Helltooth Zombie Bears Witch Doctor Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Helltooth Zombie Bears Witch Doctor in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
This potent AoE build squeezes maximum advantage of the Helltooth set buffs of
Zombie Charger and
Wall of Death, weaving their alternating use
into a landscape of AoE destruction. You should start the runs by attaining your
safety buffs; you need to
Soul Harvest (preferably several monsters to
maximize the benefits of
Lakumba's Ornament), and refresh the Helltooth
4-piece damage reduction bonus by hitting something with
Wall of Death or
Zombie Bears as soon as possible. Keep both protective buffs active at
all times, preferably refreshing
Soul Harvest within the safety of an
active
Spirit Walk.
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.
Once you have picked your engagement, proceed through a rotation of clumping
the pull with Piranhado,
Locust Swarming the pack, and (if
necessary) refreshing Necrosis with a cast of
Wall of Death and
Soul Harvesting. Then, proceed to demolish the pull with a barrage of
Zombie Bears. Always keep the surroundings in mind, as terrain objects
can (and will) impede your
Zombie Bears projectiles. Ideally, every
engagement will be on open terrain, with clear line of sight to the pack that is
pulled by
Piranhado.
Skills and Runes
The main damage dealer and the namesake of the build,
Zombie Charger
Zombie Bears, is a hard-hitting poison skill that gets
amplified by the Helltooth set, the
Scrimshaw spear,
Ursua's Trodden Effigy mojo and various skill percentage rolls on your gear
(see this build's gear page for more
information). Note that
Zombie Bears heavily rewards positioning: if cast
in the open, the skill splits into triple lanes with low range (although remedied
somewhat by
Ursua's Trodden Effigy); if cast with your back against a wall
however, it travels in a focused, longer reaching line.
The key that unlocks the build's damage potential is found in the Helltooth
set centerpiece, Wall of Death. You have some freedom of choice with your
rune; you can either go for
Wall of Zombies, whose monster-grouping powers
can help your Area Damage procs, or the
Communing with Spirits rune (our
default recommendation) for the reduced damage taken from affected enemies.
While seeming out of place in a
non-Jade Harvester setup,
Locust Swarm is included strictly as a trigger to the damage
multiplication of
Ring of Emptiness — it is indeed that valuable.
You should take the rune
Pestilence for the extra spread, helping manage
your Mana better and not overspend resources.
One of the strongest utility cooldowns of Witch Doctors, Soul Harvest
is almost universally a great addition.
Soul Harvest acts as a damage
buff by default, increasing your Intelligence by up to 15% for the meager
requirement of 5 harvested enemies. With the
Languish rune and the worn
Lakumba's Ornament bracers, it nets you additional crowd control and
reduces damage by 70%, solidifying its place in this mid-range playstyle. The
naturally overlapping duration simply sweetens the deal.
Piranhas is used as an opener in fights for the
Piranhado
crowd control and the innate damage increase against affected enemies. 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.
Spirit Walk is the final Witch Doctor staple included in the build,
and its moderate cooldown is compensated by its versatility: it renders you
invulnerable, allows you to walk through enemies, and speeds you up for a
generous 3-second period with the
Jaunt rune. If you value mobility over
a lengthier invulnerability window, you can freely alternate into the
Severance rune — especially preferred in speedruns.
Spirit Walk gets an extra offense angle from
Shukrani's Triumph,
turning its use into a strategic cooldown that multiplies your damage; strive to
start in Spirit form at the beginning of your
Zombie Bears spam.
Passives
Swampland Attunement is a play on the selective resistance mechanic
(also observed on the Tal Rasha
set), and offers considerable defenses — but only against elements
Witch Doctors can use. Protecting within a starting radius of 20 yards and
extendable by Pickup Radius on gear, this passive is yet another reason to pay
close attention to secondary stats. Note the absence of Lightning or Arcane
Resistance, and strive to obtain it wherever you can.
Blood Ritual will be included in the build for its resource cost
reduction benefits, assisting nicely with this resource-intensive build. It
will additionally assist your survival as it synergizes with the Cpt. Crimson
set bonus, which scales your overall damage reduction according to your resource
cost reduction bonuses. The other acceptable option for the slot is, of course,
Spirit Vessel — for the additional safety of a cheat death proc.
Grave Injustice is an elegant source of Cooldown Reduction, synergizing
with the mid-range playstyle of the Zombie Bears 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.
A straightforward addition to the build, Confidence Ritual increases
your damage by 25% against enemies within 20 yards. Relatively matching the
fighting range of the build, especially with
Zombie Bears in mind, this
passive will be up most of the time.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021: Revised and enriched the guide.
- 22 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
- 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
- 19 Nov. 2020: Revision of skill, rune and passive recommendations.
- 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
- 14 Mar. 2020: Skill recommendations adjusted to reflect the changes to Ring of Emptiness.
- 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: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
More Witch Doctor Guides
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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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