Arachyr Corpse Spiders Witch Doctor Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Arachyr Corpse Spiders Witch Doctor in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
Apply Soul Harvest for the invaluable damage reduction of
Lakumba's Ornament, and try your best to strengthen it by casting the
skill on a pack of monsters, rather than singular stragglers. This will maximize
your protective stacks. Due to the powers of
Shukrani's Triumph, you have
near limitless mobility and safety in your
Spirit Walk state, so you can
pick and choose where and when to fight. Even better, you gain a damage
multiplier while you are in
Spirit Walk form. While you will exit the form
when you attack or approach an elite (as per the offhand legendary power), you
have an additional grace period that will be as long as your default cast of
Spirit Walk, which we can lengthen via the
Jaunt rune. When you
have settled on a particular fight, use
Big Bad Voodoo if it is available,
pull enemies in with
Piranhas
Piranhado and apply
Locust Swarm on
the targets. This will trigger the damage multiplication of
Ring of Emptiness, so you can spam supremely empowered
Corpse Spiders all over the battlefield.
What is important to keep in mind about this build is the effect the Arachyr set itself exerts over your playstyle. Note the tethering mechanic between yourself and the Spider Queen from the 2-piece bonus, and try to form the biggest possible pull that your survivability can handle. After that, infest them by commanding the Spider Queen all across the pull; you can keep track via the small black particle effect at the base of infested monsters. Make sure to keep the infestation active via the webbing the Spider Queen leaves behind. While it has a generous 15-second duration, it will provide the basis of both your AoE DPS as well as your own survivability, so you cannot afford to neglect it. Remember that you can only leave the web in short, 4 second sprints, as that is the maximum duration of the damage reduction afforded by the Arachyr set 4-piece bonus.
Skills and Runes
Corpse Spiders is the main damage dealer of the build, propped up by
the powers of the Arachyr set and
dedicated legendaries like
The Spider Queen's Grasp and
Brood of Araneae. Since
Depth Diggers no longer require using
resource generating skills for its damage multiplication, you are free to use
the hard-hitting
Widowmakers rune.
The build dedicates one skill slot to trigger the crucial damage
multiplication bonuses of Ring of Emptiness. Your best candidate for the
slot is the spreading effect of
Locust Swarm, either with the protective
Cloud of Insects or with the improved spread and Mana efficiency of the
Pestilence rune.
A grouping skill is never amiss in a Greater Rift progression build, and
Witch Doctors have a single skill for the purpose — Piranhas with
the
Piranhado rune. Try to time your grouping skill just prior to your
burst window as described in the Rotation above, as
Piranhado has a
fairly long base cooldown. Note that
Piranhado is one of the few pulls in
the game that can stack enemies in a collision-overwriting manner, making the
tightest possible clumps (the so-called "pixelpulling"). To make the most of its
pull, aim at a spot free of enemies; casting on top of an occupied spot will
deprive you of the pixelpull.
Two skills are dedicated exclusively to buffing up the Witch Doctor as he
spreads his webs of death and carnage. Soul Harvest empowered by a worn
or cubed
Sacred Harvester is a staple of the class, as it buffs you up
with a 30% Intelligence increase for a reasonable 10 enemy Harvest, and also
doubles your Armor via the
Languish rune and reduces incoming damage by
up to 80% through
Lakumba's Ornament. The final buff is adaptable to your
preferences; the default recommendation is
Big Bad Voodoo, which provides
a tremendous combat advantage whenever it is active; note that you will have to
account for its long cooldown and time its use more carefully with big,
important fights. Two runes are very comparable contenders; you can use
Ghost Trance early on when you are getting used to the build for more
survivability, and transition to
Slam Dance when you grow confident and
seek to push your damage to its upper limits. Another option that is easier to
play with (considering the massive downtime of BBV) is to use
Horrify
Frightening Aspect, which will bring considerable survivability to
the build on demand, with duration that overlaps the downtime even with the
basic Paragon CDR investment.
Spirit Walk is another Witch Doctor staple, and its moderate cooldown
is compensated by its versatility: it renders you invulnerable, removes enemy
collision and increases your movement speed by 50%. You have some freedom in
your rune of choice. With the default recommendation of
Jaunt, you have
a lengthier period of safety and extra damage from your
Shukrani's Triumph
power. An alternative for the slot is the rune
Severance, whose 100%
additional movement speed will allow you to reposition more easily and skip
entire unfavorable GR floors with ease.
Passives
While Corpse Spiders can be tossed at a long range, other factors
— like the point-blank
Locust Swarm or the
Bane of the Trapped
radius — force you into short-to-mid range at best. To gain something for
that restriction, you will take the
Confidence Ritual passive, which
enhances your damage by 25% for enemies in a 20-yard radius.
Arachyr Doctors take Creeping Death during Greater Rift progression to
extend the effect of
Locust Swarm on their targets for the duration of
the entire fight, removing the necessity to re-apply
Locust Swarm for the
Ring of Emptiness benefits every couple of seconds. Because of this
passive, it needs to be cast just once per engagement (and potentially less, as
Locust Swarm can jump to the next fight over).
Grave Injustice is an elegant source of Cooldown Reduction, synergizing
with the mid-range playstyle of the Corpse Spiders build. For each enemy killed
in a 20-yard radius of the Witch Doctor, it not only reduces your cooldowns by a
second, but also replenishes your health and mana reserves by 1%. Take notice of
the pickup radius synergy and try to obtain that stat in the secondaries of your
gear.
You have some room for choice in your last passive slot. You will get the
most damage out of Pierce the Veil, as it is basically a free buff on a
build that is so cheap on Mana. If you are playing Hardcore however, or simply
dislike a glassy setup like this, you can safely alter to the WD cheat death
passive
Spirit Vessel, or the resistance enhancement of
Swampland Attunement, which matches the fighting range of the build. We
recommend that you start on
Swampland Attunement and adjust from
there.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021: Guide revised according to the latest changes to the Arachyr set.
- 07 Nov. 2021: Guide added.
More Witch Doctor Guides
Builds from Other Classes
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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