Oh boy, it’s the Witch Doctor. Inspired by the much-loved Necromancer from Diablo II, the Witch Doctor has the power of life and death in his hands, and can summon a great many allies to fight alongside him. In this guide, we will help you with some useful Diablo 3 Season 19 Witch Doctor Builds.
Pros:
- Very powerful throughout the entire game
- Ridiculous number of powerful allies can be summoned to fight with you
- Can create chaos with his allies and collateral damage abilities
- Has a wide range of on-effect equipment like Wanga Dolls, Voodoo Masks and Ceremonial Daggers
- Fantastic self-healer
- Best AoE damage in the game
- Can turn enemies into chickens
Cons:
- Most abilities are very mana hungry
- Squishy when surrounded by multiple foes
- Defenseless when out of mana
- Armor development is slow, making him/her look quite unappealing for the starting part of the game
- Irritatingly lengthy cool-downs for some essential abilities
Diablo 3 Season 19 Witch Doctor Builds
To start off, I highly recommend that you refer to our essential Character Development Basics guide before reading this guide for familiarization with various terminologies and concepts.
For more help on Diablo 3 builds, read our Demon Hunter, Barbarian, Monk and Wizard guides.
Witch Doctor Leveling Build
The progression of your character starts with leveling to 70.
Active Skills
The active skills required for this build:
Haunt- Resentful Spirits
Acid Cloud- Acid Rain
Soul Harvest – Vengeful Spirit
Spirit Walk- Severance
Summon Zombie Dogs- Burning Dogs
Gargantuan- Humongoid
Passive Skills
The passive skills required for this build:
Spirit Vessel
Fetish Sycophants
Fierce Loyalty
Grave Injustice
Game-Style
The start of the build, begins with farming runs with an activation of Summon Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan. These runs should always be by your side and re-summoned after getting killed. You may find this method hard if you’re playing at lower difficulties.
Most players go with the more aggressive style of playing for example; racing the pack of minions and throwing Acid Clouds and Haunting at them, Soul harvesting larger packs to get a buff up to deal more damage.
In case you feel threatened, you can always use a Spirit Walk available to reposition (only if there’s no opponent in sight).
The Witch Doctor is considered as the most powerful character introduced early in the game. This is due to his summons and cast abilities that force the minions to assist you. At level 4 you obtain Summon Zombie Dogs and to augment them you will unlock a damage rune “Rabid Dogs” at level 12.
Moving forward to level 40, you’ll exchange this rune for a most damageable rune called the Burning Dogs. At level 19 you’ll have the bigger burst of Gargantuan available for complementing the dog’s DoTs and at level 22, you’ll unlock the most consistent Gargantuan rune, Humongoid; which you’ll use till the end of the Witch Doctor journey.
The build requires leadership of the pack’s behavior, with the Witch Doctor spreading deadly DoTs and minions cleaning up. Just keep in mind that minions will be the reason for your damage as well as protection
At level 12, you’ll obtain Haunt; a cheap yet powerful self-spreading DoT. Make sure you take full advantage of Resentful Spirit; unlocked at level 23 which makes the skills more reliable at Mana. It enables you use a second heard-hitting spender in the face of Acid Cloud; which unlocks at level 22.
Endgame
Zunimassa’s Haunt set offers a ranged, pet-centric playstyle that is available in both Greater Rift solo progression (the present guide) and speed farming (see link below) variations.
Active Skills
The active skills required for this build:
- Poison Dart- Spined Dart
- Piranhas- Piranhado
- Big Bad Voodoo- Slam Dance
- Spirit Walk- Jaunt
- Soul Harvest- Languish
- Fetish Army- Legion of Daggers
Passive Skills
The passive skills required for this build:
- Grave Injustice
- Pierce the Veil
- Fetish Sycophants
- Spirit Vessel
Gear Setup
The required gear setup for the Zuni / Carnevil Poison Dart Witch Doctor is listed below. Check the Gear page for detailed information on choices, alternatives, gemming, Kanai’s Cube and Paragon distribution.
- Helm: Carnevil
- Shoulders: Aughild’s Power
- Gloves: Zunimassa’s Finger Wraps
- Chest: Zunimassa’s Marrow
- Belt: The Witching Hour
- Pants: Depth Diggers
- Boots: Zunimassa’s Trail
- Bracers: Aughild’s Search
- Amulet: The Traveler’s Pledge
- Ring 1: The Compass Rose
- Ring 2: Zunimassa’s Pox
- Weapon: The Dagger of Darts
- Offhand: Zunimassa’s String of Skulls
Legendary Gems
Slot these gems for maximum potential:
- Legendary Gem 1: Simplicity’s Strength
- Legendary Gem 2: Enforcer
- Legendary Gem 3: Bane of the Trapped
Game-Style
The build revolves around the interaction between the Carnevil helm, which enables your 10 nearest Fetish summons to fire Poison Darts along your side, and the projectile piercing property of The Dagger of Darts. First things first, you begin with summoning your Fetish Army; which will swell in numbers through the Fetish Sycophants passive. Just make sure you resummon accordingly.
Mostly you’ll spend your time alternating between your primary damage dealer, Poison Dart and the crowd control staple Piranhas Piranhado. Even though it’s a mid-range spec, you’ll still have to be near the enemy time to time just so you can get benefits of the Soul Harvest Buff.
Now, in order to position for harvesting, all you need to do is flee affixes and return to safety. This build embraces one more stable, Spirit Walk. At last, the build is open for a damage buff, Big Bad Voodoo; only used for key fights.
