to a spell that hasn't been in Witch Doctor use. It provides Crowd control, damage amp, and it doesn't cost any mana. It works on trash mobs, and elites and should be included in any build when you feel you are lacking a skill to finish rounding out your build.
**Fetish Army "Fetish Ambush"**
*Weapon damage dealt by each Fetish when it is summoned increased from 250% to 680%
I'm gonna keep this short. Unless your using some sort of cold pet build this changes is worthless. The damage from summoning the fetishes isn't worth it due to, the damage loss from taking the fetishes off their current target while due to summoning them.
**What Blizzard should of done**
* "Summon 5 Fetishes of Cold property, that "Cleave/Splash Attack" for a "% of the damage it deals* To all enemies within "Insert Radius" *Health Globe pick Up radius improves the Cleave/Splash area* up to a maximum "20 yards"
It would be nice for a Cold pet build, if the main focus of pets were to be "Cleave/Splash" damage.
**Spirit Walk**
* Cool down reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
* This ability does not start its cool down until after its effects expire
This change has no effect on pet builds, but Ruins the Jade Build. I won't go to much into how bad this change is, because it would take hours, but a couple of ideas on how they could fix this issue.
* Decrease the Cool Down to 6-8 Seconds
* Allow for it to be affected by Grave Injustice, even if the WD is still under the effects of the skill.
* Give a Small 1-2 Seconds of invulnerability when a WD comes out of its effect.
* Implement an item that increases the duration of Jaunt Spirit walk Rune for every enemy you kill while under the effects of it.
They have said they would take into some consideration to helping with the Spirit Walk nerf, but we haven't seen anything yet. So until then I expect 99.9% of the Witch Doctors will be running pet builds for season 3.
**Soul Harvest**
* Intelligence bonus granted by each enemy harvested increased from 2% to 3%
Great solid change here, I have no complaints. Will syn-energize with Gruesome feast, and builds that build a lot of intelligence.
* Skill Rune - Languish Has been redesigned Increases your Armor by 30% and reduces enemy movement speed by 80%
I don't mind the change that it increases armor, but it is a little weird since pre-patch 2.0 Horrify Frightening aspect had its Armor nerfed from 100% increased armor all the way down to 30%. They could of alternatively left "Frightening Aspect" at 100% increased armor, or reduced it down to 60%. The biggest errors in the balancing process is when you devote time to changing, or developing a certain skill to be a certain way, and then undermining that change, later through buffing of other skills, and or items. To add armor to soul harvest is a little silly at this point.
**What I hope they do:**
* Change Horrify FA* to give 60% increased armor, and change Languish for soul harvest to something else entirely
* Change Soul Harvest Languish, to 60% Increased armor, and Change Horrify FA* to something else entirely
**Haunt**
* Skill Rune - Consuming Spirit Life per second increased from 2682 to 4291 Damage type changed from Cold to Fire
Haunt now has every single element possible. With that being said, no one is going to use this skill, hopefully they look back into this in the future.
* Skill Rune - Poisoned Spirit Bug Fixes Fixed an issue that prevented this rune from increasing the damage of itself
Glad that this was addressed, and patched.....nothing to see here people.
**Plague of Toads "Rain of Toads"**
* Proc coefficient has been reduced
Not a Big deal since Fetish Sycophants (Passive Skill) chances have been buffed by 5% (Making it a 15% chance to proc fetishes with an attack)
**Summon Zombie Dogs "Final Gift" ---> "Chilled to the Bone"**
*Skill Rune - Final Gift Has been removed, Replaced with: Chilled to the Bone
* Enemies hit or hit by Zombie Dogs are Chilled for 3 seconds and take 10%-15% increased damage from all sources
This was a fantastic change, and it does Two things:
* Nerfs the Legacy Zero Dogs Build, that was only obtainable if you played the original vanilla Diablo
* Provides us extra damage on any enemies the zombie dogs are attacking
Way to go blizzard, nice to see a Cold rune property for zombie dogs, let alone have a rune effect that actually is very solid.
**Fetish Sycophants "Passive Skill"**
* 15% Chance to spawn a fetishes pet , after successfully landing an attack on an enemy
Up from 10% can't really complain about that, I'll take the extra 5% increase
* At the time of spawning, what ever is your highest elemental Damage, these fetishes take on that property
Fantastic quality of life change, this will allow for a lot of alternative builds to function much better, and optimize all their elemental damage for pets to one type.
These legendary gems is a nice change of pace. They've included one new defensive spell, and one new offensive spell. The defensive one looks like a solid choice with early level mitigation, but will fall wayside once Double unity combo is found. And Ice blink might aid Cold pet builds, but unfortunately is the weakest out of all elements for pet based builds.
* Your Cold skills now apply Chill effects and your Chill effects now slow enemy movement speed by an additional 5%
* The additional movement speed reduction is increased by .4% per rank
* At rank 25 you gain 10% increased chance to critically strike Chilled or Frozen enemies
This combined with Bane of the Trapped shall yield some very interesting results. Also depending on how well the movement speed reduction scales could literally leave enemies standing in their place unable to come directly at you. The 10% Crit chance is also nice, meaning you could drop Crit chance of some pieces of your gear, and run other stat affix's.
**Mutilation Guard**
* Gain 10% melee damage reduction
* Melee damage reduction is increased by 1% per rank
* At rank 25 while below 50% life, you may move through enemies unhindered
I wish they would change from Melee damage reduction to "all damage reduction", but hey for what its worth it is a step in the right direction. It will help people out early on in seasons, and provide them decent damage mitigation until people are able to find toughness through their gear, or Double Unity combo.
Focus & Restraint takes this build to the next level, with the Perma Fear the Tiki Helm provides, and toughness increases to pet WD's, you won't need to run Unity ring anymore. The Damage increase provided from F& R takes it to another level higher then CarnEvil. If no changes happens to F & R expect to see this build on Season 3 Leader Boards
**2. Zuni CarnEvil**
CarnEvil was already a build showing a lot of promise, but with the ability to use the new 6 piece Zuni set with it, allowed this build that topped out in the mid forties, be able to run all the way into the mid fifty's. Very easy set to build for, and gaining popularity, this build will re-occur it's self in the top 50 WD's on any server, quite easily.
My personal favorite, out of the new builds that are coming out of PTR. Very easy to run, not a lot of weakness outside of the lack of AOE damage, and overall just a lot of fun. This is a good alternative for players who may tire of tiki/sac, and CarnEvil builds. I will be personally running this build for Season 3.
Same build as above, only difference this version runs Unity, and Stone Of Jordan as opposed to Focus & Restraint
**5. CarnEvil**
Same Build as above, just not running the 6 piece Zuni set along with it
**6. Jade**
Not gonna spend to much time talking about this build, in its current state on ptr it is in shambles. Hopefully Blizzard does some re balancing, tuning to make this build at least competitive with others.
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
Overall I like the direction the Zunimassa changes are going. I still it needs a little more help in a couple of different areas, such as a possible necklace, or shoulder option for the set. Or simply increasing the damage bonus for the 6 piece set. The toughness, and overall play style is very easy to learn, and I think will be popular with a lot of players who are looking forward to try out the build.
Changes I hope Blizzard considers to help out this gear set
* Adding additional Set pieces to allow for Tasker & Theo Use
* Increases the 6 Piece set bonus from 150% --->300/400%
*If the said above change causes to many problems, they can always reduce the bonus later*
* Allowing for pets to have a small chance to proc "Area Damage" ( 2 Piece set bonus)
* Or simply just allow fetishes to have a cleave that does 10%- 15% of the damage they deal
Again I reiterate it is still early in the PTR testing phase, but hopefully blizzard takes the easy way out, and buffs the 6 piece set bonus, and or add AOE ability to pets.
Patch 2.2 Adds a 6 Piece bonus to Zunimassa set. The new set bonus works as follows: "Enemies hit by your mana spenders take 150%(Up from 100%) additional damage from your pets for 4 seconds. This combos in well with the new Legendary Item "Belt of Transcendence", which allows for us to drop Fetish Sycophants as a passive, and run other alternatives. The two new included pieces for the Zunimassa are the Pants, and Gloves respectively.
Zunimassa Gloves
Takes away our ability to use Tasker and Theo Gloves, but this combined with the pants allows us to be able to run This Zuni set with the use of Unity ring for higher level Greater Rifts.
Zunimassa Pants
These pants were included, after initial feedpack with the Zuni set. Without having an additional piece to work with, it automatically made it so that a Player had to use Zunimassa Pox, and Ring of Royal Grandeur to get any viability out of the build.
Belt of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
* Allows for us to drop Fetish Sycophants passive, and run an alternative one
* Opens up options for 2 Hander's to generate Fetishes in a more reliable manner.
* Multiple builds for Witch Doctor, have flexibility in-regards to what pants we use.
* Works extremely well with Zunimassa's new 6 Piece set bonus.
*Just for a side note, the fetishes are the same ones from "Fetish Sycophants" Passive, meaning if you ran the passive with the pants you could only have "15" "Fetish Sycophants" at one time
How the Legendary was originally introduced
This item was originally introduced for the leg slot. However due to feed back for the Zuni set needing an additional item slot, Blizz decided to add the additional Zuni set piece to the Leg Slot, and move COT to the belt slot in order to allow more builds to utilize it.
Out of all choices, it seems like the most common sense to utilize physical property due to how Fetish Sycophants work. Gargantuan, and Zombie dogs damage won't cut it, so focusing on a total of 23 fetishes is the way to go. Fetish army "Legion of Daggers" provides us 8 Physical property fetishes, with the Belt of Transcendence provides us an additional 15. At this point the remaining skill, gem, and gear choices should be focused on amping up fetish damage, and or increasing damage taken on enemy mobs.
* Allows for us to move into mobs, and summons Fetish army
* Works well with Spirit Vessel
Fetish Army "Legion of Daggers"
* 8 Physical property Fetishes
* Physical Fetishes work well with Passive Fetishes which are also physical property
Hex "Jinx"
* Provides Crowd Control, on trash/elite monsters
* Enemies Under CC effects take 20% increased damage
Big Bad Voodoo "Slam Dance"
* Works well with Star Metal Kukri
* 30% Increased Damage
Haunt "Poisoned Spirit"
* Qualifies as a Mana spender
* Low Mana cost
* Increases damage taken on effected targets by 20%
Piranhas "Zombie Piranhas
* Qualifies as a Mana Spender
* Increases damage taken on effected targets by 15%
* Low cool down, and zombie fishes can jump out of the pool hitting targets outside pool range
*Passive Skills*
Pierce the Veil
* 20% Damage Amp
Spirit Vessel
* More survivability
* Reduces cool down of spirit vessel
Gruesome Feast
* Increases Int by 10% per health globe picked up (stacking to 5 maximum)
Rush of Essence
* Allows for us to spam Haunt w/o worrying about Mana issues
Gem Choices
**Enforcer**
* Base Effect: Increases the damage of your pets by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: 0.3% more pet damage per level.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Your pets take 25% reduced damage.
Straight forward choice here, will increase all damage done by all 23 fetishes in the build.
**Gem of Efficacious Toxin**
* Base Effect: Poison all enemies hit for 2000% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Upgrade rank grants: +50% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Rank 25 unlocks: All enemies you poison take 10% increased damage from all sources.
I know this seems like a weird choice, but the Flat 10% Damage increase will fit well into the build theme, of either boosting Fetish Damage, or increases damage taken on enemies.
**Bane of the Trapped**
* Base effect: Increase damage against enemies under control-impairing effects by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: +0.3% damage.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Gain an aura that reduces the movement speed of enemies within 15 yards by 30%.
We will always be in close for the secondary aura to take effect, allowing us to gain the damage increase.
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
Patch 2.2 Will bring a new ring known as the Little Man's Finger. It turns your Gargantuan into 3 Miniature versions of itself, that does substantially more damage then its normal singular self. The rune effects you have selected, increases to Gargantuan damage, etc. will all apply to these little guys as it would to your normal Gargantuan. Pairing this ring in combination with the New Legendary item "Cloth of transcendence" leads to some fairly strong builds.
Little Man's Finger
This is a highly entertaining ring, and is example of when blizzard does it "right". It isn't part of a "set", it has a solid legendary effect, and versatility to be inserted into many different builds. The only thing I worry about, is what the drop rate % will be once it hits live servers
Cloth of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
* Allows for us to drop Fetish Sycophants passive, and run an alternative one
* Opens up options for 2 Hander's to generate Fetishes in a more reliable manner.
* Multiple builds for Witch Doctor, have flexibility in-regards to what pants we use.
* Works extremely well with Zunimassa's new 6 Piece set bonus.
*Just for a side note, the fetishes are the same ones from "Fetish Sycophants" Passive, meaning if you ran the passive with the pants you could only have "15" "Fetish Sycophants" at one time
Guide Break Down
In this guide we will cover 3 variations of the build. Fire, Poison, and Physical. Each section will have links to how the build performs in Greater Rift Settings, and in some cases T6 Farming. The breakdown will goes as follows:
* Discussion of Pro's, and Con's of the Build
* Overview of the Skill Build Variations, Gems, and Paragon Choices
* List of what Gear we will be using, and what stats are best per slot
* Links to the Videos of the build in action
These are early building blocks of the future item that will be patched in. As things continue to flesh out with the PTR 2.2 Build, I will return to update information, and make alterations to where it is needed.
The fire variation, you could say, is a throw back to the original Wrathful Protector Build pre-nerf 2.0. It was used with Tall Mans finger, high amounts of CDR, and Star Metal Kukri. The Gargantuan itself would hit anywhere from 300m-1Bill+ damage depending on what gear you were running. However after he was "toned down", the overall usage of him, and the Powerful "Wrathful Protector" Rune in general plummeted. With Small Man's finger, It is quite reasonable to get their damage to 200m Crits + for each individual Gargantuan.
For the most part, unless you were looking for a filler skill in a poison build, this skill usually goes unused. The aoe effect is nice for mobs, but unfortunately the damage is a bit lacking to justify its use. With the Small Mans Finger greatly increasing the damage of the AOE effect, you can see a notable difference in its effect. Once Cloth of Transcendence gets move to the Belt slot, it will allow Swamp Land Waders to be used with it increasing the builds strength greatly. I will add this though, running Bad medicine wouldn't be a bad idea at all to help with damage mitigation in a solo/group situation.
*These choices will be listed in order of priority*
Core
* Movement Speed 25%
* Int
Offensive
* CHC *Critical Hit Chance*
* CHD *Critical Hit Damage*
* IAS *Increased Attack Speed*
Defensive
* Armor
* Life %
* All Resistance
Utility
* Resource Cost Reduction (When using Intermediate/Advance build, this prioritizes first)
* Area Effect Damage
* Life On Hit (Takes priority #1 with Starting Build)
Gem Choices
*These are the gems I found most useful with this build, if you feel the need to change anything please do so*
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
* Base Effect: Poison all enemies hit for 2000% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Upgrade rank grants: +50% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Rank 25 unlocks: All enemies you poison take 10% increased damage from all sources.
For most of the time, any poison build (excluding CarnEvil) uses this gem. The poison elemental damage in your build scales with this gem well, and the additional 10% increased damage is nice.
Bane of the Trapped
* Base effect: Increase damage against enemies under control-impairing effects by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: +0.3% damage.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Gain an aura that reduces the movement speed of enemies within 15 yards by 30%.
Solid choice here, gives us a great damage increase for our pets, which is just what we want with our Gargs
Enforcer
* Base Effect: Increases the damage of your pets by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: 0.3% more pet damage per level.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Your pets take 25% reduced damage.
Pretty Straight forward with this one, increase pet damage all the way!
Physical has always been a natural choice for pet builds. This is due to the fact that Fetish Sycophants natural element is physical damage. Fetish army "Legion of Daggers", combines with the passive FS, to maximize the full damage potential of all fetishes by using physical property element. With the LMF Physical build, we still lean towards this however, we use our "Increased Skill Damage" for Gargantuan. The reason for this is because were using the "Cold" Rune effect for our Gargantuan, to help us out with AOE damage. Even though the Gargantuan does not benefit from physical ED increases, the ISD combined with its strong AOE more than make up for it.
*These choices will be listed in order of priority*
Core
* Movement Speed 25%
* Int
Offensive
* CHC *Critical Hit Chance*
* CHD *Critical Hit Damage*
* IAS *Increased Attack Speed*
Defensive
* Armor
* Life %
* All Resistance
Utility
* Resource Cost Reduction (When using Intermediate/Advance build, this prioritizes first)
* Area Effect Damage
* Life On Hit (Takes priority #1 with Starting Build)
Gem Choices
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
* Base Effect: Poison all enemies hit for 2000% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Upgrade rank grants: +50% weapon damage over 10 seconds.
* Rank 25 unlocks: All enemies you poison take 10% increased damage from all sources.
Ok..... I know it seems a little silly to run this with a Physical/Cold build. The 10% Damage increase will amplify our fetishes, but most importantly the Cleave Damage of our Gargs.
Bane of the Trapped
* Base effect: Increase damage against enemies under control-impairing effects by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: +0.3% damage.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Gain an aura that reduces the movement speed of enemies within 15 yards by 30%.
Solid choice here, gives us a great damage increase for our pets, which is just what we want with our Gargs
Enforcer
* Base Effect: Increases the damage of your pets by 15%.
* Upgrade rank grants: 0.3% more pet damage per level.
* Rank 25 unlocks: Your pets take 25% reduced damage.
Pretty Straight forward with this one, increase pet damage all the way!
I'm trying to level a Seasonal WD using this awesome guide, but when it comes to A1 bounties, was there a change to how they work in 2.1.2? I can't seem to get a map that doesn't get at least 1-2 of the red or blue ones w/ boss kill requirement. So I'm always doing 3-4 bounties and then resetting and never getting Caches.
Thats perfectly fine if your not full clearing the bounties to get Horadric caches, but only if yoru leveling to 70, after that point you DEF wanna full clear bounties to get that magical lil treasure box
3
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag:
spsDebo http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Diablo Fans Link to where I keep the growing list of all WD information:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/95384-debos-2-1-2-witch-doctor-compendium
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The 24 Hour Witch Doctor Patch 2.3 & Onward
*Original excerpt I used with the first guide*
This Guide, is meant to serve people whom might be new to Diablo 3, or new to the Witch Doctor Class. It provides a structured easy to follow process that will enable the player to maximize the first 24 hours of a New Witch Doctor that is Created.
Getting power leveled, using exploits, or group play will yield faster results in gearing up a Witch Doctor initially. The point of this guide is to provide an option for players to be self sufficient, or use as a itinerary list on what you should be focusing with a new Witch Doctor.
Link to the first iteration of the 24 hour Witch Dotcor
Patch 2.3 Brings a lot of changes to the core mechanics of character development in Diablo 3. Crafting, and Reforging cost pre 70 have been significantly reduced, and low level crafting mats will be the same ones that drop at max level. With these changes it allows for us to craft solid 2h weapons consistently while leveling, and have the ability to re-roll stats on our items to maximize our dps/toughness capabilities. Secondly is the Kanai's Cube, which will allow us to equip up to 3 legendary powers directly to our characters, this allows for us to push for GR 45-50 Within only the first 24 hours of character development, depending on how your luck holds out with Loot drops.
**Just to be clear**
The guide Will be broken up into "Three Phases"
**Leveling Phase**
**Gear Progression Phase**
**Grind Phase**
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**24 Hour Witch Doctor Itinerary List**
The following in which you are about to read, is a start to finish Itinerary for our first 24 hours for a "fresh" solo Witch Doctor. If you are in a group, you can use this as a rough outline on what you should be focusing on as you progress through content. The leveling Phase is pretty straight forward, it list what difficulty, and skill setup you should be running at different level intervals. The second phase shows how you should prioritize your time to quickly Progress onward to Torment 6. The final phase is all about rounding out your build, and gear itemization to have your Witch Doctor Torment Level 10 ready.
**Crafting Changes**
**Mystic Enchantress Changes**
**Torment 1 ASAP**
**Leoric's Crown Setup**
**Gem Treasure Goblin & Torment Lv 1+**
At Level 21 you should be at torment level 1 difficulty. The biggest thing to look out for is the gem goblins, they take priority over everything else. Cave of the moon clan, and Halls of Agony tend to turn up a lot of goblins in general so be aware of this while completing these bounties.
**Item Stat Prioritization**
This is a generalization on what stats you want to have on each individual item slot. Keep in mind you should only really be Min-Maxing(AKA reforging) every 4 to 5 levels to not waste to many crafting materials.
*Part 1 Leveling Phase*
**Levels 1-12**
**Begin in Story Mode**
* Normal Difficulty
The reason we are starting in Story Mode is to setup for our "Leoric's Crown" for later. Complete all quests leading up until (Reign of the Black King) "The Royal Crypts". Once you have the way-point leave the game, and begin adventure mode. You should be around level 8-10 when you get to the "The Royal Crypts" check point. Don't dwell on doing side areas, your #1 focus should be is getting the way-point unlock as quickly as possible.
**After way point has been obtained**
* Hire Enchantress Follower
* Poison Darts (Level 1)
* Grasp of the Dead (Level 2)
* Zombie Dogs (Level 4)
* Poison Dart "Splinters" Rune (Level 6)
* Soul Harvest (Level 9)
* Jungle Fortitude *Passive* (Level 10)
*Level 1-12 Ending Skill Setup*
**Primary Skills**
* Poison Dart "Splinters"
* Grasp of the Dead
* Zombie Dogs
* Soul Harvest
**Passive skills**
* Jungle Fortitude
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**Levels 12-21**
* Adventure Mode Bounties
* Master Difficulty
* Haunt (Level 12) ---> Replaces Poison Darts
* Zombie Dogs "Rabid dogs" Rune (Level 12)
* Sacrifice (Level 13) Replaces -----> Grasp of the Dead
* Change Jungle fortitude Passive -------> Circle of Life (To combo with Sacrifice)
* Spirit Walk (Level 16)
* Haunt "Consuming Spirit Rune" (Level 18)
**Craft Journeyman Gnarled Staff 2 Handed (Level 18)**
* Gargantuan (Level 19)
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled to the Bone" Rune (Level 19)
* Jungle Fortitude (Level 20)
* Locust Swarm (Level 21) ----> Sacrifice
* Change Circle of Life passive -----> Blood Ritual
* Soul Harvest "Siphon"
*Level 12-21 Ending Skill Setup*
**Primary Skills**
* Haunt "Consuming Spirit"
* Locust Swarm
* Spirit Walk
* Soul Harvest "Siphon"
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled to the Bone"
* Gargantuan
**Passive skills**
* Blood Ritual
* Jungle Fortitude
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**Levels 22-27**
* Adventure Mode Bounties
* Torment 1 Difficulty
**Craft Adept Bone Staff (Level 22)**
* Hex (Level 22) replaces ------> Soul Harvest
* Gargantuan "Humongoid" Rune (Level 22)
* Haunt "Resentful Spirits" Rune (Level 23)
* Spirit Walk "Jaunt" Rune (Level 23)
* Hex "Hedge Magic" Rune (Level 26)
**Craft Master Battle Staff (Level 26)**
* Locust Swarm "Pestilence" Rune (Level 27)
* Pierce the Veil *Passive* (Level 27) ---> Replaces Jungle Fortitude *Passive*
*Level 22-27 Ending Skill Setup*
**Primary Skills**
* Haunt "Resentful Spirits"
* Locust Swarm "Pestilence"
* Spirit Walk "Jaunt"
* Hex "Hedge Magic"
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled to The Bone"
* Gargantuan "Humongoid"
**Passive skills**
* Pierce The Veil
* Blood Ritual
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**Levels 28-36**
* Adventure Mode Bounties
* Torment 1 Difficulty
**Craft Master Great Axe (Level 29) [2 Handed]**
* Gargantuan "Restless Giant" Rune (Level 29)
* Fetish Sycophants *Passive* (Level 30)
* Hex "Jinx" Rune (Level 31)
**Craft Grand Master Timber Axe [2 Handed] (Level 33)**
**Craft Grand Master War Staff (Level 35)**
* Rush of Essence *Passive* (Level 36) -----> Replaces Blood Ritual *Passive*
*Level 28-36 Ending Skill Setup*
**Primary Skills**
* Haunt "Resentful Spirits"
* Locust Swarm "Pestilence"
* Spirit Walk "Jaunt"
* Hex "Jinx"
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled to the Bone"
* Gargantuan "Restless Giant"
**Passive skills**
* Pierce The Veil
* Rush of Essence
* Fetish Sycophants
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**Levels 37-48**
* Adventure Mode Bounties
* Torment 1
**Craft Illustrious Obsidian Staff (Level 40)**
**Craft Magnificent Elder Staff (Level 42)**
**Craft Resplendent High Priest Staff (Level 47)**
* Haunt "Poisoned Spirit" Rune (Level 48)
* Gargantuan "Big Stinker" Rune (Level 48)
*Level 37-48 Ending Skill Setup*
**Primary Skills**
* Haunt "Poisoned Spirit"
* Locust Swarm "Pestilence"
* Spirit Walk "Jaunt"
* Hex "Jinx"
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled to the Bone"
* Gargantuan "Big Stinker"
**Passive skills**
* Pierce The Veil
* Rush of Essence
* Fetish Sycophants
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**Levels 49-70**
* Adventure Mode Bounties
* Torment 2 or Torment 1 Difficulty
**Craft Glorious Primordial Staff (Level 52)**
**Craft Exalted Mythical Staff (Level 57)**
* Confidence Ritual *Passive*(Level 60) Replaces --------> Rush of Essence *Passive*
* Piranhas (Level 61) ----> Gargantuan
* Piranhas "Zombie Piranhas" Rune (Level 63)
**Craft Exquisite Caduceus Staff (Level 61)**
*Level 49-70 Ending Skill Setup*
**Primary Skills**
* Haunt "Poisoned Spirit"
* Locust Swarm "Pestilence"
* Spirit Walk "Jaunt"
* Piranhas "Zombie Piranhas"
* Zombie Dogs "Chilled To The Bone"
* Hex "Jinx"
**Passive skills**
* Pierce The Veil
* Confidence Ritual
* Fetish Sycophants
* Rush of Essence or Spirit Vessel
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**Phase 1 "Leveling Phase" In Depth**
This Section will cover these major points: Bounty Choices , Itemization, and Skill Build
**Bounty Choices**
Bounties are pretty much straight forward. While leveling there certain bounties that we avoid, and specific acts we stay away from. When you start a new Witch Doctor, everyone can start off in "Adventure mode", granted they've completed story mode beforehand.
**Why do you only choose Act 1 Bounties Only?**
**What Bounties should I do, avoid sometimes, or skip all together?**
* Here is a Image the explains it all:
**Why am I avoiding these Bounties?**
**What about the Maybe Bounties**
If you complete all of the bounties, that are on the list, and all that remains are the ones that you should "NOT" do, it is more profitable to simply leave game to "Reset" the bounties.
**Pools of Reflection**
**Whats a pool of reflection?**
**Phase 1 - Itemization**
**What Gear should I be focusing on while leveling up?**
**Things you need to focus on while leveling up**
**Phase 1 - Skill Build**
**What is the most optimal Build in your opinion to level with?**
**Pet/Dot Build**
*Active Skills*
*Passive Skills*
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*Phase 2 Gear Progression Phase*
Pretty straight forward here, should be the first thing you should be focusing on after hitting max level. 5-10 Runs through some Normal Rifts should easily acquire you a full set of Lv 70 Rare(Yellow) quality gear.
Running rifts, collecting Greater Rift keys, then acquiring gems. You want to repeat the process until you've obtained all the legendary gems possible, or just the one you specifically need. After this has happened you are going to be alternating between Regular/Greater Rifts to farm for blood shards, and to level up your initial Legendary gems to Rank 25.
**What Gems do you recommend to start off with?**
**Gearing Towards what dropped for you**
Link to my Witch Doctor Compendium (WD Builds at bottom)
A Standard Build that I like to use when I'm establishing the foundation to my WD is a Pet/Dot build, as it doesn't require any special gear for it to do well.
**Pet/Dot Build**
*Active Skills*
*Passive Skills*
* Pierce the Veil
* Confidence Ritual
* Fetish Sycophants
* Rush of Essence or Spirit Vessel
The easiest thing I've found to work is to get every single slot filled with a Legendary Item with solid rolls. For my starting Legendary Gems choices I use: "Bane of the Trapped", "Efficacious Toxin Gem", "Esoteric: Alteration". These gems provide additional damage, and survivability that work very well with the build.
When to Start Kanai Cubing
Starting off with the Kanai cube, I usually only focus on its major function: "Extract Legendary Power". If I obtain a copy of a Legendary Item That I already have (or it simply rolled bad stats) I will go ahead and cube the item, to gain its Legendary power and equip it for my Witch Doctor.
**Weapon Kani Cube Popular Choices**
**Armor Kani Cube Popular Choices**
**Jewelry Kani Cube Popular Choices**
**Phase 2 Review**
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*Phase 3 Grinding Phase*
* Getting 3 legendary Gems to Rank 40
This is a good side goal to focus on, while doing your Normal Regular/Greater Rift Grind. The additional damage, and toughness that the gems provide will enable us to be able to start farming end game content, at the end of our first 24 in Game hours on our Witch Doctor. Gem choices will vary, but I recommend defiantly using Esoteric: Alteration Legendary gem due to how much toughness this gem will provide at higher greater rift levels.
* Identifying your end Game Build
Once you've established a solid skill/gear foundation from Phase 2, you want to make sure your capable of farming end game content. There 3 sets that can instantly take you to Torment 10 (Greater Rift 45), just by obtaining them, and having some solid gem choices.
**Helltooth**
Video Guide
**Ararchyr/ManaJuma**
Video Guide
**Carnevil/Zunimassa**
Video Guide
Now I'm not saying that you have to have perfect rolls, or everything set up perfectly with your Kanai cube to get these builds to Torment 10. I'm just simply saying if you start to accumulate specific set pieces more so then others, it would be wise to commit to that set. This doesn't mean you will be stuck with that certain build forever, it will just be your vehicle to get you to your destination.
**Setting up for Kanai Cube Crafting**
There a lot of different recipes, that are useful with the Kanai's cube, but these are the most note worthy:
* "Archive of Tal Rasha" Extract Legendary Power
The best recipe by far hands down. In the Phase 2 section I've included a list of popular Legendary items to cube based upon what drops for you. Solidifying a strong Cube Legendary item setup will make it so the transitioning to Torment 10, and Higher Greater Rifts very easy, combined with one of the major 6 piece sets
* "Hope of Cain" Upgrade Rare item
Solid choice when your searching for a specific legendary drop. With basic crafting materials, and a Rare item of your choosing, it will provide you a legendary item of that item type randomly. Example: I use a Rare Ceremonial Knife, and place it in the Kanai's cube, I also place the crafting mats required to use this recipe, I transmute the items in the box, and it turns my Rare Ceremonial knife into the legendary "Last Breath". Another nice thing about this is, that the created legendary has a chance to roll with ancient affixes.
* "Skill of Nilfur" Convert Set item
Allows you to convert a set item (That consists of 3 pieces or higher) to another piece of that set randomly. This will allow us to obtain set items that are missing from making our sets, with our duplicate set item pieces we acquire. However be forewarned set items made this way will never be ancient
* After 24 Hours, welcome to "Endless Paragon Grinding"
At this point your WD should be farming end game level content (GR Lv 45+ & Torment 10). Your next step is to plan out how far you want to take your WD. Plan on ranking in top 1000? Paragon 600-700 With solid items should be more than enough. Top 100? Well you might need something closer to paragon 1000. However I will warn you now, Paragon level HEAVILY influences the outcome of Greater Rift progression in groups or solo. Botting, and "un-ethical" things will be done in the pursuit of people Ranking against each other. (which is fine because its human nature) If you want to push high level paragon levels, just realize the bigger picture, and be aware of what goes on.
**Exp Slaving**
*I'll try to put this as simple as possible*
So in short 2 people in the group should deal high amounts of damage, capable of carrying 2 other players who's focus isn't damage, but more on a Light "support" /Heavy Exp Gaining item build. So if you have dreams of grinding out high level paragon levels quickly, start building those High Exp gaining sets, or have your friends "slave" for your group.
* In Pursuit of Perfect item sets
So after you established what you wanted to do with Paragon farming, the only thing left is to start grinding Rifts for perfect gear sets. For weapons, and other smaller items, Using the "Hope of Cain" recipe would be a good way to attempt to pick up ancient item rolls for specific legendarys. Of course if you plan on really pushing the paragon levels eventually you will have a set of full ancient items easily. If you were to ask me which is more difficult, the paragon grinding or looking for full sets of ancient gear, paragon grinding in the long term is wayyyy more difficult.
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Video Section
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**Video Review of the 24 Hour Witch Doctor**
Video Guide & Final Thoughts
Links to most recent 24 Hour Witch Doctor Test Run
Leveling Phase: http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo/v/12692349
Gear Progression Phase #1: http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo/v/12692705
Gear Progression Phase #2: http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo/v/12692820
Gear Progression Phase #3: http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo/v/12692924
Grind Phase: http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo/v/12693036
8
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag:
spsDebo
http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Diablo Fans Link to where I keep the growing list of all WD information:
"Click me"
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PTR Patch 2.3 Coverage
Patch 2.3 (Currently on PTR) is bringing a lot of changes to all classes in general. With the ability of the new Kanai's cube allowing us to utilize up to 3 legendary affixes open up a lot of possibilities for new builds, and item combinations that were not possible before. We will go over what is mostly relevant to the Witch Doctor class, and what items/changes greatly effect them.
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Skill Changes
In this section I will only be covering the biggest skill changes that effect Witch Doctors the most. I've included a link to the general patch notes below so you can see all of the changes.
Patch Notes 2.3
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Active Skill Changes
**Hex**
Every second for 5 seconds, the toad pulls in the farthest enemy within 45 yards, swallows him for 0.5 seconds, then spits him back out, leaving the enemy with a debuff that deals 750% weapon damage over 5 seconds and increases damage taken by 25%
Picture of Toad of Hugeness:
With the changes to hex have made it a very flexible skill that can't be fit into almost any build. The damage increase to the base skill, changes to toad of hugeness, and the damage increase for Jinx enable builds that lack survivability (Jade, Helltooth, Arachyr) to function much more smoothly. Since the ability to cast the Shaman/Toad at our mouse cursor location, it allows for us to hang back, and start of a fight vs a mob pack with solid crowd-control, that's on a low cool down.
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Wall of Zombies ----> Wall of the Dead
*Raise a wall of Zombies 28 yards wide from the ground that blocks enemies and attacks them for 800% weapon damage as Physical over 6 seconds*
Skill Runes
Skill Rune - "Communing with Spirits" Summon a 15 yard radius spectral ring that deals 1400% weapon damage as Cold over 6 seconds, Chills all enemies who walk through by 60%, and reduces their damage done by 25%
Communing with Spirits Picture
Might be the strongest rune, out of all the Wall of Dead arsenal with "Ring of Poison" being the only one that can match closely to it. The chill effect triggers "Bane of the Trapped", and reduces the enemies damage done by 25% for 3 seconds. With a Wrath of the Bone King, while using the Kanai cube for the "Furnace" Affix could make this potentially the best Rune choice for Wall of the dead.
Skill Rune - "Fire Wall" Summon a fire wall 40 yards wide for 8 seconds that burns enemies who walk through, dealing 1000% weapon damage as Fire over 4 seconds.
FireWall Picture
Not to much to say about this skill, the damage is "Ok" when used with the HellTooth set, but the "straight line" effect when it is cast, would benefit more if it were a "Circle" radius effect like some of the other Wall of Dead have. Getting enemies to "walk thru" the fire wall isn't to difficult, but not as optimal as if it did cast in a circular manner around the enemy, a "circle of fire" if you would.
Skill Rune - "Wall of Zombies" Increase the width of the wall of Zombies to 50 yards and knock all enemies back behind the wall
Wall Of Zombies Picture
Suffers from the same problems as the "Fire wall" rune, however the knock back effect with strong-arm bracers makes for an interesting combination. The weakness of this skill lies in that if the enemy doesn't touch the wall they will not take damage, and the way the zombie wall is cast doesn't hit enough enemies within its radius.*
Skill Rune - "Ring of Poison" Summon a 15 yard radius ring for 5 seconds that poisons nearby enemies, causing them to take 1200% weapon damage as Poison over 8 seconds
Ring of Poison Picture
One of my favorite "Wall of Death" Skill runes. Poison is a very strong element choice with Witch Doctors, and synergies well with many skills. The overall utility as compared to "Communing with Spirits" is lacking, however the overall damage output, Worm Wood with Kani Cube Effect "Furnace" makes for a very strong Wall of Dead rune to use.
Skill Rune - "Surrounded by Death" Raises a circle of zombies from the ground that traps and attacks nearby enemies for 1000% weapon damage as physical over 4 seconds.
Surrounded by Death Picture
*The circle radius is very nice for the skill, it entraps enemies, and deals damage to any enemy that touches the wall of zombies. Out of both physical elemental property skills for "Wall of Dead" this seems to produce the best results due to its utility, and damage*
Passive Skills
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Kanai's Cube
I'm going to keep this short and straight to the point. The crafting recipes that comes with the cube are solid, and will allow for us to easily build ancient, legendary sets and maximize our itemization to push high level greater rifts. With that being said, the major purpose of the cube is to provide us legendary affixes of some of the most important, and powerful items in game. With the ability to have 1 armor, 1 weapon, and 1 jewelry legendary affix equipped to our character, "Ring of Royal Grandeur", "Unity Ring", and "Mask of Jeram" , "Star Metal Kukri" don't have to take up precious item slots, and can allow for us to really push some powerful build combinations.
Weapon Kani Cube Popular Choices
Armor Kani Cube Popular Choices
Jewelry Kani Cube Popular Choices
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New Arachyr Set & Changes to Helltooth
First we will cover what changes happened with the Helltooth set, showing off how the original set was, and how it has evolved since then.
Pre-Patch 2.3 Helltooth Version
**(2) Piece Set Bonus**
* 500 Int for a 2 Set bonus use to be solid, but with all the changes to most of the class sets, 500 int isn't what it use to be.
**(4) Piece Set Bonus**
* Reduction in the Wall of Zombie cast, was only meaningful if paired with Legacy Legendary items, than enabled for a 0 Cool Down Zombie wall build.
**(6) Piece Set Bonus**
* 300% Damage dealing Acid attack, that only hits in front of the Zombie Wall, that scales with physical damage, a very lack luster 6 piece bonus, and didn't enable the build to really do much.
Patch 2.3 Helltooth Version
**(2) Piece Set Bonus**
Solid 2 Piece set bonus, Marks the target with Necrosis (Slows, 1000% Weapon Damage, Increase Damage taken 15%, for 10 seconds), with most of the skills that WD use. A way better setup then the previous 2 piece set implementation, and provides group utility with the 15% increase Damage on monsters inflicted with Necrosis.
**(4) Piece Set Bonus**
* This is Where the damage mitigation comes in. You will notice that this occurs in all major sets for WD outside of the Jade set. As long as an enemy is inflicted by Necrosis you take 50% less damage, this will allow for us to get the toughness in which we need, without sacrificing to much damage in our gear setup.
**(6) Piece Set Bonus**
* 300% Increased Damage, per wall of Death cast, stacking up to 3 times. This is the bread and butter that really makes the build function. 900% increased damage, with Zombie Charger/Gargantuan is all you need to push this build up towards greater rift 60, and beyond
New Arachyr Set
Arachyr Set
**(2) Piece Set Bonus**
* 2500%(Up from 1500%) Weapon Damage dealing spider queen. She is controlled to move where ever you cast corpse spiders. She does AOE damage, and slows enemies. Not the strongest of 2 piece set bonus, but bane of trapped works well with it, and the damage she deals is "solid".
**(4) Piece Set Bonus**
* 40% Damage reduction when Hex is active, also it gains the effect of Toad of Hugeness automatically.Provides a small heal based upon your life per-second over the course of 10 seconds. Hopefully blizzard ups the damaged reduction to a clean 50%, and re-evaluates the healing effect of this bonus. But overall, it provides the toughness we need to survive higher level greater rifts.
**(6) Piece Set Bonus**
* 800%(Up from 500%) increased Damage to our creature spells. Gonna be honest here, the idea behind this 6 piece is pretty cool, however the only note worthy "Creature" spell that can actually get the most out of this bonus is Locust Swarm. Increasing the damage of this bonus, and or re-working the creature skills in general is necessary in my opinion to change the set for the better. However that might need an extended amount of time to work, so maybe altering how the 6 piece set bonus might be the best direction for blizzard.
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Helltooth/Arachyr Videos
* Hell Tooth
First impressions
Greater Rift 48 Initial set re-work
Greater Rift 55 (HellTooth Update #2)
Greater Rift 53 (Zombie Bear Variant)
Arachyr Set
First impressions
Greater Rift 53 (Arachyr Update #2)
Greater Rift 55 (Arachyr Update #2)
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New Witch Doctor Items
**Jerams Bracer**
Fantastic Legendary item that combos in with the new Hell Tooth changes. Cast three Wall of Deaths, for the price of one? Pretty much no brainer here, with the Helltooth 6 piece set bonus that amps damage per Wall of Death Cast.
**Coils of the First Spider**
The initial implementation of this item was lack luster, however with the change to reduce damage taken while channeling Firebats does make it interesting to look at a second time. The problem doesn't lye within the item, but the skill, now blizzard has made some changes in terms of mana management, and overall damage of fire bats but it just doesn't seem to be enough. Firebats needs a serious re-working, or some type of Damage increase within the item, to get it being used on a regular basis.
**Henri's Perquisition**
This is the new seasonal Witch Doctor Item coming in Patch 2.3 Season 4. It has a very solid damage mitigation effect, combined with a strong crowd control charm. Was very pleased with the overall testing of this item, and a good example of what a "solid" legendary looks like. It may or may not be used at the highest level of Greater rifting, but will provide ample damage mitigation until people are able to start pushing toward end game gear progression.
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Greater/Nephalem Rift Changes
*Evolution of Bounty/Rift System*
**PTR 2.3**
Video about the whole reasoning behind changes
Video about Greater Rift Fishing
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Build Rankings
The only things that I feel might change in the up coming weeks to this list, is the overall placement of Carnevil, and Helltooth/Garg Builds. Blizzard stated that Helltooth in fact will receive another buff, and that Carnevil will have a change to the build to help "reduce lag" that the fetish darts can cause. I don't believe Arachyr, or Jade will be able to compete with Helltooth, or Zunimassa for at least this upcoming season.
Build Rankings
* 1. CarnEvil (As long as future changes don't impact the build negatively)
* 2. Helltooth/Garg
* 3. Melee/Zuni (As long as your using Bane of the Stricken)
* 4. Arachyr/Locust Swam
* 5. Jade
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Witch Doctor 2.3 Meta (Conclusion/My Thoughts)
Overall I think we have a variety of builds we can use to effectively hit Greater rift 50. Now I don't expect all of these builds to be 60+ viable, but 2 out of the 5-6 Builds we have would more than enough. The only thing I don't agree with is undermining the hard work, and effort that goes into making these builds solid, only to nerf them later Ex: Jade Set , and potentially future changes to CarnEvil.
Video Explaining thoughts on Gear Development Cycle
Witch Doctor isn't in a great state at the moment, but that doesn't mean we lack potential to become better then what we currently are. Hopefully towards the end of PTR Patch 2.3 we will be in a much better state, otherwise we might end up taking seat for the next season.
PTR Meta conclusion Video
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5/14/2015 Added T6 Tiki Speed Farming Build
5/14/2015 Added T6 Tiki Speed Farming Build
5/14/2015 Added T6 Tiki Speed Farming Build
5/14/2015 Added T6 Tiki Speed Farming Build
5/14/2015 Added T6 Tiki Speed Farming Build
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/55752-debos-speed-tiki-t6-guide
T6 Speed Tiki/Zuni Build (Part 1)
T6 Speed Tiki/Zuni Build (Part 2)
T6 Speed Tiki/Zuni Build (Part 3)
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Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag: spsDebo (http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo)
If allowed I'll be updating my guides through this post (if possible). If this isn't the place to post this type of information my apologies, I guess we will figure out another way.
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Here is a set of guides that I have so far, and many more to come:
How to approach the early game
Max level ---> Upgrade all Artisans ---> Initial Rare item set ---> Torment level 1 ---> Ring of Royal Granduer ---> Aughilds/Cains Set ---> Building towards Mid Game.
Max level
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Upgrading all Artisans
If you have been saving all your gold, picking up everything and salvaging it, once you hit level 70 upgrading all artisans levels to max should be very easy. You won't be getting a lot of use out the Jewel crafting artisan just yet. Your focus should be in getting accustomed to the enchantress, and the black smith.
Enchantress
How she works:
Black Smith
Jewel Crafter
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Witch Doctor Builds
Introductory Builds:
Grin Reaper Poison: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUYRb!WVTY!bbacZZ)
Grin Reaper Physical: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUYfZ!WVTY!bbacaZ)
Fetish Sycophants: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUYTQ!WVTR!bb.cZb)
Carn-Evil (Non Zuni): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#alUYTQ!dVTR!cbacYb)
Quetzalcoatl Pet Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ehUdYT!WfYS!ZaaYcY)
Intermediate Builds
Grin Reaper Poison + Zunimassa: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUPRb!WVTY!bbacZZ)
Grin Reaper Physical+ Zunimassa: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUPfZ!WVYT!bb.baZ
Carn-Evil + Zunimassa: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#alUPYQ!WVYT!cbabcb
Fetish Sycophants + Zunimassa: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUPYQ!WVTY!bb.bcb
End Game Builds
Jade Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#ehUdXl!WTeS!ZaaZYb
Tall-mans Finger + Smk: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUYPQ!WVTR!bbaYYb
Carnevil + Zunimassa: Greater Rift Variant): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#alUPYX!WVaT!cbabcY
Rhen'ho Flayer + Tall-Mans Finger: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#WlUYTX!WVdR!YcaaYY
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Initial Gear that you want to start looking for as a fresh lv 70 Witch Doctor
Ring of Royal Grandeur
What is the "Ring of Royal Grandeur?
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/ring-of-royal-grandeur-3qRFop
How do I get one?
Do you mean to tell me their are act specific legendaries for each act?!?!
Yep here it is:
http://www.diablowiki.net/Horadric_Cache
Why do I need it?
It reduces the set cost bonuses by 1 I.E. a 3 piece set bonus of 500 int, would only require 2 pieces as long as the ring is equipped.
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Aughilds set, and Cains Set
**Aughilds**
Shoulders: Aughilds Power
Chest: Aughilds Rule
Bracer: Aughild's Search
Cains Set
Pants: cain's Habbit
Gloves: Cain's Scriviner
Boots: Cain's Travelers
General Stat itemization
Some legendary items offer unique stats on certain items in game, but for the most part these are stats you will be looking on predominately for your gear.
Terminology:
Gear Breakdown:
General Witch Doctor Build Questions/Info
Carnevil Build
What element does my Fetish Sycophants benefit most from
What is the Dps prioritization?
For Stats on gear
What set pieces/item make the build work better?
Jade Build
What element does the Jade build benefit most from?
What other things improves this builds dps?
For Stats on gear
What set pieces/Loot make the build work better?
Rhen'Ho Flayer
What element does the Rhen'Ho Flayer build benefit most from?
What other things improves this builds dps?
For Stats on gear:
What set pieces/Loot make the build work better?
Tall-Mans finger + Star Metal Kukuri Build
What element does the Tall-Man Finger build benefit most from?
What other things improves this builds dps?
For Stats on gear:
What set pieces/Loot make the build work better?
THE BIG TWO CATEGORIES FOR FETISH
Fetish Sycophants -Passive Skill-
Skills that proc the Passive the Best:
Facts about fetish psychopaths "Passive"
Fetish psychopaths -Summon Fetish Army-
These are the elements skills that are possible:
Final things you should remember
Legendary Gems
I will be listing the most commonly used Gems for Witch Doctor Only
Legendary gems were implemented in patch 2.1, to further power up your characters
Commonly used Witch Doctor Legendary Gems:
Bane of the Powerful
Overall I feel that this gem is the most well rounded out of all gem selections. At rank 25 the duration is extended 55 seconds, at rank 35 65 Seconds, and at rank 50 80 seconds of 20% increased damage. Not mention the secondary effect adds 15% elite damage. If your stuck on a 3rd option for a legendary gem choice, or want a gem that solid in any build this gem is defiantly it.
Enforcer
Solid choice in any pet build. The damage increase is counted as an "elemental" type, so it doesn't really maximize its damage potential with Jeram's Pet damage increase as it should. The secondary doesn't really make to big of a difference, but if you find your self running a build that uses Fetish Army, and Fetish Sycophants the 25% damage mitigation for pets really helps those builds especially through Greater Rifts.
Pain Enhancer
This gem starts off a little slow, but by the time it begins to rich the higher ranks, is where this gem truly shines. The physical damage dot scales with Increase Physical% property items, and can be triggered by pets critical attacks. The secondary effect is a little lackluster, but is solid in builds that put you in close proximity of the enemies that you are fighting. Any pet build can benefit from this gem, but it may not always be the best option depending on what pet build it is.
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
Efficacious Toxin gem is as self sufficient as it gets. The dot can be applied by damage you preform, or caused by your pets. The Dot scales with Increase Poison% property items, and since the dot is poison property it auto triggers the secondary effect. After blizzard changed this gem to be trigger-able by pets, this gem is seeing alot of use outside of just the typical jade build. Long story short: If your build is poison base, or your looking for a 10% damage increase across the board this is the gem for you.
Simplicity
Gogok of Swiftness
For the Witch Doctor, Gogok is a solid gem choice for many builds, excluding Hexing pants, and Jade Builds. The attack speed helps with Fetish generation, and outputting damage with build such as Rhen'ho flayer, and Grin Reaper. the secondary isn't the best but it isn't the worst either. In the Carnevil build, since Attack speed GREATLY effects the damage output of that build, gogok is a definite must.
Boon of the Hoarder
**Ice blink (Season 3 Exclusive)**
This combined with Bane of the Trapped shall yield some very interesting results. Also depending on how well the movement speed reduction scales could literally leave enemies standing in their place unable to come directly at you. The 10% Crit chance is also nice, meaning you could drop Crit chance of some pieces of your gear, and run other stat affix's.
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Tutorial Builds:
**Jade**
**Patch 2.2**
Jade 2.2 T6 Speed Run Build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2rYwrXkWGw
Jade 2.2 T6 Speed Run Build Rift Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1TC_0MbVhM
Jade 2.2 T6 Speed Run Build Bounty Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oJmOrf-BXk
Jade 2.2 Build Update GR 42 & 45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKgzlR1HNw
Jade 2.2 Build Update GR 46: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxTOQ6UDeYg
**Patch 2.1.1 (Out Dated)**
Jade 2.1.1 Guide Part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZulR9fTqY
Jade 2.1.1 Guide Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GstYtZi42dQ
Jade 2.1.1 Guide Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWNuDF-7Qyk
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**Tall-mans' Finger**
**Patch 2.2**
Tall-Mans Finger 2.2 Guide Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xOV0_7J-FM
**Patch 2.1.1 (Out Dated)**
Tall-mans' 2.1 Guide Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kss5tvXnySY
Tall-mans' 2.1 Guide Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKZT5fEI25k
Tall-mans' 2.1 Guide Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMVt6QFfI2Y
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**Carn Evil Guide**
**Patch 2.2**
Zuni/Carn 2.2 Build Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh5gzN-q1Qs
**Patch 2.1.1 (out Dated)**
Carn Evil 2.1.2 New Changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biOwqBkyGug
Carn Evil 2.1 Guide Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgy3R5_cJxc
Carn Evil 2.1 Guide Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oT1-OQWQtw
Carn Evil 2.1 Guide Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsUgHQ3RQUo
Carn Evil 2.1 Guide Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Dh6Z8MutA
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**Rhen'Ho Flayer**
**Patch 2.2**
Zuni/Rhen 2.2 Build Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4BZctv3dgo
**Patch 2.1.1 (Out Dated)**
Rhen'Ho Flayerl 2.1 Guide Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yalhIl8bLNM
Rhen'Ho Flayerl 2.1 Guide Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059Xno0h0Eg
Rhen'Ho Flayerl 2.1 Guide Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4m0dMWLSsc
Rhen'Ho Flayerl 2.1 Guide Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IVX-CeuCYQ
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**GrinReaper**
**Patch 2.2**
GrinReaper 2.2 Build Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THmlr32G0vs
**Patch 2.1.1 (Out Dated)**
GrinReaper 2.1 Guide Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv2R9C0O94s
GrinReaper 2.1 Guide Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRgbqQJHs8
GrinReaper 2.1 Guide Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBZYgZNJlhM
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**HellTooth**
**Patch 2.2**
HellTooth 2.2 Build Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nZh4mvhVSk
**Patch 2.1.1**
Helltooth 2.1 Guide Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjJ0cROpI9Y
Helltooth 2.1 Guide Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_rJWrFnVc
Helltooth 2.1 Guide Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBTpMYIZscE
Helltooth 2.1 Guide Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efrb4GZ_XKg
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TIki/Zuni & Tiki/Sac
**Patch 2.2**
T6 Speed Tiki/Zuni Build (Part 1)
T6 Speed Tiki/Zuni Build (Part 2)
T6 Speed Tiki/Zuni Build (Part 3)
Tiki/Zuni 2.2 Build Update GR 41
Tiki/Zuni 2.2 Build Update GR 45
**Patch 2.1.1 (Out Dated)**
Tiki/Sacrifice Build Part 1
Tiki/Sacrifice Build Part 2
Tiki/Sacrifice Build Part 3:
Tiki/Sacrifice Greater Rift 37
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**Small Man's Finger Build Patch 2.2 Season 3 Exclusive**
Fire Small Mans Finger Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiNAbGQHtCU
Fire Small Mans Finger Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX3St8v1Po0
Poison Small Man finger : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zwAYBt_laE
Physical Small Mans Finger Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8t-soEXHoE
Physical Small Mans Finger Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKtpiUnnVv4
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Builds Broken Down even Further:
24 Hour Witch Doctor Build:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/103714-debos-the-24-hour-witch-doctor
TallMans Finger Patch 2.2:
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/53523-debos-patch-2-2-tall-mans-finger-build-update
Jade Patch 2.2
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/53530-debos-patch-2-2-jade-build-gr-46
T6 Speed Jade Farm Build
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/55416-debos-speed-jade-t6-guide-patch-2-2/edit
T6 Speed Tiki Farm Build
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/55752-debos-speed-tiki-t6-guide
CarnEvil Patch 2.2
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/53532-debos-patch-2-2-zuni-carnevil-gr-45
Grin Reaper Guide Patch 2.2
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/53602-debos-patch-2-2-grin-reaper-build-early
WormWood Guide Patch
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/97604-debos-wormwood-future-2-1-2-patch-guide
Small Mans Finger Guide Patch 2.2 PTR
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/114614-debos-small-man-finger-guide-ptr-patch-2-2
1
Posted some interesting results, when timing myself while running the variation of the Speed Jade build
Here is the thread I got the main Build running in:
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/55416-debos-speed-jade-t6-guide-patch-2-2/
Here some of the data I was working with:
Best T6 Rift Video
Best T6 Bounty Video
**Average Overall time for Full Clear T6 Bounties:**
**Average Overall time for T6 Rifts:**
* Avg Time: 3:52
Hope you guys enjoy
2
Can we just lock this thread please?
It serves no purpose.
6
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag:
http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Diablo Fans Link to where I keep the growing list of all WD information:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/95384-debos-2-1-witch-doctor-compendium
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Final Coverage for Witch Doctors PTR Patch 2.2 (Season 3)
Here is the Early coverage of Patch 2.2 on PTR, to see how development started
Early Witch Doctor Coverage
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New Items that effect/work with Witch Doctors
This is a list of the items that had the biggest impact on Witch Doctors for the upcoming patch (2.2). These items, may or may not have started off the way they are listed now, but it is safe to say these are in their finalized forms. If anything Changes I will go back and amend them
Zunimassa Gloves
Understandable why Blizzard wouldn't want Tasker & Theo to combo in with Unity. Pet build WD's with their improved damage, toughness, and skill improvement we would end up terrorizing the solo leader boards. I know a lot of people may not agree with this statement, but Zuni/SMK build can easily hit GR 46-48, while having a "Fishing potential" of Greater Rift 50-54 next season.
Zunimassa Pants
These pants were included, after initial feedback with the Zuni set. Without having an additional piece to work with, it automatically made it so that a Player had to use Zunimassa Pox, and Ring of Royal Grandeur to get any viability out of the build. It was a solid choice to add an additional Zuni piece to the pants slot, being it is the most flexible area to work with.
Zunimassa Off Hand
The change to the 5th affix won't do anything for CarnEvil Builds, they still will be rolling "Increased Poison damage" on their off hands. For Zuni/Smk builds the New affix is a welcome "buff", having the additional 10-15% increased damage to Fetish army can't do anything but help.
Belt of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
Haunting Girdle
Not to much to say about the Haunting Girdle. The ability to have a double cast on the Poisoned Spirit is "ok", but with the inclusion of the "Belt of Transcendence" I'm 99.9% Sure that most Witch Doctors would prefer to have 15 Fetishes that provide additional damage, and toughness over simply having an additional haunt per cast. I think they item will find its uses, but only really in early stages of development in newly created/seasons Witch Doctor.
Homunculus
Very nice buff to this item. Zombie dog generation with this item is phenomenal, which allows us to maintain multiple stacks of Sacrifice "Provoke the Pack". This, and focus & restraint made the "Tiki Sac" Build for Witch Doctors the top end build on PTR for Witch Doctors.
Little Man's Finger
This is a highly entertaining ring, and is example of when blizzard does it "right". It isn't part of a "set", it has a solid legendary effect, and versatility to be inserted into many different builds. The only thing I worry about, is what the drop rate % will be once it hits live servers.
*Side note did a little written guide for this*
Link to Small Mans Finger Guide
Ring of the Zodiac
For zDPS, and early Witch Doctor Builds this will be a very useful ring. The only thing that holds this ring back is of the randomness of which skills will be reduced by one second, but shouldn't be to much of a problem in zDPS builds due to them benefiting from any of their long cool down skills be reduced.
Broken Ring of Promises
**My original thoughts for how the initial way that the ring works**
*Depending on how blizzard is going to treat this ring, a lot of things can get pretty silly. In theory you could eliminate all of the Critical Chance in your Build, run pure attack speed with Critical Damage, you could easily maintain a 100% up time on the effect of the ring. I'd imagine Blizzard will add an additional stipulation in the form of "This effect can only occur once every <insert number here> seconds. Back in the "original ptr" Legendary Gem testing phase, Enforcer gem secondary provided pets with 40% increased critical chance increase or pets, needless to say this never mate it to the light of day on the live servers.*
**How the item works now.**
Apparently the Crit chance granted by the effect, carries over to your pets. With this being allowed, this ring would provide, an interesting way to itemize a WD for TIki/Sac play, or simple in efforts to Min-Max without worrying about the Crit Chance Stat whats so ever. Tiki/Sac could get a lot out of this ring until a Focus/Restraint were found, however if the WD prefers not to run focus and restraint, this would be the next viable option in Tiki/Sac play, while still allowing for a Unity ring to be used.
Focus & Restraint
I'm quite surprised to see this ring, not receive any additional alterations towards it. With the Tiki/Sac Build it turns it into a monster. The only reason this is possible to run this build in higher Greater rifts w/o unity is due to the fact Tiki/sac uses "Perma Fear" on the monsters, and runs high toughness. Blizzard can still make alterations to the ring set, but if they don't expect the top Leader Boards to reflect this set use, along with the traditional Tiki/Sac we have been using.
**Long story short**
In-Geom
*My original thought upon this weapon is as follows:*
This item, could be a really big game changer in a couple of our major builds, but most specifically our ZDPS group build. I would go more into detail about this item, however I'm pretty confident that this item will not make it through the PTR test phase, but if it does I will revisit and update this section.
**The current State of the weapon**
Almost useless, in its current state. I have to agree with the nerf to this weapon, as its previous form would of been game breaking for some classes. I would however hope Blizzard will address this issue, as I do not enjoy them spending development time on items, that end up being completely useless.
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**Changes to Witch Doctor Active/Passive Skills & Set Items**
In terms of "Quality of Life" Changes for WD's Blizzard knocked it out of the park. A lot of our skills that haven't been used in a while will be use full. Hopefully in the future Blizzard can keep going back, and addressing the issues of some skills that are next to never used by most WD's. However one skill change, Spirit Walk, has unfortunately left the Jade build in ruins, and weakening the overall survivability of the WD.
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Set Changes:
**Zunimassa 6 Piece Set**
The initial damage increase from 100% ---> 150% -----> 275% was defiantly needed to make this set bonus competitive with other classes set items, and builds. I would like to see a solid 300% implemented by blizzard, but isn't really necessary. I will say this however, reducing all Major 6 Piece Set items, for all classes to only requiring 5 pieces would defiantly add a lot more flexibility, and item combinations for all classes.
**Raiment of the Jade Harvester**
Blizzard made some changes to the Jade Harvester set for the better. I will say the only complaint I have about these changes is that, the (2) piece set bonus, should be the (4) piece set requirement, and drop the (4) Piece bonus to only (2) Piece requirement.
**(2) Set Bonus**
**(4) Set Bonus**
**(6) Set Bonus**
The overall set changes to the Jade set are fantastic HOWEVER.... The mechanics of what made the Jade Build so successful was related to the way Spirit walk worked so well with the build. With the changes to Spirit Walk, the Jades survivability within large mobs of groups is gone. Thus rendering the build useless.
**Things Blizzard could do to save the set:**
This may seem like a little much, but if it proves to be to powerful Blizzard could always reduce it. If our survivability changes that's ok, we can make
due, but need something in compensation to make up for losing out on it.
Pretty straight forward here, reverts Spirit Walk to how it use to be only if you have 6 pieces of the Jade Set running. I think this would be a simple solution, and it wouldn't require Blizz to increase the damage any further with the jade build.
I dunno if this would be more trouble than what its worth, but it would allow for the Witch Doctors toughness to be depending on how effect, and how often the player could cast soul harvest on enemies. This would no doubt cause more programming inside of the game, but I think it would make the play-style more interesting. However out of the 3 solutions/ideas I've listed the other teo are much easier to implement.
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**Witch Doctor Skills Changes**
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**Hex**
A beautiful change to a spell that hasn't been in Witch Doctor use. It provides Crowd control, damage amp, and it doesn't cost any mana. It works on trash mobs, and elites and should be included in any build when you feel you are lacking a skill to finish rounding out your build.
**Fetish Army "Fetish Ambush"**
I'm gonna keep this short. Unless your using some sort of cold pet build this changes is worthless. The damage from summoning the fetishes isn't worth it due to, the damage loss from taking the fetishes off their current target while due to summoning them.
**What Blizzard should of done**
It would be nice for a Cold pet build, if the main focus of pets were to be "Cleave/Splash" damage.
**Spirit Walk**
This change has no effect on pet builds, but Ruins the Jade Build. I won't go to much into how bad this change is, because it would take hours, but a couple of ideas on how they could fix this issue.
They have said they would take into some consideration to helping with the Spirit Walk nerf, but we haven't seen anything yet. So until then I expect 99.9% of the Witch Doctors will be running pet builds for season 3.
**Soul Harvest**
Great solid change here, I have no complaints. Will syn-energize with Gruesome feast, and builds that build a lot of intelligence.
I don't mind the change that it increases armor, but it is a little weird since pre-patch 2.0 Horrify Frightening aspect had its Armor nerfed from 100% increased armor all the way down to 30%. They could of alternatively left "Frightening Aspect" at 100% increased armor, or reduced it down to 60%. The biggest errors in the balancing process is when you devote time to changing, or developing a certain skill to be a certain way, and then undermining that change, later through buffing of other skills, and or items. To add armor to soul harvest is a little silly at this point.
**What I hope they do:**
**Haunt**
Haunt now has every single element possible. With that being said, no one is going to use this skill, hopefully they look back into this in the future.
Glad that this was addressed, and patched.....nothing to see here people.
**Plague of Toads "Rain of Toads"**
Not a Big deal since Fetish Sycophants (Passive Skill) chances have been buffed by 5% (Making it a 15% chance to proc fetishes with an attack)
**Summon Zombie Dogs "Final Gift" ---> "Chilled to the Bone"**
This was a fantastic change, and it does Two things:
Way to go blizzard, nice to see a Cold rune property for zombie dogs, let alone have a rune effect that actually is very solid.
**Fetish Sycophants "Passive Skill"**
Up from 10% can't really complain about that, I'll take the extra 5% increase
Fantastic quality of life change, this will allow for a lot of alternative builds to function much better, and optimize all their elemental damage for pets to one type.
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**New Legendary Gems**
These legendary gems is a nice change of pace. They've included one new defensive spell, and one new offensive spell. The defensive one looks like a solid choice with early level mitigation, but will fall wayside once Double unity combo is found. And Ice blink might aid Cold pet builds, but unfortunately is the weakest out of all elements for pet based builds.
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**Ice blink (Season 3 Exclusive)**
This combined with Bane of the Trapped shall yield some very interesting results. Also depending on how well the movement speed reduction scales could literally leave enemies standing in their place unable to come directly at you. The 10% Crit chance is also nice, meaning you could drop Crit chance of some pieces of your gear, and run other stat affix's.
**Mutilation Guard**
I wish they would change from Melee damage reduction to "all damage reduction", but hey for what its worth it is a step in the right direction. It will help people out early on in seasons, and provide them decent damage mitigation until people are able to find toughness through their gear, or Double Unity combo.
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**Witch Doctor Build Rankings (As of Current PTR Testing)**
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**1. Focus & Restraint Tiki Sac**
Focus & Restraint takes this build to the next level, with the Perma Fear the Tiki Helm provides, and toughness increases to pet WD's, you won't need to run Unity ring anymore. The Damage increase provided from F& R takes it to another level higher then CarnEvil. If no changes happens to F & R expect to see this build on Season 3 Leader Boards
**2. Zuni CarnEvil**
CarnEvil was already a build showing a lot of promise, but with the ability to use the new 6 piece Zuni set with it, allowed this build that topped out in the mid forties, be able to run all the way into the mid fifty's. Very easy set to build for, and gaining popularity, this build will re-occur it's self in the top 50 WD's on any server, quite easily.
I did a side guide on this:
Link to Zuni/Carn Build
**3. Zuni SMK**
My personal favorite, out of the new builds that are coming out of PTR. Very easy to run, not a lot of weakness outside of the lack of AOE damage, and overall just a lot of fun. This is a good alternative for players who may tire of tiki/sac, and CarnEvil builds. I will be personally running this build for Season 3.
I did a side guide on this:
Link to Zuni/SMK Guide
**4. Tiki Sac**
Same build as above, only difference this version runs Unity, and Stone Of Jordan as opposed to Focus & Restraint
**5. CarnEvil**
Same Build as above, just not running the 6 piece Zuni set along with it
**6. Jade**
Not gonna spend to much time talking about this build, in its current state on ptr it is in shambles. Hopefully Blizzard does some re balancing, tuning to make this build at least competitive with others.
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Overall Thoughts about the Witch Doctor Class, for season 3 Video:
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Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag:
http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Diablo Fans Link to where I keep the growing list of all WD information:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/95384-debos-2-1-witch-doctor-compendium
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Zunimassa 6 Piece set Guide/Review
Overall I like the direction the Zunimassa changes are going. I still it needs a little more help in a couple of different areas, such as a possible necklace, or shoulder option for the set. Or simply increasing the damage bonus for the 6 piece set. The toughness, and overall play style is very easy to learn, and I think will be popular with a lot of players who are looking forward to try out the build.
Changes I hope Blizzard considers to help out this gear set
Again I reiterate it is still early in the PTR testing phase, but hopefully blizzard takes the easy way out, and buffs the 6 piece set bonus, and or add AOE ability to pets.
Patch 2.2 Adds a 6 Piece bonus to Zunimassa set. The new set bonus works as follows: "Enemies hit by your mana spenders take 150%(Up from 100%) additional damage from your pets for 4 seconds. This combos in well with the new Legendary Item "Belt of Transcendence", which allows for us to drop Fetish Sycophants as a passive, and run other alternatives. The two new included pieces for the Zunimassa are the Pants, and Gloves respectively.
Zunimassa Gloves
Takes away our ability to use Tasker and Theo Gloves, but this combined with the pants allows us to be able to run This Zuni set with the use of Unity ring for higher level Greater Rifts.
Zunimassa Pants
These pants were included, after initial feedpack with the Zuni set. Without having an additional piece to work with, it automatically made it so that a Player had to use Zunimassa Pox, and Ring of Royal Grandeur to get any viability out of the build.
Belt of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
How the Legendary was originally introduced
This item was originally introduced for the leg slot. However due to feed back for the Zuni set needing an additional item slot, Blizz decided to add the additional Zuni set piece to the Leg Slot, and move COT to the belt slot in order to allow more builds to utilize it.
Cloth of Transcendence (Original)
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Zunimassa "Physical" Build
Out of all choices, it seems like the most common sense to utilize physical property due to how Fetish Sycophants work. Gargantuan, and Zombie dogs damage won't cut it, so focusing on a total of 23 fetishes is the way to go. Fetish army "Legion of Daggers" provides us 8 Physical property fetishes, with the Belt of Transcendence provides us an additional 15. At this point the remaining skill, gem, and gear choices should be focused on amping up fetish damage, and or increasing damage taken on enemy mobs.
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Lets us go over some strengths, and weaknesses of this Build.
Pros
Cons
Skill Build
Zunimassa Physical: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#elUPiQ!WeYf!YZabZb
Why Did you choose the skills you did?
Active Skills
Sprit Walk "Jaunt"
Fetish Army "Legion of Daggers"
Hex "Jinx"
Big Bad Voodoo "Slam Dance"
Haunt "Poisoned Spirit"
Piranhas "Zombie Piranhas
*Passive Skills*
Pierce the Veil
Spirit Vessel
Gruesome Feast
Rush of Essence
Gem Choices
**Enforcer**
Straight forward choice here, will increase all damage done by all 23 fetishes in the build.
**Gem of Efficacious Toxin**
I know this seems like a weird choice, but the Flat 10% Damage increase will fit well into the build theme, of either boosting Fetish Damage, or increases damage taken on enemies.
**Bane of the Trapped**
We will always be in close for the secondary aura to take effect, allowing us to gain the damage increase.
Gear That I used
Link To gear on IMGUR: http://i.imgur.com/4CvTAgI.jpg
Video of build in action:
Zunimassa 6 Set PTR GR 39 & 42: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgTu2Ie9cP8
Zunimassa 6 Set PTR GR 43: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yg_KL1YobQ
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RNG is a cold mistress////
4
Hey guys I'm Debo, I Main the Witch Doctor class, ever since the beta for Diablo 3 Vanilla. Encouraging players to try out the Witch Doctor class, and enjoy Diablo 3 is my major focus. I started to do this by compiling my thoughts in guides, and streaming to provide information to those who seek it.
My Twitch Tag:
http://www.twitch.tv/spsdebo
My armory Profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Debo-1782/hero/1274676
Diablo Fans Link to where I keep the growing list of all WD information:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/95384-debos-2-1-witch-doctor-compendium
Now that the formalities are out of the way:
Little Man's Finger Guide
Patch 2.2 Will bring a new ring known as the Little Man's Finger. It turns your Gargantuan into 3 Miniature versions of itself, that does substantially more damage then its normal singular self. The rune effects you have selected, increases to Gargantuan damage, etc. will all apply to these little guys as it would to your normal Gargantuan. Pairing this ring in combination with the New Legendary item "Cloth of transcendence" leads to some fairly strong builds.
Little Man's Finger
This is a highly entertaining ring, and is example of when blizzard does it "right". It isn't part of a "set", it has a solid legendary effect, and versatility to be inserted into many different builds. The only thing I worry about, is what the drop rate % will be once it hits live servers
Cloth of Transcendence
Very solid new item for Witch Doctor. It will provide many different options to passive skill usage due to Fetish Sycophants not being needed, and allowing fetish generation not requiring you to worry about proc co-efficient of skills. Most Witch Doctors are using Haunt, as a mana spender to trigger the effect of the pants.
Guide Break Down
In this guide we will cover 3 variations of the build. Fire, Poison, and Physical. Each section will have links to how the build performs in Greater Rift Settings, and in some cases T6 Farming. The breakdown will goes as follows:
These are early building blocks of the future item that will be patched in. As things continue to flesh out with the PTR 2.2 Build, I will return to update information, and make alterations to where it is needed.
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Little Man's Finger "Fire"
The fire variation, you could say, is a throw back to the original Wrathful Protector Build pre-nerf 2.0. It was used with Tall Mans finger, high amounts of CDR, and Star Metal Kukri. The Gargantuan itself would hit anywhere from 300m-1Bill+ damage depending on what gear you were running. However after he was "toned down", the overall usage of him, and the Powerful "Wrathful Protector" Rune in general plummeted. With Small Man's finger, It is quite reasonable to get their damage to 200m Crits + for each individual Gargantuan.
Gargantuan "Wrathful Protector
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Lets us go over some strengths, and weaknesses of the Fire variation of this Build.
Pros
Cons
Skill Variations
Starting Build (SMF Ring Only)
Starting Build
Intermediate Build (SMF Ring + COT ONLY)
Intermediate Build
Advance "End Game" build (SMF + COT + SMK + CDR)
Advance Build
Paragon Distribution
*These choices will be listed in order of priority*
**Core**
**Offensive**
**Defensive**
**Utility**
Gem Choices
*These are the gems I found most useful with this build, if you feel the need to change anything please do so*
**Enforcer**
**Gogok of Swiftness**
**Bane of the Trapped**
**Gearing list:**
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**Helm: Mask of Jeram**
**Shoulders: Aughilds**
**Gloves: Tasker and Theo**
**Ring 1: Unity, or Stone of Jordan**
**Unity**
**Stone of Jordan**
**Ring 2: Little Man's Finger**
**Weapon: Star Metal kukri**
**Off Hand Option #1: Uhkapian Serpent**
**Off Hand Option #2: Homunculus**
**Boots Option #1: Black Thorne**
**Boots Option #2: Ice Climbers**
**Pants: Cloth of Transcendence**
**Belt: Vigilante**
*This option will switch to cloth Of Transcendence as soon as Blizzard patches it to a belt slot*
**Chest: Aughilds Rule**
**Bracer: Aughild's Search**
**Necklace Option #1: Hell Fire Amulet**
**Acceptable Passives:**
**Necklace Option #2: Black Thornes**
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**Video of build in action:**
*Remember that currently on PTR Pylons are disabled in GR's. All of these runs were done W/O them completely*
Fire Small Mans Finger Greater Rift 38-39
Fire Small Mans Finger Greater Rift 40
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Little Man's Finger "Poison"
For the most part, unless you were looking for a filler skill in a poison build, this skill usually goes unused. The aoe effect is nice for mobs, but unfortunately the damage is a bit lacking to justify its use. With the Small Mans Finger greatly increasing the damage of the AOE effect, you can see a notable difference in its effect. Once Cloth of Transcendence gets move to the Belt slot, it will allow Swamp Land Waders to be used with it increasing the builds strength greatly. I will add this though, running Bad medicine wouldn't be a bad idea at all to help with damage mitigation in a solo/group situation.
Gargantuan "Big Stinker"
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Pros
Cons
**Skill Variations**
Starting Build
Intermediate Build (SMF Ring + COT ONLY)
Intermediate Build
Advance "End Game" build (SMF + COT + SMK + HOM)
Advance Build
**Paragon Distribution**
*These choices will be listed in order of priority*
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
Gem Choices
*These are the gems I found most useful with this build, if you feel the need to change anything please do so*
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
For most of the time, any poison build (excluding CarnEvil) uses this gem. The poison elemental damage in your build scales with this gem well, and the additional 10% increased damage is nice.
Bane of the Trapped
Solid choice here, gives us a great damage increase for our pets, which is just what we want with our Gargs
Enforcer
Pretty Straight forward with this one, increase pet damage all the way!
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**Helm: Mask of Jeram**
**Shoulders: Aughilds**
**Gloves: Tasker and Theo**
**Ring 1: Unity, or Stone of Jordan**
**Unity**
**Stone of Jordan**
**Ring 2: Little Man's Finger**
**Weapon: Star Metal kukri**
**Off Hand Option #1: Uhkapian Serpent**
**Off Hand Option #2: Homunculus (Used in the Advance End Game Build)**
**Boots Option #1: Black Thorne**
**Boots Option #2: Ice Climbers**
**Pants: Cloth of Transcendence**
**Pants *Future option*: Swamp Land Waders**
**Belt:The Witching Hour**
**Chest: Aughilds Rule**
Bracer: Aughild's Search
**Necklace Option #1: Hell Fire Amulet**
Acceptable Passives:
**Necklace Option #2: Black Thornes**
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**Video of build in action:**
*Remember that currently on PTR Pylons are disabled in GR's. All of these runs were done W/O them completely*
Poison Small Man finger GR 37-39
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Little Man's Finger "Physical"
Physical has always been a natural choice for pet builds. This is due to the fact that Fetish Sycophants natural element is physical damage. Fetish army "Legion of Daggers", combines with the passive FS, to maximize the full damage potential of all fetishes by using physical property element. With the LMF Physical build, we still lean towards this however, we use our "Increased Skill Damage" for Gargantuan. The reason for this is because were using the "Cold" Rune effect for our Gargantuan, to help us out with AOE damage. Even though the Gargantuan does not benefit from physical ED increases, the ISD combined with its strong AOE more than make up for it.
Gargantuan Humongoid
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Pros
Cons
Skill Variations
Starting Build
*Intermediate Build (SMF Ring + COT ONLY)
Intermediate Build
* Advance "End Game" build (SMF + COT + SMK + HOM)
Advance Build
Paragon Distribution
*These choices will be listed in order of priority*
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
Gem Choices
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
Ok..... I know it seems a little silly to run this with a Physical/Cold build. The 10% Damage increase will amplify our fetishes, but most importantly the Cleave Damage of our Gargs.
Bane of the Trapped
Solid choice here, gives us a great damage increase for our pets, which is just what we want with our Gargs
Enforcer
Pretty Straight forward with this one, increase pet damage all the way!
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**Helm: Mask of Jeram**
**Shoulders: Aughilds**
**Gloves: Tasker and Theo**
**Ring 1: Unity, or Stone of Jordan**
**Unity**
**Stone of Jordan**
**Ring 2: Little Man's Finger**
**Weapon: Star Metal kukri**
**Off Hand Option #1: Uhkapian Serpent**
**Off Hand Option #2: Homunculus**
**Boots Option #1: Black Thorne**
**Boots Option #2: Ice Climbers**
**Pants: Cloth of Transcendence**
**Belt:The Witching Hour**
**Chest: Aughilds Rule**
**Bracer: Aughild's Search**
**Necklace Option #1: Hell Fire Amulet**
**Acceptable Passives:**
**Necklace Option #2: Black Thornes**
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Video of build in action:
*Remember that currently on PTR Pylons are disabled in GR's. All of these runs were done W/O them completely*
Small Man's Finger Physical GR 36-39
Small Man's Finger Physical GR 40
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Video Recap
*Remember that currently on PTR Pylons are disabled in GR's. All of these runs were done W/O them completely*
Fire Small Mans Finger GR 38-39
Fire Small Mans Finger GR Rift 40
Poison Small Mans finger GR 37-39
Physical Small Man's Finger GR 36-39
Physical Small Man's Finger GR 40
1
Thats perfectly fine if your not full clearing the bounties to get Horadric caches, but only if yoru leveling to 70, after that point you DEF wanna full clear bounties to get that magical lil treasure box