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Hi Mike.

What you think about Coven's Criterion for this build?

You could if you want, but I do not think giving up any of the spells would be worth it. You already have perma cc and to drop 20% damage from MC or even the new poison haunt would be hard to give up.

Hi, been using the build since my Tiklandian dropped a week ago, and absolutely love it. Still on the hunt for an SMK, guess it's gonna take a while to drop though. Only thing I want to add is that I find Illusory Boots a real help. If you have it give it a try.

Personally love halcyon's with smk build. 8 seconds of huge aoe jumping from each bbv casts is a ridiculous amount of suppression, but the real deal is that the halcyon's jumping counts for strongarm bracers so now you have 100% uptime on like 40 yard crowd control that is all taking up to 30% more damage.

Worth noting that halcyon's doesn't really work on elites so you still need tik's hat for shutting down elites, but for general purpose it does greatly reduce the required cdr to completely shutdown the entire screen. Which pushes down the need for the "clunky" gogok gem.

Hi MikeyMADS

I would just like to say thank you for this amazing post. All the info was given very clearly and I did not even need to watch your video/s to make sense of it all! Also, respect for taking the time to answer everyone's questions.

I just have a little bit of input to add, as this is something I have been faced with in game.

I have been told (and have read) numerous times that one needs approximately 40-50% CDR for this build to permanently lock down enemies. I would like to share a concept.

The cooldown of Horriffy is 12 seconds, assuming one has an 8 second Tiklandian visage one would need no more than 10% CDR to be able to permanently lock down enemies.

Here is my reasoning:

Horrify gets cast; for 8 seconds you gain an "aura" that fears and roots enemies around you for horrify's normal duration (3 seconds). Upon the last "application" of horrify (the 8th second of this "aura") enemies are still rooted/feared for 3 seconds, thus making the total duration of your fear effect 11 seconds (from one horrify).

Therefore, considering the 12 second cooldown, one would have to shave only 1 second off of the horrify CD in order for you to be able to permanently fear enemies. (I have tested this in game and it does work).

I was in a group, and when I was asked what my CDR was, after allowing a mob to get out of fear range momentarily, I replied 37% and was immediately removed from the group, even though for the entire rift, leading up to that point, everything was permanently feared.

I would just like to clarify this as it might have affected others in the same way it affected me.

I do however agree that having higher CDR% does improve all other factors of this build, and would advise people prioritise it above most other stats. I am currently at 52% with TnT and SMK and my BBV is refreshed approximitely 3 seconds after it is cast.

Thank you for sharing this amazing build, it has greatly contributed to my witchdoctor's GR experience (Having gone up to 44 in season 2 thus far).

Kind regards

PietVanPlaas

For people wanting to run a Support Witch Doctor (aka 0DPS) it is important to note the mechanics of Horrify.

It can permanently CC elites, even with less than 50% CDR (useful for EXP gear). In fact doing so super easilly, just stand nearby! However it will only do is as long as all ticks of Horrify (when it applies the debuff) hit them. If even a single hit from Horrify misses while they are at maximum CC resistance (eg you go to CC nearby trash) they will break free and immediately cast their deadly effects. In short you must always stay within Horrify range of elites at all times.

For this reason Face of Death is a must. No matter what other builds show you need the area as ultimately you are locked down near elites until they die so want as much coverage as possible. Do this right and everyone will be singing you praise (they could not have done it without you).

There are many revisions to this build to make it more effective. If you have a SMK you can use it with Fetish Army to constantly spam BBV with 100% up time. This generally replaces Mass Confusion and also frees up a passive slot as Tribal Rites no longer has an effect. This means Fetish Sycophant can be thrown in for additional Fetishes for purely BBV and Guardian tanking (since you cannot CC most rift guardians).

You will want to replace Locust Swarm with Haunt. The +20% damage it gives is in-valuable for Elites and Rift Gardians. It also offset the loss of Mass Confusion which is now Fetish Army.

Do not bother with TnT gloves since your DPS is likely rubbish anyway and you will have so much CDR that refreshing BBV with SMK is super easy. Instead grab some set glove that either helps with additional CDR or EXP.

Do not bother with a shield as toughness above 20M means so little at high GRs anyway. Rather use Thing of the Deep or a complementary Mojo with CDR. The CDR can replace set sources freeing up space for EXP gear.

Since BBV already has an impressive up time due to CDR, you might want to use Solanium as your weapon. The health globes it spawns feed DHs with resources, something they will be very grateful for. I lack the experience with this build to give more info but people do seem to like it.