Arachyr Firebats Witch Doctor Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Arachyr Firebats Witch Doctor in Diablo 3. Updated for patch 2.6.4 and Season 16.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
1. Rotation
In an Arachyr build Hex needs to be cast on cooldown, as it is a
source of damage reduction from the Arachyr 4-piece bonus, as well as a damage
buff through the rune
Jinx. With the Helltooth set, the same purpose
will be fulfilled by
Wall of Death
Communing with Spirits — reapplying
the Damage Reduction from the Helltooth 4-piece set bonus as soon as the skill
comes off cooldown. Prior to channeling major damage, you will need to apply
Locust Swarm and
Haunt, in order to attain the immense damage
benefits from
Ring of Emptiness. You will also need to weave in a cast of
Soul Harvest, in order to attain the massive defensive and offensive
bonuses (but unlike a Jade setup, it does not need to follow up your DoTs
— simply try to maximize the number of affected enemies). With that out of
the way, you can begin the
Firebats onslaught, stopping only to
reposition with
Spirit Walk.
2. Skills, Runes and Passives
When using the Arachyr set, Hex will be used on cooldown for its
interaction with the Arachyr 4-piece bonus (damage reduction and a free
Toad of Hugeness rune), as well as a minor damage buff from the slotted
Jinx rune.
The build dedicates two skill slots to trigger the crucial damage
multiplication bonuses of Ring of Emptiness. One of them is
Locust Swarm; during Greater Rift progression, you will ideally be
wearing the
Vile Hive mojo and getting the
Pestilence rune for
free, allowing you to slot the protective
Cloud of Insects instead. The
other
Ring of Emptiness trigger skill —
Haunt — is
best taken with the additive damage increase of the
Poisoned Spirit rune,
but can also be used with the Mana restoring
Draining Spirit rune if you
struggle with resource management.
Firebats is among the creature skills buffed by the Arachyr set
6-piece bonus, and complemented by synergistic items like
Coils of the First Spider,
Bakuli Jungle Wraps and
Staff of Chiroptera it becomes a Greater Rift pushing-worthy damage
dealer. You will be taking the hardest hitting of the runes, the Fire-based
Cloud of Bats.
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%. The recommended rune is
Honored Guest, in order to add a source of emergency Mana regeneration
to the build. An alternative for the slot is the rune
Severance, whose
100% additional movement speed will allow you to reposition more easily; if you
opt for this speedier choice, remember to change your
Haunt rune to
Draining Spirit.
Finally, you will be taking the Witch Doctor staple Soul Harvest in
all variations of the build, but for different reasons. In Greater Rifts, where
this build wields a
Sacred Harvester, you get an immense 30% Intelligence
buff from a reasonable 10 enemy Harvest, as well as cut incoming damage in half
and double your Armor via the
Languish rune and worn
Lakumba's Ornament bracers.
This concludes the overview of the active skills, now let us look through the passives.
Conveniently matching the fighting radius of Firebats, the
Confidence Ritual passive will reliably increase damage by 25%.
Arachyr Doctors take Creeping Death during Greater Rift progression to
extend the benefits of the their two DoTs and, more importantly, keep the
valuable
Cloud of Insects Damage Reduction and
Draining Spirit Mana
regeneration going.
Grave Injustice is a universally desired passive for this build, as it
acts as a more universal
In-geom; reducing your vital defensive and
mobility cooldowns without distinguishing between trash and elites.
Spirit Vessel should be carefully considered for the final slot when
pushing Greater Rifts as a soloing Witch Doctor, similarly to other cheat death
passives for other classes. On top of the second life proc, it heals you to 50%
of your maximum health and triggers a
Spirit Walk-like effect, allowing
you to escape danger.
3. Note on the Helltooth Variation
If you prefer to play this build while using the Helltooth set variation, you
will only need to change one skill (and, of course, swap your equipped set to
Helltooth). Hex will be replaced by
Wall of Death
Communing with Spirits, and will pretty much fulfill the same
purposes — triggering the set-based damage reduction and boosting the
damage of your Mana spender with the Necrosis debuff.
4. Changelog
- 18 Jan. 2019: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
- 12 Nov. 2017: Revised skill recommendations.
More Witch Doctor Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
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.

- Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call & Layoffs
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- Icy Veins Podcast Episode #35
- Icy Veins Podcast Episode #34
- Deadset's Guide Compendium for Season 16 / Patch 2.6.4
- Four New Collectible Blizzard Books Coming This Fall
- 2.6.4 Is Now Live + Patch Notes
- Icy Veins Podcast Episode 33


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