I have seen quite a lot of questions on the ZD witch doctor build on gear choice and skills etc. Decided to make a couple of videos explaining and demonstrating in detail how this spec works, part 2 of the video shows me playing at greater rift level 40 3 man. If you are just starting out on this build and would like to get a head start, you might find these two videos useful to watch. I've got the links of my videos below, if you have any feedback or questions, you are more than welcome to post it here or on youtube comments. I hope this video can help those of you who are wanting to start this build. I'm also trying to improve my gameplay in order to help my team to progress, so if you got any suggestions on improvements, please let me know.
Part 1: I go through my gear selection and skills in detail and showing some footage of solo game play.
Footage of me playing with double Demon Hunter (both Meticulous bolt spec):
It's absolutely insane, their dps were sick and there so so many meticulous bolts that even made my computer lag. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IucDzotzJHA
Only had time to check out the first part of the video. Nice video, nice information on how the build works, but maybe a bit too beginner for the high gear requirement (SMK, lightning amu), while missing beginner information if aiming at people just starting the build.
- The build will prevent elites to proc "active" affixed. Fire chain, molten and electrified will still work. Fire chain you can avoid, blackthorn helps agains molten, making the lightning amulet mandatory for the electrified affix (got nerfed a bit, but still hits hard if you got 3 dh with high breakpoint in the party).
- I did not catch any information about legendary gems. You only really need 1 legendary gem: Efficacious Toxin gem (10% party damage buff). Swiftness can be useful as a 2nd, for the extra cooldown.
- If you do go with an SMK, I would go with taskers as well. The reason you use this weapon is for the cooldown reset, and taskers are the only thing that makes your pets faster. If you don't have the SMK, I would suggest to use the more commonly dropped "last breath". Without SMK, drop the fetish army for something like Hex-Jinx.
- Personally I'm not using the cooldown belt but the blackthorn belt, allowing me to go with the born shoulders and chest, a bit more cooldown and 15% life from set bonus.(and a bit more xp, nice to level faster). Without an SMK, I would look into Asheara's shoulders+gloves+(pants/boots). This will call your followers (with the relic so they don't take damage) with a 50% uptime, and they do have some nice damage buffs for the party and crowd control as well.
- I would use a homunculus. With taskers and SMK, you can drop tribal rites for fierce loyalty (movement speed). The dogs also help to block electrified affix for the party and (used to, not sure it still works) can take that thunderstorm/frozen pulse/jailer proc that might happen before you got the entire pack under control. On top of that, you can roll cooldown on a mojo, not on a shield.
PS: I saw you got a damage% roll on your SMK, I would reroll it to cooldown for this build. Try to max out cooldown, in high level greater rifts you want spirit walk up as often as you can.
PPS: I noticed you have been putting paragon point into life% first. While that might net in more "sheet toughness", it also makes your healing (life per second, life per hit, additional health for healthglobes) less efficient. I would try to max reduction rolls (all res/armor, in that order, ranged/melee reduction in secondaries, elite damage reduction on chest) first, before adding life% to items/paragon. Not only for WD/support, but for all classes/builds.
- I did not catch any information about legendary gems. You only really need 1 legendary gem: Efficacious Toxin gem (10% party damage buff). Swiftness can be useful as a 2nd, for the extra cooldown.
Just to add - Bane of the Trapped is a useful third gem if you play with non-frost DHs (e.g., pure fire DH), to make sure every mob is always triggering Bane of the Trapped for all DPS. Otherwise, a third useful gem is Moratorium for just a bit extra toughness.
- If you do go with an SMK, I would go with taskers as well. The reason you use this weapon is for the cooldown reset, and taskers are the only thing that makes your pets faster.
This is not correct. Pets have a fixed attack speed, Taskers (or any other attack speed increase) will just translate to higher damage. Taskers or any IAS on gear will not make your pets attack faster/more often.
- Personally I'm not using the cooldown belt but the blackthorn belt, allowing me to go with the born shoulders and chest, a bit more cooldown and 15% life from set bonus.(and a bit more xp, nice to level faster). Without an SMK, I would look into Asheara's shoulders+gloves+(pants/boots). This will call your followers (with the relic so they don't take damage) with a 50% uptime, and they do have some nice damage buffs for the party and crowd control as well.
That is an interesting alternative route that I haven't thought about! Especially since you can craft a perfect chest that way, if you haven't found a good BT chest yet.
I personally prefer 2 Asheara's/3BT/Vigilante though for the extra toughness of the 3pc Asheara's set. Note: I strongly advise against going with 4pc Asheara's set bonus. While the followers seem like a useful addition at first, they just lead to problems and complicate fights (knockbacks, pulls, stuns, or blocking/tanking that keeps mobs out of Horrify range). I tried this for a bit, in trials and rifts, and decided for me personally that 4pc Asheara's just leads to more problems than any solutions/help. But of course everyone may try this out for themselves ;-)
This is not correct. Pets have a fixed attack speed, Taskers (or any other attack speed increase) will just translate to higher damage. Taskers or any IAS on gear will not make your pets attack faster/more often.
This is only true of WD's fetishes. Attack speed does effect the actual attack rate of Ancients, Phalanxes, Sentries, etc.
- I did not catch any information about legendary gems. You only really need 1 legendary gem: Efficacious Toxin gem (10% party damage buff). Swiftness can be useful as a 2nd, for the extra cooldown.
Just to add - Bane of the Trapped is a useful third gem if you play with non-frost DHs (e.g., pure fire DH), to make sure every mob is always triggering Bane of the Trapped for all DPS. Otherwise, a third useful gem is Moratorium for just a bit extra toughness.
- If you do go with an SMK, I would go with taskers as well. The reason you use this weapon is for the cooldown reset, and taskers are the only thing that makes your pets faster.
This is not correct. Pets have a fixed attack speed, Taskers (or any other attack speed increase) will just translate to higher damage. Taskers or any IAS on gear will not make your pets attack faster/more often.
- Personally I'm not using the cooldown belt but the blackthorn belt, allowing me to go with the born shoulders and chest, a bit more cooldown and 15% life from set bonus.(and a bit more xp, nice to level faster). Without an SMK, I would look into Asheara's shoulders+gloves+(pants/boots). This will call your followers (with the relic so they don't take damage) with a 50% uptime, and they do have some nice damage buffs for the party and crowd control as well.
That is an interesting alternative route that I haven't thought about! Especially since you can craft a perfect chest that way, if you haven't found a good BT chest yet.
I personally prefer 2 Asheara's/3BT/Vigilante though for the extra toughness of the 3pc Asheara's set. Note: I strongly advise against going with 4pc Asheara's set bonus. While the followers seem like a useful addition at first, they just lead to problems and complicate fights (knockbacks, pulls, stuns, or blocking/tanking that keeps mobs out of Horrify range). I tried this for a bit, in trials and rifts, and decided for me personally that 4pc Asheara's just leads to more problems than any solutions/help. But of course everyone may try this out for themselves ;-)
Bane of the trapped gem is not useful, as any CC (including fear/root) will proc it. So as long as the WD is around, it should be proced anyway.
For the taskers, as far as I know, they DO increase the pet attackspeed, while real attackspeed only increases their damage per hit.
Only had time to check out the first part of the video. Nice video, nice information on how the build works, but maybe a bit too beginner for the high gear requirement (SMK, lightning amu), while missing beginner information if aiming at people just starting the build.
- The build will prevent elites to proc "active" affixed. Fire chain, molten and electrified will still work. Fire chain you can avoid, blackthorn helps agains molten, making the lightning amulet mandatory for the electrified affix (got nerfed a bit, but still hits hard if you got 3 dh with high breakpoint in the party).
- I did not catch any information about legendary gems. You only really need 1 legendary gem: Efficacious Toxin gem (10% party damage buff). Swiftness can be useful as a 2nd, for the extra cooldown.
- If you do go with an SMK, I would go with taskers as well. The reason you use this weapon is for the cooldown reset, and taskers are the only thing that makes your pets faster. If you don't have the SMK, I would suggest to use the more commonly dropped "last breath". Without SMK, drop the fetish army for something like Hex-Jinx.
- Personally I'm not using the cooldown belt but the blackthorn belt, allowing me to go with the born shoulders and chest, a bit more cooldown and 15% life from set bonus.(and a bit more xp, nice to level faster). Without an SMK, I would look into Asheara's shoulders+gloves+(pants/boots). This will call your followers (with the relic so they don't take damage) with a 50% uptime, and they do have some nice damage buffs for the party and crowd control as well.
- I would use a homunculus. With taskers and SMK, you can drop tribal rites for fierce loyalty (movement speed). The dogs also help to block electrified affix for the party and (used to, not sure it still works) can take that thunderstorm/frozen pulse/jailer proc that might happen before you got the entire pack under control. On top of that, you can roll cooldown on a mojo, not on a shield.
PS: I saw you got a damage% roll on your SMK, I would reroll it to cooldown for this build. Try to max out cooldown, in high level greater rifts you want spirit walk up as often as you can.
PPS: I noticed you have been putting paragon point into life% first. While that might net in more "sheet toughness", it also makes your healing (life per second, life per hit, additional health for healthglobes) less efficient. I would try to max reduction rolls (all res/armor, in that order, ranged/melee reduction in secondaries, elite damage reduction on chest) first, before adding life% to items/paragon. Not only for WD/support, but for all classes/builds.
Zombie dogs survive approximately 0.00000001s in a 40+ grift so hoping that they will absorb any kind of damage from, let's say electrified, is just not happening.
w00t w00t. are you saying that T&T is useless for WD pets/FA? Can I get a source on that pls?
He does not say that they are useless, only that IAS does not apply to them. They do however scale IAS as additional damage. If T&T does not increase the attack speed of fetishes than it will increase the damage per hit.
Considering the build not getting the IAS for fetishes is quite useless... Can someone verify that it's actually so? I was under a completely different assumption.
w00t w00t. are you saying that T&T is useless for WD pets/FA? Can I get a source on that pls?
He does not say that they are useless, only that IAS does not apply to them. They do however scale IAS as additional damage. If T&T does not increase the attack speed of fetishes than it will increase the damage per hit.
Considering the build not getting the IAS for fetishes is quite useless... Can someone verify that it's actually so? I was under a completely different assumption.
Pets on a WD do not attack faster if you add attackspeed on your items (they do with tasker and theo).
However, their damage does scale with attackspeed, resulting in harder hits per attack.
Example: you have 1m sheet dps and 1 attacks per second, you pets will hit 1 time per second for 1m. You add 10% attackspeed (paragon for example), you now have 1.1m sheet dps and 1.1 attacks per second. For some reason, your pets do not hit 1.1 times for 1m, but 1 time for 1.1m. (numbers are simplified example, there will be crit/non crit hits, and I have no idea what the real attackspeed of pets is).
This was no issue in the past as pets did not proc anything (life per hit, thunderfury, ... as example, of course for starmetal it is important). In the last patch they fixed it so "The Gem of Efficacious Toxin poison DoT can now properly be applied by pet attacks", so maybe more "on hit" procs are working now?
Both somewhat old though, they say in the beginning that it's not tested for 2.1 yet. But thanks to Al_Calzone, Taskers definitely work for FA, so it *is* a viable option for SMK tank WDs. (Although I still prefer Asheara's and don't even have a spare pair of Taskers, so not an option for me anyways).
I actually dropped T&T for a nicely rolled St Archew's and I really didn't notice a huge decrease in CDR. I mean im at 50% already and spamming BBV more than I need to the proc from St Archew's was more beneficial to me. Now I just need a fkn Xephirian...
I felt with a Xephirian, you spirit walk into the mobs and start CC'ing them, not really needing more toughness/survivability from St Archew's. Having BBV off cooldown faster was useful for me, since I would pop 1 over at the DH's and 1 in the middle of the pack for the monk. But I guess it comes down to playstyle/preference/rolls on other items.
I felt with a Xephirian, you spirit walk into the mobs and start CC'ing them, not really needing more toughness/survivability from St Archew's. Having BBV off cooldown faster was useful for me, since I would pop 1 over at the DH's and 1 in the middle of the pack for the monk. But I guess it comes down to playstyle/preference/rolls on other items.
In this case it comes down to having the Xephirian or not I haven't been so lucky yet :/
I felt with a Xephirian, you spirit walk into the mobs and start CC'ing them, not really needing more toughness/survivability from St Archew's. Having BBV off cooldown faster was useful for me, since I would pop 1 over at the DH's and 1 in the middle of the pack for the monk. But I guess it comes down to playstyle/preference/rolls on other items.
In this case it comes down to having the Xephirian or not I haven't been so lucky yet :/
Great videos i was thinking about trying this out, just need the smk. Do you have any worrys about this build getting nerfed because its the only cc in game without diminishing returns?
Hey Al_Calzone, that's a good point. Ideally if there's a way of making use of the life on it with amethyst, I've tested with it before, however I found that the fettish army don't proc my life on hit, so i think the only other skill which possibly can benefit from life on hit is my pirahanado, I should definitely see how well that works. If the benefit out weighs the extra little bit of dmg from Emerald, then I would consider switching.
Thanks Muilpeer, I like your Born's two set, once I get the blackthorne belt, i'll switch my shoulder and chest to Born's, great suggestion.
Regarding the Homing Pads, it's actually a great shoulder, when your spirit walk is on CD and you are about to be hit by something (let's say arcane beam) and you don't wanna move away because you'll lose CC on the elites, then you can simply spam portal button to trigger the 64% damage reduction (btw is very very helpful). I think a lot of people underestimate how useful this item could be (when the roll is good). Let me know your thoughts.
In one video you had an emerald in your weapon. You're not doing damage so why not switch to an amethyst?
Hey Al_Calzone, that's a good point. Ideally if there's a way of making use of the life on it with amethyst, I've tested with it before, however I found that the fettish army don't proc my life on hit, so i think the only other skill which possibly can benefit from life on hit is my pirahanado, I should definitely see how well that works. If the benefit out weighs the extra little bit of dmg from Emerald, then I would consider switching.
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I have seen quite a lot of questions on the ZD witch doctor build on gear choice and skills etc. Decided to make a couple of videos explaining and demonstrating in detail how this spec works, part 2 of the video shows me playing at greater rift level 40 3 man. If you are just starting out on this build and would like to get a head start, you might find these two videos useful to watch. I've got the links of my videos below, if you have any feedback or questions, you are more than welcome to post it here or on youtube comments. I hope this video can help those of you who are wanting to start this build. I'm also trying to improve my gameplay in order to help my team to progress, so if you got any suggestions on improvements, please let me know.
Part 1: I go through my gear selection and skills in detail and showing some footage of solo game play.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArQZEm90vmc
Part 2: This video shows the full greater rift level 40 run with my friends (Utility/dps Monk, Demon hunter)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j6k-Q7qNfE
Footage of me playing with double Demon Hunter (both Meticulous bolt spec):
It's absolutely insane, their dps were sick and there so so many meticulous bolts that even made my computer lag.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IucDzotzJHA
Thanks guys
What's with the Homing Pads ? Go for Born Shoulders/Chest, Blackthorne Boots/Waist/Pants, also try to get a Stormshield, they're pretty easy to get.
Also you don't need the emerald in your weapon, just put an amethyst in.
Check out mine, just imagine an 8% CDR/Socket RoRG, i need to share it with my crusader
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Muilpeer-2616/hero/44258491
Only had time to check out the first part of the video. Nice video, nice information on how the build works, but maybe a bit too beginner for the high gear requirement (SMK, lightning amu), while missing beginner information if aiming at people just starting the build.
- The build will prevent elites to proc "active" affixed. Fire chain, molten and electrified will still work. Fire chain you can avoid, blackthorn helps agains molten, making the lightning amulet mandatory for the electrified affix (got nerfed a bit, but still hits hard if you got 3 dh with high breakpoint in the party).
- I did not catch any information about legendary gems. You only really need 1 legendary gem: Efficacious Toxin gem (10% party damage buff). Swiftness can be useful as a 2nd, for the extra cooldown.
- If you do go with an SMK, I would go with taskers as well. The reason you use this weapon is for the cooldown reset, and taskers are the only thing that makes your pets faster. If you don't have the SMK, I would suggest to use the more commonly dropped "last breath". Without SMK, drop the fetish army for something like Hex-Jinx.
- Personally I'm not using the cooldown belt but the blackthorn belt, allowing me to go with the born shoulders and chest, a bit more cooldown and 15% life from set bonus.(and a bit more xp, nice to level faster). Without an SMK, I would look into Asheara's shoulders+gloves+(pants/boots). This will call your followers (with the relic so they don't take damage) with a 50% uptime, and they do have some nice damage buffs for the party and crowd control as well.
- I would use a homunculus. With taskers and SMK, you can drop tribal rites for fierce loyalty (movement speed). The dogs also help to block electrified affix for the party and (used to, not sure it still works) can take that thunderstorm/frozen pulse/jailer proc that might happen before you got the entire pack under control. On top of that, you can roll cooldown on a mojo, not on a shield.
PS: I saw you got a damage% roll on your SMK, I would reroll it to cooldown for this build. Try to max out cooldown, in high level greater rifts you want spirit walk up as often as you can.
PPS: I noticed you have been putting paragon point into life% first. While that might net in more "sheet toughness", it also makes your healing (life per second, life per hit, additional health for healthglobes) less efficient. I would try to max reduction rolls (all res/armor, in that order, ranged/melee reduction in secondaries, elite damage reduction on chest) first, before adding life% to items/paragon. Not only for WD/support, but for all classes/builds.
This is not correct. Pets have a fixed attack speed, Taskers (or any other attack speed increase) will just translate to higher damage. Taskers or any IAS on gear will not make your pets attack faster/more often.
That is an interesting alternative route that I haven't thought about! Especially since you can craft a perfect chest that way, if you haven't found a good BT chest yet.
I personally prefer 2 Asheara's/3BT/Vigilante though for the extra toughness of the 3pc Asheara's set. Note: I strongly advise against going with 4pc Asheara's set bonus. While the followers seem like a useful addition at first, they just lead to problems and complicate fights (knockbacks, pulls, stuns, or blocking/tanking that keeps mobs out of Horrify range). I tried this for a bit, in trials and rifts, and decided for me personally that 4pc Asheara's just leads to more problems than any solutions/help. But of course everyone may try this out for themselves ;-)
This is only true of WD's fetishes. Attack speed does effect the actual attack rate of Ancients, Phalanxes, Sentries, etc.
For the taskers, as far as I know, they DO increase the pet attackspeed, while real attackspeed only increases their damage per hit.
However, their damage does scale with attackspeed, resulting in harder hits per attack.
Example: you have 1m sheet dps and 1 attacks per second, you pets will hit 1 time per second for 1m. You add 10% attackspeed (paragon for example), you now have 1.1m sheet dps and 1.1 attacks per second. For some reason, your pets do not hit 1.1 times for 1m, but 1 time for 1.1m. (numbers are simplified example, there will be crit/non crit hits, and I have no idea what the real attackspeed of pets is).
This was no issue in the past as pets did not proc anything (life per hit, thunderfury, ... as example, of course for starmetal it is important). In the last patch they fixed it so "The Gem of Efficacious Toxin poison DoT can now properly be applied by pet attacks", so maybe more "on hit" procs are working now?
Long story short: IAS is still good for fetishes.
Both somewhat old though, they say in the beginning that it's not tested for 2.1 yet. But thanks to Al_Calzone, Taskers definitely work for FA, so it *is* a viable option for SMK tank WDs. (Although I still prefer Asheara's and don't even have a spare pair of Taskers, so not an option for me anyways).
Thanks man.
Regarding the Homing Pads, it's actually a great shoulder, when your spirit walk is on CD and you are about to be hit by something (let's say arcane beam) and you don't wanna move away because you'll lose CC on the elites, then you can simply spam portal button to trigger the 64% damage reduction (btw is very very helpful). I think a lot of people underestimate how useful this item could be (when the roll is good). Let me know your thoughts.