Helltooth Gargantuan Witch Doctor Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 14 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 30, Patch 2.7.7 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Speed Farming

The Helltooth Gargantuan Witch Doctor deals with Normal Rift farming and Bounty runs reasonably well. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Wall of Death Icon Wall of Death Communing with Spirits Communing with Spirits Right Mouse Button Haunt Icon Haunt Lingering Spirit Lingering Spirit 1 Soul Harvest Icon Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste 2 Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk Severance Severance 3 Gargantuan Icon Gargantuan Big Stinker Big Stinker 4 Horrify Icon Horrify Stalker Stalker
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

For T16 farm, you will assume a similar rotation to the one you have in Greater Rifts, but greatly accelerated and more reckless. The basics remain the same; summon Gargantuan Gargantuan and buff up its damage by capturing packs inside Wall of Death Wall of Death to apply Necrosis for the Helltooth set, as well as spreading Haunt Haunt on them to trigger Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness. With the toughness afforded by Goldwrap Goldwrap you can afford to fearlessly dive into packs using Spirit Walk Spirit Walk and re-applying your own speed buffs: Soul Harvest Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste and Horrify Horrify Stalker Stalker.

3.

Adapting Skills

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

  • The main damage dealer of the build remains Gargantuan Gargantuan, but you should use the rune Big Stinker Big Stinker for the additional AoE over the prolonged fight-oriented Restless Giant Restless Giant rune.
  • You still need a proc for Helltooth set's Necrosis effect, so Wall of Death Wall of Death remains in the build. Either stick with the protective Communing with Spirits Communing with Spirits rune, or get some extra crowd control into the mix with Surrounded by Death Surrounded by Death.
  • A proc for Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness will also be quite helpful to cement your ability to oneshot enemies; you can replace the slower-paced and resource-intensive Locust Swarm Locust Swarm with the immediate, auto-aiming and mobile effect of Haunt Haunt Lingering Spirit Lingering Spirit.
  • You should exchange the lengthier effect of the Jaunt Jaunt rune on Spirit Walk Spirit Walk for the faster movement of Severance Severance.
  • Swapping the Soul Harvest Soul Harvest rune from the defensive Languish Languish to the movespeed-oriented Soul to Waste Soul to Waste.
  • While grouping monsters with Piranhas Piranhas Piranhado Piranhado is not without value, it is certainly a lot less than in the prolonged fights of Greater Rifts. In its place, consider using Horrify Horrify Stalker Stalker for more movement speed. Not only does it bring extra speed by itself, but it will also proc Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny for an additional burst of mobility.
  • In your passives, replace the progression-oriented Spirit Vessel Spirit Vessel for a speed bump from Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty. Replace Confidence Ritual Confidence Ritual with Gruesome Feast Gruesome Feast, as it undeniably offers the strongest damage increase among its peers, provided you can keep it stacked with health globes — an easy task when farming. Keep Grave Injustice Grave Injustice for the cooldown reduction utility, and Midnight Feast Midnight Feast for the pet damage buff.
4.

Adapting Gear

The foundation of the build will closely resemble the GR progression build, as you still rely on the 6-piece set bonus of Helltooth to deal damage. However, you will be wearing all 6 available set pieces, which frees up your jewelry slots for T16 farming-oriented items. You should cube Mask of Jeram Mask of Jeram as the more valuable of the two targeted pet legendaries, and leave Tasker and Theo Tasker and Theo for the GR progression build. The remainder of your major equipment slots is split between generically useful Witch Doctor items like Shukrani's Triumph Shukrani's Triumph and Spite Spite, and T16-farming oriented staples like Goldwrap Goldwrap and Echoing Fury Echoing Fury. Jewelry should also match your GR setup, as all three pieces — Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness, The Short Man's Finger The Short Man's Finger and Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace — bring damage multiplication that will make killing monsters a breeze in this difficulty.

When doing regular Rifts, you can swap The Witching Hour The Witching Hour out for Goldwrap Goldwrap, which will render you practically invulnerable when paired with an Avarice Band Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. Finally — when doing Bounties, you can also take advantage of the Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt for its gold-independent movespeed increase.

Early on in character progression, you can keep Lakumba's Ornament Lakumba's Ornament for the immense damage reduction it provides to the build. When you have progressed your character and are comfortable with Goldwrap Goldwrap mechanics and relying on procs to survive, you can swap Lakumba's Ornament Lakumba's Ornament out for Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards, which provide you with an additional speed boost based on environmental destruction. The former favorite for the slot, Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, are still quite valuable to the build; when soloing, they should be equipped on the follower however, since their power can be transferred to you via the Emanate mechanic.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Gargantuan % Damage
  3. Area Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Gargantuan % Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Poison % Damage
  4. Life on Hit
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Cooldown Reduction at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Life %
  4. Armor
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Poison % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Average Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Average Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence (or % Damage at high Paragons)
  4. Area Damage
  5. Attack Speed
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Gargantuan % Damage
  5. Area Damage

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

5.

Adapting Gems

Most of your legendary gem selection from GR progression retains its full value in GR speed farming as well. Both Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped and Enforcer Enforcer still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build while farming keys. Within the limited challenges of T16 speed farming, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. Paired with an equipped Goldwrap Goldwrap and an Avarice Band Avarice Band worn by your follower in solo play (or yourself in groups, in the place of Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny), this legendary gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with the aforementioned items.

5.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

  • HelmShard of Hatred with "Your movement speed is increased by 50%" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponStain of Sin with "You gain an additional Rift Progress Orb when you kill an elite pack" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Poison Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

Spite Spite and Shukrani's Triumph Shukrani's Triumph are interchangeable for the weapon slot in the Cube; simply wear your better rolled item and cube the worse one.

Mask of Jeram Mask of Jeram is the preferred inclusion to the armor slot in the Cube, as it directly increases pet damage (additive with elemental damage on gear). Its buff in Patch 2.6.1 and the natural IAS caps of Gargantuan Gargantuan make it more attractive than the other pet staple, Tasker and Theo Tasker and Theo.

Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny brings an additional massive movement speed bonus to the farming build due to its interaction with Horrify Horrify, making it an excellent addition for T16 runs. It should be noted that Avarice Band Avarice Band is a supremely useful legendary item that, in conjunction with Goldwrap Goldwrap and Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder, will form a gold triumvirate that keeps you safe and showered in gold as you farm up T16s. When you are farming solo however, this ring can be equipped on your Follower, and its power will "Emanate" to you (meaning you gain the benefits of the item as if you wore it yourself). That being said, in group farming you will need to wear the Avarice Band Avarice Band yourself, replacing Rechel's, since you cannot have a Follower in parties.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

8.

Legendary Potion

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Witch Doctors (due to Intelligence scaling Resistances) for optimal survivability.

9.

Changelog

  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Enriched the guide and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Flavor of Time is now the recommended amulet.
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