Helltooth Grasp Witch Doctor BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

Last updated on Jul 22, 2021 at 09:00 by Deadset 3 comments

Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Helltooth Grasp Witch Doctor in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.1 and Season 24.

1.

Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

This build incorporates the complete Helltooth set, taking all six available pieces and freeing the jewelry slots for synergistic offensive choices. Rolls-wise, this Grasp of the Dead-centric playstyle makes good use of skill bonuses and Area Damage across gear. Grasp of the Dead Grasp of the Dead % bonus is sought after on the Helltooth Tunic Helltooth Tunic, alongside Toughness stats; on the Helltooth Mantle Helltooth Mantle, it is ideally paired with Area Damage. The Helltooth Leg Guards Helltooth Leg Guards and Helltooth Greaves Helltooth Greaves should be devoted purely to Toughness stats. Your head piece, the Helltooth Mask Helltooth Mask, will ideally have high Crit Chance alongside solid Intelligence and Vitality rolls. Lastly, the Helltooth Gauntlets Helltooth Gauntlets is a critical offensive piece with the potential to roll high Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Area Damage all in the same slot.

Wearing all six pieces of the Helltooth set allows you to invest in powerful offensive jewelry. One of the 2.4 reworks, the Endless Walk set — The Compass Rose The Compass Rose ring and The Traveler's Pledge The Traveler's Pledge amulet — adds a unique mechanic that slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. This dynamic fits the Grasp of the Dead WD playstyle, which alternates quick bursts of scouting with Spirit Walk Spirit Walk with periods of stationary Grasp of the Dead Grasp of the Dead spam (see this build's skills page for more information). Your remaining ring slot is best taken by the rotating elemental damage increase of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements. Pay close attention to its cycles and make sure your Helltooth set is empowered, that your Endless Walk set is stacked, and that you are ready and spamming during the Cold element duration.

The best-in-slot belt for the build when pushing Greater Rifts is the glass cannon favorite, The Witching Hour The Witching Hour. What this belt lacks in unique properties, it makes up in unique rolls: it is the only item in the slot that can roll Attack Speed and Critical Damage. Both stats are immensely beneficial to your damage output, so seek as close to the maximum 7 IAS and 50 Crit Damage as you can.

Introduced in Patch 2.4 and mostly targeting the Jade Harvester rework, Lakumba's Ornament Lakumba's Ornament is nevertheless an excellent bracer for a Helltooth Grasp of the Dead Doctor as well. Synergizing with the bonuses of the cubed Sacred Harvester Sacred Harvester (discussed below), this bracer will add 46% Damage Reduction to the build (6% per stack, multiplicative), significantly improving the survival chances of this close-range spamming build in Greater Rifts.

A duo of Grasp of the Dead Grasp of the Dead-specific legendary items will occupy your weapon and offhand slots. Deadly Rebirth Deadly Rebirth is the dedicated ceremonial knife, increasing Grasp of the Dead Grasp of the Dead damage by up to 60% and adding the Rain of Corpses Rain of Corpses rune (the only one that stacks with spam, interestingly) for free. In your other hand, Wilken's Reach Wilken's Reach will provide a similar skill bonus (up to 60% for Grasp of the Dead Grasp of the Dead), along with the irreplaceable removal of the skill's cooldown.

In Season 24, your ideal weapon during Greater Rift solo pushing will be Ghostflame, whose unique secondary skills ability bonus and unrivaled skill and pure stat bonuses will outperform any other alternatives. It needs to be rolled with the weapon power of Deadly Rebirth Deadly Rebirth, and will ideally have the Swampland Attunement Swampland Attunement passive. Learn more about Ethereal weapons in our Ethereal mechanics guide, and read up on how to farm them in the Ethereal farming guide.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Socket
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Life %
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Grasp of the Dead %
  3. Area Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Armor
Torso
  1. 3 Sockets
  2. Intelligence
  3. Grasp of the Dead %
  4. Vitality
  5. Armor
Wrists
  1. Cold Damage
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Armor
Hands
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Vitality
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Crit Damage (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  3. Attack Speed (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  4. Vitality
Legs
  1. 2 Sockets
  2. Intelligence
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Movement Speed
  5. All Resistance
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Cold Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Critical Hit Damage
  5. Intelligence
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Intelligence
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Intelligence
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. High Damage Range
  3. Intelligence
  4. Area Damage
  5. % Damage
  6. Grasp of the Dead %
  7. Vitality
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Crit Chance
  4. Area Damage
  5. Grasp of the Dead %
  6. Vitality

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.

2.

Paragon Points

Slot Paragon Points
Core
  1. Movement Speed up to 25% cap
  2. Intelligence
  3. Vitality
  4. Maximum Mana
Offense
  1. Critical Hit Damage
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Attack Speed
Defense
  1. Armor
  2. Life %
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life Regeneration
Utility
  1. Area Damage
  2. Life on Hit
  3. Resource Cost Reduction
  4. Globe Radius
3.

Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem procs itself with its level 25 property, and is otherwise triggered by Unbreakable Grasp Unbreakable Grasp, Communing with Spirits Communing with Spirits and Languish Languish.

Considering the spam-heavy nature of the build (devoid of resource spending and cooldowns on its main damaging ability), Pain Enhancer Pain Enhancer is a logical second inclusion. Its own physical DoT is dwarfed by the stacking Attack Speed increase it offers on affected close-range enemies, feeding nicely into the melee spellcasting nature of the build.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket in Greater Rift progression. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and with a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians, this gem is designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target, high HP enemies. Helltooth Grasp of the Dead Doctors are no exception.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

4.

Kanai's Cube

The appropriately named Sacred Harvester Sacred Harvester is the best-in-slot weapon for a Helltooth Gargantuan Doctor in GRs, as its unique bonus extends the number of Soul Harvest Soul Harvest stacks from 5 to 10. With no other synergistic weapon to take up the slot and the opportunity to buff up for 30% Intelligence (true damage multiplier) and reduce incoming damage in half from a simple Soul Harvest Soul Harvest, this Ceremonial Knife is hard to pass up.

The Grin Reaper The Grin Reaper spawns mimics that are able to cast nearly all of your selected skills at a decent rate and range. The mimics will also benefit from the Helltooth 6-piece bonuses, turning into a significant, independent source of damage for the build.

Functioning exactly as if you wore it, the cubed Unity Unity ring offers 50% damage reduction when paired with another on the follower, plus an immortality item for them (e.g. Enchanting Favor Enchanting Favor).

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.

5.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Scoundrel due to his powerful crit buff, allowing you brief windows of extra damage that are well suited to the strengths of this build.

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.

6.

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.

7.

Changelog

  • 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: Reviewed and approved for Season 18.
  • 17 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 18 Jan. 2019: Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
  • 15 Jun. 2018: Added the guide.
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