Hardcore Witchdoctor Guide
by endzeitmf a.k.a. Purge [ purge#2681 ]

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Hardcore Basics
• 3. Witchdoctor Basics
• 4. Solo Build
• 5. Group Build
• 6. Inferno farming
• 7. Closing

1. Introduction

Hello JSP,

I'm Purge and I'm playing Witchdoctor on Hardcore for a few months now and in fact I'm very active on the Witchdoctor Discussion Thread i often recieve PMs from other Witchdoctors asking me for Tips or a Guide. So i decided to make one up, my first one. First of all please remember that i play Hardcore, so I wont go deep into any form of Glass Cannon builds or builds similar to that. I read alot of posts about "effective" farming in Inferno Act III but I only see players dying 4 times to each Championpack instead of 12 times and then call it "effective". This is a Hardcore Guide, effective means you will never die and thats what i aim for and thats what you will read about in this topic. Lets get it started.

2. Hardcore Basics

Maybe its the first time for you playing Hardcore so i guess there is some basic stuff you should know about. Survivability always goes before Damage. If you are a decent player you can probably come far with Glass Cannon playstyle but there is always a risk of dying and thats what you should try to eliminate. And doing this is pretty easy, just check the Auction House every other level and look for cheap improvements. When i leveled my Witchdoctor i never got more than like 500.000 gold. You only have one life so be sure you always outgear the Act and Difficult your on. Most important here is high vitality and high dps weapon. On higher difficult you should always be very sure to know your exit strategy. That means you are always ready to do a tactical retreat and be safe on a teleporter or cave entrance to switch zones instantly.

2. Witchdoctor Basics

In my opinion Witchdoctor is everything but broken. High survivability, good CC and decent damage makes this class good for beginners and awesome for Hardcore. You should find a balanced ratio between Int, Vita, @Res and DPS. That means your perfect Item includes +Int, +Vita, +@Res, +%Critchance/Critdmg and if it is possible +Pickup Radius. Why Pickup Radius? Because the Grave Injustice passive is way to overpowered to ignore it. At the moment i have like 35yards Pickup Radius on my gear and plus the 8yards basic from the passive it makes every single creep that i kill reducing my cooldowns and giving me some reg. Overall i feel like having no Cooldown on my Grasp, Horrify or Spirit Walk and the 120s Cooldowns on Big Bad Voodoo or stuff like that feels like 30-40s maximum.

2. Solo Build

So here is what i use when i farm Inferno Act I Solo. I always have my Templer Merc with me and skilled him with all tank abilities to make him at least tank a few seconds. I also gave him massive vitality gear (85k HP) but does no damage at all (80dps). He doesnt need to do any damage Im just happy when he blocks a door from time to time or something like that. He rarely dies.

Left Mouse : Fire Bomb ( Fire Pit )
Right Mouse : Zombie Charger ( Zombie Bears )
1 : Grasp of the Dead ( Unbreakable Grasp )
2 : Horrify ( Face of Death )
3 : Spirit Walk ( Honored Guest )
4 : Big Bad Voodoo ( Rain Dance )

Passives: Jungle Fortitude, Spirit Vessel, Grave Injustice

All non-elite creeps are freeloot anyway so here is what i do against most champion packs:

- Put Grasp on ground before them so they have to walk through to get to me.
- Start with massive Fire Bombs and engage them, at that point my templer usualy charges them, giving them short stun that allowes me to do some dps.
- Second Grasp on the ground and move a little bit away (like 20yards distance to the pack)
- Drop Big Bad Voodo totem and start spaming Zombie Bears as much as you can (you nearly have infinite Mana with that totem, everytime you are oom, just move a few yards back from the pack and have 100% mana again)
- They are probably down at this point. If not, just move back, drop another Grasp, wait for mana (if you feel safe use Spirit Walk for mana reg) and start spaming bears again.

The more non-elites are around, the better it is. Cause they will die in crossfire anyway (bears usualy onehit them) and reset your cooldowns plus giving you hp/mana.

Some packs, including the following abilites, are difficult:

- Fast
- Mortar (depending on your resists)
- Arcane Enchanted + Vortex

With these abilites you should always be very sure you can escape any time to cave or teleporter where you can instantly switch zones to be safe.

The stats you need to feel at least confident:

50k+ HP
400+ @res
400+ LoH
16+ DPS

And one more thing to say, while playin Solo you should use a Shield instead of Mojo.

2. Group Build

My group build doesnt differs a lot from my solo build. I play with Monk+Barb+WD or Monk+Barb+DH or Monk+DH+WD and i only change my Big Bad Voodoo Rune to the one that does 30% more dmg instead of mana reg. Thats because the Rain Dance Rune only effects you, not even other Witchdoctors in group. And 30% more damage for you and 3 others is way better. In addition you can always change your Jungle Fortitude passive to Bad Medicine. If you feel like you have strong tanks in your group and you dont get hit anyway thats the passive your group will benefit most of.

2. Inferno farming

This is how my farm runs look like (Solo and Group is the same)

- Start Quest The Imprisoned Angel (Warden Stage).
- Port to Northern Highlands and check for the Watchtower, always located North to the Teleporter.
- No Watchtower? Reset game.
- Clear Watchtower Level 1+2. Townportal.
- Port to Cemetary.
- Clear all Crypts (There is at least one guaranteed Championpack in every crypt so I always leave after i find the first one).
- South of the Cemetary is another guaranteed Champion.
- Port to Festering Woods (at least one guaranteed Champion in the woods, mostly two).
- Clear both dungeons (one guaranteed Champion in each of them).
- Port to Leorics Manor (one guaranteed Champion outside).
- Walk back across the road, sometimes there are Champions, if not dont waste your time looking for them to long.
- Halls of Agony 1, clear it.
- Halls of Agony 2, clear it.
- Warden, do it.
- Halls of Agony 3, clear it.
- Butcher, do it.

You should never search champions, but everytime kill ALL guaranteed champions. Watchtower seems to be to most random spawnpoint for champions so far. I once got 4 champions in one room in Watchtower Level 2.

2. Closing

Well, I just wrote this one in like 30 minutes and hopefuly this gives you a good view on how a Witchdoctor can be played very safe. If you have any Questions it would be best to post them here so anyone could read them and I will do my best to answer them very quick. And please keep this clear from spaming or flaming, my intention was to help and give advice for those who needs it.

Good luck and dont die,

Purge

This post was edited by endzeitmf on Jul 11 2012 03:55pm

Nice guide, I use almost the same WPs to farm lvl1 on softcore.

I'll still have to try your skillbuild on my HC WD, looks promising!

Nice guide,i like this!!
when you get a chance can you post your gear , i'd like a look-see

This post was edited by jaydo111 on Jul 11 2012 04:23pm

sure here it is






Its pretty cheap gear, overall like 4 millions, found the most, weapon was like 800k

This post was edited by endzeitmf on Jul 11 2012 05:05pm

Very nice, I cant believe I never noticed Grave Injustice, very cool!

nvm

This post was edited by Grisha on Sep 12 2012 02:42pm

why no bears or dogs?

ANSWER ME!

prob because he made the guide in..july?

yea

havnt played the last few months ... i guess a lot changed ^^