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Build Guide

Note: This is a guide assuming that you are *not* the source of health globes (but the Crusader runs with Laws of Hope - Hopeful Cry). However, it is probably preferable to run as health globe generator these days. Please check out CLX's excellent guide for this:

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/35545-clx-support-witch-doctor-guide

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This guide is based on the discussion in this thread:

http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/witch-doctor-the-mbwiru-eikura/95951-zdps-stat-weights

This class/spec is essential in any GR45+ group, no matter if 2 players, 3 players, or 4 player. There's no limit, this works on 55+ as well. In trials monk+crusader are more effective though as there are no elite affixes to "shut down". In 4 player greater rift best class to group up with is zDPS crusader, followed by zDPS monk.

Sets/gloves

You've got 6 armor slots (shoulders, gloves, chest, belt, pants, boots), 3 of which will be used for the Blackthorne's set. That leaves the following options (in order of recommendation):

• Option A: 15% life, 10% CDR, and choice on gloves between TnT/St. Archew's/whatever else you have (2 piece Born's plus any other gloves)
• Option B: 100 allres, 20% life, 8% CDR (2 piece Asheara's and Vigilante Belt)
• Option C: 100 allres, 20% life, summon followers every minute for 30 seconds (3 piece Asheara's)

Note that in case you don't have SMK, you should go for Born's Wrath (weapon) and Born's Shoulders - and then either 2 piece Asheara's or Vigilante Belt plus any other gloves. CDR is very important.

TnT will increase the number of Fetish Army hits and help reduce your cooldown even further if you feel that your BBV uptime is not good enough (although that might just hint that your mitigation is too low). St. Archews give a very very small shield compared to the survivability bonus of the set.

Follower gearing

(In case you run 4 piece Asheara's bonus - not recommended anymore in 2.1.2, other options above are better.)

Immortality follower token on all of them; 3x Overwhelming Desire, 3x Oculus Ring (double IAS roll), 3x Pandaemonium Loop for fear or Wyrdward for stun if you have weapons with lightning damage (optional: Justice Lantern on Templar), Azurewrath on Templar+Enchantress and Unbound Bolt on Scoundrel - all with IAS+bleed damage, Freeze of Deflection on Templar (hence Justice Lantern as alternative). Another weapon option is Sultan of the Binding Sand for Enchantress, but Azurewrath is probably better due to higher attack speed (more procs). Any follower damage can be neglected - focus on any CC procs (except for knockback!) and IAS.

Other gearing tips

Strength or dexterity are better than intelligence; craft items on a str or dex class. Why? You either get 500 armor or 50 allres from the main stat; if you craft all items with intelligence you'll end up at around 2000 allres and 8000 armor (very rough numbers). If most of your items are dex/str, you will be much closer to the 10:1 ratio (should be about 1500 allres and 16000 armor). Overall, this will yield better mitigation (mitigation calculator here). You get lots of allres from paragon, diamonds, intelligence on Kukri/Tiklandian, and allres rolls on up to 8 items - so dex/str is simply the better choice.

Note that Kukri and Rechel's Ring of Larcency are very rare items, but without them you will lose a lot of efficiency/DPS buffs (Kukri) and mobility (Rechel's). As for any item stats: in general choose mitigation over life, as your pets greatly benefit from mitigation but not from life. Secondary re-rolls on bracers, amulet, shield, and chest to ranged damage reduction can be a life saver on high Greater Rifts. Choose whatever stat is higher on a given slot.

Offhand: Homunculus instead of Stormshield is good for more CDR and additional Zombie Dogs to play "meatshield" on Electrified mobs; but you lose a lot of toughness. The best option in 2.1.2 is probably Thing of the Deep, not only because of Grave Injustice, but also because you pick up much more health globes which will give the DHs unlimited resources. Note that mojos are especially an option on higher GRs (50+) when toughness becomes less relevant; especially up to GR45 or "beginner WDs" who want to familiarize with the build a Stormshield is to be preferred.

Skills

Most of the skills are pretty much set in stone; some people prefer Healing Journey over Jaunt for Spirit Walk, though that's a bad trade-off as 1 second more Spirit Walk can save you a lot of times whereas the small heal does not help a lot on higher levels.

The only "real" choice is probably the Fetish Army rune. Some go for decreased duration (90 seconds) though that should not be an issue with Kukri. Head Hunters adds two ranged fetishes that survive longer, Legion of Daggers has simply the highest number of fetishes, Tiki Torchers might proc more (Kukri procs to reduce CDR). Give all of them a try and make your choice. I think Head Hunters are the best because the two ranged fetishes will rarely die on any RG and ensure almost 100% BBV uptime.

Passives

• Spirit Vessel is a must-have.
• Tribal Rites is probably #2; the 25% more CDR on Paranoia allows for a lot more uptime of the 20% damage buff. Also, in case of Raziel or Electrified mobs, the additional CDR on BBV/FA comes in handy.
• Grave Injustice helps to reduce Paranoia/Spirit Walk cooldown when stuff dies and you move on to the next group. You have more Spirit Walk and Piranhado which helps mobility and organizing CC; decide for yourself if that's worth more than the other passives. Unfortunately pretty useless on the rift guardian.
• Creeping Death - for longer uptime of Piranhado damage debuff. Doesn't help that much for packs and mobs up until the rift guardian - but this is extremely helpful for the rift guardian when you don't want to get close ever 4 seconds to re-apply the Piranhado debuff.
• Fierce Loyalty - an option for when you no Rechel's Ring of Larcency, for 30% more MS. Or if you want to be super fast.

The aforementioned passives are more in the category of utility; there are three more passives that increase your toughness and that of your pets. Note that there is a point (GR50+) where pets die regardless of what damage hits them, so unless you Horrify mobs they might be dead anyways... but for GR45 and lower you should definitely consider 1-2 of those passives:

• Jungle Fortitude for additional 15% damage reduction - self-explanatory.
• Bad Medicine might just be as good as Jungle Fortitude, as it should end up giving about the same (if not more) effective damage reduction (Horrify procs your Toxin gem all the time, so Bad Medicine is up all the time). The problem is that for some rift guardians you need to stay far away.
• Zombie Handler for 20% more life (you and pets).

Which one of those you choose (or even 2 or all 3 of them) is your choice.

Playstyle

Run in with Spirit Walk and cast Horrify. Use Piranhado to stack mobs closer together or CC ranged mobs outside of your Horrify range. Note that Horrify with the Tiklandian Visage does not apply a 6-8 second fear, but you gain an aura that re-casts fear about every second. If you run back to put a BBV on top of your DHs, the mobs will most likely get out of fear and run around/cast some stuff. Therefore: unless the pack doesn't have any bad affixes always stay put and CC the elite pack to make sure they cannot cast a single spell. Use Spirit Walk wisely (an arcane trap, a ranged mob shooting at you, an exploding Grotesque, after a Spirit Vessel proc).

2.1.2 Changes

Summary of the most important 2.1.2 changes:

• Don't use Mass Confusion anymore, but the new 20% damage debuff Haunt. Do not put this on your left click ever - it'll mess up your positioning!
• Since picking up health globes became the most important thing in GRs, the Thing of the Deep is probably now the #1 choice for off-hand if you can handle the hit on survivability.
• With the increased density, TnT are basically not necessary anymore and it's better to go for 2 piece Asheara's or some other choice. You'll have crazy uptime of BBV even without SMK if the density is good - and the rifts that will define your ranking are those with good density anyways.
• The Toxin gem/reflect damage interaction has been fixed. Get rid of single resists. There's no other secondary to choose; you can distribute your single resists to whatever you like, or go for whichever element you fear most, or even stats like pickup radius or bonus experience. Focus on primary stats now (exception: ranged damage reduction).
• You'll also most likely not die from any melee damage anymore (unless you make terrible mistakes) so don't focus on that stat.
• Get as many ancient items as possible, especially for gloves it's an incredible toughness boost.

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Note: This is a guide assuming that you are *not* the source of health globes (but the Crusader runs with Laws of Hope - Hopeful Cry). However, it is probably preferable to run as health globe generator these days. Please check out CLX's excellent guide for this:

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/35545-clx-support-witch-doctor-guide