If you guys have this.
You may wonder what you should keep between Fetish Army or Fetish Sycophants. (or use it both?)
My suggestion is, Go for Sycophants only.
With a good attack speed (1.8 or more attack per second) and Vampirebats.
You can have more than 8 Fetish in a couple seconds. (Actually, I have more than ten of them almost all the times.)
Plus, every time you cast Fetish Army, all Fetish from Sycophants will die.
And those 8 Fetish (If you use Legion of Dagger) are not fast enough to reset the 120 sec (or even 90 sec) cooldown in their 20 sec life time.
This will leave you with no Fetish moment very often, and that effect both your DPS and survivability.
So just use it for Big Bad Voodoo - Slam Dance to boost the damage.
And let the Fetish from Sycophants reduce the cooldown for you.
This way is more effective, unless you want that passive slot to do something else.
The change is correct. Now critical damage has effect on pets too.
Very good choice for pets build.
I suggest to put more effort on pet damage after you have 1.9 or more attack per second (for a reliable Fetish Sycophants proc)
I really like your build, I just can't seem to find a good use for Locust Swarm. it's either too slow ticking or cost to much mana to keep recasting and Zombie Piranhas spread the bad medicine well enough.
how do you work it into your Rift clearing?
For solo play I really like Wall of zombies (wrecking crew) instead.
Locust Swarm help spread Bad Medicine further more.
And it deals 130% (150% with Piranhas buff) weapon damage per second to all enemy all the times.
Just cast them once and it will last until the end of battle.I's a good DPS boost that help you kill things faster.
It's may up to each player style, but in term of DPS, I think Locust Swarm is one of the best DoT a Witch Doctor can have.
i love this build. just 1 question. reforging to a dps stat,. crit hit, crit dmg, or atk speed?:) couse many of my items have crit hit and crit dmg. should i reforge any of those?
My priority is Attack Speed > +%Damage > INT
Crit and Crit damage won't scale well with this build.
(DoT and Channeling spell only crit once and Pet Crit damage are capped at 50%)
Normally, I'll reforge Crit damage to something else.
But other than Attack Speed or +% Damage, you can looking for +Fire Damage or + Firebats Damage, +Poison Damage or +Locust Swarm Damage, +Physical Damage (for pets) as a second choice.
--------------------------------------------
Is there a certain weapon to shoot for on this build? I'm using a crappy thing right now.
Any fast weapon with good damage is fine.
For some thing specific, I think The Gidbinn and Starmethal Kukri is a godly weapon for Witch Doctor who play pets build.
And I'm looking for them too.
Big fan of this build, I started using it right when I hit 70 and am loving it. I was fortunate to get Uhkapian Serpent shortly after hitting T1 rifts. Are you still currently using this build, and if so, can you link your profile I'd like to see what other gear I should be aiming for.
Sadly, I playing on SEA server, and Blizzard don't make an English profile page for people in Asia server yet.
Since I have The Grin Reaper and Homunculus, I can drop some skill for more damage.
Spirit Barrage and Zombie Bear is for Mimics only. (Free cast by Mimic proc from The Grin Reaper)
Piercing Vail instead of Jungle Fortitude for more DPS.
In game, I have 450k damage and 9m toughness.
I can solo clear T1 Rift within 10-12 min and T2 Rift within 15-18 min. So, normally, I go for T1.
There's still many piece of gear that I want to replace for more DPS (chest, sash, legs, hand, amulet)
And I'm still looking for Mask of Jeram and those godly Ceremonial Knife too.
Quote fromOSIK.bp»How much dps/toughness you need for solo T2, T3? Resists? For example i can take "Ukhapian Serpent (60lvl) with 30%reduce" or 2sets(blackthorne) or change smth.But with lower dps mobs will live longer and dps yourself... I will try some more experiments, hope will survive.
2-nd thing i don't like in the build: No bbVoodoo. But it can be replaced with Gargantuan i think...
I have 450k damage and 9m toughness (around 1200-1400 of each resist) and can solo T2 with a decent speed.
Can solo T3-T4 without dying too, but it's a bit too slow to clear each mob. So, I think it doesn't worth the time you spend.
1) What buff you prefer more: "+%Physical dmg"(for pets) or "+%Fire dmg"(for yourself")??
a) If you don't have pet-buffs-items(Mask of Jeram, Tasker and theo, 4-zuni set)?
if you have some of this from (a)
2) Changes in build for hardcore. What you think?
a) simple way: change hount to spirit walk. (but as a hc-player - afraid to play without passive "spirit vessel")
take spirit vessel: change bad medicine?
I prefer +% Fire damage for your Firebats because it's more reliable.
It's need more than 1 piece of Legendary bonus to make your pet more effective as damage dealer than your Firebats.
Mask of Jeram maybe an only piece that can play individually if you have a really high Damage and Attack per second.
Other piece or sets bonus don't worth the effort to invest in your pets.
For Hardcore.
You can change Haunt to Spirit Walk for more survivability as you like.
But I think trade Bad Medicine with Spirit Vessel is not a good idea.
Spirit Vessel is good for a fragile build that can die in a split second.
But for this build, thing like that are hardly to happen because you have a lot of Pets and 45% damage reduction from all skills sum up.
Even with half DPS gear, this build still a bit over-tanky in my opinion.
So, if you want to play it more safely, try to aim for defensive stat from gear and you'll be fine.
Hey there. I' not quite 70 yet (been slogging through story mode between work), but I've got some gear that gives total of 23% Locust damage, and 15% poison, so was looking for a good build to take advantage of that and found yours. Looks good, but are there other runes you've toyed with, like Piranhado, Big Stinker, or Leeching Beasts?
Each skill has their pros and cons. So, you can choose whatever you feel that it suit you the most.
I try all of it too, and found out that I like Zombie Piranhas the most, because it's wide area effect.
Same goes for every skill, you need to try it and choose what you like.
Just avoid some Runes that change the skill properties like Frozen Piranhas because it will change damage type to cold that don't apply Bad Medicine.
Core > Move Speed
Offense > Attack Speed
Defense> Life Regeneration
Utility > Area Damage
You should keep your bonus move speed close to maximum move speed bonus (25%) at all time.
If you have some gear that provide move speed bonus for you, you can distribute the extra point to DPS stat like INT.
But I recommend to get all 25% extra move speed from Paragon Point.
Because move speed from Item can reforge to another useful stat like +% damage or +% Attack speed or etc.
Which is worth more than 250 INT from Paragon point.
For Defense.
Extra Health just make you a big sack of meat, and bonus armor won't give you much, unless you have 8k+ of armor.
All resist doesn't scale very well after you have more than 1k too.
So, I think Life Regeneration give the best bonus per paragon point.
I put 40 point on it and it give me 6k Life regen per second. Which is nice.
For Utility category. Area Damage can improve your damage a little.
It not much, but I think it's the most useful stats compare to the rest.
Resource cost reduction doesn't make much different even at full level, and can easily replace by bonus mana regeneration.
Life on Hit proc only once for DoT and channeling spell. And I think pet can't proc any on hit effect.
Gold find... No, thanks.
Pet has critical hit damage cap at 50% indeed.
So, Ruby is a better choice for weapon slot in this build.
And all of our skill are DoT or channeling spell which doesn't profit much from critical hit rate too. (They can crit on the first hit only)
By that, I prefer to priority Int and attack speed as a main stat to aim.
I want to be honest, but isn't this build just incredibly boring? Again, I may have played it wrong, but I gave it a spin because the chance to facetank most mobs was appealing. Basically, save for your firebats most of your DPS output (LP w/ pestilence, Haunt w/ life return) is there to support you and part of your setup rotation, then you open up with firebats and basically turret enemies down, w/ fetish + pets adding peripheral DPS?
The way I played it was Piranha, LP a mob, Haunt another mob, then park my ass and firebats things down. Can't really spam anything as mana gets taxed quickly.
Again, there may be something I'm missing. Tough and strong, I agree. Fun? Meh.
I must admit that this build is boring in many ways due to low DPS lead to slow clearing speed.
And the rotation doesn't have much variety too.
Still, I think each build has their boring side in it's own way.
So, you need to choose what kind of boring you want to live with.
In the early day, I like to play Bear Doctor the most.
I like it's huge damage number and how fast they can stomp thing to the ground.
But the down side of DPS build is it fragile, And the Elites doesn't drop dead that fast.
With some horrible Affix combine, It's very hard to stay alive for entire fight.
Especially when you try to burst them down with your short-rang Zombie Bear.
You must run a lot or die a lot, and that's boring for me.
Because I hate running or die in a couple second.
It's the point that you need to choose.
Between a high DPS Witch Doctor build who kill thing fast but need to run a lot or die a lot.
Or a Tanky Witch Doctor build who have low DPS but can stand and fight everything.
Boring by running around the deadly group of Elites or boring while stand still and watch them die slowly.
It's up to each person's play style that which way is the most suitable for him/her.
How do you play against Frozen enemies without Spirit Walk? Once you are frozen in place... you are dead
And with what do you regen mana without Spirit Walk (Honored Guest)? Pestilence+Piranha+Haunt are 100% of my mana pool.
Pay attention on the Frozen Bomb effect and move before it explode.
I put all my Paragon attribute to bonus Move Speed, so It's not hard to move away before it explode if you notice it fast enough.
Try to keep your distance from the crowd by hiding behind your pets too, it's easier to notice your surrounding and even you get freeze, you won't hurt much by the upcoming attack.
The skill rotation consume almost 100% of my mana pool too, but with Firebat are free to channel, I keep channel it until my mana replenish to some point.
Normally, Locust swarm and Piranhas can cover all enemy in one cast, so you don't need to recast it that often.
But if you feel your self in need of Spirit Walk for extra survivability or mana regen, You can replace Haunt with Spirit Walk if you want.
It's free slot for modification by the way
There is a plenty of Legendary bonus that can improve this build.
Some may improve the build directly and some can alternate the build to a new strategy.
Quetzalcoatl(Double Locust Swarm and Haunt damage) and Mask of Jeram (+75% Pet damage) is a perfect addition for this build.
They will improve the damage directly to the build, simple enough.
Carnevil (Your Fetish shoot a Poison Dart every time you do) will improve your single target damage greatly.
(I suggest to replace Haunt to Poison Dart for this build, but keep Firebats because it's a great AoE skill and have the best proc rate for Fetish)
The Grin Reaper (It's like free 2 Mirror Image when you cast spell) is one of the best helmet for Witch Doctor in my opinion.
It's proc rate are very good and those mimic will cast Firebats almost all the time (and they can move around, cast other spell while Firebats still active!)
If you get this, replace Huant with Zombie Charger - Zombie Bear and you will get free Zombie Bear every couple second!
I have a level 60 version of this and it's very awesome. Try to get the level 70 version by farming and throwing all of my Bloody Shard to helmet gamble but still no luck yet.<_<
For Mojos Uhkapian Serpent (redirect 25-30% of damage taken to your Zombie Dogs) sound interesting with that huge damage reduction.
This may make you Immortal. Literally.
Homunculus (Spawn free Zombie Dogs every 4-6 second) is my current Mojo.
If you don't have Zombie Dogs equipped, It's still spawn a basic Zombie Dogs (Dogs without runes) for you.
The only thing you lose is 10% damage reduction from Life Link which is not that much. But you gain a skill slot to equip with any thing you want.
I prefer a skill that cost you with cooldown only like Spirit Walk, Hex, Big Bad Voodoo, etc. Because they will not mess with your mana management.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/starmetal-kukri
If you guys have this.
You may wonder what you should keep between Fetish Army or Fetish Sycophants. (or use it both?)
My suggestion is, Go for Sycophants only.
With a good attack speed (1.8 or more attack per second) and Vampirebats.
You can have more than 8 Fetish in a couple seconds. (Actually, I have more than ten of them almost all the times.)
Plus, every time you cast Fetish Army, all Fetish from Sycophants will die.
And those 8 Fetish (If you use Legion of Dagger) are not fast enough to reset the 120 sec (or even 90 sec) cooldown in their 20 sec life time.
This will leave you with no Fetish moment very often, and that effect both your DPS and survivability.
So just use it for Big Bad Voodoo - Slam Dance to boost the damage.
And let the Fetish from Sycophants reduce the cooldown for you.
This way is more effective, unless you want that passive slot to do something else.
Very good choice for pets build.
I suggest to put more effort on pet damage after you have 1.9 or more attack per second (for a reliable Fetish Sycophants proc)
Will update my guide soon.
I'll try crit damage gear tomorrow.
I will change my hosting site soon:)
And it deals 130% (150% with Piranhas buff) weapon damage per second to all enemy all the times.
Just cast them once and it will last until the end of battle.I's a good DPS boost that help you kill things faster.
It's may up to each player style, but in term of DPS, I think Locust Swarm is one of the best DoT a Witch Doctor can have.
Crit and Crit damage won't scale well with this build.
(DoT and Channeling spell only crit once and Pet Crit damage are capped at 50%)
Normally, I'll reforge Crit damage to something else.
But other than Attack Speed or +% Damage, you can looking for +Fire Damage or + Firebats Damage, +Poison Damage or +Locust Swarm Damage, +Physical Damage (for pets) as a second choice.
Never known there is a site like this. Thanks for the link.^_^
For some thing specific, I think The Gidbinn and Starmethal Kukri is a godly weapon for Witch Doctor who play pets build.
And I'm looking for them too.
Sadly, I playing on SEA server, and Blizzard don't make an English profile page for people in Asia server yet.
So, I can show my profile only in Korean language like this.
http://kr.battle.net/d3/ko/profile/YoyoTanya-1946/hero/28612289
Since I have The Grin Reaper and Homunculus, I can drop some skill for more damage.
Spirit Barrage and Zombie Bear is for Mimics only. (Free cast by Mimic proc from The Grin Reaper)
Piercing Vail instead of Jungle Fortitude for more DPS.
In game, I have 450k damage and 9m toughness.
I can solo clear T1 Rift within 10-12 min and T2 Rift within 15-18 min. So, normally, I go for T1.
There's still many piece of gear that I want to replace for more DPS (chest, sash, legs, hand, amulet)
And I'm still looking for Mask of Jeram and those godly Ceremonial Knife too.
I have 450k damage and 9m toughness (around 1200-1400 of each resist) and can solo T2 with a decent speed.
Can solo T3-T4 without dying too, but it's a bit too slow to clear each mob. So, I think it doesn't worth the time you spend.
It's need more than 1 piece of Legendary bonus to make your pet more effective as damage dealer than your Firebats.
Mask of Jeram maybe an only piece that can play individually if you have a really high Damage and Attack per second.
Other piece or sets bonus don't worth the effort to invest in your pets.
For Hardcore.
You can change Haunt to Spirit Walk for more survivability as you like.
But I think trade Bad Medicine with Spirit Vessel is not a good idea.
Spirit Vessel is good for a fragile build that can die in a split second.
But for this build, thing like that are hardly to happen because you have a lot of Pets and 45% damage reduction from all skills sum up.
Even with half DPS gear, this build still a bit over-tanky in my opinion.
So, if you want to play it more safely, try to aim for defensive stat from gear and you'll be fine.
I try all of it too, and found out that I like Zombie Piranhas the most, because it's wide area effect.
Same goes for every skill, you need to try it and choose what you like.
Just avoid some Runes that change the skill properties like Frozen Piranhas because it will change damage type to cold that don't apply Bad Medicine.
Core > Move Speed
Offense > Attack Speed
Defense> Life Regeneration
Utility > Area Damage
You should keep your bonus move speed close to maximum move speed bonus (25%) at all time.
If you have some gear that provide move speed bonus for you, you can distribute the extra point to DPS stat like INT.
But I recommend to get all 25% extra move speed from Paragon Point.
Because move speed from Item can reforge to another useful stat like +% damage or +% Attack speed or etc.
Which is worth more than 250 INT from Paragon point.
For Defense.
Extra Health just make you a big sack of meat, and bonus armor won't give you much, unless you have 8k+ of armor.
All resist doesn't scale very well after you have more than 1k too.
So, I think Life Regeneration give the best bonus per paragon point.
I put 40 point on it and it give me 6k Life regen per second. Which is nice.
For Utility category. Area Damage can improve your damage a little.
It not much, but I think it's the most useful stats compare to the rest.
Resource cost reduction doesn't make much different even at full level, and can easily replace by bonus mana regeneration.
Life on Hit proc only once for DoT and channeling spell. And I think pet can't proc any on hit effect.
Gold find... No, thanks.
So, Ruby is a better choice for weapon slot in this build.
And all of our skill are DoT or channeling spell which doesn't profit much from critical hit rate too. (They can crit on the first hit only)
By that, I prefer to priority Int and attack speed as a main stat to aim.
And the rotation doesn't have much variety too.
Still, I think each build has their boring side in it's own way.
So, you need to choose what kind of boring you want to live with.
In the early day, I like to play Bear Doctor the most.
I like it's huge damage number and how fast they can stomp thing to the ground.
But the down side of DPS build is it fragile, And the Elites doesn't drop dead that fast.
With some horrible Affix combine, It's very hard to stay alive for entire fight.
Especially when you try to burst them down with your short-rang Zombie Bear.
You must run a lot or die a lot, and that's boring for me.
Because I hate running or die in a couple second.
It's the point that you need to choose.
Between a high DPS Witch Doctor build who kill thing fast but need to run a lot or die a lot.
Or a Tanky Witch Doctor build who have low DPS but can stand and fight everything.
Boring by running around the deadly group of Elites or boring while stand still and watch them die slowly.
It's up to each person's play style that which way is the most suitable for him/her.
I put all my Paragon attribute to bonus Move Speed, so It's not hard to move away before it explode if you notice it fast enough.
Try to keep your distance from the crowd by hiding behind your pets too, it's easier to notice your surrounding and even you get freeze, you won't hurt much by the upcoming attack.
The skill rotation consume almost 100% of my mana pool too, but with Firebat are free to channel, I keep channel it until my mana replenish to some point.
Normally, Locust swarm and Piranhas can cover all enemy in one cast, so you don't need to recast it that often.
But if you feel your self in need of Spirit Walk for extra survivability or mana regen, You can replace Haunt with Spirit Walk if you want.
It's free slot for modification by the way
There is a plenty of Legendary bonus that can improve this build.
Some may improve the build directly and some can alternate the build to a new strategy.
Quetzalcoatl(Double Locust Swarm and Haunt damage) and Mask of Jeram (+75% Pet damage) is a perfect addition for this build.
They will improve the damage directly to the build, simple enough.
Carnevil (Your Fetish shoot a Poison Dart every time you do) will improve your single target damage greatly.
(I suggest to replace Haunt to Poison Dart for this build, but keep Firebats because it's a great AoE skill and have the best proc rate for Fetish)
The Grin Reaper (It's like free 2 Mirror Image when you cast spell) is one of the best helmet for Witch Doctor in my opinion.
It's proc rate are very good and those mimic will cast Firebats almost all the time (and they can move around, cast other spell while Firebats still active!)
If you get this, replace Huant with Zombie Charger - Zombie Bear and you will get free Zombie Bear every couple second!
I have a level 60 version of this and it's very awesome. Try to get the level 70 version by farming and throwing all of my Bloody Shard to helmet gamble but still no luck yet.<_<
For Mojos
Uhkapian Serpent (redirect 25-30% of damage taken to your Zombie Dogs) sound interesting with that huge damage reduction.
This may make you Immortal. Literally.
Homunculus (Spawn free Zombie Dogs every 4-6 second) is my current Mojo.
If you don't have Zombie Dogs equipped, It's still spawn a basic Zombie Dogs (Dogs without runes) for you.
The only thing you lose is 10% damage reduction from Life Link which is not that much. But you gain a skill slot to equip with any thing you want.
I prefer a skill that cost you with cooldown only like Spirit Walk, Hex, Big Bad Voodoo, etc. Because they will not mess with your mana management.
Play with what you have, and get along with it.
Tanks for all feedback.