Jade Harvester Witch Doctor Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Jade Harvester Witch Doctor in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
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. The combat strategy of the
Jade Witch Doctor opens battles by casting
Piranhado to clump your
enemies and apply the
Piranhas debuff, amplifying the damage of the
skills to follow. Cast a single
Locust Swarm, and as it spreads start
applying
Haunt on the enemy until all combatants are affected. Then dive
into the fray with
Spirit Walk and activate a devastating
Soul Harvest, consuming the active DoTs. Getting used to the short
16-yard range of
Soul Harvest is a skill acquired over time, but once you
do, it will be to a devastating result. In
Greater Rifts the enemies grow
exceptionally tough, so protecting yourself with
Horrify will also become
part of the rotation. Always keep in mind that
Soul Harvest does not
consume the entire length of the DoT, but a 10,000 seconds worth of it per cast.
It will take you six
Soul Harvests to fully deplete the DoTs, so
manage your Mana and focus on
Haunting the enemy, rather than spamming
Locust Swarms.
Skills and Runes
Soul Harvest is the primary damage dealer of the build. While a utility
skill by default, it takes on the role of a nuke with the 6-piece bonus of the
Jade set, which allows you to consume the active DoTs on the enemies at once when
you use
Soul Harvest. Due to the 4-piece bonus of the
Jade Harvester set,
you will be receiving the benefits of all runes at once — the Mana from
Swallow Your Soul, the life from
Siphon, the armor from
Languish, the movement speed from
Soul to Waste, and some
additional damage from
Vengeful Spirit.
There are two major DoTs to be consumed, out of four in total.
Haunt is the strongest one, with an impressive 4000% weapon damage.
Cheap with its 50 Mana cost, lengthened by the
Creeping Death passive and
consuming 120 seconds worth of the DoT at once with the Jade 2-piece set bonus,
it is an obvious fit for the playstyle. Depending on your preferences, you can
go for a Cold or Poison variation of the build. The Cold rune
Resentful Spirits spreads the DoT twice as effectively, and is a great
early soloing choice due to its better Mana management; it is also highly
recommended for speedfarming. The Poison rune
Poisoned Spirit adds a 20%
additive damage bonus against affected enemies, applied to the entire party,
making it a better grouping choice and the preferable rune for high end solo
pushing. Note that the remainder of the guide assumes you take
Poisoned Spirit, so adjust elemental damage rolls to Cold if you plan
on using
Resentful Spirits. Regardless of your choice, constant
Haunt spam will be required to reset
Soul Harvest, as well as to
get 3,500 seconds worth of damage instantly via the Jade 2-piece bonus.
Second in the DoT hierarchy is Locust Swarm, with respectable 1040%
weapon damage and quick, efficient spread through the
Pestilence rune.
There is a notable itemization choice here, depending on your desire for more
Damage or more Toughness. To increase your damage, pick the
Pestilence
rune on your bar so you can run
The Furnace in the Cube. For better
Toughness (our recommendation), get
Pestilence for free by equipping or
cubing the
Vile Hive mojo, an pick up the
Cloud of Insects rune for
the 25% Damage Reduction.
While it applies a minor DoT of its own and can be considered part of the
Jade consumption, Piranhas is mostly 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.
To position for Soul Harvest, keep themselves safe and for general
mobility purposes, the Jade Witch Doctor uses
Spirit Walk. A versatile
tool on a low cooldown,
Spirit Walk makes 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 be in Spirit form as you deliver your
Soul Harvest burst.
Completing the build with defensive utility, the Horrify crowd control
helps when the tough enemies of Greater Rift progression survive your
Soul Harvest rotation and swarm you, thirsting for vengeance. The
recommended choice for GR progression is the Toughness-oriented
Frightening Aspect, buffed to the impressive 50% additional armor for 8
seconds. Note that there is a viable alteration to this slot — the massive
damage buff of
Big Bad Voodoo
Slam Dance, with an equally impressive
cooldown. This is a viable option for super high end pushing, adding another
strategic layer of popping your cooldowns when you need an upper hand in a
massive, progress-defining pull.
Passives
The pivotal passive of the Jade build is Creeping Death, which extends
the duration of
Haunt,
Locust Swarm and the damage amplification
of
Piranhas from several seconds to a whopping 120,000. The
Quetzalcoatl helm shortens that duration to 60,000, effectively doubling
the damage of your DoT skills upon the
Soul Harvest consumption. Notice
that the 6-piece Jade set bonus consumes 10,000 seconds worth of DoT damage,
while the 2-piece consumes 3,500 seconds worth of
Haunt damage. Because
of that, speeding up the damage dealt by using a
Quetzalcoatl helm is
critical for the build.
Grave Injustice is an elegant source of Cooldown Reduction, synergizing
with the bursty nature of the Jade Harvester playstyle. 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 (see this build's gear page for more
information).
Confidence Ritual increases your damage by 25% against enemies within
20 yards. This relatively matches the fighting range of the build with
Soul Harvest in mind, so you will get great uptime on this passive.
You have some freedom in your last passive slot, which you can adapt either
to additional damage, or extra toughness. Our general recommendation is to take
Blood Ritual, whose Mana cost mitigation ties in with the Cpt. Crimson
set bonus, which scales your overall damage reduction according to your resource
cost reduction bonuses. The other acceptable option is, of course,
Spirit Vessel — for the additional safety of a cheat death proc.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021: Revised skill and passive recommendations.
- 22 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
- 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
- 19 Nov. 2020: No changes required 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: Skills have been 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
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.
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