Rating
+22

2.1.2 Tiki lockdown Pet Doc (solo Grift 42+)

by last updated Jan 25, 2015 ( Patch 2.1.2 )
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Skills

  • Plague of Toads Rain of Toads
  • Big Bad Voodoo Slam Dance
  • Horrify Face of Death
  • Spirit Walk Healing Journey
  • Sacrifice Provoke the Pack
  • Fetish Army Legion of Daggers
  • Fetish Sycophants
  • Gruesome Feast
  • Pierce the Veil
  • Spirit Vessel

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Enforcer
    • Pain Enhancer

Block % = Fetish Army %


Helm: Tiklandian Visage is the focus of the build. It causes Horrify to fear and root enemies around you for 6-8 seconds. A socket is just about mandatory; otherwise you will need to find cooldown reduction in other areas of your gear.

Chest: Aug chest (crafted) fits well with the build. Tal Rasha chest is a good substitute in conjunction with Lacunis or Steady Strikers (more attack speed).

Shoulders: Aug shoulders (crafted) are the only real option. If you ditch Aug pieces, use Profane pauldrons for its added Pick up Range.

Hands: Tasker and Theos without a doubt. This greatly increases your Fetishes damage output; as well as increasing the effectiveness of SMK. Otherwise Cain's would be the next bet; if you wish to use something else in the pants or boots slot.

Pants: Cain's pants (crafted) are likely the best option; as with boots. Hexing Pants sound good, but in a build where you will be hugging enemies and needing to lock down mobs with your Horrify; you just cannot afford to move. If you do decide on Hexing Pants; you will need Illusory boots without a doubt.

Boots: Cain's boots (crafted) are likely the best option; in conjunction with pants. Blackthornes could be decent; but seeing as this build uses a SoJ, the elite damage bonus from Blackthornes isn't as useful. Illusory boots if you decide Hexing Pants.

Wrist: Aug bracers (crafted) are probably the best option. Lacunis and Steady Strikers add more damage; but at the cost of sacrificing elite damage from the Aug bonus.

Waist: Witching Hour without a doubt. Since WH is a rare item; good substitutes are any other offensive belt (Hellcats > Fleeting).

Rings: Unity for solo play; otherwise any good ring would do in its place for group play. Stone of Jordan is essential to boosting your elite and physical damage. Tall Man's Finger does not fit in this build; as we'll be sac'ing our dogs through Homunculus.

Amulet: The Ess of Johan really shines in this build. We lack Piranhado; so grouping up enemies is extremely hard in a build where one loose enemy can mean the difference of success and death. More attack speed greatly increases its effectiveness. I couldn't add it into the guide; but Hellfire neck is a wonderful choice. Great 5th Passives would be Fierce Loyalty, Zombie Handler, Circle of Life or Jungle Fortitude. Because electrocute can be our biggest nemesis, Xephirian can be a great choice too. Also to mention is Overwhelming Desire; increasing our damage output momentarily (though it has a low proc rate).

Offhand: Homunculus to re-fuel our ammo for Sac's, giving us the Provoke the Pack buff.

Weapon: Unfortunately this build really focuses around Starmetal Kukri. Being able to constantly have Slam Dance and Fetishes (without Zuni) is essential. The build can still be good without SMK; but don't expect getting into 36+ Grifts without it.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Primary Stat
Vitality
Maximum Resource

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance

Defense

Armor
Resist All
Life
Life Regeneration

Utility

Life on Hit
Area Damage
Gold Find
Resource Cost Reduction
Get 25% movement speed; depending on boots with MS or not. Adjust your cooldown reduction based on your Tiki Helm (max is 8 secs); with a diamond in the helm preferably. Aim for Cooldown Reduction on shoulders if you can, so you can minimize using CDR in paragon points in favor of the other offensive stats. Attack speed is wonderful for proc'ing more Fetishes. Crit Damage comes before Crit hit only because we typically get more Crit Hit on gear than Crit Dmg. Defense can vary; I typically favor Armor first (as with Wizards; WDs get a lot of all resist from our Int); followed by all resist. More life (life %) is only good when you can heal up fast enough.

Build Guide

The Build:

The premises of the build focuses around Tiklandian Visage; which fears/roots targets in place for 6-8 seconds. With Tikilandian Visage (voodoo mask) Spirit Vessel (passive), and enough Cooldown reduction; you can permanently lock down mobs while your Fetishes wreck your foes. Max out your paragon's cooldown reduction (or use shoulders with CDR) and add a Diamond gem into the helm. Adjust your CDR depending if you have an 8 sec roll, or 7/6.

Several people have managed to beat solo Greater Rift 42's with this build; and even have gone higher.


Why this Build?

This is an alternate build to the typical Mask of Jeram pet builds. While MoJ offers more damage output; this build focuses more on locking down your enemies and preventing them from doing anything; which leads to fewer Fetish deaths. Because we forgo TMF and zombie dogs all together; we'll use Homunculus to summon dogs for Sacrificing. With the Provoke rune; we can add temporary damage per sac'd dog; thus increasing the damage output of our Fetishes.

Affixes like Jailer and lightning storm, which can one-shot some people; become no problem at all. Elites will not be able to cast anything while they are permanently feared. However; be aware of how close you get to mobs with electrocute or fire-chains; as Horrify does not stop these from occurring. Or even exploding mobs; like Grotesques. The real trick is being able to successfully perma-fear packs. One loose elite and they can wreck havoc on your whole plan. Some affixes will always go off when approaching the enemies; so be mindful of their reflect damage, frozen, etc.

Unfortunately this build has its weaknesses. While you might struggle with locking down mobs spread too thin, rift guardians are a bigger issue. Horrify does not work against them; which sort of destroys the whole theme behind the build. Be sure to keep your distance and take advantage of the environment when you can. I purposely gear my follower for the rift guardian. Giving him or her as much crowd control items as possible.

Skills:

Plague of Toads Our best proc spell in the game. Plus its free and a ranged spell (rain of toads). This is used for proc'ing Fetishes from Fetish Sychophants (not used for damage).

Spirit Walk I prefer Healing Journey for the life return; but a great alternative would be Jaunt. Every WD should have Spirit Walk; its a necessary staple in every build.

Big Bad Voodoo SMK allows us to spam this ability (even more so with T&T gloves). This just adds a lot more damage to our Fetishes. Boogie Man could be an alternative; but the damage from that would seem more spikey, while slam dance is much more consistent. Plus, Boogie Man won't work well against most Rift Guardians.

Horrify Our bread and butter of this build. Spam this with enough cooldown reduction, preventing enemies from doing anything. Face of Death allows a larger area to be locked down, which is wonderful with the lack of Piranhado. I wouldn't suggest any other rune because any loose mob could result in death.

Sacrifice Losing TMF damage is a huge loss to our damage output; so any way we can add more damage is great. After sac'ing 3+ dogs, we get a huge temporary damage buff (provoke the pack).

Fetish Army Our main damage output. Coupled with Physical % and Fetish Army % on gear; Legion of Daggers goes well with Fetish Sychophants for its physical damage.

Legendary Gems:

Bane of the Trapped: Quite possibly the best legendary gem for all classes/builds; as long as you (or follow) has a crowd-control mechanic or slowing effect. Horrify will be proc'ing the gem non-stop.

Enforcer: Because we are not using Mask of Jeram; this gem becomes a stronger choice. It adds to our physical% for our Fetishes. The added survivability; while not as much needed, can be helpful at times (such as Rift Guardians).

Pain Enhancer: You need to hug enemies for Horrify to work; so Pain Enhancer works quite well. The secondary works wonders; increasing your attack speed. Plus our pets can proc the gem's DoT; and it has synergy with all of our Physical % gear.

I cannot see any other useful gems outside of these three in greater rifts. Perhaps the Toxin gem or bane of the powerful; but these three just seem so much better.

Follower:

Templar: Mostly used for his heals- equip him with a Thunderfury for its procs, a lot of attack speed and either Ess of Johan or Overwhelming desire. Azurewrath works well too; especially on single target (like Rift Guardians); though your fetishes might prevent him from getting into melee. Thunderfury + Wyrdward + Dovu Energy Trap works as well.

Enchantress: Can work with Azurewrath as well. Load her up with attack speed and watch her freeze targets pretty frequently. Or use Sultan's 2 Handed Sword, which can roll up to 40% blind on hit. Thunderfury + Wyrdward + Dovu Energy Trap works as well.

Scoundrel: I personally haven't had much success with him in any build. Perhaps Buriza bow and any freeze gear; but even then, the Enchantress can do better. Will need to do testing to see how viable he can be; if at all.

As mentioned, Thunderfury + Wyrdward does proc the stun. However, stuns equal to or less than 1.5 seconds do not work against Rift Guardians. While this might be fine on elites; a Dovu Energy Trap (which increases Stuns by 20-25%) is needed to make stunning possible on RG's.

Also; its not the proc from Thunderfury that is causing the stun (through Wyrdward); but its the native "Lightning damage" TF always rolls. All weapons roll some elemental damage; and most of the time its irrelevant; but any weapon with "Lightning Damage" could take Thunderfurys place and work fine. Which means an Azurewrath, enchanted with Lightning damage (it always rolls cold) could be the best option; as it could stun (through Wyrdward) and freeze (because it rolls 20-25% chance to freeze) mobs. I have yet to test this personally; but in theory should work and could be the "best Rift Guardian lock down" follower set up.