What's up D2jsp fellows ?



After few months of hesitation, thousands tried to build Monks, Barbarians, Wizards, Demon Hunters and Witch Doctors, I have finally decided to try to play Witch Doctors.

Once this decision was made, I asked my-self, "How I'm going to want to play my Doctor?"

So here the result!

I'll start by explaining skills, runes, what runes to use and not to use, etc.


Skills :



http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#fdVUYQ!YTh!cccZZb




Zombie charger - Zombie bears



This skill/rune is pretty simple to understand, high single target dps / group dps.



Soul harvest - Vengeful spirit



I'm taking Vengeful spirit for more dps, but Siphon and Soul to Waste can be used here, if you prefer.



Sacrifice - Provoke the Pack



This skill is just amazing combined with Gruesome Feast and Final Gift. The 15% extra dps is cool as well.



Spirit walk - Honored Guess



Mana regeneration, mostly used against elite when you run out of Mana, or to help a tank reflect damage from Elites that may cause problems to your Witch doctor.



Summon zombie dogs - Final gift



Good combo with Gruesome Feast, to be used with Sacrifice of course. Can help tank through some monsters too.



Big bad voodoo - Slam dance



30% more dps. Amazing to slap Elites around.



Passives



Gruesome feast - Help regenerate Mana, high dps buff.



Grave injustice - Reduce cooldown and Mana/life regeneration. Really strong and a MUST with Zombie dogs.



Tribal rites - Reduces Big Bad Voodoo and Zombie Dogs cooldown. An absolute must




Why these skill combonations?



The problem of most Witch Doctors is to keep mana up. This build is designed to keep high dps buff, keep mana up and have some tank skills.





How does the build work:



Zombie dogs is an important part of this build.

First, let me count the cooldown reduction for you guys:

Base is a 45 second Cooldown.

45sec - 25% (Tribal rites passive) : 45-11.25 = 34sec or 33.75

34sec -(14+ sec from gear) = 20 or less

20sec is pretty much near of the normal cooldown of Spirit walk(which is 15sec).

Grave injustice will help you reduce this even faster.

Everytime you blow up your dogs, there is 15% chance per dog for you to get a health globe (final gift rune).

Health globes = 10% intelligence gain, 10% mana regen.

More mana and dps means: You hit harder and launch more bears!

More mob kills = more dogs. More dogs = more dps/mana. More dps = more mobs kill...

Repeat!!




Hardiest part coming. GEAR.



Gear :


Shoulders :



Archon spaulders of intelligence : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/blacksmith/recipe/archon-spaulders-of-Intelligence


Desired stats : Life, All res, life %, pick up radius, more intel



Helm :



Visage of Giyua : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/visage-of-giyua


Zombie cooldown is a must on this helm. Aim for 8second +

Pick up radius or Critical hit chance is the random stat to get



Rings :



Many choice here, depending which necklace you want (coming next) :



Stone of Jordan : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/stone-of-jordan


Zombie dog cooldown is the aim of course, high bonus versus Elite is cool too.

Hardly suggest this ring if you want to run some ubers.



Skull grasp : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/skull-grasp


Zombie dog... I guess you get it why ?



Litany of the undead : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/litany-of-the-undaunted


Aim for critical hit damage



These suggestion was all for ONE RING. The other ring is a must to get the four Zunimassa's piece bonus



Zunimassa's Pox : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/zunimassas-pox


Aim for Vitality and Critical hit chance



Necklace :



If you took a ring with Zombie dog cooldown :



Amulet of Intelligence : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/jeweler/recipe/amulet-of-intelligence


Aim for Vita, All Res, Critical hit chance, critical hit damage, average damage.



If you're not using zombie dogs ring :



Mara kaleidoscope : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/maras-kaleidoscope


Zombie dog reduce, Critical hit chance, critical hit damage, High vitality/intelligence Is always good.



Gloves :



Archon gauntlets of intelligence:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/blacksmith/recipe/archon-gauntlets-of-intelligence


Vitality, Critical hit chance, critical hit damage, all resistance and Pickup radius are the aim's



Chest :



Zunimassa's Marrow : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/zunimassas-marrow


Double vitality roll is quite nice, pickup radius, life %, armor are other good stats



Bracers :



Razorspikes of Intelligence : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/blacksmith/recipe/razorspikes-of-intelligence


Vitality, all res, critical hit chance, pick up radius, armour.



Belt :



The Witching hour : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-witching-hour

All res, vitality or life %, pick up radius, double intel roll, cool stats you know.



Pants :



Inna's temperance : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/innas-temperance


Only one roll possible, Vita or Intel, your move.



Off hand :



Zunimassa's String of Skulls : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/zunimassas-String-of-Skulls


Bears reduction, life %, socket, thats the perfect roll !



Boots :



Zunimassa's trail : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/zunimassas-trail


Double Vita/intel roll, all resistance, pickup radius, make ur move.



Main hand :



Sexy spear/axe rare



Aim for low aps and : Vitality, intelligence, Critical hit damage, Socket, LIFE STEAL.





Stats you should aim :



50k life

550 all res +

14-17 zombie dogs cooldown

4500 armor

20+ pickup radius

35+ critical hit chance

350+ critical hit damage

90+ mana per sec



Dps isnt that much important, since you will get high dps boost from skills.



Would love to show you my Witch doctor, but currently hunting few pieces on AH, and mine is pretty low on budget too

Ill try to come with a video as soon possible.


While you wait for the video(s), here how to play the build :



First move you will have the do once ur in game, cast Zombie dogs.

Once you met a group of enemy, use spirit walk and charge in the mass, cast soul harvest, blow up dogs and cast bears until they die.

As soon dogs cooldown is done, recast them ! They it pretty hard when you blow them up, give you 15% more dps for 30sec, and have 15% to drop health globes.

Health globes.. take them ! They give you 10% more intel (up to 50%) and 10% mana !



If you find and Elite, bid bad voodoo is there specialy for these. Slam dance give you 30% more dos, 15% from sacrifice and tons more intel from gruesome and soul harvest !

Is that amazing ?!

Back to Elites, keep dogs and spirit walk for mana regain (health drop from dogs give you mana) or if they are low on life, dogs can finish them off.





!! Bonus !!



Uber build :





Zombie charger- Zombie bears



This skill/rune is pretty simple to understand, high single target dps / group dps.



Corpse Spider - Spider Queen



Amazing combo with Vision quest - Give you a 20sec of 30% more mana regain



Sacrifice - Provoke the Pack



This skill is just amazing combined withGruesome feast and Final gift, the 15% extra dps is cool too.

Pride or For the Master are good runes for uber



Spirit walk- Honored Guess



Mana regain, mostly used against elite when you run out of mana, also help to tank reflect from Elites, that may cause problems to your Witch doctor.



Summon zombie dogs - Final gift



Good combo with Gruesome feast, use with sacrifice of course. Can help tank some monster groups too.



Big bad voodoo - Slam dance



30% more dps, amazing to slap Elites.



Passives


Vision Quest- Help mana regain, a lot.



Blood Ritual, Jungle Fortitude or Spirit vessel More mana, less dos taken or an other chance, your move.



Tribal rites - Reduce big bad voodoo and zombie dogs cooldown, a Must too.





So here we go guys.

This is how my Wd will run.

In next few days, Ill try to make a video for :



-Alkaizer / Raoha routes

-Cota

-Vota

-Low mp uber



I'm low on budget, showing you my profile isn't really a must. Still looking for my Mara and CC zuni pox.



Please don't be shy to post comments, suggestion, question or something intelligent.



Thank you for your time.

Enjoy my build

Hope you liked it.



Cheers,


Carl

**Special thx to Shocktop@d2jsp, helped me writing this.**

This post was edited by CRtrade on Apr 2 2013 08:09pm

thx carl . some one wrote one like this 4 months ago , welcome to the WD club

Maybe, there is just not enough Wd topics in this forum, wanted to make one.
Never saw that build before, I do not claim original Idea.

Any more comments ?

Also, why would anyone play a sac build without having a zero cooldown zombie dogs?

your build looks pretty similiar to my guide:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=65745120&f=142

I guess main differences would be I used circle of life passive to spawn more dogs instead of trying to lower the cooldown of the actual zombiedog skill
and I had garg @ slamdance's place

but anyway that build was pretty succesful (and im sure this one is just as well), back when I posted it you would gain tons more exp doing mp0 though so I think nowdays it would be a lot better should people choose to use it
e: and also nowdays (compared to the time when i made the guide) you have the new crafts and market is more packed with good stuff so the higher mp's are possible which is cool
e: & good job writing the guide ofc



to get a DPS buff from provoke the pack for ur zombie bears + it gives you unique ability to start the fight with big dps burst as you explode the dogs & possibly gain more globes in the process

This post was edited by Esajoram on Apr 3 2013 04:47am

This build explode after itemization when Homunu will have rly nice stats - not like now... .

True, pretty similar.
But I want my Wd to be able to kill highers mp's, reason why I went for some cooldown reduce. Since grave injustice isnt really efficent on high mp's, I decided to try a diff way to run this build
A good visage of Giyua and Mara dosent make you loose tons of dps Vs zuni vision or tal/crafted ammy, but they let you the opportunity to use dogs boom boom in High mp combined with Tribal rote/grave injustice passive.

Thx for positive comments !
Nice guide you got there too, some diff btw both though !




Im really not a fan of homo, a lot of dps lost Vs a good zuni/uhkapian, but ofc if ur aim is 0cd, Homo is pretty nice

This post was edited by CRtrade on Apr 3 2013 05:49am

This.

Horrible build imo, slow killing both low and high mp's. Either go full bear build or full sac build, not a mix between those two.

Sac build with 20 zd-cooldown is just lol

This post was edited by Abefar on Apr 3 2013 08:48am