LoD Carnevil DoD Witch Doctor Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD Carnevil DoD Witch Doctor in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
The first task of the Carnevil Witch Doctor is to summon all the Fetishes he
can muster at his side through attacks, their numbers quickly swelling via the
Fetish Sycophants passive. Once you spot an enemy-dense area, get control
over the monsters with
Piranhas
Piranhado, close the distance to them and
feast on their numbers with the
Soul Harvest and
Horrify buffs.
Then, you can begin the
Poison Dart onslaught. When endangered, take
advantage of the temporary invulnerability from
Spirit Walk and either
reposition, or disengage from an unfavorable fight.
In an ideal situation, you will also have Big Bad Voodoo off cooldown
and ready to be popped for a considerable damage burst. Your situational
awareness is of the highest priority here, as you should try to both 1) move
into an
Oculus Ring buff once it spawns from killing a lower HP enemy,
and 2) safeguard your
Squirt's Necklace damage bonus to the best of your
ability by dodging with
Spirit Walk and generally avoiding enemy
projectiles. Whatever the situation is, try to actively shoot
Poison Dart
whenever the Poison cycle of
Convention of Elements is up, since this will
be your burst period.
Skills and Runes
Your main damage dealer is found in Poison Dart, a primary skill
supported by two powerful legendary items,
Carnevil and
The Dagger of Darts, and a dedicated legendary gem —
Simplicity's Strength. While its potential is already considerable with
those items in mind, it gains an extra multiplicative damage increase from
Depth Diggers. Though it no longer requires the use of a Mana-generating
attack and works with any primary, there is still value in using the traditional
Spined Dart rune — this way you always have resources for
Aquila Cuirass upkeep despite the Mana cost increase from
Pierce the Veil. Still, you can consider altering to other runes entirely;
just keep utility in mind, since it will be your Fetishes' darts that deal the
actual damage of the build.
A mobility and all-round safety mainstay in the Witch Doctor arsenal,
Spirit Walk finds its place in yet another build. Its moderate cooldown
is compensated by its versatility: it renders you invulnerable, removes enemy
collision, and increases your movement speed by 100% via the rune
Severance.
One of the strongest utility cooldowns of Witch Doctors, Soul Harvest
is almost universally a great addition — but especially in builds that
take advantage of
Sacred Harvester, doubling the number of possible
stacks.
Soul Harvest acts as a damage buff by default, increasing your
Intelligence by up to 30% for the reasonable requirement of 10 harvested enemies.
With the
Languish rune and the worn
Lakumba's Ornament bracers, it
nets you additional crowd control and reduces incoming damage in half,
solidifying its place in this mid-range playstyle. The naturally overlapping
duration simply sweetens the deal.
Ever since the Area Damage mechanics revision that enabled it for pets, enemy
grouping skills grew tremendously in value. Witch Doctors' take on that type of
utility is found in the Piranhas skill, using the vortex effect of the
Piranhado rune.
Completing the build with defensive utility, the Horrify crowd control
helps when the tough enemies of Greater
Rift progression survive your
Poison Dart onslaught 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.
When it comes to additional buffs, you have some options to consider. For very
high-end pushing, Big Bad Voodoo will provide not only a massive and
relatively long lasting attack speed buff, but also a straight damage bump with
the rune
Slam Dance. The downside, of course, is its equally impressive
downtime, forcing you to use it in key engagements and really plan ahead when
it comes to its use. Another option for the slot are the
Summon Zombie Dogs
minions, which can be coupled with
Leeching Beasts rune and
Uhkapian Serpent mojo for a considerable layer of defense and sustain for
the build.
Passives
Fetish Sycophants is a signature passive of the build, spawning
additional Fetishes as you naturally go through your rotations. Capping at an
impressive 15, this ability solidifies the meat shield in front of you and
significantly increases your damage output.
Confidence Ritual is another straightforward addition, increasing your
damage by 25% against enemies within 20 yards — arguably a dangerous bonus
to keep up, but relatively easier to maintain due to your mid-range
playstyle. If you feel you are too glassy with this Passive lineup, you should
alter this slot to the cheat death failsafe of
Spirit Vessel.
A well-rounded DPS increase for Greater Rifting, Pierce the Veil
provides a guaranteed 20% additive damage bonus at the cost of a 30% increase in
Mana costs. The drawback is hardly noticeable in this build, as it is mostly
primary- and cooldown-centric and the solitary spender is cheap and effective.
Among the most dynamic and interesting passives in the game,
Grave Injustice is a Cooldown Reduction engine that fuels the damage
output and survivability of the build. It delivers a neat package of CDR,
health and Mana regeneration upon killing an enemy within a starting radius of
20 yards, extendable by Pickup Radius on gear (see this build's
gear page for more information).
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021: Revised skill 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: Minor clarifications added.
- 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
- 23 Aug. 2019: Skill recommendations are revised for Season 18.
- 17 May 2019: Guide added.
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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